It’s Thursday and you know what that means…another edition of Booking Through Thursday is here. This week’s question is:

Do you read any author’s blogs? If so, are you looking for information on their next project? On the author personally? Something else?

I do read author blogs. It’s mainly just to see what they think about, how they write, and glean any valuable insights they may be willing to dispense. And sometimes an author’s blog is just downright hilarious.

Basically, since I enjoy writing, it interests me to see how others approach the craft. Where inspiration comes from, what boundaries they set, what obstacles they overcame, and so forth. It’s rather voyeuristic, now that I think about it.

Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another edition of Teaser Tuesdays…

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12
• You also need to share the title of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

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It’s Thursday and you know what that means…another edition of Booking Through Thursday is here. This week’s question is:

Have you ever been put off an author’s books after reading a biography of them? Or the reverse – a biography has made you love an author more?

I’m wracking my brain, but cannot come up with an instance of an author’s biography changing my view of his work.

It’s happened with music. Before learning of Liszt’s debauchery, his music sounded so different. I still enjoy it, it just has new meaning.

But a book? Oh wait, there’s Stephen King. After reading On Writing, which does touch on some of his boyhood experiences, I have read his work with a slightly different eye. But, it has not caused me to enjoy his writing more or less.

When it comes down to it, the only thing that should matter when it comes to books is whether or not your enjoy what’s between the two covers. I may read it with new eyes, but it still boils down to whether or not I enjoy it.

(Thought I should add that I’m speaking in terms of fiction here. If we’re talking non-fiction, then the author’s biography or bias could greatly influence whether or not I read more of that author’s books in the future.)

Dear Google (or Blogger, whichever you prefer),

Please fix your commenting system already.

Quite a few of the blogs I enjoy reading and interacting with use Blogger and that’s not my problem. My problem comes when I decide I’d like to leave a comment, but cannot because of that nifty new JavaScript commenting box you’ve set up.

“Why?” you ask.

Because, for some reason, whenever I try to comment using my primary browser, Firefox, the comment does not get posted and to make things worse, the entire comment which I may have spent a good ten minutes writing is entirely gone–poof–into internet never-never-land.

As a result, I’m forced to open up the page in Internet Explorer, which is an annoying extra step in the process of interacting with other wonderful bloggers out there, and hit the Publish button twice because the first time bounces back an error telling me there was some sort of technical problem which should have been fixed long before you even rolled out with your new-fangled commenting system.

This unnecessary step puzzles me greatly because Google has been one of Firefox’s largest proponents, promoting the Firefox movement and even creating a custom Firefox Google search page and all that. So, why then, would you not even test your new system using Firefox before rolling it out? *sigh*

If it seems as though I’m slightly annoyed by this, it’s because I am, but I’m holding back and before I stop, let me wrap up this letter by simply restating: please fix your commenting system already.

That is all.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ann-Kat

P.S. I also wanted to add that it’s seriously BAD USABILITY when you don’t have a back-up option for people roaming the internet without JavaScript enabled, or for those who simply turn it off to get around dealing with your wonky comment system in the first place. Thought you should know.

Welcome to another edition of Mailbox Monday where I regale you with the books I received during the previous week.

The past few weeks have been slow, but the brief respite has allowed me some time to get caught up on a few titles collecting dust on the TBR shelf. Things are beginning to look up, though.

Algernon, Charlie, and I: A Writer’s Journey by Daniel Keyes

In Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes created an unlikely duo-a laboratory mouse and a man-who captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world. Now, in Algernon, Charlie, and I, Keyes reveals his methods of creating fiction as well as the heartbreaks and joys of being published. With admirable insight he shares with readers, writers, teachers, and students the creative life behind his classic novel, included here in its original short-story form.

I opted for this title specifically because it will serve two purposes: 1) it will allow me to read the original story of Flowers for Algernon for the re-reading challenge; and 2) it will allow me to see the process which allowed such a story to come into being.

Now I just need to steel myself for the reading (of Flowers for Algernon). The first time was emotional enough…