What do I read?

Well if you're a regular here at my blog, you have a pretty good idea of what I read... but for a complete answer, head over to Shannon's blog, What Women Read, where I'm guest blogging today! :)

You can click here for the post :) Please feel free to let us know what you read!

Conditions of books

Ugh, I'm not feeling great today. I don't know if it's related to my first condition or something totally unrelated or if it's all in my head ^_^; All I know is that I want it to go away, as abruptly as it came, leave me alone!! Especially since I have plans this week-end! I'm thinking a good night of sleep is what I need :P Anyway, there are more interesting thing to discuss :P

Last week, the discussion topic was how do you review... and the responses gave me inspiration for this week's topic :P Some of you mention that you dog-ear pages. Personally, I have nothing against dog-earing pages LOL, but it made me think of books condition and how some people really care about it. So...

Is book condition important for you? And how do you treat your book?

Me? I don't really care about book condition. Of course, when I go to the bookstore, I try to choose the nicest copy available. I think that's a normal reaction. However, I'm not too picky about it, because I'm not one who keep my books in the most pristine of condition ^_^; I mean, I throw my books into my purse, I fall asleep on them... so as a result, I often get kinks and cracks on covers and some damaged pages ^_^; You've seen some of the damage my carelessness has done ^_^;

When it comes to used books, I'm even more lenient. Hey, I'm getting them at discount price, right? I'll rather go with cheaper than better condition. If I can get both though, that's the ideal situation :) All in all though, I'm just happy to get the books, so I don't fuss too much.

What about you?

Publishers

I was going to post a review, but since I've only started it this afternoon and the only thing I've done is copy-paste the blurb, it's obviously not ready to go up LOL. However, it did remind me of a question I want to discuss about :)

Q: Does the publisher influence your reading? Do you have a favorite publisher? Or one that you try to stay away?

I was actually discussing this topic with a few of you a while back and I'd like to know how it is for everyone else :) When trying new authors or new books, we all have different criteria that attract us to the books. It can be the blurb, the cover, the genre, the first few pages, etc... but for me, I find that I have an additional criteria:  the publisher. Okay, perhaps not another criteria, but another factor that makes a difference :)

From experience, I've found that the books and style of some publishing houses fit me more than others and as a result, I'm more likely to pick up a new author from them. My latest example would be The Wish List by Gabi Stevens. I was in the mood for something fun and breezy and this seemed to perfectly fit the bill... but what sealed the deal is that the publisher was Tor. Tor brought me the Warland Chronicles series by Elizabeth Vaughan and is currently the publisher of Patti O'Shea, one of my favorite author :) Need I say more?


Another of my favorite publisher is the HQN Books and Mira, two lines from Harlequin. If I had to list all the great books and authors from these two lines, the list would go on and on and on LOL. You can't imagine the number of times I've picked up a book because it had Mira on the spine. This is probably the only publisher whose books I've picked basing myself only on the publishers. It says something, right?

In reality, I find that a lot of my impulse buys are influenced by the publishers. And not only the publishing houses, but their offshots/branches/lines ^_^;  For example, if I'm looking for a historical, I have a tendency to go to Avon (from Harpercollins Publishing). If I'm looking for fantasy or urban fantasy, it'll be Ace (Berkley) and ROC (New American Library). From Berkley, I'm more likely to pick up a romantic suspense or contemporary romance than a historical.

Each publishing house seems to be looking for something in particular - a style, storyline - when choosing their books and authors... and it has given me a comfort zone when buying books. Of course, authors and stories usually prevail over the publishers. I've never not bought a book because of the publisher... and I've never told myself, "Oh, these historical romance is published by Berkley, must not be as good as if it was published by Avon." For me, publishers has more weight when there is an unknown quantity to the book :)

I've pretty much named all of my "favorite" publishers :) As for a publisher that I like less... I would say St. Martin's Press. First, I'd like to clear that it has nothing to do with the authors. St. Martin's Press has a lot of big names (Lisa Kleypas, Jennifer Crusie, Janet Evanovich, Sherrilyn Kenyon, etc.) and I find that they sometimes take advantage of it on the readers. I really enjoy their paperbacks - I think they're greatly priced and I buy them. However, St. Martin's Press has the habit of publishing some tiny hardcovers at ridiculous prices, banking on the big names: the in-between Plum numbers, A Wallflower Christmas... or print novellas in paperback format. I feel they're taking advantage of fans loyalty... but that's probably another debate. And the answer is easy right? Don't buy it if you're not happy :)

So what about you?

Acknowledgments and extra epilogues...

Happy week-end!! I hope everyone is having a great time for the long week-end :D The weather is gorgeous in Montreal!

I haven't posted in a few days - feeling lazy. Also, I picked up a couple of new books at the bookstores on Wednesday and Thursday (I know, I know. As if I needed more!), so I've been reading instead of blogging ^_^; Although, I did work on a few buddy reviews for Breezing Through; I guess it balances it out :) 

Anyway, I've just, just, just start reading a book and peeked at the ending... and then, came across the Dear Reader message from the author. In it, I found out that the author has written an extra epilogue to the book which will be posted on her website and publisher website!! Squeeeee!!! I immediately jumped out of bed to take a look, but realized that it's probably not up yet... since technically, the book is not out ^_^; However, that got me to think... and tada, I have a post! LOL.

 Q1: Do you read ever read the additional pages there are in a book such as the acknowledgments at the beginning, author's bio and message at the end?

I usually don't. Most of the time, I jump right into the story and pay very, very little attention to those pages. I find that I'm more likely to read those pages if I like the author's work, but it's still pretty rare. So I'm pretty happy I did this time around LOL!

Q2: What do you think of extra epilogues? Do you like them? Do you read them?

Obviously, I think they're nice because we get to re-visit some of the characters and it usually wraps everything up more nicely :) Although in this case, I don't know why it was not included in the book itself :( However, there aren't many. I remember Nora Roberts wrote 1 for her Irish Gallagher's Pub trilogy and she wrote a little snippet in-between books story for the Chesapeake trilogy. I know Julia Quinn is writing a 2nd epilogue for each book of the Bridgerton series, although those I haven't read because you actually have to buy them ^_^;

Anyway, all I want to say is I do like the idea of extra epilogues :)


What about you?

How often do you visit authors' websites?

Work has been really busy lately and so, I haven't had as much time to blog or blog-hop :( At the same time, my review muse seems to be taking very, very long walks and is not returning often ^_^; The good news though is that I'm reading :) Not a reading machine like Kristie :) but very steadily, so I'm happy :D

Last week, I posted a discussion about excerpts and it was well received :D I was actually surprised at the comments though. I thought more people would read excerpts online, but seems like it is not the case... and that got me thinking of another question :) So here I am with another topic :) Feel free to share your opinions!

This time, the question is not as simple... How often do you visit authors' websites and why? The reason I'm asking this question is I wonder if people don't read online excerpts as much because they are not interested or simply because they don't visit authors' websites?

In my case, I visit author's websites only once in a while, to see if there's any news updates - most of the time, for new information on their next book (such as a blurb or H/H) or release schedule. For new authors, I visit their websites more frequently at first to find information about their books and series... The only exception I make is Kelley Armstrong, because I know she updates every month unless warned otherwise.

There are also very few authors whose websites I visit and you can see their names on my sidebar. In addition, I don't read authors blogs. I don't really know the reason ^_^;

What about you?

Do you read excerpts?

TGIF!! I can't wait for the week-end. My week wasn't bad, but I'm not going to complain about the week-end being around the corner :D

I don't have much to say today... I've spent the whole week reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. I have a few pages left from The Last Olympian which is the last book of the series. If my muse helps me, I'll spend the week-end writing one or many posts about the books :D

In the meantime, I don't want to neglect my blog... So I thought I'd start a discussion :D


The question is simple: Do you read excerpts or not? And why or when?
(I'm talking about both online excerpts and the ones you can find at the end of books.)

Surprisingly, I'm not usually an excerpt reader. Strange no, for a girl who can't help herself from reading the ending of a book? :P My main reason for not reading excerpt is because reading a few pages of a book that is going to come in 6 months or a year... that's pure torture!! LOL. I know that once I'll read the excerpt, I'll want to know more... and more... and it'll be eating at me :P Also, reading excerpts can sometime hike up the expectations that I have with a book... and too high expectations, that's never good - you're only setting yourself up for even bigger disappointments.

With the internet, I know that a lot of authors and publishers are posting many chapters excerpts. For example, starting from this month I believe, Ms Kelley Armstrong is posting one chapter/month of The Reckoning, the last book in her YA Darkest Powers trilogy, till the release date. That means 4 or 5 chapters will be circulating on the internet. For some reasons though, I'm not tempted. Having so much of the book out already, I guess I'm afraid that it will ruin my experience when I'll get the actual book.

I know that many read excerpts before making a decision when they decide to try a new author. They want to find out about the writing style before embarking... and that's really wise. However, it doesn't work that way for me. Enjoying the back blurb, recommendations from blogland or even the cover are enough criteria for me :)

Of course, I'll cave from time to time and will read an excerpt. When that happens, it's usually the excerpt at the end of the book that will give an insight about the author's future work. The latest excerpt I've read was Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews at the end of Magic Strikes. Although, if my memory is correct, I've read the excerpt on my re-read of the book LOL. Do I regret it? No. The excerpt was great... but it's made waiting for the book really difficult... I mean, I was already looking forward for it, but now even more ^_^; It made me want to look for spoilers and any tidbits I could find about it... And it's especially hard since Magic Bleeds will only come out end of May/beginning of June and usually, this series has a release date of March ^_^;;

Also, I found out that excerpts at the end of books are not set in stone... For example, I remember reading the excerpt for Broken by Kelley Armstrong and the story was actually changed! :D

As for online excerpt. It's funny, because I do visit authors' websites to find out more about blurbs, next releases and all the possible information... but I'll rarely click on excerpt. Weird no?

All right, your turn now :) Are you an excerpt reader?