You can vote for Locus Mag's Best Novel of 2011

The time to vote for your fav books of 2011 is here! 

Locus Mag's annual list of best Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, novellas, novellettes and short stories for 2011 is now open. I've voted for a few of my fav reads (see list here) - I'm sure there are at least a dozen books that I've forgotten and should have voted for too. 
Still, Snuff and The Wise Man's Fear were truly stellar and both deserve to win Best Fantasy Novel for 2011. My choices:

Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear: 1
Terry Pratchett, Snuff: 2 
Gail Carriger, Heartless: 3
Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller WriteIn Rank: 4

You don't have to be a subscriber to nominate or vote, and you can choose books that you think should have been nominated (see my 4th vote above).
So what are you waiting for? Oh, the link? Here you go!

2011 Man Booker Prize results - Final 13!

The weekend brought the Thirteen finalists for the famous Man Booker International Prize:

• Wang Anyi (China)
• Juan Goytisolo (Spain)
• James Kelman (UK)
• John le Carré (UK)
• Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)
• David Malouf (Australia)
• Dacia Maraini (Italy)
• Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)
• Philip Pullman (UK)
• Marilynne Robinson (USA)
• Philip Roth (USA)
• Su Tong (China)
• Anne Tyler (USA) 

There's only a few I've read here (Carre, Pullman, Roth) so I'd love for book recommendations. Who would you read first and why?
The last Booker winner I read was Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger.Alice Munro is the only past winner on this list (I'm not sure if I've read her or not).
In other gossip, John Le Carre has asked to be removed from consideration so that other lesser known authors can win!! Cool guy, that.

Oddest Title of the Year?

So I just heard of something called the "Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year"
It is a humorous literary award given to - yes, you guessed it - the book with the oddest title that was published that year.
Some of my favorites from the list of past winners include:

• Last Chance at Love - Terminal Romances
• The Book of Marmalade: Its Antecedents, Its History, and Its Role in the World Today 
• How to Avoid Huge Ships (wtf?)
• Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers
• Living with Crazy Buttocks
• If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs (rofl)
• Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice (Nude mice??)

I believe some books actually get published with this prize in mind! 
Have you any submissions for this year's Oddest Title prize?


More info:
Wiki on Diagram Prize

E-volution? By Author Scott Nicholson & Kindle Giveaway

By Scott Nicholson
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/

Maybe we should just hold the phone.

I mean, here we are blindly calling this e-thing “progress,” heralding a New Age where every child in the land will have unlimited access to all the words ever written and everything being written as we speak. Plus all the stuff they’ll be writing on their own Kindle/tablet/pad/phone thingy.

Too much information.

Yeah, maybe. And it’s going to be cheap, it’s going to be everywhere,it’s going to be free, it’s going to be worthless, it’s going to create more books than we have time to read. They say the average American reads two books a year. Average out the cost of the typical device and it will take about five years to break even, and that assumes they buy hardcovers.

Even authors can’t make sense of it. While my friend John Everson was hitting #30 on the Nook charts with a 99 cent e-book version of Covenant, he was tweeting about how ebooks are lacking some essential element that prevents them from being a book. I mean, dude! You just got the biggest audience you could expect in your lifetime and you’re seeing a downside?

But maybe he’s right. Maybe all us people who fancy ourselves “real authors” are soon going to be snowed under by people dumping their three-page high-school term papers on the Internet, giving them covers and product pages, and by all appearances providing the same content as a “real author.” After all, besides the sample. all you get is a stamp-sized picture and a description that any decent con artist could polish up.

Maybe this isn’t the beginning of a shiny new era of communication, a time when anyone with a dream can find an audience. Maybe these devices that intimately connect us are really tools of the devil, and our heads are going to explode. Maybe the Illuminati are just waiting to secretly gain control of the publishing industry and print only material that furthers their goals and builds their cover stories. Maybe writers have no chance at making a real go of this business, and all those indie success stories like Karen McQuestion, J.A. Konrath, and David Dalglish will be blips on the radar of publishing history.

Maybe that was as good as it got, and it’s all downhill from here. Quick, all you writers, get back in line in New York. Go sign a publishing contract. Give up control of your content and put yourself at a competitive disadvantage. Hurry, while the indie fad has everyone’s attention and agents actually have time to read your emails. Ignore us idiots who are going to keep on giving our readers cheap, convenient content.

Hee hee.

-------------

My new crime thriller Disintegration is a Kindle bestseller, and paranormal mystery As I Die Lying just launched, both for 99 cents for a limited time.

Scott Nicholson is author of 12 novels, including the thrillers Drummer Boy, Forever Never Ends, The Skull Ring, Burial to Follow ,and October Girls. His revised novels for the U.K. Kindle are Creative Spirit, Troubled, The Gorge, and Solom. He’s also written four comic series, six screenplays, and more than 60 short stories. His story collections include Ashes, The First, Murdermouth: Zombie Bits, and Flowers. His web site is www.hauntedcomputer.com.

To be eligible for the Kindle DX, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered once per blog. Visit all the blogs on the tour and increase your odds. I’m also giving away a Kindle 3 through the tour newsletter and a Pandora’s Box of free e-books to a follower of “hauntedcomputer” on Twitter. Thanks for playing. Complete details at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm

Free Books - Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes and Amazon

This is Free Book Friday for you!

Today, I found out that I won Four Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) from I Swim for Oceans. Exciting, but I wanted to pass on that feeling of a new, free, unexpected book on to my readers. (Aren't Unexpected FREE Surprises the best?!)

So I did some searching online, to find free books of authors you might be interested in reading:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Pride and Prejudice on the Sony Ebook Store  is $4.99. Not sure why, when everywhere else it is available for Free (copyright expired).

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

All day the wind had screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like untamed beasts in a cage.

Cool Beans: A Maya Davis Novel 

(Dee says: Sounded interesting)

 Everything seems to be going perfectly for Maya Davis: She has a great job at a coffee shop, gets along with her parents, and is happily single. That is until her best friend starts dating Maya’s high school sweetheart.

Kindle books can change price at any moment, so be sure to double check the price before one-clicking on the product page at Amazon. Books that are free in the US are generally at least $2 for international customers. In this case, try Project Gutenberg.

Even if you don't have a Kindle, download the ebook for Free and then read it using Calibre or Kindle for your Device. 
 

Aaaaand The Winner Is: Tina!

The winner of my 100+ Follower Contest with a total of 122 Unique Entries is someone who had 6 points/entries: 

Tina

http://onemorepage.tinamats.com/

Congrats Tina!

Thanks to The Book Quoter for donating the Prize of $15

You can visit BookQuoter at A Thousand Books with Quotes, a very unique blog.

Thanks to everyone who entered, I've enjoyed visiting your blog and I commented on all the blogs that were linked.

Blog Awards!

Today is a happy day.
I just got awarded the "The One Lovely Blog" award by the new blogger Tina from Book Couture

Here’s how it works:

1. Accept the award, post in on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know that they have been chosen for this award.

I'm passing this award to some really pretty blogs out there:

The Book Crisis: So Many Books, So little Time.

Puss Reboots

Hello, My Name is Alice

Onge's Book Nook

The Crowded Leaf

The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Ink & Paper

Crazy For Books

The Books of My Life

Coffee Table Press

I also got the "Summer Blogger Award" from one of my fav bloggers : Missy @ Missy Reads & Reviews
I wish I could send it back to you, Missy! You did such a great job this summer.
 
The rules are simple: thank the person who gave it to you with a link back in your post, and send this on to fellow bloggers who rock this summer. List 4 rocking bloggers to share this with, and post a note to them through their comments.
I'm passing this award to some ladies who have written awesome posts this summer:

 Book Couture

My Love Affair with Books

The Movieholic and Bibliophile's Blog

Coffee Table Press

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Versatile Blogger Award!

So I just got my first Blogger Award - How exciting!

My thanks to the other desi blogger around, Misha Mary @ My Love Affair with Books
I am in awe at how you manage to rake in so many followers in such a short timespan!

Here is how the award works:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (In no particular order...)

Finally, Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

7 things about me
1. I am great at research, and can endlessly keep hunting down facts to back up my analyses. But not so great with the decision making, and overthink everything
2.I read more ebooks than real paper books now
3. I spent a total of 6 years in school and college hostels, best time ever!

(actual 4-to-a-room hostels, not the 4 years I had my own apartment + roomie)
4. I can't sleep without reading, even if it is a few pages
5. Not having a TV during hostel, college or post grad means that I can't bear watching ads on TV anymore!
6. I have an MBA from Purdue, still doesn't help so much with No. 1
7. Sadly, for being an Indian, I don't read many Indian authors - something to change!
Bloggers that deserve this award:

Shilpa - This and That

Missy's Reads and Reviews

The Book Crisis: So Many books, So little time

Coffee Table Press

Kindle Vixen

Hello, My Name is Alice

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