General Life Stuff and Around the Book World
It's October, one of the best months of the year! As always, there's plenty going on for book fans and readers.First, The Great American Read is wrapping up voting in 3 weeks - they have released another video and another will premiere tonight. I've posted a bit about it before the summer months started. Go to to.pbs.org/2IMe3br to vote.
I was delighted to see today that they have a site for artwork and posters that I hadn't noticed until now - I'm claiming this one as a favorite for my #1 Mystery novel, 'And Then There Were None'. The links on the site open a large version in a PDF File.
I can't get their videos to work on their site, so to watch it's best to check the Videos on their Facebook page.
Just in time for the Horror Holidays befitting October, Hulu is releasing a new horror anthology themed show, Into the Dark. The Body will be the first episode, starting October 5th. It looks like Amazon has grabbed the rights to the popular and lengthy fantasy series, Wheel of Time. I STILL haven't read the series, but hope the show does well. Netflix has the upcoming The Haunting of Hill House show to look forward to - the link goes to the trailer, which actually looks decently creepy.
Has anyone checked out HBO's Sharp Objects yet? I plan to soon. I did check out the award-winning Big Little Lies, which was excellent.
For movie news, looks like they are filming a sequel to the Shining - Dr. Sleep started filming in September in Georgia. Halloween Fans will be happy Myers is visiting Haddonfield again their October 19th - check out the trailer here.
I'm still waiting and oh-so-hoping that Amazon actually releases an updated Paperwhite or other device this month or before the year is over --- especially considering they have been phasing out the Voyage the past few months -- but in the meantime Kobo has a new partnership with Walmart that I hope helps their sales and U.S. presence. Today it was announced they have released a brand new Kobo that looks very, very sweet --- an Oasis alternative with a larger screen, Waterproof, and their color-adjusting frontlight. Read more details here on the Kobo Forma.
If you missed the Dewey 24-Hour Readathon earlier in the year, you are in time try out the October event - they're great fun and I try to participate when possible. 24 Hours is tough, but the social media and bookworm bonding can't be beat.
For annoying news, A Pennsylvania Prison is drawing ire for removing books from inmates and stopping all donations - only allowing inmates to read on tablets with books they purchase. They will also control the content prisoners can read through the e-book format. This can be alarming considering some of the prison's censoring of books. New York took a similar stance at the end of last year, only allowing friends and families to send approved books in for reading material. While I can get behind safety precautions on select reading material for inmates, especially those catered toward weapons, bomb production, or hate-filled material, I'm not getting the point of banning The Color Purple, Freakonomics and Where's Waldo? Currently the highest approved books for the prisons are 24 Coloring Books - :/
