5 Links Fridays

Another Friday, another trip into my folder of links. Some of them are older, others newer. Readers and writers alike should find something useful here. Enjoy!

Bookish Links

James Patterson Explains Why His Books Sell Like Crazy – I was in Costco two days ago, before getting waylaid with my second bad head cold since returning home to American germs, and there was a cardboard display shelving dozens of paperback novels, dirt cheap, and most of them were Patterson’s. If you’ve ever walked through an airport bookstore, then you’ve no doubt seen his name, even if, like me, you’ve never read him. He had 13 books coming out the year this article was written (2012). Read how he unabashedly churns out book after book, each with his name on the cover, despite doing very little writing of his own. We hate him cause we ain’t him. Or something like that.
Ten of the World’s Most Beautiful Bookshops – This article on the BBC has gotten spread around a couple times over the past two years, and it made the rounds again this week. I can’t help gazing at the beauty of these stores any chance I get. I was particularly excited to see that arguably the most beautiful of the lot — the Livraria Lello — is in a city we’ll be visiting later this year. If you don’t follow our travel blog, we put a basket of 100+ travel dreams together and my wife drew us a trip to Portugal and The Azores.
The Coloring Craze: Adult Coloring Books, 2015  – We’ve seen them everywhere (I saw them all over Asia and Europe as well). Many of us have even started coloring a page or two of our own. But did you know that the two most popular books, Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest, combined for approximately 800,000 copies sold in 2015? Those are huge numbers. I remember a story from a couple of years ago about a woman in Idaho who started making her own adult coloring books and pitched them to Costco. This, I believe, was back in 2012 or 2013. Anyway, I remember seeing them in the local Costco before our trip and thinking they were just the coolest thing ever. Talk about being ahead of the curve.
How to Become a Better Reader in 10 Steps – I still fail miserably at Tip #1: Quit Reading (I’m extremely resistant to leaving a book unfinished, even if I’m not enjoying it) and I haven’t joined a book club or read any British quarterlies, but this is a great list of useful tips, especially for those who ever find themselves ever not knowing what to read.
How to Study Plot and Character in Your Favorite Stories – I will always fail at one of the reading tips mentioned in the previous link — Skim — because I read not to escape, but to study the craft. At least most of the time. Anyone who browses my Goodreads shelves will find some cheap thrills tucked amongst the classics and bestsellers. That said, I mentioned K.M. Weiland’s books in my previous post and this blog post of hers has some great actionable tips for getting the most out of your reading. I’ve employed some of these techniques in analyzing other books this past year and will be modifying my approach to include some of her tips here. If you’re a student of storycraft, then you really ought to be following her blog.

Bonus Link!

Death By Coconut: A Story of Food Obsession Gone Too Far  – What happens when a German nudist decides to move to Papua New Guinea in 1902 and start a cult obsessed with eating coconut? Enjoy the bewildering story of August Engelhardt, care of NPR. It was certainly one of the wildest things I read in December.

Post Image by Mike van Dalen, used under Creative Commons

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