Collected Miscellany

The whole issue of book bloggers and publicity continues to be discussed around literary the blogosphere and I thought I would take a break from the football (and the pain) and talk books again. Debra Hamel returns to the Kimbofo imbroglio and raises the controversy surrounding The Thirteenth Tale over at MetaxuCafe. Debra asks a honest question:

Read the above carefully. Here’s what’s being asked of bloggers who want to take part in this contest.

1. Mention the sweepstakes in your blog with a link to the contest.
2. Have your readers write in the name of your blog when they enter the contest.

That’s it. Nowhere does it ask that bloggers review the book, or say anything favorable about it. It’s promoting a contest related to the book. It’s asking for links to the contest and providing incentive for those links. Can someone please explain to me what’s so disgusting about this?

I have to say I too fail to see the issue here. Booknija called it a “Skeevy promotion.” Here is the comment I left there:

Perhaps it is different for folks that write reviews professionally or hope to, but I don’t see any ethical issues here. As a blogger people read my reviews, I assume, because they either enjoy them or find them useful. I also assume if I started flaking for certain publishers or writers when I have a clear financial gain they would take my opinion less seriously. I post my honest opinion on the books I review whether the publisher sends them to me; I buy it, or check it out of the library. If readers like that, they click over. If they don’t, they don’t.

In this case, I simply made note of a web page and a connected contest. If people want to try and win a free book they can. I noted that I stood to gain in certain circumstances and my cynicism about my chances. If I happen to win will I have some sort of debt to S&S/Atria? No. I got lucky and won a contest. I fail to see how that changes how I operate my blog.

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In between bouts of panic regarding the biggest football game of my life on Saturday, I have been traveling for work and as a result have been away from the computer for most of the last few days. In trying to catch up with some of my reading, I came across (via Ed) this Reading Matters post from Monday on book bloggers and free books. With all due respect to Kim, I have to agree with Ed that this is all a bit silly.

If you could care less about book bloggers, free books, and credibility feel free to skip this post. If this inside baseball stuff interests you, click below.

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I just finished a book chronicling the battle that occurred at Rorke’s Drift during the Anglo-Zulu War in the late 1870s. The book, Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke’s Drift, is written by Lieutenant Colonel Mike Snook. I did not realize until I started reading the book that there was a prequel of sorts about the British defeat at Isandlwana called How Can Man Die Better (I hope to do a review of that book in the near future) – the author advises that you should read the Isandlwana book before the second because of context issues. The second book not only discusses the Rorke’s Drift battle, but also delves into the results of the entire British campaign against the Zulu and who is to blame for the catastrophe at Isandlwana.

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As I noted below, Firmin by Sam Savage came to my attention via its designation as the Lit Blog Co-op’s Autumn Read This! selection. The book was different enough and short enough that I decided to join in. So on a recent trip to DC I packed the book for my plane and metro reading. As a small paperback that’s easy to digest and read whenever you have a spare moment, it was perfect. Interestingly enough, Ed recommended the book after reading it on his way back from DC from BEA.

To get a feel for what the book is about here is the Publishers Weekly summary:

Savage’s sentimental debut concerns the coming-of-age of a well-read rat in 1960s Boston. In the basement of Pembroke Books, a bookstore on Scollay Square, Firmin is the runt of the litter born to Mama Flo, who makes confetti of Moby-Dick and Don Quixote for her offspring’s cradle. Soon left to fend for himself, Firmin finds that books are his only friends, and he becomes a hopeless romantic, devouring Great Books—sometimes literally. Aware from his frightful reflection that he is no Fred Astaire (his hero), he watches nebbishy bookstore owner Norman Shine from afar and imagines his love is returned until Norman tries to poison him. Thereafter he becomes the pet of a solitary sci-fi writer, Jerry Magoon, a smart slob and drinker who teaches Firmin about jazz, moviegoing and the writer’s life. Alas, their world is threatened by extinction with the renovation of Scollay Square, which forces the closing of the bookstore and Firmin’s beloved Rialto Theater.

So what to make of a story about a rat who can read books? A number of people have, I think accurately, described it as a “comic gem.” Savage brings a sentimental and yet wry sense of humor as he – as PW puts it – “embodies writerly self-doubts and yearning in a precocious rat.” One accomplishment of the work is how Savage uses a lowly rat to allow us to see the world of Scollay Square and 1960’s Boston. He makes us feel the attachments and sentiments that accrue in even the most down-and-out neighborhood and reminds us of the damage inflicted by “urban renewal.”

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Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris is an entertaining look at the rise to power of one of Rome’s greatest orators – Marcus Cicero. The book is written from the perspective of his household slave Tiro, a personal secretary for 36 years.

Here is a brief summary of the book from Publisher’s Weekly:

…[T]his fictional biography follows the statesman and orator from his early career as an outsider – a “new man” from the provinces – to his election to the consulship, Rome’s highest office, in 64 B.C. Loathed by the aristocrats, Cicero lived by his wits in a tireless quest for imperium – the ultimate power of life and death – and achieves “his life’s ambition” after uncovering a plot by Marcus Crassus and Julius Caesar to rig the elections and seize control of the government. Harris’s description of Rome’s labyrinthine, and sometimes deadly, political scene is fascinating and instructive. The action is relentless, and readers will be disappointed when Harris leaves Cicero at the moment of his greatest triumph. Given Cicero’s stormy consulship, his continuing opposition to Julius Caesar and his own assassination, readers can only hope a sequel is in the works.

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My timing has never been all that good and it is one of many reasons I have not risen to blogospheric fame and fortune. Yet another example of this is the Litblog Co-op Read This! selection. They picked Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage which I dutifully purchased and read. I was looking forward to participating in the back and forth over at LBC but, distracted by the election and other things in life, I completely missed that this was Firmin Week.

I need to get my thoughts together and chime in on the book and the discussion. In the mean time, please click over and check out the posts so far. There is more yet to come today. I will add my thoughts later today as well.