DocoftheDarkArts | And the book club winners are...

And the book club winners are...

Hi everyone!

We finished up polling for our book club picks for April - June, and we have some amazing books to read coming up here in the spring! So here they are:

If you are not a member, and you want to participate, make sure to sign up as a member here on Bindery and check out the pinned post about how the book club works. The book club is always free, but of course paid members get a lot of great stuff in addition to the book club (including early access to YouTube videos, a weekly reading update, picking a book for me to read each month, a private Discord server channel, and more)!

Also, if you are interested in getting these books to read, or any of the books I post about on here, you can order by clicking them either on my shelves or on this post here on Bindery, and buying through here helps me out a bit! It gives you the option to order from Amazon or Bookshop (when available), which gives you a good choice.

Hope to see some new faces joining us here in the spring, and let me know if you have any questions! And of course, we are always welcoming new members to our Discord server, where we have a great community of people talking books, doing buddy reads, and sharing great bookish conversation. You can click the link in my profile, or when you join as a member you'll get an invite link. Hope to see some folks there as well!

Symptoms: Reading in the Summer

Happy Sunday gang, and Happy Father's Day to any of the bookish dads out there! I hope everyone is doing well, and welcome back to my Sunday Newsletter. This week, I've been thinking a lot about summer reading patterns.
As someone who yaps a lot about books online, I hear a lot of feedback about what other people do for reading, and it always fascinates me how different we all are! I have two beach trips coming up this summer, and for me, summer is always a time when I read more. I work from home these days, and the school year means driving kids all over the place, and having a lot of my free time taken up by activities during the school year. So when I get to go on a trip, and during the summer especially, I always wind up reading more. Having less time in the car and less time at teenage kid activities gives me more time to read. In addition, I'm outside working more, so I'm listening to more audiobooks, and generally just consuming more written and spoken stories.
Now when it comes to packing for a trip, I always overdo it when it comes to books. For a typical week-long beach trip, you will usually find me packing 4-5 books along with my e-reader. As a certified feral mood reader, this gives me plenty of variety. On top of that, I usually find a local beach bookstore and make my way there as well. In terms of what I like to read, this is definitely when I'm going for shorter/less intense stuff. Cozy fantasies like the House in the Cerulean Sea and Tress of the Emerald Sea come to mind (which we're reading right now for our book club!). I of course love it when a book leans into the water, piracy, or hot/desert climates. Which reminds me, I need to start Children of Dune here soon!

However, I hear from other people that when they head into the long, hot days of summer, and go on vacations, they read less. They cite more time in summer/outdoor activities as barriers, and say when they go on vacation they don't want to read more, or are too busy. It does seem an increase in audiobook consumption is pretty well agreed upon, given more time outside, and time spent on road trips in the car. So I'm interested to hear from you all - how does summer change your reading habits? Do you read more or less? Do you read more on vacation? Do you pack a ton of books like some sort of book goblin like me?

The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing

I did announce this week that I was starting a new Fable Book Club! We will be starting July 1 with Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes. The book club is called Dr. Bob's Literary Apothecary, and our goal is to read diverse authors, diverse genres, and try to find diverse books that aren't popping up on your algorithm! I'd love to have you join, we'll do a book a month, and no changes to our usual book club.
In terms of reading, I finished off my reread of Tress of the Emerald Sea, and I just enjoyed it so much. I listened to the Michael Kramer version for the reread as I read it physical last year, and I'm not a graphic audio fan usually, especially abridged versions. I also finished an Arc of Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian. More to come on that in a future review. And Today, I'll be finishing up Stoner by John Williams, which is our Dark Travelers monthly pick a book. That has met spellbound at the moment! If you want to read with us you should join up as a Dark Traveler!

Here’s a list of books I'm considering for next: