books Archives | A.S. Akkalon

Why I haven’t read your book

I usually try to read books written by my friends, but I often fail. Here are the main reasons why.

If you make friends with enough unpublished writers and stick around a few years, you find yourself friends with a lot of published writers. And because you’re a supportive friend, that means a lot of books you want to buy and read.

I always start with good intentions.

I like you. I want to buy your book, read it, love it, and leave a helpful, honest review on Amazon for your future fans to find.

Usually I manage the first step quite well.

The second step is harder. The third even harder.

Please allow me to offer some possible explanations why I haven’t read or reviewed your book.

Shaking a book funk with mega-popular books

To shake a reading funk, I’ve decided to read a string of mega-popular books. The Hate U Give was the first. This is not a review.

I’ve been in a reading funk recently, maybe because I’ve been running full tilt (metaphorically speaking) and I’m still falling over. The result is I’ve been having trouble getting emotionally engaged in books.

Is it me? Is it the books? Only the Great Cat knows.

To shake things up, I’ve decided to try something I rarely do: seek out and read mega-popular books. And by mega-popular I mean more than 10k reviews on Amazon, or books that “everyone” is talking about.

I feel bad because these authors probably don’t need my support and so many wonderful books are undiscovered, but I’m tired from doing the discovering myself.

I’ll return to undiscovered books shortly. Right now I need a break.

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15 lessons a fantasy author learned from reading horror

This is not a review of “The Rats” by James Herbert and it contains a lot of spoilers. But if you’re ever in a horror novel these lessons might save your life.

At the behest of my friend and critique partner, Anna Kaling, who is also a talented romance author, I recently read “The Rats” by James Herbert.

It was partly my fault. I did agree to read a book from her favourite genre, horror, and in exchange she read a fantasy novel I chose. Check out how that turned out.

Don’t ask me why a romance author prefers to read horror, but I’ve read some of Anna’s books, and you can barely tell that the author gets her jollies from reading about people being eaten alive by giant rats.

Yes, this post is going to be one huge spoiler for “The Rats”, but it’s really old so if you haven’t read it yet you were probably never going to.

Also, saying that people get eaten alive by giant rats in a horror book called “The Rats” can hardly be classed as a spoiler. Come on.

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A depressing book and a jelly bean book

Just when I believed all books were out to depress me, along came a beautiful jelly bean book that restored my faith in the ridiculous.

I’ve been perpetually overwhelmed recently, which I expect relates to my inability to say no to pretty much anything. Except seafood. I’m quite happy to say no to seafood.

This has had several consequences. First, my brain has decided 4am is the appropriate time to wake up on the weekend. I’ve spoken sternly to it, but it insists. Hence I get to read for an hour or two in bed before I get up on Saturdays. I also get to spend the whole day exhausted.

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A dragon, a castle, and an audiobook

It’s always exciting to get packages in the mail, and the best way to ensure this is to buy yourself presents.

Recently I bought myself a present that (I fondly imagine) is currently winging its way across the ocean. I’m not sure I could have waited for it to get here, so fortunately I arranged a sneak preview.

Dragon and castle

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