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Oct 27, 2022Liked by Laura Sackton

I love short books and Tor is my go to if I want to read SF/F. I find out about a lot of books by using Twitter, although I know it might not be for everyone. I have found a very nice side of book twitter and discovered so many small press and great books. Of Books and Bikes is great, Rebecca’s taste often align with mine. I don’t remember how found about Books & Bakes, but I’m glad I did.

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I feel the way about Bookstagram the way you feel about Book Twitter--I know it's not for everyone but it has been so wonderful for me. Alas, I realized long ago one social media platform is as much as I can handle without losing it. I'm glad you found your way here--thanks for reading! (And yes, Rebecca is awesome! Her recs have really expanded the kind of nonfiction I get excited about.)

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One of my favourite super-short reads is Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. If you haven’t already read it, I feel confident you’ll love it - I mean, there’s more than one essay in here about bookshelf organization. I’m just going to go ahead and quote the opening line of “My Odd Shelf” now, because I can’t help myself:

It has long been my belief that everyone’s library contains an Odd Shelf. On this shelf rests a small, mysterious corpus of volumes whose subject matter is completely unrelated to the rest of the library, yet which, upon closer inspection, reveals a good deal about its owner.

I think this whole books-as-a-reflection-of-their-owner phenomenon is why your bookshelf photos are so popular. They’re as intriguing as they are lovely :)

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I love Ex Libris! It's been years and years since I read it though, and your comment makes me want to reread it. I read it in my early twenties and I've changed so much as a reader since then; I bet reading it now would be a totally different experience.

And I totally agree with what you say about bookshelves--it's part of why I love seeing other people's bookshelves, too!

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Oct 26, 2022Liked by Laura Sackton

I love short books! I love to be impressed and amazed at what a writer can accomplish in a short amount of time. Thanks to one of your suggestions on Book Riot, Laura, I've started a mini self-challenge to read more scifi and fantasy novellas by Tor, since I tend to gravitate towards them. I just finished "The Ballad of Black Tom" by Victor LaValle, which was great. On a non fantasy/horror note, I also recently loved Mayukh Sen's "Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America" and I thought it was a great audiobook.

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I agree, it is so exciting to see how many worlds and stories writers can pack into short books! It's like a whole art form of its own. I have Taste Makers on my audio TBR already, so I am very excited to hear you loved it!

And that sounds like such a fun novella project. I've enjoyed a few of Tor's novellas, too!

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