2 weeks

No books, cookies nor internet make John a dull boy.

And here comes the huge Sigh.

I am moving next week. I have no idea what the house is like, no idea whether it has internet access, how many other people I will be sharing a bathroom with nor who they will be. Ah, the joys of communal living. The web-access worries me more than anything else, because I am so used to trawling the web for information about goodness knows what, or random word and name searches. Hopefully this won't affect the (seemingly neglected) site. Which brings me to something else. Blogger has been unsatisfactory lately, due to font size and type changes not to mention entire posts simply disappearing as though they had never existed. Most upsetting. I'm thinking of migrating to wordpress, but it may take me a while to learn how to operate it so I recommend you do not hold your collective breaths. In the meantime: Check out featured authors in the sidebars. Visit a couple of my fellow reviewer's sites, links available bottom right. And best of all: Win a £10 Amazon UK voucher-- by emailing me a poem of 60 words or more relating to books and cookies. The most entertaining and creative entry will win the voucher and a small advert for their site (as long as it's appropriate!) If you're interested in entering, email me your poems before 23:59 on the 18th of Sept.

Sorry for the lack of posts, Blogger is gobbling up what I'm posting. I'll have the review for Read Seas Under Red Skies re-written for the weekend. *sigh*

No artificial Flavourings

"Bookie Monster-- Now 100% Brian Ruckley interview free!" I'm in a strange and distracted mood, having been so all weekend. I've been trying to sort out where to live for the duration of next year (moving out in September) and it's been nothing but a challenge so far. There was no Review on Sunday due to an early review of "Power Play"-- I hope you all enjoyed the interview with Joseph Finder, I know it was enjoyable for me! Things to look forward to on Bookie Monster over the next week or two: The Review of "Elves of Cintra" by Terry Brooks My Thoughts on "Winterbirth" by Brian Ruckley "Red Seas under Red Skies"-- A Hit or a Miss? I hope you'll be Joining me!

Updating Schedule

As of today, Bookie Monster will have an updating schedule. Saturday or Sunday: Expect either a full book review, interview or article. Weekdays: Ad Hoc when interesting information arises.

Your Call

I've hit a bit of a snag. I'm not sure which book to read and review next--the release dates are relatively close together (or close enough not to really matter). Which would you prefer to get reviews of first: Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley The Elves of Cintra by Terry Brooks The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombie It's a tough call to make.

You may have noted it's been over a week since the last review--allow me to apologize. I'm working a full-time job, and studying a double-time psychology course. The final exam was on Wednesday, so I've been using whatever spare time I have reading about such delights as schizophrenia, reductionism and psychoanalysis. The good news is, I have a lot more lined up and ready to publish for Bookie Monster-- including several reviews, a preview and a couple of interviews. Check back on sunday afternoon for the Bookie Monster review of Skulduggery Pleasant!

Important Notice

I used my pseudonym until now, because I was slightly wary about attaching my real name to Bookie Monster. But why should I be? After all, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Posting reviews under a different name is a dangerous thing, because you don't honestly feel you're going to be held personally responsible for what you say or write. So here we have it-- if you want to track me down, you know where to start! ~~John Dent

About Bookie Monster

Bookie Monster is a "Generic" book reviewing website only in the sense that it covers many literary genres. You may notice over a period of weeks that I may focus on one particular genre--currently this would be fantasy. However, I tend to have broader tastes running from thrillers and crime fiction to young adult and the occasional romance. The purpose of Bookie Monster is to provide easily digestible reviews--filling like a plate of cookies and nutritious as a glass of milk! I won't pontificate on minor matters, instead focusing on what make each book either enjoyable, painful, interesting, boring, complex or cliche. Recommendations Most of the books I review are based on recommendations from friends or Bookie Monster readers. If you would like to make a book suggestion, or would like me to review a book you're marketing--e-mail me via the "Contact me" link in the left sidebar. I reserve the right not to review all suggestions--the main reasons being I've already read/reviewed it It's a manuscript I am pretty certain that I will not enjoy or finish the book. In regards to the last point, please do not be offended--it's better to get no review than a bad review--which brings me to scoring. Scoring As most books are recommendations, the standard score is relatively positive. Giving books numerical scores and ranking has become, to be frank, very difficult. I will now just give a recommendation level--but it is usually pretty obvious from the review itself what my opinion of each book is.

This post has been backdated in order to remove interruptions to normal blog posts. ~~~~~~~~~ I'm not really a huge fan of "memes" but I'll go ahead and do this one. I'll get you Remy, if it's the last thing I do!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Start Copy- It’s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.) Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general. After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends! Just think- if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already! 1. Look, read, and learn. ** -http://www.neonscent.com/ 2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. ** -http://www.bushmackel.com/ 3. Don’t let money change ya! * -http://www.therandomforest.info/ 4. Always reply to your comments. **** -http://chattiekat.com/ 5. Link liberally — it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. * -http://chipsquips.com/ 6. Don’t give up - persistance is fertile. ** -http://www.velcro-city.co.uk/ 7. Give link credit where credit is due. ***** -http://www.sfsignal.com/ 8. Pictures say a thousand words and can usually add to any post.** -http://scifichick.com/ 9. Participating in ‘memes’ is a distructive habit and should be avoided at all costs.** -http://nethspace.blogspot.com/ 10. Blog about what you enjoy, not what people want to see. -http://www.thefantasyreview.com/ 11. Networking isn't just for Fishermen. -http://www.bookiemonster.com/ -End Copy- And because this has been flying around so much, anyone who hasn't already done it is nominated! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In other news, my contract expired at my job--which means I now have a lot more spare time to read and catch up on books I may have missed! I have enough money to live on for a while, but amazon vouchers are welcome! :)