Those bookstore emails come in handy sometimes...

I get emails from Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, and Borders. Interesting how all three start with the letter B. At any rate, those emails sometimes clog my inbox. They irritate me. They are often filled with books I will never read and coupons I will never use. And they always seem to come on the same day! Today's emails, however, brought up several interesting things.

The first is this article from NPR about James Patterson's unusual writing process. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about this. Apparently, Patterson researches a topic and writes his , then sends his notes to a "teammate" who writes the first draft. Then Patterson reads and edits the manuscript until he is satisfied. When he explains it in the article, it sounds so normal. Honestly, upon firs treading the article, my thoughts were along the lines of "How cool! What neat way to work as a team." However, this seems so far removed from my own writing process and from what is considered "usual" that I am struggling to form an opinion of it. The comments on this article brought up another interesting point. This may not be an authentic way to write novels; it may smack of a kind of literary dishonesty or laziness.

I was excited to see the following upcoming books: Return to Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney, and Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and Lullabies by Emma Walton Hamilton.

Next post: on rereading novels, movie adaptations, and fanfiction (gasp!).

6 and 7 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney and Maximum Ride: School's Out - Forever by James Patterson

Clearly, I've been in a series mood. Actually, I bought both these books at the spring book fair at school last week, and I loved them both!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw has taken my classroom by storm! I really like these books. They are relatively simple to read, making them kid-friendly. Also, they are about the hilarious hijinks of a kid everyone can relate to: the dorky, unsure, slightly clueless kid. We all feel that way sometimes. I'm so excited that there are two more books in the works! The next one comes out October 12!

Maximum Ride: School's Out - Forever is an example of a series continuing the way it ought to. I've been really disappointed by some series lately (Vladimir Tod and Uglies, to name a couple) which start out really great and by the middle of the second book are boring, unlikely, or just plain weird. Maximum Ride on the other hand, has staayed strong! I'm really excited to read the rest of the books!