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52 Books: Bout of Books Read-a-Thon 8.0

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BookTube is a big fan of read-a-thons. There was Bout of Books 7.0 earlier this year, followed by the 30 day read and “official” BookTube-a-thon over the past 2 months.

Each time a read-a-thon has come around I’ve been far too busy to take part. To my surprise, this week is looking unexpectedly quiet – sooo… let’s do this. Here’s some info:

“The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 19th and runs through Sunday, August 25th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 8.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team”

I’d planned to post a video with my TBR choices today, but ended up – ironically or otherwise – at book club all day.

My reading choices are:

  • The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood – I’m currently on page 238 and need to finish this for Saturday, so finishing this goes first.
  • Barrel Fever by David Sedaris – Maybe, just maybe. I’m seeing Sedaris live this Wednesday so undecided whether to blow my load now or save this precious last book of his for a little while longer…
  • Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – A last minute Book Fest choice, also on Saturday. I’ve been looking forward to this one.
  • NW by Zadie Smith – Which I’m excited to be reading with my friend Kevin in our mini international new fiction book club.
  • Going Postal by Terry Pratchett – Which Jean has kindly lent me, and which I’m very keen to read.
I’m sure that will have me covered! Stick around or follow me on Tumblr (where I’m allegedly blogging every day) for updates throughout the week. I’ll also post a video on my YouTube channel tomorrow.
Wish me luck!

Nate Silver at Edinburgh International Book Festival

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On Tuesday morning, the day of his sold-out event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Nate Silver was on the front page of the Scotsman newspaper. A demonstration of his influences as a political commentator, the event’s chair seemed to suggest. A coup for his PR company, I mumbled cynically.

Unfortunately Nate Silver doesn’t see much hope for the Yes campaigners in the Independence Referendum. And he tends to be right about these things, having correctly predicted the outcome of the 2008 American election in 49 States in 2008, and in all 50 States in 2012.

Silver’s success has largely come around in the political sphere, particularly with the 2012 election and the addition of his blog, fivethirtyeight.com, to the New York Times. He has since, very recently, moved on to ESPN where he can grow the brand and cover topics including politics and sport, and beyond.

The event took the usual form – a Q&A with the chair followed by some audience questions. He spoke about people’s trouble with thinking probabilistically, measuring sentiment through polls and how to reduce the noise, some typical outcomes from particular types of political moments (elections vs referendums, for example), and how data tells a story.

He also spoke about the partisan nature of politics in the US and one important caveat for finding out someone’s true feelings about the data that disproves their notions: asking them to put their money where their mouth is.

It was an insightful event, particularly having not yet read his book The Signal and the Noise. His success is in many ways surprising, but a welcome antidote to the current media trends towards soundbites and lack of grey area in media reporting.

Silver’s ability to speak plainly about the media’s stake in a close race, polemics, and tendency to over-represent anomalies could be instrumental in increasing media literacy – and that, for my money, is far more valuable than calling the election first.

Patrick Ness at Edinburgh International Book Festival

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Image by Karyn Dougan

The wonderful time of year has returned where Charlotte Square Gardens is transformed into a tented haven filled with fellow book lovers.

This year I was by the gate before it opened on Saturday at 9.30am in time to see Patrick Ness discuss his latest book, The Crane Wife.

Although I’d seen him at Aye Write in April, I was joined by BookTube friends Jean and Katie and we decided to set the tone before a long day’s book shopping (and bookshop hopping) with two more.

The event took place in the Guardian Spiegeltent – a venue which I’ve mistaken for a café these past two years – with cabaret style seating and free teas and coffees provided.

Ness was as affable and charming as ever, providing a reading from the book’s first few pages and a familiar Q&A session surrounding his writing habits, style, and philosophies.

He outed writers who justify lack of plot as style as being shit at plot (probably true), and admonished the genre versus literary fiction cliques in which authors often partake. This in particular was interesting to hear from him alone, as the topic was touched upon briefly alongside Matt Haig in April – a writer who seems to align more with the genre camp.

He also gave encouragement to a couple of keen audience members, shaking off his early nerves with a couple of sharp anecdotes. I recorded the event in full, and you can download it over here.

After the event I went along to the festival book shop to have my copy of The Crash of Hennington signed. He said it’s a rare signed copy (he’d already signed The Crane Wife for me in Glasgow), adding that as a first novel he sees a lot of mistakes in it, things he’d do differently now, but on the whole he thought it holds up. (I tend to agree – review coming soon!)

Stay tuned for round-ups of the other events I’ll be taking in at EIBF 2013, including Nate Silver and Margaret Atwood, as well as my forthcoming review of Patrick Ness’ upcoming novel, More Than This.

Related posts: Patrick Ness & Matt Haig at Aye Write, John Green at Edinburgh International Book Festival