Monday, December 12, 2011

In Which I've Joined a New Book Site

The other day I received an e-mail from a new website called Custom Reads that was interested in having me join in order to recommend books to users. The basic gist of the site is that people choose different genres of books that they like to read and they get book recommendations from other readers who have read and liked them. It's in beta at the moment and the choices on genres and books are limited to what people have recommended but the great thing is that as more people join and recommend, the more choices there will be.

I'm going to spend some time in the next few weeks doing some recommending of books that I've read this year and really liked and I'm hoping to find some books from other recommenders on the site that I can read next year.

-Gabe

5 comments:

  1. Hey, I'm on there too! I haven't really dedicated as much time to it as I'd like, but hopefully I'll be able to do some more on it in the next week or so.

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  2. I haven't really been able to dedicate time to anything lately. I feel like such a slacker. :(

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  3. Hi Gabriel - I think you may have won my 25 follower giveaway.

    ??

    :-)

    Jenna
    The Book Snoop

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  4. OMGOSH! GABE!!! ITS BEEN TOO LONG. If you get back on and start writing I will too :] So hurry up and get writing again.

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  5. Hi Gabriel, I am not at all sure how well my Microsoft Outlook email works, so I thought it best to send this to you in another format if that's ok.
    My name is Samuel Bagby and I am an independent author. I have a novel entitled Lily: A Fable which is offered for sale on Amazon Kindle Store. I am writing to inquire if you might consider reviewing the novel for your website. The plot runs something like this:

    Stephen Flashman loves sex. As a womanizer, he’s been using women for sex all his life. But there are two women who leave an indelible mark upon Flashman’s life, two women whose memory he somehow cannot lay to rest in a sea of forgettable conquests. Diane Densher is one of those women: she is incredibly smart, savvy and ambitious, an Ivy League graduate and a successful executive with a budding career on Wall Street: when she breaks up with Flashman he treats it like just another breakup, but deep down her rejection of him conjures forth a terrible nagging feeling that he could not keep her because she recognized him as a failure and unworthy to be her mate, and he is tormented by the need to win her back. Noelle Cummings is just the opposite of her ambitious and serious-minded predecessor: she is a free spirit from her head to her toes, carried along by an insatiable zest to live each day as if it were her last; she casts a wistful light into Flashman’s bleak inner world. After breaking up with Noelle, Flashman is torn between his affections for both women when Noelle reveals to him that she is pregnant with his child, but is anxious and fearful about raising a child on her own; she tells Flashman that she is thinking of terminating the pregnancy.

    For Flashman it is the moment which sears his heart: with Diane—"the one who got away"—showing signs of renewed interest, should he continue to give chase to her, or should he devote his energies to Noelle and do all he can to ensure the birth of his child, while knowing his life will never be the same again?

    On the surface of things Lily may appear to be similar to many contemporary romance plots: it isn't. It is rather the portrayal of an inner search for meaning, for fulfillment, for belonging by a man whose past has ill-equipped him to find them, whose culture provides him with a template for happiness which ultimately leaves him at a loss. Certainly it is the eloquence and beauty of a prose style which in many respects sets literary fiction apart from other types: accordingly I would invite you to simply take a minute and peruse a few excerpts on the novel’s Kindle page, to see if they spark something in you that drives you to read on and engage the text. Lily is a short work of fiction, a quick read paced all the way through with humor and pathos, and sporting a rather wicked twist at the very end.
    The product page on Amazon is: http://www.amazon.com/Lily-A-Fable-ebook/dp/B008H725U6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341512402&sr=8-1&keywords=lily+a+fable

    The novel's Goodreads page is: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13541609-lily

    I would love for you to do a review of the novel if possible; if you’re willing I would also appreciate the opportunity to do a blogpost or some kind of promotion with you. I'd be happy to e-mail you a copy of the novel if you'd like, please inform me as to what format you prefer. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.
    Sam Bagby

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