Archives - Weekly Update

I feel like “immersed” is such a high-level word to use to describe my current reading situation. It's the kind of word that one would drop into conversation at a cocktail party and say it with a lot of drama.

It would be more accurate to say that I feel like I am on a treadmill racing as fast as I can to read for interviews and other coverage that we are working on. As time goes on, I know more and more authors whose latest work I want to read. There are also new writers who I want to explore.

Trust me, I know these are not life-altering decisions to make, but when you attend as many previews as we do and hear authors sharing commentary about their work, it is a good challenge to have to select what to read.

I came across a couple of very interesting ideas this week about “staying in the moment.”

Last Thursday night, Francesca on our team went to a Phoebe Bridgers concert at Madison Square Garden where all attendees had to check their phones at the door. Their strictly enforced “no-camera” and “no-phone” policy meant that attendees were forbidden from bringing phones, smartwatches, cameras, or even pens and paper. All devices had to be turned off and sealed in lockable bags by venue staff. Instead people stayed in the moment watching the show.

Until I started working on Bookreporter in 1996, I did not know that books came out on Tuesdays (except now for James Patterson books, which release on Mondays). Seriously, this fact evaded me.

I also did not realize that the first Tuesday of any given month was loaded with a lot of the titles coming out that month. This has become even crazier in the past few years as the number of monthly book clubs has grown, and they are announcing their latest picks at the start of the month. This now means that coverage during the first week of the month is packed with releases, and all reviews cannot run this first week.