A guest post by Kate Naylor For decade after decade nothing much changed. Fictional crime fighters pottered around collecting fingerprints, dusting everything in sight and using traditional gumshoe methodology to catch baddies. Then, when the human genome was finally sequenced half a century after Watson and Crick discovered it’s beautiful double helix, came DNA analysis……. Continue Reading The fascinating future of crime fiction »
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How Reading Can Make You a Better Writer
It’s true, reading can make you a better writer. But why should you care? Writing skills are important for everybody. Whether you’re a best-selling author, a mommy blogger, journalist, or just someone who likes to write interesting emails and letters, you’ve got to know how to write well. You may want to improve your writing… Continue Reading How Reading Can Make You a Better Writer »
Read MoreWhy and How to Keep a Reading Journal
A reading journal is a great tool readers can use to keep track of what they’ve read. It works as a dated log, or reading diary. By keeping your own reading journal, you can record your reactions to what you read. This gives you a way to remember what you thought about certain characters and… Continue Reading Why and How to Keep a Reading Journal »
Read MoreWhat Makes a Book Club Great – the People, the Books, or the Wine?
So you want to start a book club. Book clubs have been around a long time – long before the Internet and Oprah Winfrey. But, both the Internet and Oprah’s high profile book club seems to have breathed new life into the idea in recent years. I’ve never hosted a book club, but from what… Continue Reading What Makes a Book Club Great – the People, the Books, or the Wine? »
Read MoreIt’s All About Character
Do you think you have good character? What is character? The New Webster’s Dictionary defines character as “the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual”. You might have heard a news story about some notorious criminal and thought about his or her bad character. We make character judgments on a daily basis, whether we… Continue Reading It’s All About Character »
Read MoreTips for a Better Fiction Reading Experience
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” ~Joseph Addison Any type of reading takes time and effort. But when you read for school or work, it’s completely different than fiction reading for pleasure. With leisure fiction, you’re giving your free time to the author and entering into a new world –… Continue Reading Tips for a Better Fiction Reading Experience »
Read MoreReading Novels Can Make Big Changes in Your Brain
If you’re like so many others, you’re probably reviewing a list of New Year resolutions you’ve written down or made a mental note of in your mind. Studies have shown that breaking bad habits (and creating new, good ones) requires a rewiring of the brain. According to a recent study conducted by researchers at the… Continue Reading Reading Novels Can Make Big Changes in Your Brain »
Read MoreDid You Know That You Are What You Read?
We’ve all heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” Fitness and nutrition gurus everywhere seem to repeat this saying, or some version of it, like a mantra. But is it true that you are what you read as well? Recent research, conducted at Ohio State University, indicates that when you get lost in the… Continue Reading Did You Know That You Are What You Read? »
Read MoreBook Lovers – Do You Fit the Stereotype?
As I browsed through my “to read” articles collected by Zite, I came across a Huffington Post story called, These Stereotypes About Book Lovers Are Absolutely True, and That’s a Good Thing. We’re always taught that stereotypes are bad and that we “shouldn’t use stereotypes” when referring to people or cultures. But I enjoyed the… Continue Reading Book Lovers – Do You Fit the Stereotype? »
Read MoreHow Depressing Fiction Can Change You for the Better
What do you think about depressing fiction? Can it motivate you to take action to better your own life? I’ve talked in the past about how fiction allows us to escape into a fascinating world where we can follow equally fascinating characters as they deal with challenges, experience failures, and win victories. But a recently… Continue Reading How Depressing Fiction Can Change You for the Better »
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