But I think the social aspect of seeing what others read has already broadened out. People talk and tweet and blog about not only the books they own, but those they borrowed. Every mention – the remnants of influence those books have had – is recorded for posterity once they’ve hit the internet. There’s no hiding that book you used to love, and there’s no forgetting that wonderful book you read once and then lost.

So many years ago before the advent of personal computers, in college we were preparing the school’s literary magazine for publication and were using a light-table. We all enjoyed the life that the screen brought to the words we were arranging. It was a special moment for those who were there: we saw at that time a physical representation of how words can have a different life in it’s representation.

I have shelves of poetry books that aren’t replaceable nor would I wish to replace them. I have a keeper shelf of books that have traveled with me from home to home. And I have my ereader that right now is holding 68 titles which includes the Loretta Chase backlist which I believe will be amongst my new keeper shelf.

And if you’ve ever sat and been able to read while not having to hold a book open but rather just hit a button to turn a page then you know what glee is.

I like both. I don’t plan to stop buying physical books. But I do intend to buy a lot less.

I submit that e-books deprive readers of other kinds of pleasures.

Reading an ebook from my Sony 505 is MUCH more comfortable than reading from a computer screen. It’s also much more comfortable than reading from a paper book, and for me, much more physically pleasureable. It (often) weighs less, you don’t have to hold the pages open, you don’t have to use props and weights to keep it stable to read while you eat or take notes. You don’t have to twist your hands into awkward positions to hold the book just right, depending on how you’re sitting.

Ebooks also don’t stink like somebody else’s cigarettes or perfume, don’t give me papercuts, and don’t make my fingertips dry out and crack like handling paper does.

There’s joy to be taken in deleting crap books. Many devices allow for marginalia.

I like your x’s and o’s imagery, it’s beautiful, but I don’t find it to be true for me.

I’m not on a mission to convert everyone to digital, so feel free to keep reading in whatever format you like (as if you need my permission). I’m just finding the pleasures of reading paper books that you listed don’t ring true for me.

@dick, I used to think the same way, books are revered, something is lost on a screen. I add all the romantic feelings you describe. After turning to an ereader, not computer screen, I still feel the same way about books. It’s the written word for me, not the tactile, scent or anything else. It’s the written word. I’ve lost nothing reading from the ereader. It’s all there, painted on the screen, rather than printed on paper. I honestly don’t notice anything different. I still get lost in the book. That is what reading does, regardless of method of “transport”. All pleasure, all the time.

It’s more common that most of us who are addicted to reading have both ‘real books’ (the ones we actually own) and ebooks (the ones that we don’t own, can’t share, can’t donate).

My bookshelves runnith over and I wouldn’t have it any other way but I don’t want anyone taking them off the shelves. DONT TOUCH. That’s what you’ll learn about me from my bookshelves.

Most of my many ebook purchases over the last ten years have been ‘disposable’ books. Ones that I wouldn’t have given shelf space to anyway OR -back in the really, really good old days of ebooks- books that weren’t available in print.

Hopefully humans will always have the pleasure of reading; how they do it might change.

And yes, Mr Smith, if you store your books for more then a month they mate and reproduce. The little buggers.

As for the piece – what the others said. I really dislike the traducing of the Holmesian myth, with a few exceptions (Carole Nelson, and the Mary books) and after the recent film, I expected more of similar silliness to ensue, so it wouldn’t be fair of me to crit this piece as purely personal prejudice has put me against it from the start.

Puce is a kind of dark pinkish-reddish color, sometimes with brown mixed in.

also, I don’t know what puce is. I know it’s a color, but I don’t know what color it is, except that it sounds disgustingly like puke. That’s just my own personal thing, but now I’m thinking it’s like a psychedelic color. but what does that mean? does it mean it’s bright pink, or that it’s bright blue? or somehow swirled into both? (my images of psychedelic). I’m having a hard time getting a visual of the punch, which is bad because so much of this first page is centered on it.

I did like the “punch line” pun – it’s the punch line of the main character’s internal joke, and the punch line, literally, of waiting for the punch.

the ending: “What?” I had to scroll back up to figure out what she was reacting to. there was too much in between for it to be obvious.

and finally, as others have pointed out, this first page doesn’t really match the title of Sherlock in Boston. I actually thought it was going to be a story “set” in the world of Sherlock, like Laurie King’s Mary Russell series. the first few lines soon disabused me of the notion, but like others said, I was a bit confused on the setting. I thought present day, til the crack about Prohibition. yes, it could be an exaggeration, but there’s a reference to the hostess being old, so that meant I had to stop and calculate how old she’d actually have to be to remember Prohibition. by the time I figured out that this WAS an exaggeration, the momentum had been lost.

I don’t mean to be overly harsh, I would probably read a few more pages to figure out why the Boston PD was there and who was getting killed, but I think it does need to be cleaned up.

I’ve never had shelf insecurities because I’ve never really had a bookshelf—not one full of books, anyhow. I have an aversion to stuff, probably because I’ve moved so many times in the last decade. Possessions equal liability to me and as wondrous as books are, they still count as clutter.

I get 95% of my books from the library, so unless people are peeping at my bedside table on a weekly basis, what I read is a mystery (unless they track me down on Goodreads—perhaps the new show-off shelf?) whether it’s pure pompous genius or the smuttiest of the smutty. The few books I do own are the ones I’ve read over and over, and they’re not exactly showpieces. A bunch of Sedaris, Valley of the Dolls, writing how-tos, The Long Walk, Clement Freud’s autobiography… If Hello magazine came a-callin’ today I’d be in trouble.

So although some people fear they’re going to be losing the window into their ravenous literary souls (or the literary soul they want people to think they’ve got) I’m not convinced. The lofty folks with the room for it will still shell out for titles to accessorize their self-image (shelf-image?) and the rest will head to Goodreads.

But oh man, I was very bothered by one part — so much so that it kind of tainted my enjoyment of the HEA.
SPOILER
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It grossed me out that the hero would insist they have sex right away (a.) before he’d confessed the full truth and (b.) before she’d forgiven him. Just, why? If this was still when he was being a heartless ass — okay, then the author could have him redeemed later and sorry for his behavior. But this was supposed to be after he’d had The Realization and started his redemption. So, wtf?

That whole, “oh we have to screw ASAP to make our marriage work, even though you hate me” thing just makes him a creeper, after what he’d done to her and so soon after the caning, and with her present shaky mental state. The ending would have worked for me so much better if he hadn’t pressed the physical aspect of their relationship until everything was aired out in the open and she’d come to terms with the situation. Instead it ended up feeling like yet another violation. How am I supposed to believe he’s really changed and recognizes why hurting her to achieve his aims had been Not Okay, when he’s still acting without regard for her feelings?

Categories can be hard to weed through what with all the babies, mistresses, and weird titles not to mention the confusing HP blurbs.

Thanks for the shorties!

Plus, in the dialogue, Sophia seemed to mimic Grace’s internal thoughts more than once. Basically I got a double dose of panties, nails and the like.

Also, be careful of situations like this…
“Mabel would be devastated if she found out her punch was a bust. So what if the color was a perfect match with her psychedelic-seventies panties.”

You just spoke of Mabel, so the following sentence leads the reader to believe the panties belong to Mabel. I squicked a little at the thought of Grace knowing the color of Mabel’s underwear. LOL

And here:
“Don’t whine – the punch tastes fine. It’s mostly the food coloring,” Grace said over her shoulder to Sophia. Her ploy to make the punch look appetizing wasn’t working, Grace thought. No one was venturing even close to the punch bowl.

This leads the reader to believe Grace placed food coloring in the punch. If that is your intent, fine, but I and others are up in the air as to whether it was. And if it was your intent for it to be Grace, then why would she feel like the punch looked like puce-colored-poison? That would be a mean thing to do to her friend Mabel.

You’ve got the basis for a good story here, just be careful in your execution so you never leave the reader wondering who did what.

The description’s okay, but again, it doesn’t tell me anything about the time, setting, characters, etc. I think there’s too much stuff crammed into the 1st page.

But you’re right. Its an easy plot point, that many authors can get away with. I think partially because of their target audience, but that’s just theory.

When they want men to evolve, I see families, comrades dying, captured, tortured etc that gives the male character his new personality, so to speak, and changed purpose. All of sudden he’s hunting demons, being the good ol’ bounty hunter etc etc.

Whenever I think upon writing a story, and trying to remain outside the box, I switch the genders. NOT the personalities. As I mentioned about the yaoi manga, you can change the gender but still its essentially a female personality and its still in the same role. Which is annoying.

Change the gender, but keep the personality, the job and the trauma. The best example I can think of is Kate from Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels series. She’s put thru various deaths of close people, deals with her deep-seated lesson of staying separate from people etc etc.

Many times I’ve thought, this is a character that could be male or female.
Its the -personality- that is interesting to me, not the “sex” per se.

I laughed when I read you didn’t pick up the series again. Neither have I xD

I came across an excerpt from the next book after this one, and as I was reading it…ugh the feeling was definitely there again. I think I ignored many things about the previous books, because it wasn’t that big of an issue. After the third book however, heh. I couldn’t blame my ignorance any longer.

There were numerous warnings that this author liked shock trips e.g. the poor wolf boy in the first book who ends up on her porch, dead. I paused at that. There didn’t seem to be much foreshadowing to it.

I think I read the same things you did, a letter from Briggs in reply to someone else’s opinion. She said she couldn’t help it, but a writer is not just helpless flotsam, recording the views as the river sends her along.

Anyways. I’m pretty surprised at myself, I thought I’d forgotten these books. Heh.

I have to say tho, ever since this book, I tread carefully at which books I pick up by her. I fear that another contrived plot point might jump out at me, no matter what it may be.

I think it may be me. Or at least I was on top when I looked this morning.

But Branded by Fire is losing to Angel’s Blood, so it might be the end of the line. le sigh

Basketball teams and hockey teams share stadiums all the time. For example, both the NY Rangers (hockey) and the NY Knicks (b-ball) play at Madison Square Garden.