Free Books, Just Not From Us

This Saturday, May 5, is Free Comic Book Day, as the first day of May has been for many years now.  It is an opportunity to head to your local comic book shop (as well as a few possible other locations) and get a free comic book (and possibly more than one).  Booknotes is unfortunately not one of these locations.  Still, we strongly urge you to head to your nearest one (in the Pikeville area, this would be Page 3 Game Zone) and find something you like.  For those who haven't read comic books in some time, be aware that not all of the free titles are for all ages.  If planning on picking something up for a younger reader, look at what's available before choosing.  Some of the offered titles, as well as some the individual stores might offer on their own, are diffidently not for kids.  Also, the last Saturday in April, the 28th this year, was Independent Book Store Appreciation Day.  Unfortunately, we forgot all about it until after the fact, and we didn't participate.  As it is, Booknotes had to be a member of an independent retail/book store association to be able to get the freebies that were handed out, and we are not a part of one.  To be honest, we are not sure there even is one for this part of Kentucky.  Anyway, we support the efforts of others even if we did not do so ourselves.  See you next time, and don't forget to get a free comic, or two.

Spending Game Day on the Sidelines

Saturday, April 28 is International Tabletop Game Day, a celebration of all traditional games that you don't have to play on an electronic device.  Although we don't publicize the fact very much, you can order some games through Booknotes.  We can't get everything, but we can get quite a bit.  Obviously, we can order books of games, as well as many role-playing game supplements. [In fact, one of the reasons I opened Booknotes was so I could order my supplements, as the local game store sometimes didn't get what I needed all the time.  Unfortunately, our original primary distributor didn't carry the game line.  Oops.  At least our secondary distributor and our second primary one did, until the publisher went to online sales of print-on-demand product only.  Still,I was able to get many titles this way, as well as from my local game store.]  We can also order a surprising number of both card and board games.  Mind you, well aren't able to get many of the most common ones, but we can get a somewhat wide variety.  We are also able to order a selection of jigsaw puzzles.  We have even been in discussion with a puzzle manufacturer to order directly from them.  So, if you want some games, try your local game store first.  Many are connected with comic book stores or video game outlets.  However, if you want some books as well, don't forget about Booknotes.  See you next week, which is also a special event.

Days of Hills and Billies

Well, it is that time of year again.  The time of year where we close for one day while the entire town is taken over by people who are going to rides, vendors, concerts, and a contest where people can win a prize based on where a pig does its business.  At least this year, they are also featuring a Ghost Walk, a nighttime tour of some of the spookiest places in Pikeville.  As it is, we are not going to rehash every reason why we won't be open.  Click the link to our post from last year to read the reasons why.  Anyway, that is why we are posting this a day early.  See you next week.  Sorry this was so short.

The Reviews Keep Pouring In

This past Wednesday, Booknotes posted its latest capsule review on our Facebook page.  We are trying to post more frequently, but there just not enough books that this writer likes enough to review.  However, we are going to have someone else post reviews on our website Review Blog soon.  Quick recap:  When we first started our website, we had a blog app as part of it.  We also had a Blogger connection, but it took us a few months to realize how to get it functional.  Anyway, once we did get it to work, we started using it for the weekly blog.  The original blog was supposed to have been given over to someone else to use for reviews and other topics.  However, she has yet to fully to do.  She used to have weekly reviews in the recently ceased Medical Leader, but her lack of computer skills as well as limited time supposedly has prevented her from doing so.  She has only posted three reviews on it in the past two years.  However, she tells me she will have something ready in the next few weeks.  Check back soon.  We have included a link to the blog for those checking us out on our blog's page instead of our website.  Because we will be closed next Saturday, our next post will be available a day or so early, so see you sooner than usual.

Links to the Future

One of the services we offer at Booknotes is to check up on upcoming titles for people, to help them see when their favorite authors have new books.  Unfortunately,  many favorite authors haven't had new books in their series for some time, and don't seem to have anything up on the horizon either.  Take George R. R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire, the basis for A Game of Thrones.  The most recent book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, came out years ago.  While there have been some sample chapters floating around, the next book has yet to be scheduled.  (Note:  Publishing data was accessed a few minutes before this post was written, but nothing else more direct was checked out.)  The television series will have concluded before the next book comes out, unless something happens.  Another favorite author of Booknotes is Jim Butcher.  His series, The Dredsden Files, hasn't had a new full length novel in years.  All that has been seen are various short stories.  He has even started a new steampunk series, and it too hasn't had a new title after the first one.  The only new book coming out is a collection of short stories, Brief Cases, that have been previously published elsewhere.  At least it will include a new novella, but it is still not a new book.  Finally, there is Jasper Fforde and his Thursday Next series (A very beloved one for this writer.)  The second set of novels, after the original four part trilogy (just go along with it), has yet to be finished.  The most recent book teased about the next one, but it has been years since it came out.  He even has a young adult fantasy series, but its last book ended on a sort of cliffhanger, and it hasn't had a new book come out either.  Things really need to happen. Well, see you next week.

Dropping onto New Platforms

As we have mentioned before, we at Booknotes are not that technologically inclined.  We have had many problems over the years getting our online presence just right.  Case in point, our Google listing.  When we first posted our listing on Google, and it related sites, we didn't really know what we were doing.  It took us multiple tries before we got them online, and it never really worked out perfectly.  Google kept telling us that there were multiple listings for us, and we couldn't tell what was going on.  For a few weeks or more, we couldn't even access our account.  We eventually got it back, but by that time we were focusing more on Facebook.  Recently, we were able to re-launch our Google listings, but we still cannot seem to get it working right.  We have been asked to create a website, even though we already have one.  Yes, it is somewhat padded, but it is there.  We are now posting on Goggle+ as well, but we still haven't got all of that connected yet either.  There is just some much content we have, and not enough of it to go around.  This is one reason why we are linking our Blogger account to our other social media sites, to get our audience connected again.  Stay tuned for more, somewhere and/or everywhere, next week.

Something New for Easter

As we mentioned last week, we are experimenting with some new things online.  One of them is this blog.  For the next few weeks, we will be composing our post on Blogger instead of the website and providing links on social media.  We feel that we will be able to post some things here using the full version of the software will be better than the limited version on the website.  We didn't even realize this version truly existed until recently.  Shows you how little we know about computing.  Anyway, this week we are spotlighting some of our children's Easter books.  Here is a picture or two of them.

First is The Story of Easter.  It is a Little Golden Book version of the Biblical story,  perfect for young readers.  Next is My Easter Egg.  It has a clear plastic cutout on the cover, allowing readers to see the shaped pages before getting to read about some animals having an Easter party.  Then there is The Bunny Who Found Easter.  It is not that much about Easter, but the hardcover does have an allegorical message that goes well with the holiday without being too religious.  Then there is The Story of the Easter Bunny.  It is about the origin of the rabbit.  This paperback is very light-hearted and fairly appropriate for young readers.  Last there is Bunny and Friends.  This board book isn't about Easter at all, but it does feature many bunnies in the touch-and-feel format.  We at Booknotes are very pro-rabbit, if you didn't realize that already from our Easter decorations.  Don't forget about our Easter basket made from free pens.  We have lots of them, so we frequently use them for decorations.  See you again next week with some more surprises.