Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup #03

Hello and welcome to issue #03 of my Weekly Roundup. The upcoming week I will be on a business trip to UK. That means the next Roundup will be a bit shorter. Hopefully I will find some time to read because I'm behind my reading schedule. I was not sure whether someone would leave comment related to my questions in the last Roundup. But some of you, my dear readers, left helpful comments. Thank you for that.
Enjoy reading......

Bona Fide's Menu

Bona Fide's Question of the Week

1. Answers to questions from last Roundup
2. How do you decide whether to buy a book or not?
   

Books

1. Delivery of the Week: Beat The Reaper by Josh Blazell
2. Del Rey Giveaway: The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick
   

Blogosphere

1. Seeds of Earth Competition
2. Two authors, two artists and TOR.COM
   
3. I'm your pain in the neck: The David Gemmell Legend Award
   

Movies

1. No movies but bridges
   

Quotes

1. German proverbs, sayings and idioms Contacts...

Bona Fide's Question of the Week

In the last Roundup I tried something new. I asked you (my dear readers) two questions and I received comments. Thank you.
It seems it should be worth to have a Facebook account in order to improve my network related to books.
I will join after my return from my business trip.
There are more people like my who like to discover PODs (Print on demand). But blogger like to decide on their own which book they want to read and maybe review. I decided for myself that if I'm interested in a POD I will contact the author. So I hopefully avoid to put my nose in books I don't like.

How do you decide whether to buy a book or not?
I know people who go to a bookshop, buy a book and are happy. And I know people like me with several strategies to decide which book to buy. I never buy books on impulse. I'm a fan of list, book lists. I have a neverending book wish list on Goodreads. I have detailed to buy lists for ervery month and nearly a year in advance. Am I insane? I spend hours to reate these lists. Before I add a book to my list I normally read the blurb, up to 10 reviews if available and excerpts. The cover is not that important for me. But I'm also constantly changing my to buy list because of discovering new books or deleayed publishing. And I have a budget limit of 50 EURO per month. I order books up to more than year in advance. Am I insane? Am I the only one who makes a big fuss about his process of to buy a book decision?

Dear readers let me know how do you decide which book to buy.
Are there more people like me or do I need to be admitted to a book bedlam?

Books

This week I received the paperback copy of a book which has been published first in 2009. Let me start with the book trailer:


Based on this trailer I searched for more information about Beat The Reaper (2009) [US][UK], by Josh Blazell and it didn't take long until I found the awesome Beat The Reaper site. I know it is completely different compared to what I read normally but sometimes I need to read something different.
This is the new paperback cover and synopsis from the site:

"Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital. He has a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he’d prefer to keep hidden. Whether it’s a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
Pietro “Bearclaw” Brnwna is a hit man for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Protection Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he’s the last person you want to see in your hospital room.
Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown’s new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might — just might — be the same person . . .
Now with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours — and somehow beat the Reaper.
Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, Beat the Reaper is a debut thriller so utterly original you won’t be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won’t be able to put it down."

Del Rey Giveaway: The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick
I'm a fan of the Chathrand Voyage series by Robert V.S. Redick. I posted about The World of Robert V.S. Redick and I reviewed the first two books: Review: The Red Wolf Conspiracy and Review: The Rats and the Ruling Sea. Now I found following exciting news in the DEL REY INTERNET NEWSLETTER:

Red Wolf Conspiracy Giveaway

Mark your calendars! February 16, 2010 is the date you can again board the gargantuan ship Chathrand when Robert V.S. Redick's The Ruling Sea comes to bookstores everywhere. But if you haven't yet met the Chathrand's motley crew whose saga began in last year's The Red Wolf Conspiracy, don't worry! We are giving away copies of the paperback edition of The Red Wolf Conspiracy to 10 lucky readers. For your chance to win, send your e-mail to delrey@randomhouse.com with RED WOLF in the subject line, including your full name and address in the body of the e-mail. (NOTE: your personal information will not be used for any purpose other than this content.) Ten (10) lucky winners will be selected at random and will receive a copy of the book. All submissions must be received by Wednesday, January 27th.

I could not detect any restriction. Therefore the giveaway should be open for all.
This could be your opportunity to enter the Chathrand Voyage series by Robert V.S. Redick. Good Luck to all participants.Both books are really worth to read and I recommend them.

Blogosphere

There is a story behind following post. On Thursday Marc from Walker of Worlds posted about a competition. Nothing unusual. Except for me because the price of the competition is a book which is on my to buy list for February. And it is a sci-fi novel! Yes, I really want to read some sci-fi within 2010. Before I continue with the story you should know about which book I talk: Seeds of Earth (2010, mass market paperback) [US][UK], by Michael Cobley. It is the first book of the Humanity's Fire series. As has been published first in 2009 several reviews are available. Just follow the links: Walker of Worlds, Dave Brendon's Fantasy & Scifi Weblog, SFF World, Fantasy Book Critic, King of the Nerds !!!
And this time I show you the whole cover.
For all of you who have no magnifying glass at hand I repeat the blurb from the cover above:

"The first intelligent species to encounter Mankind attacked without warning. With little hope of halting the savage invasion, Earth's last, desperate roll of the dice was to dispatch three colony ships, seeds of Earth, to different parts of the galaxy. The human race would live on ...somewhere.
Over a century later, the planet Darien hosts a thriving human settlement. But mankind's new home harbours secret dating back to the dawn of history. Secrets that could yet see a devastating war erupt across the entire galaxy..."

Now let's continue with the story. Of course I visited the competition site and found following question:

"There is a range of mountains on Darien which are named after a Scottish saint – what is that saint’s more popular name?"

What a disappointment! It is not possible to answer the question without knowing the book. The means it is a competition for people who read the book. Of course I left a comment. Only a few hours later following post appeared:

"(Slaps forehead) – my god, you`re absolutely right. Flipping norah – gonna have to come up with an alternative pronto."

Now a new question is available and I say thank you to Michael Cobley. By the way the new question is still a challenge...

Two authors, two artists and TOR.COM
You know TOR.COM? It is a site for news and discussion of science fiction, fantasy, and all the things that interest SF and fantasy readers. Over there you can find two stories from two authors and two paintings from two artists. Anything else? NO. Let me go more in detail and you may understand why I wrote this post.
Earth, USA, San Francisco, Mission District, 866 Valencia Street, Borderland Books, 2009, March 28th. Jay Lake and Ken Scholes wrote stories in front of a crowd. Each of them started a story and after finishing the first part they exchanged papers and each continued the story of the other. And as a result we have two stories. For details of the event please read On a Certain Day by Shannon Page.
TOR.COM was eager to present the two stories. But that was not enough. The brought together Greg Manchess, the artist on Ken’s Psalms of Isaak series and Stephan Martiniere, the artist on Jay’s Clockwork books. Each started a painting for one of the stories and the other finished it. For details please read Martiniere/Manchess mashup for "The Starship Mechanic" and "Looking for Truth in a Wild Blue Yonder" by Irene Gallo.
And this is the result. I hope you enjoy the stories and the paintings as much as I did.

The Starship Mechanic
by Jay Lake and Ken Scholes
Illustration by Stephan Martiniere & Greg Manchess

"If you were a technologically advanced alien race named Todd, what kind of mechanic would your ship have? And what if that mechanic liked to spend its time petting the naked cats at Borderlands Books?"

Looking for truth in a Wild Blue Yonder
by Jay Lake and Ken Scholes
Illustration by Stephan Martiniere & Greg Manches

"Don't do drugs, kiddies, unless you really need to and/or they are recommended by a licensed therabot. And either way, don't have sex under the influence. Unless, of course, you're dealing with complicated grief."

I'm your pain in the neck


I posted about The David Gemmell Legend Award regularly in the past Roundups. So I keep it short this week

This is the Legend Arward nomination list. You can vote here.

This is the Morningstar Award nomination list. You can vote here.
I voted for Lamentation by Ken Scholes,ISBN: 0765360918, which I will review on January 15th.

If you want to meet interesting people, talk about fantasy books, share your opinions in a friendly fantasy atmosphere, support your favorite book and SIGN IN:

Visit The David Gemmell Legend Awards
Hope to meet you soon over at The David Gemmell Legend Award ...............

Movies

This week I didn't find a movie or a trailer worth to present you. But I found another interesting topic:
Houses on bridges. One famous example is the old London Bridge. For more information visit the London Bridge Museum. And when you would like to see examples from around the world then I recommend to visit Modern Trolls: Bridges as Homes & Mini-Cities. As always the people from WebUrbanist put together a lot of information and pictures.
And what is my contribution to this topic? A video! Yes, I found a video which explains how to design a bridge house. I must admit that could not live in this house due to my vertigo.....


Quotes

Seeds of Earth inspired me to search for quotes related to contact........

"You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea”
Pearl S. Buck, American author, 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature (1892-1973)

"A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.”
by Colette, French novelist (1873 - 1954

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”
by Bill Watterson, cartoonist, "Calvin and Hobbes"
US cartoonist (1958 - )