Great Books and Human Nature

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! What a crazy week it's been. I've managed to get into a couple of really awesome books lately and want to share those as well as talk about a series of posts I wrote last year on Human Nature. So grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

A library card is something I'm still in awe of having. Libraries give you the ability to, not only read, but take home a multitude of books you can learn from if you simply give them your name, number, and address. It stuns me every time I go in and see all those books for the consuming just sitting there on the shelves, waiting for me to pluck them out, take them home, and read the words on the pages. As a library hound, I've run across a couple of amazing books for bloggers and authors you guys might want to consider picking up yourselves.

If you go to your library and they don't have one of these books, you can request one and should have it within a week or two. How cool is that? Plus, it's all free!

So, here's the list:

• Blogging for Creatives: How Designers, Artists, Crafters and Writers can blog to make contacts, win business and build success. by Robin Houghton

This book was helpful in giving advice on how to blog, make social networking contacts, and attract visitors. If you want to monetize your blog, there's advice in there about that, too. I skimmed over that part, because I refuse to run ads on my blog other than my own, but it has a lot of great information in it.

• Wired for Story: The writer's guide to using brain science to hook readers from the very first sentence. by Lisa Cron

I'm about halfway through this book and I can already tell it's a winner. It really gets into why people read and what they want, rather than telling you how to craft a novel. You can check it out when I'm done with it. Haha!

• I love the For Dummies series and picked this one up because it looked awesome: Writing Young Adult Fiction - for Dummies. by Deborah Halverson

I've only glanced through the contents, but I'm eager to get into it this weekend.

One thing I noticed as I was reading Wired for Story, is she talks a lot about Human Nature and how it plays a big part in how people get hooked on a tale. I thought it might be a good idea to give you a few links to those posts while you're here, so you have some supplemental materials if you decide to check out the book.

Human Nature Series:
The Love Affair
Holding a Grudge
Seeking Revenge
Situation Reaction
Thought Processes

If you take the time to flip through and read those posts, you'll have a good foundation on which to build as you read Wired.

Do you have a library card? How often do you visit?

Remember, today is the last day to pick up Mystic~Bronya for free over on Amazon so get on over there and grab a copy!

If you haven't entered to win a copy of Sixty Days of Grace, today's your last chance on that one, too! Here's the Rafflecopter entry form one more time:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure and check out the guest post from Monday by M.R. Polish! Next week, we'll have a new author and you don't wanna miss this one.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo