carp(e) libris reviews

You’re looking for something different to read, something unusual. The cookie-cutter paperbacks you’ve been reading have all started to sound the same. In a hunt for the good reads, you start perusing the bestseller lists but it’s just not what you’re searching for. Where does the hungry reader go for a good book? The kind you remember that got you reading in the first place, staying up past bedtime with a flashlight under the covers so your mom thought you were asleep.

They’re in the independent presses, that’s where. Those fantastic one-of-a-kind stories that make you want to tell people “You won’t believe what I’ve been reading!” are right there waiting to be discovered. Artistic, beautiful, heartbreaking, funny, suspenseful - the indie press has it all.

It’s Small Press Month, and although you may think I’ve forgotten, I haven’t. It’s just that I’ve got all these great books here to read, and well, time has gotten away from me as it will when you’ve got your nose buried in a book.

I knew when I started carp(e) libris reviews that I was onto something. I’ve read books by the indies before, and I started to notice a pattern - the only thing these unique books had in common were that they were uncommonly good. In fact, I wasn’t finding anything ordinary about them. And the more I’m reading books from the indies, the more I love them. I have to say that in my reading life, reviewing books for this blog has been one of the best times. (Other than that time I was holed up overseas with nothing to do and nowhere to go, with a bookstore around the corner selling English classics. Bliss.) One of the hardest parts about blogging carp(e) libris reviews is choosing which books get the Goldfish Award. I’ve been comparing fantastic with spectacular time and again.

So if you’re looking for that unique book to give you back the love of reading you remember when you first fell between the pages, don’t search in vain - search the indies.