Call it the Year In Review edition. We’re nine days into the new year and nothing bad has happened yet. A record for the new millennium.
- The Year In Self-Publishing
One writer’s in-the-trenches take on self-publishing, complete with ugly earnings report. I admire the enthusiasm and the realism. I also think the new ability for anyone to cut out the middlepersons (agents, editors) and access readers directly, is a bigger deal than most people realize. I’m not saying it’s a more lucrative deal — just important. There’s also a good lesson here about not bastardizing your content in order to be trendy. The great freedom that is the internet means you do not have to compromise. If you’re willing to bend your work any which way in order to make a sale then you didn’t need the internet in the first place. - Dave Barry’s Good (Bad) Year In Review
Dave Barry. Enough said. - Gamasutra’s Top 12 Games of the Decade
I don’t have much quarrel with the games they chose, which is all the more impressive given the cross-platform nature of the list. I will note that 8 of the 10 are from 2005 or before. Feel free to reach your own conclusions. - Opinion: The 99 Best Free Games Of 2009
If you’re really hoping to waste an entire day then you’ve come to the right link. Play #1 on the list, if only to break free of Nintendo/MicroSony/PC Blockbuster straitjacket. - My Favorite Book Covers of 2009
My here refers to the author of the linked post, not to me. Still, some good choices, and a good selection betraying no detectable stylistic bias. My favorite: The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime. Runner-up: Columbine. - The Year’s Most Mesmerizing Mysteries
I’ve read exactly none of these, but this is exactly the kind of best-of list that will help me catch up with the latest doin’s in the mystery genre. Speaking of which….
Note: I had another link on this list that I found on Twitter, but as I was reviewing the page a series of faux virus warnings splashed across my monitor. Should I ever inadvertently pass along a link to a malicious site, please let me know. [Tip: use the Alt-F4 key combination to close windows that you suspect may be used to trigger the downloading of malicious content or files.]
— Mark Barrett
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