Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
You have to sign up as an audible member which is £7.95 a month I think. For that you get one audiobook per month at that price and any others at discounted prices. I think if you're a new member you get one or two freebies so you may be able to sign up, get the freebies, and then decide not to join. It works a bit like a book club in that respect.
I've been a member for a few years and they've got some excellent audiobooks on there.
Just finished an oldish anthology of the Ashram Award Short Story Collection. I read this whilst also dipping into a magazine of short stories I'd picked up in the UK - First Edition - which made things quite interesting; the difference in the quality between the two was striking! There's short story writing and there's short story writing!! :)
Oh no! So Barbara Erskine's Daughters of Fire is rubbish, is it? I'd just bought it. Erskine is my 'guilty secret' reading. Sometimes I really don't like her writing style (Hiding from the Light... ugh) but she will keep writing books about my ancestors and various themes I'm interested in. Perhaps we'd get on!
I read the first couple of chapters of 'Pop Co.' by Scarlett Thomas. THink I will press on but she is real heavy on the descriptive and hardly anything has happened yet. I pretty much even know which way the grain goes on her characters bedside table.
Other wise, I got a few oldie but goodie stuff out of storage at the weekend. 'The Catcher in the Rye' and my Jostein Gaarder collection. Anyone read his stuff?
- 'Wastelands' Dark Tower Book 3 by Stephen King (reading it slower than I'd like due to things getting in the way and couple migraines I've had.)
- 'The Secret of Excalibur' by Andy McDermott
- 'The Lord of the Rings'
- 'On Writing' by Stephen King
- Writing Magazine/Writers' News
- First draft of short story by Me :P
see Kate Atkinson thread for reasons why the book I bought has been abandoned already ... couldn't stand it.
Back to something worth reading, A Horseman Riding By trilogy by RF Delderfield.
Jenny, I have only just seen your question. For a start she switches viewpoint within the same paragraph - which is really not good for the poor reader.
No, I haven't read it, got several books here on Mary but would prefer now to hear it from herself. I think ... says she having changed the schedule many times ... that I write Arthur's book after Guy and then the book I have wanted to do for some time but needed the consent of both queens to do it, Elizabeth and Mary, alternating chapters as their lives run parallel and then collide, violently. I wasn't sure Elizabeth would do it. Mary has been around for an age, five years or more, living on one of the duke's stately homes (she had no home of her own for so long she had nowhere to go) and then one night in circle Sir William Fitzwillian arrived with a convoluted message. He was in charge of Fotheringhay during the last six months of Mary's life. He said his queen was happy to do the book and he was, provided I was sympathetic to her. He then said he had a message from Sir Walter Raleigh that his queen was happy to do the book, provided I was sympathetic to her. I later had a message from Henry via a friend's circle that I should bring the book forward, so I have. Apparently Elizabeth is now very keen to do it. I am anticipating this is because of the films which she does not like, I know that.
I'm working partly with Antonia Fraser's book on Guy Fawkes to do his book and don't like it at all, so I will avoid her book on Mary. Not very well written and some giant pieces of information missing, outside of what he is giving me. Not impressed.
One wonders about the New York Times Book Review reviewers.
The cover says "such a good yarn that one wonders why nobody has tried to popularise it before." Obviously they don't know how we regard Guy here or the fact many consider he is the only person who entered Parliament with good intentions...
Just finished The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogen. I really enjoyed it, it was much much better than stephenie Meyers second vampire novel which I gave up on.
Halfway through The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh and enjoying it hugely. I read The Glass Palace by him a couple of years ago and when I spotted this book on a second-hand book stall I snapped it up.
Just finished 'Deception' by Philip Roth; a quite wonderful read, unique in that it's all dialogue with no narration nor indicators as to who's speaking. That sounds bizarre and difficult to read but the characters are so well realised by their dialogue that this isn't a problem. Remarkable, the mark of a master at work.
I've now begun David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest', a great hulk of a book at 1000(ish) pages. There's a website site started up called 'Infinite Summer' which aims to get as many people reading the book between June 21st and September 21st as it can. It's got notes and discussion forums to help things along and seeing that I've been meaning to read it for a while, I thought why not? Now's as good a time as any.
Forty years after Jesus' death, Judas tells the story as he remembers it. Looking back on his youth from an old age that the gospel writers denied him he recalls his friendship with Jesus and his family through school days, their journeys with the disciples and their dealings with the power of Rome and the Temple.
I think my Barbara Erskine phase is over. I've just finished 'Whispers in the Sand'. It has no ending! There is even a post-logue or whatever you would call it, from the author saying something to the effect that it is difficult to know when to end a book. Huh - not here, I can tell you! I bet they had queries from people thinking their copy had been mis-bound, it's that much of an absence of ending.
So I moved rapidly on to Catherine Hall's 'Days of Grace'. I wasn't entirely sure about the style of writing, but the story, although melodramatic, was gripping. Started it at 5.30pm and finished it at 11.55pm.
the books are really well written... i think my dad doesn't like it that much because it takes the opposing view of something that is meant to be horrific (the vampires) and makes not only likeable but loveable... and then there's the second book which delves very deep into Bella's depression... second time round i actually skipped all the depression stuff in book 2 and started reading from when they go to italy...
1st time i read book 4 i thought it was a bit too weird and also anti climatic but then again there was no other way for the story to go... the books are definitely better than the movie either way ;) ...
I'm not in a reading mood at the moment, but I've been trying to finish Clouds of Witness- Dorothy L Sayers.
Son, has been reading the Carnegie Medal shortlist- his group at school were voting today- and the last book he had to read was by Patrick Ness- The Knife of Never Letting Go. He has asked me to get the latest one by him, so I ordered it this morning.
I'm just coming to the end of Peter Robinson's 'Cold is the Grave.'
Good book but for one reason or another I seem to have struggled to get through it.
Ginger - I gave up on Sepulchre. As with Labyrinth, her writing (to me) seems to be about how clever she thinks she is. I know they say 'write what you know' but I felt she was lecturing. What do you think? Maybe I should try again.
Absolutely must read the Twilight series - it's high on my list!
I am reading Joanne Harris' Runemarks, next I have Sarah Water's The Little Stranger, then Tracey Chevalier's The Virgin Blue and at some stage Catherine Deneuve (goddess) Close Up and Personal
My friend put her finger on the problem of Labyrinth: more interested in describing the clothing than the story!
My sister read and enjoyed Twilight (although she much preferred the baddie vampire) but hated New Moon.
I'm reading A Simple Act of Violence -RJ Ellory. I was browsing the contemporary fiction shelves in Waterstones and there are few I want to read including a Joanne Harris. This is new territory for me (away from the crime shelves!)
New Moon was a bit much... the end was good and the first chapter was brilliant...but then right after the birthday scene it was so anti climatic... and got really boring...
i agree there... 1 is by far the best of the books... 3 is alright... and four just seems to go a bit over the top for me... still really well written tho...
Finished The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh - it was quite a good story, but felt the writing a little flawed; his 'research' showed a bit too much. Similar problem with his other book I've read, The Glass Palace, but I thought it was more pronounced in this one. Why don't editors pick up these glitches, I wonder?
Comments
Yep I do that now I've read King's 'On Writing'
Has anyone noticed you can't quote Probie normally without a smiley getting in the way
How do I download the audible Richard?
You have to sign up as an audible member which is £7.95 a month I think. For that you get one audiobook per month at that price and any others at discounted prices. I think if you're a new member you get one or two freebies so you may be able to sign up, get the freebies, and then decide not to join. It works a bit like a book club in that respect.
I've been a member for a few years and they've got some excellent audiobooks on there.
www.audible.co.uk
Other wise, I got a few oldie but goodie stuff out of storage at the weekend. 'The Catcher in the Rye' and my Jostein Gaarder collection. Anyone read his stuff?
- 'Wastelands' Dark Tower Book 3 by Stephen King (reading it slower than I'd like due to things getting in the way and couple migraines I've had.)
- 'The Secret of Excalibur' by Andy McDermott
- 'The Lord of the Rings'
- 'On Writing' by Stephen King
- Writing Magazine/Writers' News
- First draft of short story by Me :P
I think I read too much at the same time.
My current 'How to' book is Writing Bestselling Children's Books by Alexander Gordon Smith, and it's pretty good.
P:)robie, I think it must be our sunny nature :) .
Back to something worth reading, A Horseman Riding By trilogy by RF Delderfield.
Have you read Antonia Fraser's book of Mary, Dorothy? (wonder if Mr Starkey considers it feminised?)
I'm working partly with Antonia Fraser's book on Guy Fawkes to do his book and don't like it at all, so I will avoid her book on Mary. Not very well written and some giant pieces of information missing, outside of what he is giving me. Not impressed.
One wonders about the New York Times Book Review reviewers.
The cover says "such a good yarn that one wonders why nobody has tried to popularise it before." Obviously they don't know how we regard Guy here or the fact many consider he is the only person who entered Parliament with good intentions...
I've now begun David Foster Wallace's 'Infinite Jest', a great hulk of a book at 1000(ish) pages. There's a website site started up called 'Infinite Summer' which aims to get as many people reading the book between June 21st and September 21st as it can. It's got notes and discussion forums to help things along and seeing that I've been meaning to read it for a while, I thought why not? Now's as good a time as any.
Forty years after Jesus' death, Judas tells the story as he remembers it. Looking back on his youth from an old age that the gospel writers denied him he recalls his friendship with Jesus and his family through school days, their journeys with the disciples and their dealings with the power of Rome and the Temple.
Incredible book.
As a young girl, I couldn't get into his books. Found his style too hard to follow I think? But now, I love his weird imagination.
I have read his book 'On Writing'. I loved it, but as I had it on loan from the library, I haven't got a copy anymore.
So I moved rapidly on to Catherine Hall's 'Days of Grace'. I wasn't entirely sure about the style of writing, but the story, although melodramatic, was gripping. Started it at 5.30pm and finished it at 11.55pm.
She was a very - er - popular person in her youth!
(That smiley was unintentional but I'll leave it where it is. A wink is very suitable in the circumstances!)
1st time i read book 4 i thought it was a bit too weird and also anti climatic but then again there was no other way for the story to go... the books are definitely better than the movie either way ;) ...
Son, has been reading the Carnegie Medal shortlist- his group at school were voting today- and the last book he had to read was by Patrick Ness- The Knife of Never Letting Go. He has asked me to get the latest one by him, so I ordered it this morning.
Good book but for one reason or another I seem to have struggled to get through it.
er.....
Absolutely must read the Twilight series - it's high on my list!
I am reading Joanne Harris' Runemarks, next I have Sarah Water's The Little Stranger, then Tracey Chevalier's The Virgin Blue and at some stage Catherine Deneuve (goddess) Close Up and Personal
My sister read and enjoyed Twilight (although she much preferred the baddie vampire) but hated New Moon.
I'm reading A Simple Act of Violence -RJ Ellory. I was browsing the contemporary fiction shelves in Waterstones and there are few I want to read including a Joanne Harris. This is new territory for me (away from the crime shelves!)
I still want to read them...
My sister tells me not to. I'll probably blow a gasket (Gothic afficardo.)
:)
Finished The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh - it was quite a good story, but felt the writing a little flawed; his 'research' showed a bit too much. Similar problem with his other book I've read, The Glass Palace, but I thought it was more pronounced in this one. Why don't editors pick up these glitches, I wonder?