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
I think that he sounds quite scary to encounter - great but scary - in the back of one of the books I have it says that he is about 6ft 5ins, has about a 50 inch chest measurement and weighs between 200 and 250lbs - mainly muscle!!! It's a wonder anyone bothers trying to attack him!
I think the count of monte cristo is my favourite book of all time. I've never been so loathe to put a book down. Dumas' ability to tell a story is, to my knowledge, unparallelled. When I bought it I could tell it was a big book. When I opened it and saw how small the type was I was amazed. Still, it was the easiest 800 pages I ever had to read.
I've just finished 'Exit, Pursued by a Bee' by Geoff Nelder. A lot of sci-fi stories have aliens causing mayhem when they invade Earth, but this book is different in that the aliens cause disaster when they leave! A well-paced story involving time-shifts, and with some interesting characters. I think it would make a good film.
Nothing at the moment except files about China and books about martial arts. Moll Flanders is my escape when I have time, sometimes I read it in bed, but the rest is such a rush that it has to take priority for the moment.
Still reading 'Fractured' by Karin Slaughter...and I've been told, by my driving instructor to start reading the 'Highway Code'...it's not exactly riveting - the highway code not Fractured
I've read the Mozart Conspiracy, Marc, and I agree with you, it's fantastic. I thought Mariani's first thriller was great but this one is even better. I love the hero, Ben Hope. He comes over as a real person not just a character who has been invented for the sake of the plot.
Drop Shot by Harlan Coben. Not that I'm enjoying it that much, more checking out the competition for the next novel I'm developing.
. . . also just filling in the time until Brisingr is released 20th Sept.
Could cry actually. Got my timetable for the new semester, and it is pretty full. I've got to fit in Oxfam, my reading lists and a part-time job! I will have to develop a technique of squeezing in an hour of writing in between lecturers!
I can't get on with Michael Jecks, he tends to do the 'I've done my research and you will know it' bit - to me anyway. I do masses of research and then leave 3/4 of it out when I write, it's just background for me to get authenticity into the writing. I tried several of his books and didn't like them. He is a charming person, judging by his website anyway!
I recently bought A Book of English Essays edited by W.E.Williams (50p at the RSPCA shop). The essays range from the 16th to 20th centuries and cover a vast range of subjects. They're all very entertaining. I love it when I find a writer from a previous century whose humour still appeals.
What is Your Dangerous Idea? Edited by John Brockman and featuring such luminaries as Jared Diamond, Brian Green and Susan Blackmore. It should be compulsory reading for everyone in the UK. Might make them see that there are more important things in life than watching football and big brother, lol.
Candy, I agree, there are far more important things in life - sadly, it'll take more than one book to change people's ideas. Especially when so many people don't know what to do with books, let alone know how to read them...
Football - I'm not the biggest fan (to put it mildly) but at least if kids these days played that, rugby, cricket, anything, it would take many of them off the streets and there wouldn't be so much trouble. It's *watching* football that causes problems, and only then because of the rivalry involved...
I've been trying hard to get into Black Order, by James Rollins, but I think I've been spoilt by my previous read, The Mozart Conspiracy. Sadly, the Rollins book just doesn't live up to it.
Celtika by Robert Holdstock. First in a series of books about Merlin. I found it too confusing with strange names littered throughout which made it hard work to remember who was who and who belonged to who. I also didn't find Mertin very believable. Not sure I will buy the rest of the series even second hand. It's a shame, Rob Holdstock and I go back a long way and I would like to have said I loved it.
Now reading Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday for something completely different.
I'm reading "What About Me, Too" by Kate Figes. It's a kind of diary account of a difficult spell in a family's life when the two parents separate. The diary account is written by three different characters from this family, so you get three diffferent perspectives of what happens: what it is like for the eleven year old, the teenage daughter and the mother. It's funny, sad and very perceptive in places.
I set myself the job of deconstructing bestsellers to learn how to write more commercially. Finished Matt Dunn "Best Man" am struggling a bit with Jane Green "Second Chance". Anyone read em?
That's a good ideal Aeschylus, it's very important to do that if you want to get published commercially. Too many aspiring writers read books passively and that's why they never get published. You've got to study the form!
I find if I start a book with the intention of analysing/deconstructing it I'll get to a point where I am just reading it and not paying attention to how it is written - unless it is a boring book.
The same thing happened when we analysed a film scene at university - we had to switch the sound off in the end so we would pay attention to camera angles, effects etc as we were just all sat watching it!
I was on History of Art and Design - graduated nearly 2 years ago now - we were doing a section on the 'Gothic' in all it's various forms and were analysing a short scene from 'I know what you did last summer' as a modern version of 'gothic' - Gothic covers a lot of territory...
Just started reading 'Kung Fu Basics' by Paul Eng, more for research for the website than for myself, though there are interesting bits about the history of martial arts that I'm learning from. The book's aimed at people in the first 3 - 6 months of training, which excludes me by about a week, haha! I can't believe I've been doing it that long, but at the same time, I can't imagine life without it, now.
I'm reading Precious Bane by Mary Webb for the book group in the village. However, in a very odd conversation in the pub tonight I discovered I'm reading the wrong book. They discussed that while I was away. I am supposed to be reading a Sebastian Faulks - oops!
A couple of weeks' holiday have helped me to shrink my "To be read" pile:
Finally got through "Crusaders" - gruesome but highly believable ending, and on the whole a book I really enjoyed even though there were the odd details that had me shouting at the author (usually, "No, not ALL Geordies finish every second sentence with the word 'but'..." ).
Tracy Chevalier, "Burning Bright" - mixed feelings about this one. It was a present from my Portuguese friend at work who has just started reading novels in English and loves Tracy Chevalier. I wanted to like this more than I did; the story didn't really get going until half-way through, and only really got my attention sometime after that. The setting and characters were well done, but it confuses me a bit when historical novelists write in a contemporary style. I guess I've just read so much 18th and 19th-century gothic that I expect all stories set in these periods to read as if they were written in that period!
Iain Banks, "The Steep Approach to Garbadale" - a welcome return to form for Banks after one or two quite ropey recent efforts. The blurb made it sound like "The Crow Road, Part 2" and the book was pretty much exactly that; the hero was older and more cynical, but the setting was every bit as much Scots Gothic and the central family were just as dysfunctional. Cracking characterisation, some excellent descriptive passages, and one of those long lingering mysteries that Banks is so good at. Does anyone else find it a bit weird when they're reading a book in public and they come to an explicit sex scene? There were a few too many of them in the early bit of the book, which seemed to hold up the plot a little, but he soon got into his rhythm, as it were. The climax was predictable but that might just be because I've read a lot of Banks and I'm learning to second-guess his writing style. A couple more surprises (like in "Whit" ) would have been good.
"How to Build a Superstreet and Bracket Racer" (don't ask) and Shirley Muldowney's memoirs. All stuff to do with my book. How the f*** are you all?? TTxx
I finally got the book I left at work back - I can finally finish it although I have started reading another book since then - 'The Dangerous Days of Daniel X' by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Stirling said: Oooh Chippy. You said the G word - my favourite word!
I wondered what on earth you were talking about then - I was looking at my last post and not the one before! =)
During the 'G word' module of my course we read:
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley [is there a 2nd 'e' in her name?]
The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
And watched various films ranging from 1930's and 40's films to present day [oh and actually looked at Gothic art at some points - it being an art history course - Gothic was one of our lecturers specialities]
Comments
. . . also just filling in the time until Brisingr is released 20th Sept.
Could cry actually. Got my timetable for the new semester, and it is pretty full. I've got to fit in Oxfam, my reading lists and a part-time job! I will have to develop a technique of squeezing in an hour of writing in between lecturers!
- just my cup of tea.
Candy, I agree, there are far more important things in life - sadly, it'll take more than one book to change people's ideas. Especially when so many people don't know what to do with books, let alone know how to read them...
Football - I'm not the biggest fan (to put it mildly) but at least if kids these days played that, rugby, cricket, anything, it would take many of them off the streets and there wouldn't be so much trouble. It's *watching* football that causes problems, and only then because of the rivalry involved...
Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy. I love Cloudsailors by Hugh Montgomery, gives me such a wild imagination.
Now reading Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday for something completely different.
The same thing happened when we analysed a film scene at university - we had to switch the sound off in the end so we would pay attention to camera angles, effects etc as we were just all sat watching it!
Finally got through "Crusaders" - gruesome but highly believable ending, and on the whole a book I really enjoyed even though there were the odd details that had me shouting at the author (usually, "No, not ALL Geordies finish every second sentence with the word 'but'..." ).
Tracy Chevalier, "Burning Bright" - mixed feelings about this one. It was a present from my Portuguese friend at work who has just started reading novels in English and loves Tracy Chevalier. I wanted to like this more than I did; the story didn't really get going until half-way through, and only really got my attention sometime after that. The setting and characters were well done, but it confuses me a bit when historical novelists write in a contemporary style. I guess I've just read so much 18th and 19th-century gothic that I expect all stories set in these periods to read as if they were written in that period!
Iain Banks, "The Steep Approach to Garbadale" - a welcome return to form for Banks after one or two quite ropey recent efforts. The blurb made it sound like "The Crow Road, Part 2" and the book was pretty much exactly that; the hero was older and more cynical, but the setting was every bit as much Scots Gothic and the central family were just as dysfunctional. Cracking characterisation, some excellent descriptive passages, and one of those long lingering mysteries that Banks is so good at. Does anyone else find it a bit weird when they're reading a book in public and they come to an explicit sex scene? There were a few too many of them in the early bit of the book, which seemed to hold up the plot a little, but he soon got into his rhythm, as it were. The climax was predictable but that might just be because I've read a lot of Banks and I'm learning to second-guess his writing style. A couple more surprises (like in "Whit" ) would have been good.
Now trying to decide on my next one...
I've just read the first page of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and it looks really good.
I think I'll read the rest...
I wondered what on earth you were talking about then - I was looking at my last post and not the one before! =)
During the 'G word' module of my course we read:
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley [is there a 2nd 'e' in her name?]
The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
And watched various films ranging from 1930's and 40's films to present day [oh and actually looked at Gothic art at some points - it being an art history course - Gothic was one of our lecturers specialities]