Month of Reading / Who Will Be Eaten First?

The Victorian Writers' Centre runs a nifty column in its newsletter. Each month an author is invited to track every book he or she buys or is given, then reads, in that month. I was honoured to be writer chosen for this month's edition.

The piece I wrote for their September newsletter is below the cut (for readers outside the subscription area). There's Doctor Who, there's crime, and there's stuff that's hard to classify. As an addendum, I'd say that I didn't much like Robert Goddard, thought the Deaver and Jon Evans books were okay, and am now firmly hooked on Michael Robotham. (And I really must get around to reading more books by women. Whoops.)

I've also become addicted to Slacktivist's critique of the "Worst Books Ever Written": Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins' awesomely awful Left Behind: A Novel of Earth's Last Days. Alternating between hilarious and outraged, the posts are interesting and insightful, and good reading for writers of all stripes. Here's a quote:

"For anyone interested in writing, Left Behind is like one of those grisly films they show in driver's education classes -- offering a graphic illustration of the disasters that can occur from carelessness behind the wheel. On another level the book also illustrates, on nearly every page, the unreality, monstrousness and impossibility of the very ideas it seeks to promote."

So check it out--here, or in chronological order (via an index that doesn't take you quite to the end) here.

It was worth the investment, imho, for this (which explains the second of the two headings to this post).

( A Month of Reading... )