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adelaideseanThe 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"
BOOKS BOUGHT
This month was a very welcome exception to that rule (let me just reassure my editors, though, that I did actually read that novel I re-wrote for them--honest). It kicked off with the Big Book Club's search for a family to read Andy Griffith's latest novel, a job I immediately put our hand up for. Sprawling on the couch with my stepsons (9 and 11) was a rather sedate hoot, with no TVs or computer games to distract us, simply marking the pages where we laughed then critiquing the jokes once we'd all passed them. If only we read that way all the time.
The rest of this month's reading was work-related, which isn't to say it couldn't be fun as well. The Vincent McHugh title is an obscure cult novel from the 1940s that chronicles the effects of a plague of well-being upon New York, promising a perspective I definitely want to gain before starting my own thriller set in that city. I've also just started a PhD with on emphasis on crime fiction, hence Deaver, Child, Bartulin, Robotham, Evans, Goddard--and dark, disarming "Dexter". The TV series so captivated me that I rushed out and bought all the books that inspired the show and read them in a matter of days. Stylish and diverting, they kept me up even after I'd stopped reading.
When I wasn't at risk of turning into an airport newsagent cliché, I wrote an essay on Doctor Who, thus justifying the titles on my list related to that franchise. (A lot of my early childhood was spent reading such books, so it was a delight to roll back the clock for a weekend or two.) Besides those titles, there's disproportionately little speculative fiction on the list. M R James and Philip K Dick qualify, as do Sideways in Crime's collection of counter-factual adventures. But Little Brother is based squarely in a present-day of rising police states and human rights abuses. (Think Big Brother for a YA audience. That its message was a little preachy for this choirboy in no way undermines its importance.) The Asimov collection is composed entirely of mystery stories, and although Woman's World: A Novel could be read as science fiction novel--it's a pastiche of text literally cut from the pages of women's magazines of the mid-twentieth century--that would only be after scrubbing out the oven with just a little too much Ultra Strength Oven Cleaner.
Shaun Tan has his roots in SF (I count myself exceedingly fortunate to have his art attached to several of my short stories and novels) but he has long outgrown that cosy little ghetto. I loved his latest book without reservation. He shares something with the one author from my list I've not referred to yet: both are writers who, skilfully and subtly, invite you to a share a vulnerable space with them, leaving you with an afterglow of intimate knowledge that may or may not be authentic. Their authorial voices are as enigmatic as polished, curved glass. They leave us both wondering and filled with wonder.
To paraphrase Steve Martin: I also read female authors.
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"
BOOKS BOUGHT
- Graham Rawle, Woman's World: A Novel
- Isaac Asimov, The Return of the Black Widowers
- Lou Anders (editor), Sideways in Crime
- Lance Parkin, AHistory: An Unauthorised History of the Doctor Who Universe (2nd Edition)
- Vincent McHugh, I am Thinking of my Darling
- Andy Griffiths, Treasure Fever!
- Lee Child, The Visitor
- Shaun Tan, Tales from Outer Suburbia
- Jeff Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark
- Cory Doctorow, Little Brother
- Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who & the Face of Evil
- M. R. James, Collected Ghost Stories
- Lenny Bartulin, A Deadly Business
- Steve Martin, Born Standing Up, Pure Drivel
- Philip K. Dick, Flow, My Tears, the Policeman Said
- Robert Goddard, Name to a Face
- Michael Robotham, The Suspect
- Jeffrey Deaver, The Vanished Man
- Jon Evans, Invisible Armies
This month was a very welcome exception to that rule (let me just reassure my editors, though, that I did actually read that novel I re-wrote for them--honest). It kicked off with the Big Book Club's search for a family to read Andy Griffith's latest novel, a job I immediately put our hand up for. Sprawling on the couch with my stepsons (9 and 11) was a rather sedate hoot, with no TVs or computer games to distract us, simply marking the pages where we laughed then critiquing the jokes once we'd all passed them. If only we read that way all the time.
The rest of this month's reading was work-related, which isn't to say it couldn't be fun as well. The Vincent McHugh title is an obscure cult novel from the 1940s that chronicles the effects of a plague of well-being upon New York, promising a perspective I definitely want to gain before starting my own thriller set in that city. I've also just started a PhD with on emphasis on crime fiction, hence Deaver, Child, Bartulin, Robotham, Evans, Goddard--and dark, disarming "Dexter". The TV series so captivated me that I rushed out and bought all the books that inspired the show and read them in a matter of days. Stylish and diverting, they kept me up even after I'd stopped reading.
When I wasn't at risk of turning into an airport newsagent cliché, I wrote an essay on Doctor Who, thus justifying the titles on my list related to that franchise. (A lot of my early childhood was spent reading such books, so it was a delight to roll back the clock for a weekend or two.) Besides those titles, there's disproportionately little speculative fiction on the list. M R James and Philip K Dick qualify, as do Sideways in Crime's collection of counter-factual adventures. But Little Brother is based squarely in a present-day of rising police states and human rights abuses. (Think Big Brother for a YA audience. That its message was a little preachy for this choirboy in no way undermines its importance.) The Asimov collection is composed entirely of mystery stories, and although Woman's World: A Novel could be read as science fiction novel--it's a pastiche of text literally cut from the pages of women's magazines of the mid-twentieth century--that would only be after scrubbing out the oven with just a little too much Ultra Strength Oven Cleaner.
Shaun Tan has his roots in SF (I count myself exceedingly fortunate to have his art attached to several of my short stories and novels) but he has long outgrown that cosy little ghetto. I loved his latest book without reservation. He shares something with the one author from my list I've not referred to yet: both are writers who, skilfully and subtly, invite you to a share a vulnerable space with them, leaving you with an afterglow of intimate knowledge that may or may not be authentic. Their authorial voices are as enigmatic as polished, curved glass. They leave us both wondering and filled with wonder.
To paraphrase Steve Martin: I also read female authors.
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no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 06:04 am (UTC)i haven't been reading much outside fo my thesis of late. might go pick up a copy kathy reich's latest tempe brennan book ... contemporary forensic anthropology ^_^
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 06:12 am (UTC)Kathy Reich wold be a good author to leap into once I've finished all the Robothams. Thanks for the reminder!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-04 02:10 am (UTC)i've enjoyed the tempe brennan books so far.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 06:43 am (UTC)You had timeto read all that!!?!?!?
Jeez I wish.
Love M.R James. I bought Iain the rare complete collection called A Pleasing Terror (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/m-r-james/pleasing-terror.htm) for his birthday a few years back.
Currently reading a 98 year old book called Oxford from within given to me by gilpolack. Must read the Dexters sometime.
Some many books, so little time.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 06:51 am (UTC)Oh, I hear you.
The exercise made me slightly self-conscious about what I was buying and reading (more often than not *not* reading, alas) and that helped me get through a little more than usual. The month also fell between novels of my own, which is a very good time for me to catch up. If it had been next month, say, the lists would look very different.
A Pleasing Terror is such a good title, and so is Oxford From Within. The latter sounds like a China Mieville book.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 06:57 am (UTC)I should see if I can find you a copy of the cup with so many books so little time on it that I gave my mum in law (also a librarian). I'll have to post it, as we won't be at Conflux..
no subject
Date: 2008-09-03 07:18 am (UTC)I won't be at Conflux either, and that's been making me sad for weeks. :-(
Your family must have multiple copies of the librarian gene.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-04 12:02 am (UTC)None of my family are/were(I was the first to go to uni, and the only librarian)librarians. My greatgrandfather was a schoolteacher with six kids and a serious love of learning and books (I have some of them in my collection), particularly poetry. That love was passed down to me from my grandmother and father. So it's not surprising where I ended up
Trade is good, but let me make sure I can get a cup first. I'm not sure if the shop still has them, and I'm not sure when I'm going to Newtown next...