The complex and meaningful genre of chick lit has evolved a new theme - fat chick lit, according to The Observer.
I kid you not.
Archive for the ‘reading’ Category
10 Reasons Why Book Club is Like Church
Thursday, October 29th, 2009The Inkwell Bookstore in Falmouth, Massachusetts, has an excellent blog. Their post on 10 Reasons Why Book Club is like Church is very funny.
10. Half the participants are lonely old women, the other half are just there for the wine.
9. There’s always one member who not only falls asleep, they snore.
8. Miss a few meetings, and they make you feel like you’re going to Hell.
7. When interpretations vary, arguments follow.
6. Audible farts are inexplicably hilarious.
5. New members = potential mates.
4. No one’s ever finished the book/The Book.
3. Donations are strongly encouraged, willfully withheld.
2. You’re too chickensh*t to admit that you thought the book/The Book was boring.
1. They keep promising you an author appearance, but in the end…nope.
50 Things to do With a Book (Now That Reading is Dead)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009The New Yorker’s excellent Book Bench blog informed me about a book called 50 Things to Do with a Book: (Now That Reading Is Dead) by Bruce McCall. Beautiful irony!
Top 10 ghostwritten books
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Ghostwriters! The hired guns of the publishing world - they are paid to produce and then remain in the shadows. Words for cash – no questions asked. There is plenty of work - there are the high profile politicians who have not picked up a book since kindergarten but now need a memoir and the estates of dead authors, like V.C. Andrews and Robert Ludlum.
Perhaps the most famous ghostwriter is Carolyn Keene but Carolyn herself is as fictional as her teen sleuth heroine, Nancy Drew. A group of writers have written these books over the years according to a strict template and style.
In the UK, Hunter Davies - author of the wonderful insider’s view of Tottenham Hotspur, The Glory Game - makes a very nice living ghosting autobiographies for famous footballers, including the likes of Wayne Rooney, Paul Gascoigne and Dwight Yorke.
I imagine writing ghosted memoirs and autobiographies is actually a very interesting profession…. if you are writing on behalf of interesting people. It might be a little dull writing for about the 15 minutes of fame enjoyed by a reality TV star or a member of a boy band.
Top 10 Ghostwritten Books
1. The Curse of Yig by Zealia Bishop (ghosted by H.P. Lovecraft)
Lovecraft did a large amount of ghostwriting for various patrons, including Under the Pyramids (also known as Imprisoned With the Pharaohs) for Harry Houdini.
2. Daughter of the Tejas by Ophelia Ray (ghosted by Larry McMurtry)
McMurtry was a frequent ghostwriter in his early career before winning Pulitzer and Academy awards.
3. Tennis As I Play It by Maurice McLoughlin (ghosted by Sinclair Lewis)
Lewis wrote this book for McLoughlin 15 years before he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
4. Old-Soldier Sahib by Frank Richards (ghosted by Robert Graves)
War poet Graves wrote the forward for Richards but it’s also believed he wrote the entire book. Richards served with Graves in WWI.
5. Inside the Medium’s Cabinet by Joseph Dunninger (ghosted by Walter B. Gibson)
Gibson had already created his best known character, The Shadow, but still took time to write a number of books and articles on magic for Dunninger, a famous mystic.
6. The Player on the Other Side by Ellery Queen (ghosted by Theodore Sturgeon)
Queen (a pseudonym for Frederic Dannay & Manfred B. Lee) contribution has been described as one of the best in the series. Sturgeon apparently said: “90 per cent of everything is crud.”
7. The Madman Theory by Ellery Queen (ghosted by Jack Vance)
Vance wrote three contributions to the Ellery Queen series. The other two Vance works were The Four Johns and A Room To Die In.
8. My Chinese Marriage by Mae T Franking (ghosted Katherine Anne Porter)
Porter’s first published book, in a career that would eventually lead to a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, was this biography.
9. Tiger of the Snows (later called Man of Everest) by Tenzing Norgay (ghosted James Ramsey Ullman)
Ullman was a mountaineer who wrote Sherpa Tenzing’s autobiography in the same year as he won the Newbery Award for Banner in the Sky.
10. Ecstasy and Me: My Life as a Woman by Hedy Lamarr (ghosted by Leo Guild)
Guild has been labelled the worst pulp novelist ever. His artistic liberties caused Lamarr to sue her publisher over inaccuracies in her own autobiography.
More details on the top 10 ghostwritten books.
Family Bookshelves Under Threat
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
The UK reading charity Booktrust has just released the results of its survey of over 3,000 children and parents. While the results show that reading has become more popular with children, one in 20 families have less than 10 books and only one in three parents read to their children each day. This is particularly sad since 96% of the children said they enjoyed reading and books.
More results from Booktrust’s press release:
• More dads reading with their children than in previous years: 40% increase since September 2008.
• 60% of children like to share a book with their parents/carers as it shows that they like to spend time with them.
• Households with girls have ten more children’s books than those with boys. One in every 20 family homes in
Britain today has fewer than ten books.
• Children enjoying reading more: 96% of all children surveyed say that they enjoy reading, peaking at 99% among
seven year olds and falling to 89% of 12 year olds (overall, this represents a year on year increase of 5%).
• 56% of all parents and carers (and almost half of all parents of 4-5 year olds [48%]) say their child spends more
time facing a screen, playing computer games and watching DVDs rather than reading.
• Parents and carers of boys are twice as likely not to read with them compared to those who have girls.
• Technology, home entertainment and work (through emails and home working) are impacting on book time.
While flexible working is supposed to enable a positive work-life balance, children are increasingly losing out.
• Bookshelves under threat in a third of British homes: one in three parents and carers (34%) say shelves are
increasingly being filled up with DVDs and computer games, especially in homes with older children (this is the
case in 41% of homes of 11-12 year olds).
• The UK’s all time favourite fictional character according to over 1,300 children is Harry Potter, followed by Horrid
Henry and Tracy Beaker. Action heroes Captain Underpants and Ben 10 relegate children’s classic Cinderella and
Peter Pan out of the top 10. Roald Dahl’s characters including Matilda, Charlie (from Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory) and the Fantastic Mr Fox make multiple entries in the top 20 all time favourite characters.
In an effort to encourage more reading, two free books programmes - Booktime and Booked Up - are giving away 2 million free books to schoolchildren across Britain.
2009 Teens’ Top Ten
Monday, October 19th, 2009It’s Teen Read Week! Time to encourage those young adults to read. The American Library Association is doing its part by announcing the 2009 Teens’ Top Ten list, compiled from the results of an online poll of over 11,000 teens.
No surprises - the list is full of blood-suckers, immortals, undeads and graveyard dwellers. See for yourself:
| 1. Paper Towns by John Green Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life–dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge–he follows. |
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2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (The Twilight Saga Book 4) To be irrevocably in love with a vampire is both fantasy and nightmare woven into a dangerously heightened reality for Bella Swan. Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss, and strife have led her to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hang. |
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| 3. The Hunger Game by Suzanne Collins
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, The Hunger Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat’s sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. |
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| 4. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who’s becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn’t ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father. |
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5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family — on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that’s where their differences begin. Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept — from each other or anyone else. Pretty soon it’s obvious that neither sister can handle it alone, and one sister must step up to save the other, but the question is — who? |
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| 6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack-who has already killed Bod’s family. . . . |
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| 7. Wake by Lisa McMann
Tired of being dragged into other people’s dreams and watching their subconscious fantasies and fears revealed in all their glory, Jane’s powers take a dangerous turn after she discovers that she is in a very scary dream in which she is not only an observer but an unwilling participant as well. |
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| 8. Untamed by P.C. & Kristin Cast
(House of Night series Book 4) Life sucks when your friends are pissed at you. Just ask Zoey Redbird - she’s become an expert on suckiness. In one week she has gone from having three boyfriends to having none, and from having a close group of friends who trusted and supported her, to being an outcast. Speaking of friends, the only two Zoey has left are undead and unMarked. And Neferet has declared war on humans, which Zoey knows in her heart is wrong. But will anyone listen to her? Zoey’s adventures at vampyre finishing school take a wild and dangerous turn as loyalties are tested, shocking true intentions come to light, and an ancient evil is awakened. |
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| 9. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart
Tells of the life and transformation of Frankie Landau-Banks who began her teenage years as a quiet member of the Debate Club and grew to become a sixteen-year-old criminal mastermind with an attitude to match. |
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| 10. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight-she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace-or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. |
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The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - The Book and The Movie
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
I’ve just finished reading Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones and must say, in all sincerity, it is one of the best books I have ever read. I’ll confess I was reluctant to read it at first - it had been on the bestseller lists and I feared that it was just another book that achieved greatness by hype.
But I was wrong. The book deserved to be a bestseller - in its own right.
Somehow, Sebold manages to capture the pain and angst of a family experiencing a horrific loss - the murder of their daughter, sister, friend. You can understand the actions of the individuals which could, offhandedly seem irrational, irresponsible or even hurtful. But because you feel their pain, you can understand why they do the things they do.
The sadness is tempered by the fact that Susie, the victim, narrates the story. It’s not that the sadness isn’t there - it most certainly is - but somehow, her presence is comforting. Perhaps it’s this that people suffering such a loss are looking for and that Sebold has skillfully captured. And no matter what your beliefs are about death and what happens thereafter, there is nothing offensive or off-putting about Sebold’s tale and you can actually view what happens from many different angles.
Having read the book, I fear the movie which is due out in December. Could a film adaptation really do this book justice? Fortunately, the movie was put into the very capable hands of director, Peter Jackson which leads me to believe, okay hope, that this will be the best adaptation that there could be.
But that doesn’t mean that I’ll like it. The characters were so real to me, I know that the actors will not match what was in my mind. And viewing the trailer confirms that. Susie doesn’t look like “my” Susie, even Holiday the dog doesn’t match. Also, as I feared, the movie seems to have to spell out some of the details that you simply pick up when reading the novel and looks perhaps to focus more on the hunt for the killer than the story does.
Saying that, I probably will watch the movie - I have a couple of months to psyche myself into it and to have the book pale in my memory. I do strongly recommend that the book be read prior to seeing the movie so that you fully “get” what Sebold was portraying and not the “Hollywood” interpretation.
It has also just been announced that The Lovely Bones has been chosen for this year’s Royal Film Performance. The Royal gala is a charitable event with all money raised going to The Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF), which helps families connected to the film and TV industry who are experiencing financial struggles.
But I say it again - read The Lovely Bones now before seeing the movie in December.
Yann Martel’s Letters to the Prime Minister
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Every two weeks over the past two years, author Yann Martel has been sending Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper an inscribed book, along with a personal letter. Martel has documented each of the books sent and the letters he’s written on the web site, www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca and has vowed to do this for as long as Harper is Prime Minister.
Martel says he’s not trying to educate the Prime Minister, rather he’s seeking to “make suggestions to his [moments of] stillness”, an idea that came to him after feeling snubbed by Harper during an invited visit to the visitors’ gallery in the House of Commons.
“I know you’re very busy, Mr. Harper. We’re all busy. But every person has a space next to where they sleep, whether a patch of pavement or a fine bedside table. In that space, at night, a book can glow. And in those moments of docile wakefulness, when we begin to let go of the day, then is the perfect time to pick up a book and be someone else, somewhere else, for a few minutes, a few pages, before we fall asleep.”
Recent cuts to arts funding leads Martel to believe that the PM doesn’t read much literature and some people call Martel rude for his attempt to introduce more literature into the Canadian leader’s life. Martel insists that what an elected leader reads is extremely important.
“Once someone has power over me then, yes, their reading does matter to me, because in what they choose to read will be found what they think and what they will do.”
Whether or not Harper has actually read any of the books is not known but Martel has personally benefited, “It’s been a wonderful rediscovery of books for me…It’s forcing me to read things not for my own pleasure but for Mr. Harper’s potential pleasure. It means I’m reading quite widely.”
Martel’s letters and list of sent books have now also become a book published by Random House’s Vintage Canada, What is Stephen Harper Reading? Books gifted to the Prime Minister include titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
The book sent this week? What is Stephen Harper Reading? of course.
Who goes a year without books?
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009The Bookseller Magazine in the UK reports that Brits are more bookish than the Americans. A survey found “that 57% of British consumers purchased one or more books last year, compared with only 50% of Americans surveyed.”
The numbers are really meaningless but the thing that concerns me is that there are people in both countries who will go through an entire year without buying a book. Think about it. No books bought for birthday presents, no books bought for Christmas presents, no travel guides bought for holidays, no cookbooks bought for the kitchen, no textbooks bought for college, no Dan Browns or James Pattersons bought to enliven dull flights, no how-to guides to rebuild old chevys and, of course, no books bought for the sheer pleasure of reading.
I find this statistic rather scary.
10 books where an author does something for a year
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
There is a book about having sex every night for a year, there is a book about eating locally grown food for a year, there is a book where a Julia Child recipe is cooked every day for a year, and there is a book where life is lived according to the Bible’s rules for a year.
They are called annualism books and have been a publishing phenomenon for the best part of a decade. Check out more so called annualism books and our interview with AJ Jacobs, the author of The Year of Living Biblically.
1 Heat by Bill Buford
(learning to be a chef for a year - lots of cuts, burns and shouting. Also this is the best book on this list by a mile.)
2 The 100-Mile Diet by Alisa Dawn Smith & J.B. MacKinnon
(eating locally grown produce for a year - not very easy)
3 Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
(cooking a Julia Child recipe every day for a year - didn’t Julia have really complicated recipes?)
4 The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
(obeying the Bible for a year - I really wouldn’t want to do this one)
5 365 Nights by Charla Muller; Betsy Thorpe
(having nookie every night for a year - it’s impossible, of course)
6 How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day by Kath Kelly
(like it says on the cover….I was a student once and did, indeed, do this)
7 A Life Stripped Bare by Leo Hickman
(living ethically for a year - I feel guilty just looking at this book)
8 Chastened: No More Sex in the City by Hephzibah Anderson
(not having sex for a year - this one is easy)
9 Self-made Man by Norah Vincent
(a woman being a man for a year+ - don’t people do this all the time now, there’s a special operation)
10 My Jesus Year by Benyamin Cohen
(a Jew is a Christian for a year - this will never catch on)
Travelodge’s Books Left Behind Index - Top Ten Abandoned Books in 2009
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
President Obama finds himself caught between a model and a comedienne. Now there’s a rumour in the making but before you contact the tabloids you should know I’m referring to Travelodge’s Books Left Behind Index.
Each year Travelodge compiles a list of the most commonly left behind books in their UK hotel rooms. Out of 7,200 abandoned titles over the past 12 months, here are the top 10:
1. Jordan: Pushed to the Limit by Katie Price (Jordan)
2. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
3. Dear Fatty by Dawn French
4. The Tales of Beadle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
5. Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
6. A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter
7. The Appeal by John Grisham
8. At My Mother’s Knee and Her Other Low Joints by Paul O’Grady
9. The Magic and the Madness of Michael Jackson by J.Randy Taraborrelli
10. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Some other interesting tidbits that they discovered among the 385 Travelodge hotel managers:
- Wakefield, Leicester and Birmingham hotels had the most abandoned copies of Jordan: Pushed to the Limit.
- Business books were most often left in the Central London, Edinburgh and Cardiff hotels.
- Twenty various Harry Potter books were left in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
- Manchester and Oldham hotels had the most copies of the Kama Sutra left behind.
- The most copies of abandoned English phrase books were found in Peterborough, Slough, Luton, Birmingham, Aberdeen, and Blackpool.
- Twelve copies of How to Learn Scouse were left in Liverpool Travelodges. - Warra yer like?!
- The Newcastle Central Travelodge was recipient of eight copies of Speak Geordie in One Day. - Whey aye!
To Kill a Mockingbird - Challenged Yet Again
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009There’s yet another call to remove To Kill a Mockingbird from school curriculum. This time a Toronto parent feels that there are more “appropriate” books to be read by tenth graders.