Kell

PART FOUR

I love the look and feel of hardback books, but when it comes to taking a book along with me, a paperback is far easier. If it's a book I plan on keeping, or getting signed, then I try to get a hardback whenever possible, but I do have some autographed paperbacks too. At the moment, I'm reading one of each, as my hardback really IS a hefty one...

Wow, Jo - you've really diversified these days, haven't you? That's an excellent range you have there. I spy several I've read alreay myself & can say you've got some great reading coming up - and I can definitely recommend the Brookmyre! Happy reading...

Yes, there are some audio books in our libraries, but we seem to have a pitifully small selection & many of them are on tape instead of CD, which is no use when you no longer have a tape deck (haven't had one of those for years - LOL!). I was thinking more of downloadable ones from the internet - I figured this might be the opportunity to get cracking on some of the classics as they're all out of copyright & therefore usually available to download as e-books, so I thought I'd try getting some of them as audio books if I could download for free. Are there any particular download sites or audio books that people would specifically recommend? And if so, which ones have you used yourselves...?

I've noticed a few members mentioning audio books on their reading logs and I wondered, since I'm pretty new to audio books (I've mostly listened to radio plays instead), which ones people have heard, which they would recommend, and if anyone downloads them from the internet at all - if so, which sites do you recommend? Do you prefer short stories, novellas or novels? Classics or contemporaries? Tell me all - I want to know so I can fill my ipod up with good reading!

Although I no longer live in the area, I read a book last year that was set in Newcastle (Her Rightful Inheritance by Benita Brown) which was rather fun. Although I didn't recognise all the places like I did with the Aberdeen-set stories (I was only 11 when we moved to Scotland), I did recognise some of them and the people were all very much of-the-area too (the Geardies are a particular breed of folks - if yo'uve met one you'll know what I mean! ). On the flip-side though, we had to read Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon for our Higher English & I hated every second of it. It's set in Aberdeenshire & even though I know the area, i didn't feel grounded in the story at all & more than anything else, I hated his writing style - i'll never read another of his as long as I live! To tell the truth, if we hadn't been reading it in class (yes, we all had to read aloud in turn!), I wouldn't have had a clue come exam time, because I stopped reading it on my own - couldn't stand that book!

Well, if you do, sign me up! And in the meantime, any pointers you can give me on any of the shorts I've been posting here will be most welcome, good or bad - I'm all for improving.

Hi Katherine. I was wondering if you'd ever thought about running a writing course or series of workshops? PS - I'm planning on reading An Open Vein very shortly...

As I'm someone who's relatively new to audio books, I'd love to have some recommendations of particularly good ones - I've downloaded a few free ones onto my ipod, as I think it's a great way of getting in extra reading while it's not feasible to be holding a book, and I'm going to be on the lookout for more...

Now those are stories that stand the test of time! I especially love the Grimm tales - much darker than people suspect when they are used to the stories getting the Disney treatment - stories like Cinderella are far better without the sugar-coating!

Having discovered an excellent local author last year (the wonderful Stuart McBride) and also being a big fan of another author who used to live locally (Christopher Brookmyre), I wondered if anyone else had any local authors they love? Are they authors who have had widespread success? Or are their books local books for local people?* What is it about their books that appealed to you? Did you have any expectations, or did you go into it "blind", without knowing anything beforehand? Do they write about the area you live in as well as live there, or do their books have completely different settings? * LOL - I couldn't resist highjacking The League of Gentlemen for this topic!

Wow! What a great review, PP! I've been meaning to read this for ages, despite already knowing what it's all about, as it's always appealed to my darker side. I have, however, just downloaded an audio book version & shall be listening to it very shortly, so I'll be posting my thoughts on it too when I get to it...

I would love to read it, but I'm not allowed any new books at the moment and I wouldn't want to keep hold of it, thus keeping anyone else from having it. I might well get hold of a copy later on though...

I already have the third one (by some fluke, I actually got the 3rd one 1st, which then prompted me to get the 1st one in the series so I could actually read them in order). Despite nominating The Winter King, I kind of had my doubts as to how much I would enjoy it, as I've been disappointed by badly-written versions of the Arthurian legends before, but this one has a good twist in the telling, with the story being turned topsy-turvy - a bit like subverting a fairytale (which I love!). If I continue to enjoy this one as much as I am now, i'm going to have to get hold of the 2nd one, so I can get to the 3rd!

My thoughts as I'm progressing... PART TWO PART THREE

I denjoyed Autobiography of a Geisha, but I preferred Geisha of Gion by Mineko Iwasaki. Autobiography felt more stilted (as you'd expect, as the author was almost illiterate when she wrote it), although still beautiful for its simplicity, but Geisha of Gion made a much stronger impact on me - I really felt I'd been introduced to Mineko's world.

I only discovered these guys last year & loved them so much that i've kept the entire Edge Chronicles - I'm not parting with them at all! They're another example of fantasy writers thogh & I think those fare better over time providing they're not too "sci-fi-ish".

You might be surprised, Mau - I believe the hardness of life is true-to-form, but if you read various Geisha autobiographies, they have varying tales. Mineko Iwasaki denies that mizuage is the auctioning off of a Geisha's virginity or that Geisha are basically prostitutes, whereas from some other accounts of Geisha working at the lower end of the scale who are in reality working in the equivalent of brothels. Memoirs is a good book though - I really enjoyed it.

I think pretty much all the Enid Blyton books have dated pretty badly, from The Famous Five to Mallory Towers - it's all midnight feasts, tea & crumpets & having a jolly-whizzy time cycling & picnicing. Kids today don't get that at all. The books that are aimed at the very young (such as Winnie the Pooh or the Beatrix Potter ones) fare better, because the audience is pretty much captive & they like soft toys & talking rabbits in blue jackets. Certain genre writers, such as C S Lewis also stay the course because they write about different worlds which can be pretty much timeless. I read a kids' "horror" last year called The Dark Behind the Curtain by Gillian Cross & it had dated very badly, talking about record players & tape decks - very much a product of the 80s. It also wasn't scary at all by today's standards - most kids today would find it very dull.

I read The Great Gatsby for Higher English & remember really enjoying it - it's one I've meant to read again at some point, but so far haven't (I will though!). Lots of great imagary in it - I remember thinking it was one of the best books I'd read that year.

LOL - I know for a fact that i won't read all the books on my own list - they're there because those are the unread books currently sitting onmy shelves, so I aim to try & read them all at some point, but there are a handful that have been tehre for more than a year now & I still haven't picked them up because more interesting-looking ones grab my attention. And to tell the truth, one or two on some of the other lists on here are piquing my interest & I can see myself getting hold of them at some point myself! In fact there are several right here on your list, Dupin...

That's an impressive list. I spotted a few on there I'd like to try myself, but I've got to get through some of the ones i've already got sittnig on my shelf before I tackle them...

I hadn't been planning on watching the next season of Dr Who as I thought the last one was terrible, but now, with the possibility of a link between it & Torchwood, I might have to have a look at it. The finale was fantastic!

I actually wondered if the brothers were almost meant to be two halves of a whole, actually, as one seemed to be all good & the other edging towards all bad, whereas putting the two of them together would perhaps make one whole "normal" boy. I'm not sure that other characters were perhaps given enough time, though. Tom, for example, despite being a main character, seemed to come across quite weakly, as did the sister, Sarah. In fact, I just had to go back & double-check their names!

It's WAAAAAYYYYYY longer than mine! From your list I've only read a handful though: Memoirs of a geisha - Arthur Golden Blindsighted - Karin Slaughter Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold The Abortionists Daughter - Elisabeth Hyde Midnight - Dean Koontz Oddthomas - Dean Koontz Angels and Demons - Dan Brown The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown Five people you meet in heaven - Mitch Albom We need to talk about kevin - Lionel Shriver The Bad mother's handbook - Kate Long The Accidental Mother - Rowan Coleman Stark - Ben Elton The Constant Princess - Philippa Gregory I have a couple of yors on my own TBR list too.