Polka Dot Rock
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Posts posted by Polka Dot Rock
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...I can't concentrate much. At uni, we had online journals which were very useful but I always found it harder to read those. I preferred to print it out if I could and read.
I had to do that too. It's weird - I can't read a lot of text on screen without losing concentration! I got through so much printing... But at least I had a printing/photocopying allowance
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I have to admit I don't really fancy any of the books put forward.
Neither do I. For some reason, the titles Amanda Ross picks (for it is she, not R&J who selects them) for the non-summer list are more appealing.
Like most of you, I've read quite a few R&J list books without realising that they would become picks! But I have nothing against them doing it and it doesn't put me off
When they featured Lori Lansen's The Girls (great book btw), I enjoyed the coverage they did: really interesting.
...'the list' makes me feel uneasy as to get on it guarantees huge sales for that writer and it feels like it's all down to money. On the other hand, anything that encourages people to read has to be applauded.The other aspect of this list is that - superficially at least - it provided the first opportunity in a long time that publishers managed to wrestle a little promotional control from the big book chains. As we all know, WH Smiths, Waterstones et al charge publishers sky-high fees for promotional space. Well, after Amanda Ross introduced the R&J lists, publishers can now negotiate with the retailers! Because if their book is featured, they know it will sell by the truckload and the retailer looks silly if they don't have it in stock.
Some small publishers and quite a few independent retailers have benefited because of this new tactic.
However - and nothing has been said about this so I'm not implying anything - that doesn't mean that Ross isn't influenced by the publishers of the books she reads... Or she may be totally impartial, who knows? But at least it's made things interesting in the bookselling world!
Amanda Ross isn't called The Most Powerful Person in Publishing for nothing!
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Re: Winnie the Pooh lyrics
By the magic of Google search...I found it on youtube!
Thank you both - you have made my morning!Re: Books/fanzines of a teenage obesession
I implore you to keep them - I got rid of a lot of teen stuff (kept my diaries though lol) because I felt I'd moved on, now I wish I still had the fanzines and the pictures I drew etc.Yeah, that's what I thought too: I devoted so much of my life to the Manics that it seems a shame to throw all that stuff out. I still like reading some of the 'zines! (I wrote for some and did my own too
)I have kept all my Baby-Sitter's Club book though ... They're not classics, by any means, but I used to love reading them.I used to read them, too! I loved them. I even named my guinea pig after Kristy!
(I just liked the name, really) I remember being so sad when Louie (Kristy's dog) died and they played "Louie, Louie" when they buried him... I can't believe I still remember this stuff! -
Didn't you love the Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day narrated by Sebastian Cabot, the Disney one? I thought they were beautifully drawn and I liked how the format was tied into a book-theme.
Do you mean the animated Disney ones (as I believe you do)? Yes, I loved them! It was the first 'long' feature I watched as a tot without becoming bored.
I also liked how they kept the stories in 'book' form - especially as I liked the original books, too.
Coincidentally, this weekend I was desperately trying to remember all the words to the theme tune: "There once was a hundred-acre wood / Where Christoper Robin played / *mumble mumble mumble...*" then it would list the inhabitants (I always liked the "Kanga! And little Roooooo" bit
), which ended with "But most of all Winnie-the-Pooh... Winnie-the-Pooh! Who? Winnie-the-Pooh! Cuddly *mumble-something-or-other* bundle of fluff..." etc.As you can see, I struggled somewhat!
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I still have my copy of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from the early 70's and I'm amused that two rolling papers stuck together is the bookmark (Zig Zag, of course).
Of course!
When I was courting my now ex-wife, we used to buy the books with the Calvin and Hobbs comics in them. I'd read them out loud and we'd go from panel to panel and just laugh and laugh because, really, Calvin and Hobbs was awesome. Now and then; when it's not too depressing, I'll read through them again for fun and nostalgia - the reading of them is tied to an event in my life and they are still great.
Aw, that's a lovely story! And thank you for posting that picture - I was feeling very bored and fed up - seeing them has now cheered me up
So thank you Wrath! -
I still have all my Calvin & Hobbes books and dip into them, on and off. And I would never let go of any of my Roald Dahl books!
What's really funny is that I still have all my Manics (Manic Street Preachers) biographies from when I was a teenager, as I can't bear to get rid of them: it would seem like a betrayl of my teenage self! Same goes for all my dog-eared fanzines (lovingly printed on black and white photocopy paper, lol).
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PDR - you may be interested to know that there is a '5 minute interview' with Michel Faber in today's Independent - I enjoyed reading it
Aw thank Rosie, I'll look out for it!
Oh and please let me know what 199 Steps is like, once you start reading it
The Apple (More Crimson Petal Stories) is out in paperback in a couple of weeks so I'll be keeping an eye for it when I'm on hols. Definitely at the top of my Want To Read list
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I don't give in to many, but Jane Eyre always makes me cry and Incredibly Loud & Extremely Close made me sob.
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I'm a-guessing Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden would fit into this thread.
I guess it would: it's amazing how many books use war as a contextual backdrop!
Atonement by Ian McEwan would also qualify as a 'war time' novel. (Ooh, the hospital scenes - blimey!)
And not forgetting non-European wars: next week, I'm intending to read Half of a Yellow Sun which is set during the Biafra war in Nigeria.
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Aw, I'm SO pleased Jules!! Is it feeling like a huge read or are you flying through it?
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You're welcome, Judy
With all this (much deserved) fan-fare, I feel quite inspired to read it again.
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I enjoy novels set during wartime that offer a different perspective to the battlefield.
The book I'm currently reading, Andrea Levy's Small Island, provides some read food-for-thought about the West Indian volunteers for the British Armed Forces in WWII (particularly when juxtaposed with black American GI's. I was so shocked, perhaps naively).
One of my favourite books, Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman is set predominantly in Nazi-occupied Europe. It's quite different in both subject matter and style, but I think it's a stunning evocation of that specific part of WWII.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon uses the Nazi occupation of Prague as a starting point, before exploring how WWII eventually impacted upon America, especially the Jewish community. Very moving and unusual. Again, it makes you think about the war from a different historical and cultural angle.
To return to the Home Front, I thought Sarah Waters' recent novel The Night Watch brilliantly fictionalised the experience of the civilians left in London during the Blitz (especially the new and changing roles for women).
My history friend specialises in studying women's lives during the two world wars, and she loved this novel. Plus she hates reading fiction, normally. So high praise indeed, lol.
Next week, I'm hoping to get a copy of Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut as I've wanted to read that for ages now. Fingers crossed!
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Me neither - it has to be a biog/autobiog of someone I'm really, really interested in for me to pick it up.
Ditto! I forgot about auto/biographies - these are most definitely the genre I avoid. The only ones I like are graphic novel-style ones!
The dominant trend for auto/biographies is one that really annoys me - especially with so many being ghostwritten! And I would never read any of the so-called 'misery-lit' books that are so popular right now... And people think some of my favourite books are depressing!
I saw a book today which I thought was Stephen King, but when I got closer it said Foreword by Stephen King in humungous letters in pink (I think) right across the middle of the cover, and the author's name (who I can't even remember) in smaller letters at the top!That's exactly what I'm talking about!
How blimmin' cheeky is that?(Nothing against Stephen King, btw: it's just how silly the ginormous 'LOOK! HERE'S A FAMOUS WRITER!!' typeface looks. And can be used to manipulate readers, as Bagpuss demonstrates)
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Hello and
I can already see that you are settling in so finely, it's like you've been here for ages! Glad you joined us
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Your review and enthusiasm make me want to read it...Now!
Ah ha! My cunning plan worked
(BTW, Thank you for your kind words)Definitely my reading highlight of the year, thus far.
Yet another to add to my TBR pile... I really should stop coming here!!I know, it's lethal 'round these parts...
This is my revenge for all the books I've ended up buying becuase of reviews on here!! -
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Paperback: 894 pages
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd; New Ed edition (30 Sep 2003)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1841954314
ISBN-13: 978-1841954318From Amazon.co.uk
Although it's billed as "the first great 19th-century novel of the 21st century," The Crimson Petal and the White is anything but Victorian. It's the story of a well-read London prostitute named Sugar, who spends her free hours composing a violent, pornographic screed against men. Michel Faber's dazzling second novel dares to go where George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss and the works of Charles Dickens could not. We learn about the positions and orifices that Sugar and her clients favour, about her lingering skin condition, and about the suspect ingredients of her prophylactic douches. Still, Sugar believes she can make a better life for herself.
When she is taken up by a wealthy man, the perfumer William Rackham, her wings are clipped and she must balance financial security against the obvious servitude of her position. The physical risks and hardships of Sugar's life (and the even harder "honest" life she would have led as a factory worker) contrast--yet not entirely--with the medical mistreatment of her benefactor's wife, Agnes, and beautifully underscore Faber's emphasis on class and sexual politics. In theme and treatment, this is a novel that Virginia Woolf might have written, had she been born 70 years later. The language, however, is Faber's own--brisk and elastic--and, after an awkward opening, the plethora of detail he offers (costume, food, manners, cheap stage performances, the London streets) slides effortlessly into his forward-moving sentences.
Despite its 800-plus pages, The Crimson Petal and the White turns out to be a quick read, since it is truly impossible to put down.
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From the back of the book:
Gripping from the first page, this immense novel is an intoxicating and deeply satisfying read. Faber's most ambitious fictional creation yet, it is sure to affirm his position as one of the most talented and brilliant writers working in the UK. Sugar, an alluring, nineteen-year-old 'lady of the night' in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs Castaway, yearns for a better life. Her ascent through the strata of 1870's London society offers us intimacy with a host of loveable, maddening and superbly realised characters. At the heart of this panoramic, multi-layered narrative is the compelling struggle of a young woman to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. The Crimson Petal and the White is a big, juicy, must-read of a novel that will delight, enthral, provoke and entertain young and old, male and female.
I've been meaning to do a review of this for ages...
If I had one word to review this whole novel: WOW.
Where to begin? For starters I can't remember reading an opening quite as striking as Crimson Petal's is, and this high performing beginning has, thus far, been maintained throughout.
It's like all the Victorian-era literature we love but with all the manky/scandalous/sweary bits left in
Plus all beautifully written! Seriously, Faber is an extraordinary writer - the details he includes to really heighten the sense of 'being in the story' are exquisite!Yet, it's also an incredibly readable novel and very, very funny and bawdy. Actually, it's incredibly graphic in parts (as part of it is set in a brothel) - my eyes nearly popped out a couple of times towards the end of the first part! (Like this:
, lol!) But it's all part of the narrative and the sense of the novel being what Victorian writers couldn't actually write, yet must have known went on, at the time. Faber takes on a bit of a Thackeray narrative persona too, which I just love.I couldn't wait to get back to reading it, and it really is true what some of the reviews said: at 835 pages long, it does feel too short!
I was utterly bereft when I finished it - the characters were so sharply drawn that I really miss them now they are out of my life
Definitely 10/10
- and I would give it more if I could!! -
The other thing, I think, that winds me up, is the repeating of characters.
Yes, that often puts me off both crime novels and TV crime drama!! Sometimes it's so awfully cliched... Some of the funniest things I read are the letters Radio Times readers send in, parodying quite a few of the current TV series.
Kate Atkinson uses Jackson Brodie who does seem to have classic fictional detective traits, such as having disasterous relationships with women, a troubled family background, being a 'maverick', liking a drink etc. But in One Good Turn, he just seems to unwillingly stumble onto things, much to his dismay! The reader is always ware of what's going on, whereas Jackson really isn't! We put the pieces together for him, in a sense. And that turns a potential cliche on its head
(I haven't read Case Histories yet, but is Jackson handled in similar manner there?)
Oh, and he is also just one of many characters that the reader follows!
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I've read Things Fall Apart which is a great novel, obviously a very important one too with regards to African literature written in the English langauge.
Andy - I'll check that article out, thanks for posting it
Achebe also wrote a very in/famous essay (which title now escapes me
) about Conrad's Heart of Darkness: in very simplified terms, it suggested that it should no longer be considered as a canonical text because of it's overt racisim. Very controversial stuff, but all the more important in that it highlighted an issue that had been somewhat 'glossed over' 'til Achebe's polemic. It's really interesting, so keep your eyes peeled for it. -
Chinua Achebe has won the Man Booker International prize! Which is both, for me, surprising and very pleasing as I love postcolonial literature.
His fellow shortlisted writers were Britain's Doris Lessing, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie, Ireland's John Banville, the Americans Philip Roth and Don DeLillo, the Canadians Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Michael Ondaatje, and the dissident Israeli Amos Oz.
Here's a news article about it - Guardian: Man Booker International judges honour Chinua Achebe.
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I usually try to persevere until it becomes a huge struggle to keep my attention - because when I put a book down unfinished, it normally remains unfinished. I just never have the will to pick it up again.
However, when I've had to read unfinished or re-read books I didn't enjoy first time around for courses, it can be surprising how my opinion changes (Catcher in the Rye, for example).
I've only put one book down unfinished this year which was Murakami's Norwegian Wood as I just wasn't interested in anything that was happening. And I should have abandoned Restless by William Boyd but I couldn't quite believe how awful it was!!
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Generally, any book where the author's name is at least twice the size of the title!
So John Grisham is definitely out then.I don't look at crime, thrillers or horror. It's just that there are so many books that I do want to read, I don't really want to make time for books I have no interest in. I hope that doesn't sound snobbish, because it isn't meant to be!
But if someone recommended anything, I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.
I don't read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy either, even though - like Emma also said - I enjoy it on TV and film.
Weird.
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For me, After You'd Gone is not only my favourite of hers, but is definitely in my current Top 10 favourite books that I've ever read. Wonderful novel.
For me, Esme Lennox is the best thing she has written since
What about you Michelle? What's your favourite?
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Those are really good points, Kell. And it also reminds me that there is a lot resting on the conclusion of crime / thrillers - I don't want to disappointed!!
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..."Millions of Women Are Waiting To Meet You", which is an internet dating memoir thing, and is disturbingly, worryingly familiar, and my girlfriend asked me whether I was the author when she read it. Oh dear! Now that is worrying comment!
Last month, The Guardian had this as it's Paperback Choice of the week. He reviewer said he found it a bit disturbing in parts (I forget why) but that he really enjoyed it. Funnily enough, he could relate to it too!
Reading books online?
in General Book Discussions
Posted
That's really useful to know, Em. I just thought it was 'one of those things'. But I could do with training myself up, what with going back to full-time studying. Did you do anything in particular?