Chris2

This is probably a terrible thing to say, but if she was truly anonymous - if she approaches a new publisher as if she was a complete stranger - would she be published? Particularly in a different genre? Almost all new writers are rejected. I like the Potter series - I've read them all. My greatest triumph was to correctly predicting the big reveal at the end of book 7 when everyone said I was crazy. But I have to admit that she started to sprawl after book 3. Books 1 to 3 were tightly written, but then she became bigger than her publisher. They did not dare to edit her beyond fixing typos. The books tripled in length, including every little detail. Which is fantastic for a Potter fan, but less exciting for the casual reader. I wonder, if she produces a huge, sprawling book in a genre she does not know, and presents it in an anonymous brown paper wrapper to a publisher, would it be accepted? Publishers get thousands of manuscripts, and I am sure some of them are excellent, yet nit everything can be published. Plenty of famous authors were rejected many times. There was even an experiment a few years back when Jane Austen books were anonymously sent to publishers, as if they were by a new author, and many were rejected. The cynic in me thinks that her publisher will know her name, and will rely on that fact. They know that, regardless of the quality of the work (which of course may be excellent, but all publishers and fans say their books are excellent), sooner or later her real identity WILL leak out and then high sales are automatic. the real test is whether the new books sell more or fewer copies with each new release.

But you might be right. There's the line in Dawn Treader(?) where Eustace(?) says "people who talk about Narnia get gradually balmier and balmier" and the children say "Narnia and balmier don't rhyme." Don't they? So how IS Narnia pronounced? But on the OP, for years I thought "Peanuts by Schulz" was a deliberate mis-spelling of "Peanuts by schools" - I thought the newspaper got school kids to send in the ideas.

I agree that was a HUGE disappointment. Maybe it's because I grew up in the 1970s, but it seemed to get the completely the opposite of what Arthur Dent was supposed to be. And everything else, come to that. But the prize for abusing the original book must surely go to the recent 3D Journey to the Centre of The Earth. My favorite book.

I'm an Englishman living in "the land beyond the Highlands" (the north coast) so it sounds like I should take a look.

I think we get involved because fiction is just "what if" - real people sometimes act that way, and we could live that way in the future. (Maybe not with those exact characters and events, but with similar challenges and emotions.) Fiction is powerful because it reflects and foretells real life.

Putting your own voices to books is half the fun.

I always read the Amazon reviews, but that is a real problem. The last few books I bought based on rave reviews turned out to be disappointing. Now I usually read the worst reviews first.

Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray. Now converting it into a game.

The Arabian Nights The Casebook of Solar Pons The World Atlas of Treasure (you didn't say it had to be fiction!)

Do old books count? A friend recommended The Picture of Dorian Gray and I'm loving it.

Reliability is the issue here IMO. I work with computers (I make books into games), and everything is so temporary. Nothing stands still. But a physical book will still be here in a hundred years, despite power cuts, licensing issues, upgrades or operating systems. You actually OWN a book. It's reliable, permanent. You can trust it. You still can't say the same for computers.

Not dyslexic, but probably Aspergers. I think that makes me prefer either short stories or big powerful books like War and Peace: if the theme is obvious I like it. I especially like the long asides (Tolstoy and Victor Hugo are always going off on tangents). But long, subtle books that rely on you remembering names - not so good.

I always feel sort of betrayed when a good book ends. Like they owe me a sequel - they've created a wonderful world and how dare they just end it!! It's not fair I know, but it's how I feel.

I'm the same, the more read the better: it's like you get two stories for the price of one. Or like the previous reader has recommended it. One of my favorite books was a very old Rupert annual where the previous owner - a young child - had scratched out all the scary faces. I loved that. It shows she really cared, the book had a real impact on her.