Northern Line Book Group

Links for the next meeting - A Gothic Triple Bill

2012-01-18T05:28:00.001-08:00

Here are some links for the next meeting, our Gothic treble of The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and a short story collection.

General themes - You can look at The Gothic using some of Freud's thoughts on 'Das Unheimliche', or 'The Uncanny' - that funny creeping feeling you get when that small part of you is screaming that something just isn't right, and WHY do they always insist on investigating strange noises in haunted houses dressed only in a dressing gown, and by candle-light...???!!!

Freud’s 1919 essay on Das Unheimliche is rather long, but some of the elements of ‘The Uncanny’ are very relevant to what we recognise as ‘The Gothic’ - and you'll see many of these themes occuring in our texts for this thursday. Freud listed 8 characteristics – 8 causes of fear used in literature:

Inanimate objects mistaken for animate – eg dolls, waxworks, severed limbs...

Animate objects behaving as if inanimate or mechanical eg trances, fits, epilepsy etc

Being blinded

The double – twins, doppelgangers

Coincidences or repetitions

Being buried alive

An all-controlling evil genius

Confusions between reality and imagination – waking dreams etc

(Taken from The New Uncanny, (2008). Ed Sarah Eyre and Ra Page)

Enotes on Udolpho

Analysis of Jekyll from Wikipedia

Joanne Harris in the Telegraph on Edgar Allan Poe

10 alternative book covers

2012-01-18T00:38:00.000-08:00

Produced to promote a new competition, these covers are excellent. I particularly like this one for A Tale of Two Cities.

Full details of the competition are here. The closing date is 19th April

Links for the next meeting - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

2011-11-29T11:46:00.000-08:00

Here are some links for the book, found by Kelly:

In case you haven’t had time to read it, book-a-minute

Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender’s Game, Intention, and Morality

A really interesting negative review

The little-known dark side of Ender’s Game

And, of course, there is going to be a movie

A scary statistic...

2011-11-21T10:38:00.000-08:00

There are now more pound shops than book shops in the UK, according to the Local Data Company:

"In the year to the end of October, there was a 14.2pc increase in pound shops taking the total to 3,005, according to research for The Daily Telegraph undertaken by Local Data Company, which tracks shop numbers in 487 town centres.

This is in contrast to the 2,705 book shops in the same area. Book shops have suffered from a decade of unrelenting competition from supermarkets and the internet. This year Waterstone’s has trimmed the number of stores it operates."

I'd love to see some other stats - surely there can't be more bookmakers than book shops?

All the more reason to support your local book shop!

Links for the next meeting - The Commitments by Roddy Doyle

2011-11-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia summarises the plot

Hear Roddy Doyle discuss the book on BBC World Service's World Book Club

Plus - this is what James Brown's Night Train sounds like:

Links for the next meeting - I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak

2011-09-26T01:59:00.000-07:00

Some reviews from Good Reads

The Wikipedia page, including plot summary and more

Some questions for book groups:

1. What do you think made Ed pick up the gun and go after the bank robber?

2. What would you do if you suddenly started receiving cryptic messages like Ed did? Would you tell anyone? Would you try to figure them out and do what they said?

3. How does Ed's life change after becoming the Messenger?

4. Who did you think was sending Ed the cards?

5. Why were the messages written on playing cards instead of regular paper? Why the aces and joker?

6. Why didn't Ed go to the police?

7. Do you think Ed would have ever felt inspired to change his life if he had never received the cards? If not, would his life still have been as purposeful?

8. What does Ed do to help Father O'Reilly?

9. Do you think that each of Ed's tasks are equally important, or are some more important than others?

10. What was the point of Ed's second mission for the Ace of Spades?

11. Do you think that the sender was right to put Ed in dangerous situations?

12. What does Ed's mother mean when she says "It takes a lot of love to hate you like this"? Do you think she did the right thing to treat him the way she did?

13. Imagine you were in Ed's position. Which of these would have been the hardest to do? Which would have been your favorite?

14. Who is the Messenger? Why did he do all of this?

Links for the next meeting - Enough by John Naish

2011-08-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's an interesting book, but some aspects and the tone might be unpopular. I expect this to be quite an involved and heated debate at times.

The Greatest Hits blog lists some of the interesting ideas:

"The concept of presenteeism is interesting. This is where people spend hours at their desks not achieving anything because they are too tired, stressed, under-stimulated, distracted or depressed to be productive.

Workaholics Anonymous is a new movement based on AA principles. In an extreme paradox, earning more simply increases discontentment.

If you don’t know what ‘enough’ is, you are not free.

Corporate Stockholm Syndrome makes people believe that their overwork habits are driven by irresistible external forces. They then frown on normal timekeepers and make their lives a misery.

“All the gear but no idea” applies to fair-weather sports enthusiasts but could equally be applied to many who cannot stop stockpiling possessions.

We have too many options – a torture of choice. 60% of adults only use half of the functions on their devices. Only 1 in 6 reads the manual.

WILFing is a pointless form of shopping: What Was I Looking For?

We always think things will be better in the future. Present quality of life is deemed to be 6.9 out of 10 (and guessed at 8.2 in 5 years time). But when the time comes, it’s still 6.9."

BookBath thought it was a bit preachy:

"The chapter that I probably found most useful was the chapter relating to information overload - this chapter definitely resonated with me. I did also find some of the psychological research quoted and described in the book interesting and informative and it was these sections of the book that gave me the most food for thought. On the whole though I found the book a little preachy (something the author ironically talks about not wanting to come across as towards the end of the book) and unoriginal. I think some good points are raised about our cultures and communities - particularly in relation to the vast differences that are evident in western developed nations and developing nations - but overall the book the did not grab me. Maybe I was expecting too much - was the book not "enough"? Maybe I need to reflect on what "enough" means for me in my own way? Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset at the moment to accept the message being delivered? Questions to ponder..."

NotHemmingway though it was a bit left wing at the end:

"The only trouble I had with the book was in the closing pages where he confronted the unsustainability of our capitalist culture. Naish claims that growth cannot continue. Maybe I read too much into it but it started to sound a bit too much like nouveau-Marxism and made me uncomfortable. However, I take the point that at the rate we’re going, we’re going to use up all of the world’s resources on disposable gadgets before little NH finishes college. There’s just too much crap in the landfills to keep this up. He’s right, something has to give.

All in all it’s an interesting book if only to make you consider the profound idea that less is more. Naish’s writing style is engaging, witty and even humorous and that gives his arguments an easy-going, conversational twist. Reading Enough was more akin to dinner conversation than preaching and for that reason is highly recommended."

But Spiked Online thought it was too restrictive of people:

"What both Naish and [Oliver] James have in common is a deeply degraded view of human beings. Admittedly, Naish sees himself as defending people against the scourge of consumerism, and James would claim that he is trying to protect individuals from mental illness. But both see humans as fundamentally feeble creates who find it hard to cope with the demands of contemporary society.

In particular, both of them see the human desire to improve our lot and obtain more as deeply distasteful. Both of them, in their different ways, argue that humans should curb their desires. For Naish, it is primarily a question of finding techniques for people to develop their ‘inner ration book’. For James, it is about modifying the structure of capitalism to make people less acquisitive and about providing widespread therapy."

Finally, here's a look at evolutionary psychology, which is behind a lot of the main concepts:

"Like other critics, he has no doubt that evolution shaped the human brain. How could it be otherwise, when evolution has shaped every other human organ? But evo psych's claims that human behavior is constrained by mental modules that calcified in the Stone Age make sense "only if the environmental challenges remain static enough to sculpt an instinct over evolutionary time," Pigliucci points out. If the environment, including the social environment, is instead dynamic rather than static—which all evidence suggests—then the only kind of mind that makes humans evolutionarily fit is one that is flexible and responsive, able to figure out a way to make trade-offs, survive, thrive and reproduce in whatever social and physical environment it finds itself in. In some environments it might indeed be adaptive for women to seek sugar daddies. In some, it might be adaptive for stepfathers to kill their stepchildren. In some, it might be adaptive for men to be promiscuous. But not in all. And if that's the case, then there is no universal human nature as evo psych defines it."

Alexander Masters' new book

2011-08-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

Some of us read and enjoyed Stuart, a Life Backwards. The author now has a new book out, about Simon Norton, a mathematician.

There was an extract in The Guardian yesterday:

"Simon's mother, now dead, taught him maths, up to quadratic equations. Astounding, for a British housewife in the 1950s – no one in the family can explain it. Simon says he's a fluke of genetics. Every birth is a gamble by nature, a throwing in the air of infinite possibilities. In Simon's case, "The molecules settled in my favour. Neither of my brothers is particularly intelligent."

Francis Norton, Simon's middle brother, works in a shop called SJ Phillips, the oldest family-run antique jewellery business in the world. It's because Francis keeps the family firm alive and profitable that Simon has never had to have a job or a mortgage and, despite using 17 different variants of bus, train and visitor-attraction discount cards, doesn't actually need a single one of them.

Francis lives on the other side of Hampstead from Simon's oldest brother, Michael. Every year Francis or Michael invites Simon to their house for Passover; and every year Simon arrives with his shoelaces flapping, his bus timetables and his smells, and eats all the parsley.

Simon's first ever mathematical memory is of sitting on his parents' sofa, working out the value of two to the power of 30. One moment he was fidgeting quietly on the cushions; the next he was soaring into the stratosphere of the thousands, and lo! "My life as a mathematician had begun.""

You can read more on Alexander Masters' site, or pre-order it here

Long Live The Book

2011-08-18T00:29:00.000-07:00

This is a short film made by AbeBooks apparently in response to the 'I Hate Reading' group on Facebook, which alarmingly has nearly 450,000 members...

Long Live The Book!

Orwell Revisited

2011-08-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

There was a great article on the BBC website last week, updating Down and Out in Paris and London:

"When I meet Modi from Mali, he looks as if he might drop down dead with fatigue. Like Orwell, Modi is a plongeur, a washer-upper in a big restaurant and he works six days a week, 12 hours a day cleaning pots and pans.

When we talk in the bar of a neighbouring restaurant, his head keeps drooping onto his folded arms and it seems to be such an effort for him to articulate his words that he either slurs them all together in a gluey, glottal jumble, or shoots out small phrases in tiny bursts of energy that fizzle out before the last word has been formed.

Orwell complained that when working as a plongeur he felt as if his back were broken and his head "filled with hot cinders". Modi agrees that he aches all over and at the end of the day he cannot feel his feet.

Because rent in Paris is too expensive, he lives an hour's train ride outside the city. Although after midnight the trains are slower so it takes two hours for Modi to get home. He gets up at 0700 and gets to bed at 0200. Most plongeurs in Paris these days are either Pakistani or West African. I stop asking myself why that is, when Modi tells me how much he is paid - just under 4 euros (£3.50) an hour. He's working, of course, "on the black".

"The last time I had a night out," he says flicking through a virtual diary in his brain, "was... last year.""

Well worth a read, if you read the book.

Links for the next meeting - Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh

2011-07-01T01:54:00.000-07:00

An ambivalent 1995 review from the Observer

"Welsh's second novel switches, with the aid of some nifty typography, between three connected worlds. Brought up in an Edinburgh 'scheme' ('a concentration camp for the poor'), its narrator Roy Strang now lies in a deep coma. The novel shuffles his past in a 'genetic disaster' of a family with a blurred present of visits from nurses and relatives quest through an imaginary Africa, hunting the titular bird. This 'despicable beast' comes to stand for all the cruelty Roy has soaked up and dished out in his time."

...and a librarian's take on it

"On a technical level this is really brilliant work. It surfs between the heavy Scottish accent and the more refined speech of Roy and Sandy, which is comically precise in it’s elocution and very much The Queen’s English. Roy is not by any means stupid, or an oaf, or unaware of what he himself is doing and that only serves to drive the point home.

This is overall a very interesting read, consistent and true to the narrative parameters it sets up. It’s not for the shiny, happy crowd, but if you like your stories dark, gothic, smart and intriguing – then this is a good choice."

Plus - for further reading on one aspect - a review of a book on Hibs Casuals:

"I grew up in Leith and as a Hibby on the very outer fringes of the cashie scene, I was keen to read this. A great book in my opinion that I believe captures the essence of what went on back then. I don't believe the book is distorted to 'big up' the CCS and the authors have done well to keep it balanced - detailing the highs as well as the lows. I know people -honest people - intimately involved in several of the events detailed within this book and they correlate with DD's account.This book was a welcomed trip back down memory lane and brought back some good, if not rose-tinted, memories."

Flipbacks

2011-06-24T09:53:00.001-07:00

Flipbacks are a new format in publishing - books you read with the spine horizontal.

There are a few titles planned for the launch next Thursday, including One Day, Cloud Atlas and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier spy. Each costs £9.99.

Can't wait to see one in the flesh!

Links for the next meeting - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2011-06-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Background, plot details and glossary of jargon on Wikipedia

IMDB entry for the original TV series, with Alec Guinness as Smiley

IMDB entry for this year's film remake with - um - Gary Oldman in the same role

A 5 star review on Amazon:

"This is quite simply the best spy novel ever written. Le Carre writes beautifully, and skilfully builds up the tension. The plot is elegantly conceived and superbly unravelled. If you only ever read one Le Carre, read this one - but I have to say the others are pretty good as well!"

(There are no 1 star reviews. The lowest it goes down to is 3 stars, and that is for the intrusive piano music on the audiobook version..)

Links for the next meeting - Room by Emma Donoghue

2011-04-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

The site for the book, including this diagram of the layout of the room, & 12 questions (see below)

Click to enlarge

A Q&A with Emma Donoghue

A review in The Observer

"Donoghue has not been so crass as to make light of their plight: at times it's almost impossible not to turn away in horror. When Ma's kidnapper comes to the room in the evening, she makes Jack hide in the wardrobe, where he listens as they get into bed: "I always have to count till he makes that gaspy sound and stops." Ma has days where she is "gone" to blank-eyed depression and Jack, left to his own devices, reveals: "Mostly I just sit." But the grotesque is consistently balanced with the uplifting and there is a moment, halfway through the novel, where you feel you would fight anyone who tried to wrestle it from your grasp with the same ferocity that Ma fights for Jack, such is the author's power to make out of the most vile circumstances something absorbing, truthful and beautiful."

A review (with lots of comments) from someone who liked the first half but not the second:

(Too many spoilers to include an extract)

Plus - the 12 questions from the official site:

Why do you think the entire book is told in Jack’s voice? Do you think it is effective?

What are some of the ways in which Jack’s development has been stunted by growing up in Room? How has he benefited?

If you were Ma, what would you miss most about the outside world?

What would you do differently if you were Jack’s parent? Would you tell Jack about the outside world from the start?

If Ma had never given birth to Jack, what would her situation in Room be like?

What would you ask for, for Sundaytreat, if you were Jack? If you were Ma?

Describe the dynamic between Old Nick and Ma. Why does the author choose not to tell us Old Nick’s story?

What does joining the outside world do to Jack? To Ma?

What role do you think the media play in the novel?

In a similar situation, how would you teach a child the difference between the real world and what they watch on television?

Why are we so fascinated by stories of long-term confinement?

What were you most affected by in the novel?

Penguin Threads

2011-04-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

Penguin Threads is a sumptuous new set of 3 books, with covers hand embroidered.

The three titles are The Secret Garden, Emma, and Black Beauty.

See more at the artist Jillian Tamaki's website. As you can see, both the front and back are embroidered, although from what I can see, the books you can actually buy will be embossed rather than hand embroidered (because that would be pretty impractical). They're available to buy from October.

Thanks to Beth for the link!

50 books every eleven year old should read

2011-04-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

There's some good inspiration in this list of 50 books that would be ideal for kids starting secondary school, compiled by The Independent.

Selected by Philip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo, Kary Guest, John Walsh and Michael Rosen, there is lots to induce nostalgia, or spark the curiosity, for example:

Emil and the Detectives

A Hundred Million Francs

The Phantom Tollbooth

Just William

The Elephant Child

Refugee Boy

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

Private Peaceful

The London Eye Mystery

Lots to think about for our next 'Classics We Should Have Read' month.

Penguin Essentials

2011-04-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

Penguin Essentials is a new collection from Penguin. Essential books, with specially commissioned covers, capturing the feel of the book, and the time in which they were published.

We've read several of the books (we're so damn essential), including The Great Gatsby, On The Road, Lolita, and A Confederacy of Dunces.

I think I like the Confederacy of Dunces cover best (by Gary Taxali)

Great books, great covers, would make great presents!

'On The Road' Luggage Tag

2011-03-31T06:08:00.000-07:00

Loving this!

£6.99 on Amazon.

Links for the next meeting - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

2011-03-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Links on Rebecca Skloot's own site, including videos and audio

Adam Curtis' blog on the BBC site, which has the full length 1990s documentary that is referred to a lot in the book

The Lacks Family website

The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, set up by Rebecca Skloot to help the descendants of Henrietta Lacks through education and healthcare payments.

(Donate here)

(Or, donate directly to the family here)

A review on the Literary Corner Cafe blog

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fascinating book for people interested in scientific or medical research, but its real achievement lies in it’s humane – and deeply human – look at both Mrs. Lacks and her descendants. It’s a wake up call to the medical community to remember that while they may be working with highly advanced technology and science, there’s a human being – a suffering human being, with people who love him or her – at the bottom of it all."

A review in The Guardian

"It would have been better to trust the story and tell it in as straightforward a way as possible. Skloot's final discussion of the ethics of the use of human tissue is followed by nine pages of acknowledgments that are more than usually fatuous and self-regarding, and the author's determination to write herself into the story distracts the reader from the dense factual background. But The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks succeeds despite itself: it is a fascinating, harrowing and necessary book, marred only slightly by the fact that the author wishes to be considered a heroine for writing it."

Plus, a bit off topic, David Simon's article about a contemporary woman living in Baltimore, the actress Felicia 'Snoop' Pearson

"In an essay published two years ago in Time magazine, the writers of The Wire made the argument that we believe the war on drugs has devolved into a war on the underclass, that in places like West and East Baltimore, where the drug economy is now the only factory still hiring and where the educational system is so crippled that the vast majority of children are trained only for the corners, a legal campaign to imprison our most vulnerable and damaged citizens is little more than amoral. And we said then that if asked to serve on any jury considering a non-violent drug offense, we would move to nullify that jury's verdict and vote to acquit. Regardless of the defendant, I still believe such a course of action would be just in any case in which drug offenses—absent proof of violent acts—are alleged."

Name your favourite book, and donate to the Ministry of Stories

2011-03-10T11:42:00.000-08:00

The Ministry of Stories is a reading & writing centre for young people, based in Hoxton.

Modelled on Dave Eggers' Pirate Supplies Store in San Francisco, it "provides a free space for fresh writing by young people. Here in Hoxton we provide workshops and one-to-one mentoring. The services are provided by volunteers: local writers, artists and teachers, all giving their time and talent for free.

The MoS is inspired by young people, and aims to inspire them to transform their lives through writing. We work closely with schools, supporting the work of teachers, but our great benefit is that we provide one-to-one mentoring for young people to enjoy imaginative stories, improve language skills, increase abilities in communication, add to social and educational confidence."

To donate money through Just giving, visit this page and donate the amount that your favourite book costs. Stephen Fry picked one of our previous reads, The Confederacy of Dunces as his favourite, so presumably donated £8.99.

Donate - it could change someone's life.

The Waterstones / Grazia quiz for World Book Day

2011-03-07T00:57:00.000-08:00

On Saturday 3 of us went to Waterstones in Piccadilly to take part in the book quiz for World Book Day, sponsored by Grazia. (Grazia run their own book club in the magazine).

It was interesting to see so many other book groups in one place, and it was great to see so much free booze on the table!

The quiz was about 7 rounds (characters, pictures, first lines, missing vowels etc) and was great fun.

David Nicholls was there, and we managed to ask a couple of quick questions about the film of One Day. ;-)

We didn't win, but we didn't come last either, and in our defence there were only 3 of us...

'Room' discussed at Slate.com

2011-03-02T11:03:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Kelly for sending this link to Slate, where there's a podcast discussion of our April book Room by Emma Donoghue.

Or you can play it on the site. - the link again!

Links for the next meeting - One Day by David Nicholls

2011-02-22T05:40:00.000-08:00

The site for the book:

(Including Emma's mix tape for Dexter, for anyone who has Spotify)

A reader's guide from the American website

"3. In his unsent letter Dexter writes, “I think you’re scared of being happy. . . . that you actually get a kick out of being disappointed and under-achieving, because it’s easier. . . .”[p. 42]. How do Dexter’s insights into Emma compare to her own? Is he more perceptive about her than he is about himself? Does Emma underestimate her talents and potential? Despite its carefree tone, does Dexter’s letter betray certain doubts or misgivings about himself?"

A review from The Guardian, at the time of publication:

"But the most noticeable feature of these protagonists and their friendship is their extraordinarily high laughs-per-page ratio. Nicholls's first novel, Starter for Ten, was gagtastic and, in a couple of its setpieces, successfully invited comparison with Lucky Jim. His second, The Understudy, was very, very funny. But One Day is funnier still: the headmaster's beard that becomes a balaclava, Dexter's bubbly co-presenter who talks in capitals and who "would start a letter of condolence with the word 'Wahey!'", Ian's "tracky botts", Ian's ring-in-the-calamari proposal, Ian's relentless patter - indeed, just about every sentence involving Ian."

A 5 Star review on Amazon:

"One of the best novels I`ve ever read. The characters are likeable and you can`t help yourself willing them to get together. The concept is fantastic; You never really know what happens immediately after the end of each chapter, as the next one takes place exactly one year later. I`m not entirely sure whether this should be classed as a romantic comedy; It`s a novel about relationships that should appeal to both men and women. Sure, Emma Mayhew comes out with a lot of amusing one-liners, but that`s not really what One Day is about. There`s no sloppy romanticism here either, no sex scenes described in elaborate euphemisms. This book is about realistic characters feeling the sort of emotions we have all felt. All human life is here in this novel and it`s utterly compelling.

I`m not usually one to get emotional over books and films, but I found myself close to tears at some points in One Day. One page in particular, I had to go back and re-read several times, it affected me so much."

A 1 Star review on Amazon

"I'm flabbergasted by the glowing reviews - the book is not that good. The main strength of the book is its stucture - truly innovative whereby the characters are revisited on the same date every year. However, that's the most interesting/exciting thing about the book. The characters themselves are two-dimensional bores. Emma is snippy and wet, while Dexter is a caricature of arrogance and privilege. And they don't even have very exciting lives to sustain any reader interest. My main objection to the book is the idleness of the writer. Once he had the structure in place, he appeared to just spew out lazy scenes and put very little effort into developing tension or character. At times, the writing was very sloppy and I nearly threw the book across the room at several things that a good editor should have spotted: eg, who wears a moleskin suit in July? Why on July 15 would Dexter be catching up on the latest news from Wimbledon, when the tournament usually ends at least a week earlier? And why the constant references to Mayhem plc - if the company had been a plc (ie a listed company), then Dexter would have been considerably richer and certainly wouldn't have been able to just wind up the company on a whim without a nasty backlash from shareholders (which is what a plc has). No doubt the author is a fine scriptwriter, but the limits of his craft show time and again on the printed page. I'm sure the story will make an amusing mini-series/film, but I suspect the main enjoyment will be derived from the visuals of the transformation from late 80s to present day rather than any engagement in the story."

& finally - the cast for the film, coming out later this year.

Anne Hathaway as Emma? Jim Sturgess as Dexter? Rafe Spall as Ian?

Copycat Covers

2011-02-09T00:19:00.000-08:00

The covers of books say so much (for example the 'Dragon Tattoo' books, or 'One Day', which we're reading this month, but more and more books seem to be using similar pictures and themes on the covers - for example these two, which use the same stock photo, but cropped and coloured differently:

You can see a bigger collection of similar examples here, and here is link to other examples where the picture is different, but the theme is very similar (a spade in the ground, a chair in an empty room). Just how little time to publishers take over the cover design,,?

Links for the next meeting - Oz, Gulliver & Watership Down

2011-01-24T10:42:00.000-08:00

A few notes on the books for the next meeting:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Wikipedia

Influences:

"Another influence lay in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland books. Although Baum found their plots incoherent, he identified their source of popularity as Alice herself, a child with whom the child readers could identify; this influenced his choice of a protagonist.[9] Baum was also influenced by Carroll's belief that children's books should have many pictures and be pleasurable reads. Carroll rejected the Victorian-era ideology that children's books should be saturated with morals, instead believing that children should be allowed to be children. Building on Carroll's style of numerous images accompanying the text, Baum amalgamated the conventional features of a fairy tale (witches and wizards) with the well-known things in his readers' lives (scarecrows and cornfields)."

Plus - quite a strange site for everything Oz

Gulliver's Travels in Wikipedia

Major themes:

"Published seven years after Daniel Defoe's wildly successful Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels may be read as a systematic rebuttal of Defoe's optimistic account of human capability. In The Unthinkable Swift: The Spontaneous Philosophy of a Church of England Man Warren Montag argues that Swift was concerned to refute the notion that the individual precedes society, as Defoe's novel seems to suggest. Swift regarded such thought as a dangerous endorsement of Thomas Hobbes' radical political philosophy and for this reason Gulliver repeatedly encounters established societies rather than desolate islands. The captain who invites Gulliver to serve as a surgeon aboard his ship on the disastrous third voyage is named Robinson.

Possibly one of the reasons for the book's classic status is that it can be seen as many things to many different people. Broadly, the book has three themes:

- a satirical view of the state of European government, and of petty differences between religions.

- an inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted.

- a restatement of the older "ancients versus moderns" controversy previously addressed by Swift in The Battle of the Books."

Watership Down in Wikipedia

Comparisons with Greek mythology

"The book explores the themes of exile, survival, heroism, political responsibility, and the "making of a hero and a community".[13] Joan Bridgman's analysis of Adams's works in The Contemporary Review identifies the community and hero motifs: "[T]he hero's journey into a realm of terrors to bring back some boon to save himself and his people" is a powerful element in Adams's tale. This theme derives from the author's exposure to the works of mythologist Joseph Campbell, especially his study of comparative mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), and in particular, Campbell's "monomyth" theory, also based on Carl Jung's view of the unconscious mind, that "all the stories in the world are really one story.".

The concept of the hero has invited comparisons between Watership Down's characters and those in Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid. Hazel's courage, Bigwig's strength, Blackberry's ingenuity and craftiness, and Dandelion's and Bluebell's poetry and storytelling all have parallels in the epic poem Odyssey. Kenneth Kitchell declared, "Hazel stands in the tradition of Odysseus, Aeneas, and others". Tolkien scholar John Rateliff calls Adams's novel an Aeneid "what-if" book: what if the seer Cassandra (Fiver) had been believed and she and a company had fled Troy (Sandleford Warren) before its destruction? What if Hazel and his companions, like Aeneas, encounter a seductive home at Cowslip's Warren (Land of the Lotus Eaters)? Rateliff goes on to compare the rabbits' battle with Woundwort's Efrafans to Aeneas's fight with Turnus's Latins. "By basing his story on one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Adams taps into a very old myth: the flight from disaster, the heroic refugee in search of a new home, a story that was already over a thousand years old when Vergil told it in 19 BC.""

A very old Watership Down site, explaining the significance of the different warrens:

E.g. Sandleford:

"The religion of this warren was the Lapine religion. According to the Lapine religion, Lord Frith, the Sun God, created the Earth and all the stars from his droppings. El-ahrairah was the prince of rabbits. The stories of El-ahrairah teach the rabbits why certain things in the world are the way they are, such as why rabbits have strong hind legs and cottony tail"

An interview with Roald Dahl

2011-01-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

Found on the net - an interview with Roald Dahl from 1988, when RD was 71.

Extract:

"HOW DO YOU GET THE IDEAS FOR YOUR STORIES?

It starts always with a tiny little seed of an idea, a little germ, and that even doesn’t come very easily. You can be mooching around for a year or so before you get a good one. When I do get a good one, mind you, I quickly write it down so that I won’t forget it, because it disappears otherwise rather like a dream. But when I get it, I don’t dash up here and start to write it. I’m very careful. I walk around it and look at it and sniff it and then see if I think it will go. Because once you start, you’re embarked on a year’s work and so it’s a big decision."

Book Frames

2011-01-10T05:48:00.001-08:00

A great idea from Suck - frame your favourite book (standard paperback size only). £`12, inc P&P.

World Book Night book give-away

2010-12-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

This is a very strange (but completely real) promotion.

As part of World Book Night on 5th March next year, British publishers are providing books for people to give away.

They've produced a list of 25 titles, ranging from poetry to fiction. Anyone can apply to receive a package of 48 copies of 1 title, and then give them away.

The titles include 6 of our previous reads - All Quiet On The Western Front, Beloved, Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, Stuart - A Life Backwards, and Curious Case of the Dog in the Night Time, and one of our futures - One Day.

You need to fill in the application and say why you want the books, and who you'd give them to.

20,000 people will get to give away 48 books each.

See the books here

Apply to be a giver here

More background in this article in the Guardian

Links for the next meeting - High-Rise by JG Ballard

2010-11-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

A quick summary of the novel on Wiipedia

An overview of JG Ballard's work

A review on Ballardian, the JBG fan site

An interview from 1976, the year after the novel came out:

“I'm trying to say something about the anonymity of say, such a huge high-rise building as the one I describe, which plays into the hands of barbarism, but also provides a new set of connections on the other side: what that new order is I leave to the reader to decide. Royal and Wilder are not tuned into the logic of the High Rise. A new type of person is emerging, a neutral, affectless, emotionless character who doesn't mind the intrusion into his life of data processing outfits, credit registers and so on, and in fact welcomes it because it provides a sense of togetherness -- maybe all the togetherness that people need. Laing is at one point in the book reflecting on this new kind of cool, unemotional type who just likes sitting in his room with the TV on but the sound turned down. But it's ironic that at the end of the book he turns into just such a person as he apparently feared. He enters into a rather complex relationship with his sister and this other woman; his whole role vis-a-vis the mad dentist who fools around with corpses; all the aspects of himself he finds himself moving through in the second half of the book: all this is to show the beginnings of a new order. He is a happy tenant of the High Rise. I leave it open to the reader to decide whether it's a good thing or bad; he is not a completely passive spectator of events. After all, according to some research I did, I found that one in ten people in this country live above the sixth floor.”

& one from 1980, talking more generally about his views of science fiction:

“It had been too concerned with the future, right from its origins. I wanted a science-fiction of the present day. I am interested in the technology of the present of this world. I am not interested in imaginary alien planets. I am certain you know that the only alien planet is Earth. It is this world that is the strange one. All the extra-terrestrials we need are walking around in these streets."

An article about a book that's just been published on poor architecture, that taps into 'the high rise' phenomenon of blocks of gated apartment blocks

& finally, a synopsis of a film adaptation, which suggests they've completely missed the point:

"n the midst of a vast ocean stands the Elysium Tower – a glistening vertical city – a sanctuary for challenging times.

Powered by sun and earth, designed by the greatest architectural visionary of the new millennium, Elysium is a self contained world. A world of commerce, cuisine and entertainment, featuring restaurants, swimming pools, libraries, cinemas, even a research hospital. It is not just the tallest and most technologically advanced work of modern architecture, but one that embodies the world's highest aspirations.

Dr. Robert Laing, a new arrival, settles in and adjusts to this hermetic life. But before long he becomes aware of something unsettling in the building. In an escalating atmosphere of unrest the residents break into tribal factions. Laing watches in horror as the myth of a utopian society is shattered."

We met at the Barbican Lounge

Fabulous Penguin Clothbound Classics

2010-11-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

Any of these would make a fantastic present for a book-lover.

Featuring 3 of our past reads -

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Treasure Island

The Picture of Dorian Grey

& one of our future reads -

Gulliver's Travels

Plus - you can win a set of 6 Scott F Fitzgerald books - watch the video below to see how:

Great F. Scott from Penguin Books on Vimeo.

Good luck!

Alluring book titles

2010-11-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

A very entertaining idea from McSweeneys - titles of classic books re-written as the sort of attention-grabbing headlines you online to boost website traffic:

How many can you get?

"7 Awesome Ways Barnyard Animals Are Like Communism

The 11 Stupidest Things Phonies Do To Ruin The World

8 Surprising Ways West Egg Is Exemplary Of The Hollowness Of The American Dream

6 Shockingly Evil Things The Turn-Of-The-Century Meatpacking Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

5 Insane Ways London Could Become a Dystopia (And How It's Not That Far From Reality)

1 Weird Thing Caddy Smells Like"

We like!

Literary Lodgings

2010-11-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

This is a set of birdhouses, made from old hardback books. The one in the picture has part of one of our January books The Wizard of Oz as a front.

Very sweet, very creative, but also, strangely, 'Not for out of doors'.

Buy one here.

Any Human Heart on Channel 4

2010-11-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

A dramatisation of Any Human Heart, by Willam Boyd, which we read in about 2008, starts on channel 4 next weekend.

The trailer: (Best copy I could find)

A 'making of':

An article about the novel by WB

& an article by WB on the real story of the murder in the Bahamas that features in the book.

It's a four part drama. Let's hope they get it right!

Women Running From Houses

2010-11-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

This blog has a great collection of classic book covers from pretty trashy paperbacks.

With the blurbs too - for example:

The Lock by Janet Lovesmith (Paul W. Fairman)

published by Popular Library

SOMETHING

FROM THE WORLD BEYOND

WAS STALKING

YOUNG LYN COURTNEY -

The lock was huge, rusted, ungainly. It guarded the

tomb that lay behind the old house - the tomb of the

ill-fated Gantry clan. Lyn Courtney, who had come to

work at Gantry Hill, became fascinated, haunted by

that lock. Her fears, her hopes, her fantasies cnetered

around it.

Could it explain the puzzling behavior of good-looking

Christopher Gantry? The mystery of beautiful, volatile

Lila? The invisible creature that even now was stalking

young Lyn? She must find out - if it wasn't already

too late ,,,

QUEEN-SIZE GOTHICS are a new idea. They offer the

very best in novels of romantic suspense, by the top

writers, greater in length and drama, richer in reading

pleasure. Each book is guaranteed to be:

"READING FIT FOR A QUEEN"

Matilda's Book Club

2010-11-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Matilda's book club is a venture set up by the Royal Shakespeare Company to accompany the new musical version of Roald Dahl's Matilda. It's a virtual club, and features children's books recommended by the great and the good.

You can see it here; these are some of the choices:

David Schneider (& Cathy Cassidy) - Watership Down (which we're doing in January)
Quentin Blake - The Box of Delights
Paul Kaye - The Thirty Nine Steps
Charlie Higson - The Incredible Adventures of Professor Brainstawm
Emma Thompson - The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Harriet Walter - The Silver Sword
Lisa Hammond-Marty - The Ice Dragon (A Noggin book)
Eowin Colfer - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Nick Clegg - The Gruffalo
David Cameron - Our Island Story

Links for the next meeting - The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

2010-10-27T00:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some links to help with the discussion:

Spark Notes' guide

A Review at About.com

The Wikipedia entry, which is has a good section on the themes

A 5 Star review on Amazon

A 1 Star review on Amazon

Plus - a 1 Star review of the 2009 film, in which the plot is changed so that Dorian Gray and Basil Hallwood have sex (& the ending is also different)

(In fact the plot is very different - see the Wikipedia entry for the film here)

We met at Kettner's which was one of Oscar Wilde's favourite places. In fact he was even arrested there.

Is Agatha Christie still relevant?

2010-10-03T04:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Oli for spotting this article in The Guardian:

"There is little to distract the reader from the sense of information being parcelled out at careful intervals by an unseen but all-controlling hand. Nothing arises organically. In many ways, she reminds me of Enid Blyton. Her characters are ciphers, developed according to Occam's-razor principles – each one developed precisely as far as he or she needs to be for efficient propulsion of the plot, and no further. The dialogue is frequently risible – either purely expository, or banal musings on human psychology – and, for all that the early Christie books are venerated as beguiling period pieces, there is actually very little description in them, let alone any that makes the 20s, 30s and 40s glint in the mind's eye."

Discuss!

Links for the next meeting - Purge by Sofi Oksanen

2010-09-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

British cover

American cover

A review in The Guardian

A review in Words Without Borders (Spoiler alert - there's one in the first line of the review...)

A play is opening in New York in 2011

& a film 'Puhdistas' (in Finnish) is scheduled to open in 2012

Sofi Oksanen's own site

We met at the Baltic Restaurant - a suitably Eastern European venue, with quite a lot of German and Eastern European food in the bar.

Frank Gehry's Treasure Island

2010-09-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

Puffin have commissioned a number of special editions as part of their 70th Birthday celebrations.

You can buy this fabulous looking edition of Treasure Island by the architect Frank Gehry for £100.

Limited to 1000 copies only, and an earlier edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover now sells for over £300 on Amazon Marketplace.

Other books include James & The Giant Peach (Anthony Gormley) (already sold out) and Oliver Twist (Sir Peter Blake).

Links for the next meeting - The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

2010-08-19T13:47:00.000-07:00

An interview with the author:

Interesting review from The Guardian

It has its own website, bless - and its own Facebook group

Book Club Guidance from the wacky old WWW

Packabook

2010-08-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

Packabook is a new(ish) website that provides a list of novels set in different counties.

It's a great resource if you're trying to get inspired pre-holiday, and seems to have a pretty imaginative and varied list.

For example this is the selection for books set in Spain

Links for the Next Meeting - Two Agatha Christie books

2010-07-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

Five Little Pigs reviewed at Good Reads

& on the main Agatha Christie site (including background details)

A Murder is Announced at Good Reads

& on the AC site

Plus - Wikipedia articles on Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple

Ex Libris book plates

2010-07-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

This is a stunning set of Ex Libris (from the library of...) book plates of the famous.

If you want to get your own, and it's very tempting, this would be a good place to start. (Or you can print off your own at this site here)

Book Group Tours

2010-07-22T03:51:00.001-07:00

We've just had an email from this company offering themed literary tours for book groups.

Get in touch with them if you're interested in Agatha Christie, Ian Rankin, JK Rowling or more.

Sadly they don't yet offer James Frey's LA...

The Wave Pictures - Sweetheart

2010-07-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

How great is this? A music video made entirely out of second hand books. The music's not bad either!

The Wave Pictures - Sweetheart from Ben Reed on Vimeo.

From The Wave Pictures

Star in a Penguin TV ad

2010-07-08T01:49:00.000-07:00

From an email from Penguin:

Calling all readers!

We need YOUR help to star in a TV ADVERT to launch our author on PRIME-TIME NATIONAL TELEVISION.

In October 2010, Penguin will be putting their biggest advertising campaign of the year behind an exciting debut author. We can't reveal who the author is, but you'll be surprised and delighted when you find out!

If you have a passion for brilliantly written, comic women's fiction in the best Readers' Group tradition, or simply have a love of discovering new authors, we want to hear from you.

We'll be compiling a long-list of interested readers who will then be interviewed over the phone, via Skype or in person. A selection of you will get an EXCLUSIVE look at this much coveted manuscript to read and react to.

After second interviews the final 6 readers will be chosen to STAR IN OUR AD, where they'll have a chance to meet and interview our mystery author! We'll also be giving our 6 stars £100 WORTH OF PENGUIN BOOKS and a SIGNED FIRST EDITION of the book.

To enter, write 50 words about why, as a member of a Reading Group, you like to discover new authors. Email your answer to marketing@penguin.co.uk along with your name, age and location.

You will need to be available to come to London for the shoot on 7th September. We will cover your travel expenses but not accommodation.

CLOSING DATE: Friday 23rd July

To Kill A Mockingbird at 50

2010-07-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to watch the special programme on BBC4 this week.

Details here

"Marking the 50th anniversary of the influential novel To Kill a Mockingbird, writer Andrew Smith visits Monroeville in Alabama, the setting of the book, to see how life there has changed in half a century"

See also this article on the BBC News website about the enduring appeal of the book.

Links for the next meeting - Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell

2010-06-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some discussion links for the book:

The Wikipedia link gives the background to the book - apparently quite a lot of artistic licence was taken with some events and timing:

The Spike, the 1931 essay that first told of his British experiences

The concept of a 'poverty threshold'

The welfare state

Guardian article from last weekend about a young jobless man in Brighton

Benefits 'have wrecked Britain's work ethic' from the Daily Mail (inevitably)

TV Book Club - Summer Reads

2010-06-16T01:58:00.000-07:00

The TV Book Club is back on Channel 4 (28th June) & More 4 (27th June) this summer with 8 new books:

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Man Who Disappeared by Clare Morrall

The Legacy by Katherine Webb

The Bed I Made by Lucie Whitehouse

Stone's Fall by Iain Pears

Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

The Devil's Acre by Matthew Plampin

Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

The email I've had from them is very confusing though - they don't say whether it's one show, or a new set of 8. In fact the email was more about trying to sell the books than telling you anything about the TV Show. Strange.

They seem to have re-jigged the presenting team too - looks like Gok and Nat are both not in the new series (or single show)

You can see more about the books here.

Superfreakonomics Live

2010-05-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

Of all the books we're that would become a live stage show Freakonomics (or rather the sequel Superfreakonomics) is a pretty unlikely choice, but it's happening, and it's touring the UK in June.

Sadly it's only Stephen Dubner, not the double act of Dubner and Levitt that's appearing. Dubner's the journalist not the economist, so it's not the full show that happened in the US.

Superfreakonics hasn't had the same impact in the UK as the original, probably because of the much-disputed 'climate change' chapter.

Also, it's not on in London, which is a bit strange.

The Ghost Hunter

2010-05-29T04:47:00.001-07:00

Too late for last week's meeting on Will Storr Vs. The Supernatural, here finally is the trailer for the show where Derren Brown meets Lou Gentile.

Watch it on Monday at 10pm on Channel 4

Links for the Next Meeting - Will Storr Vs. The Supernatural

2010-05-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here are a few links to look at before the discussion.

Kelly has already sent out details of the meeting time and location.

This is Will Storr being interviewed about the book by Richard and Judy

This is Will Storr’s website (I particularly liked the story about his bout with TB)

The Skeptic magazine apparently didn’t like the book very much

Here’s an article about Lou Gentile

A clip of Derren Brown with Lou Gentile

This is a blurb on the book from the Independent

& here's a site for the haunted pub in Cornwall - they seem to play quite a lot on the haunted connections.

Derren Brown Investigates

2010-05-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

The first episode, showing tonight, should be required viewing for anyone reading Will Storr Vs. The Supernatural.

In the opening episode of the series Brown investigates a spiritualist.

Here's a clip:

Tonight at 10pm on Channel 4

Update - if you missed it you can watch it on 4OD

Links for the Next Meeting - The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

2010-04-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

As with New York Trilogy, Wikipedia is pretty sparce, especially considering the book is so long!

Here are some reading notes - including:

"From the moment of his arrival, Ryder discovers that other people, many of them perfect strangers, know a great deal about him. What might account for these characters’ familiarity with Ryder’s affairs? Is the knowledge these characters possess about Ryder actually trustworthy?"

A 5 star review on Amazon

"This brilliant masterpiece is an utterly unique novel - unlike anything I have read among books written in the past fifty years. The story - of a concert pianist arriving in Central Europe only to find himself constantly walking into various unresolved emotional aspects of his life - brings us into contact with great seriousness and sadness, wonderful farce and is unremittingly strange and bizarre. Ishiguro writes brilliantly, and conveys the alienation and dissociation from the world brilliantly in his prose and his unique dialogue."

& a one star review

"Having greatly enjoyed his 'The Remains of the Day', I have to report that 'The Unconsoled' proved a bitter disappointment. I have read a number of favourable reviews and they are all, with respect, utter twaddle. 'The Unconsoled' invites the reader to follow the narrator (Ryder - apparently a famous concert pianist) on an ultimately pointless and curiously nightmarish - or perhaps simply dipsomanic? - visit to an obscure city in central Europe. Ryder's visit is punctuated (and ultimately thwarted) by a succession of long-winded and bizarre interruptions by unsatisfactory characters; his actions are played out against a backdrop of irrelevant recollections from his unhappy childhood. Events unfold in a way that is random and dreamlike - he stumbles between embarrassing encounters like an old maudlin bore in the grip of extreme drunkenness. The reader's attention wonders - what is the point of it all? Reading on, one anticipates some dramatic ending that will make sense of it all - but there is no such satisfaction. The denouement, such as it is, consists of Ryder's concert performance being abandoned, followed by an emotionally detached parting from his shadowy wife and son."

Politicians' favourite books

2010-04-17T03:11:00.000-07:00

To capitalise on the General Election, Waterstones have polled several politicians to find their favourite books.

Here they are -

Vince Cable - including John Le Carre, Graham Greene, and Vikram Seth

William Hague - including Max Hastings, Robert Harris, and Rory Stewart

Peter Mandelson - including CS Lewis, Emile Zola and Alain de Botton

Ieuan Wyn Jones - including William Wordsworth, Antony Beever, and F Scott Fitzgerald

Nicola Sturgeon - including Alice Walker, Herper Lee, and Robert Tressell

Alice in Wonderland on the iPad

2010-04-13T10:31:00.001-07:00

This looks great - a new experience in enjoying a book, as an app on the iPad:

Links for the next meeting - New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

2010-03-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia is surprisingly sparce - just a few lines of background and a synopsis of each story.

City of Glass was turned into a graphic novel in 1994. It's quite easy to see why this would have worked as a GN more than the other two. You can buy it here - currently £5.48.

A collection of reviews on a Paul Auster fan site

From Amazon - A five star review:

"The NewYork Trilogy is that rare thing, a book that will continue to haunt you long after you put it down. Though the three stories it contains are structured and inspired by thriller novels, the work is essentially a meditation on the art of writing. It draws a parallel between a private investigator having to watch the person he has been hired to spy on and a writer attempting to create and capture a life on the page. All the central characters in the three stories hit a black wall at some point, where they feel unable to penetrate through to the subject under their observation. Auster captures this limitation of writing beautifully. This is a gripping, dark and completely original piece of work. Certainly a twentieth century classic. I shudder to think that I was nearly going to pass it over."

A one star review:

"I am not sure which I found more perplexing, the novel or its ecstatic reviews? Three stories based in New York with the thinnest of threads apparently connecting them. The first is a chapter long pontification on Paradise Lost and The Tower of Babel. The second is a pinch me it's Tarantino collection of Mr Blue, Mr Black and Mr White. The third raises crime literature hopes with 'The Locked Room' title but then does nothing to deliver. This is the first time I've read a book and then felt I should read it again; not for pleasure but because I'm sure I've missed something. As a review to help potential readers I am afraid I am truly at a loss. I struggle to come up with any kind of synopsis, quotes or insight. I read it, I really did, all of it, waiting for something to happen. Is that the point? In Star Trek there are often storylines where the crew have their memory erased. Nothing at all can be remembered for a period of minutes or even hours and then life goes on totally unchanged either for better or worse. That's The New York Trilogy."
(You've got to love that Star Trek reference at the end...)

Solar by Ian McEwan

2010-03-08T08:29:00.000-08:00

We (generally) loved Atonement, and we (generally) hated Saturday...

Do we dare try Ian McEwan's new one Solar (when it's out in paperback)?

It does sound promising:

"Michael Beard is in his late fifties; bald, overweight, unprepossessing – a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. An inveterate philanderer, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. When Beard’s professional and personal worlds are entwined in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself, a chance for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and very possibly save the world from environmental disaster."

Beautiful book covers

2010-02-22T01:35:00.000-08:00

From a collection here.

I particularly like these two:

England Vs. Argentina, World Cup 2002

2010-02-16T00:51:00.000-08:00

This is highlights of the match they're watching in Heartland

The Beckham's celebration still feels so emotional!

Waterstones Book Circle - a virtual book group

2010-02-14T03:00:00.000-08:00

Book Circle is a new virtual book group for Waterstones card holders.

Each month one of them picks a book (from the books new out in paperback that month, I'm assuming) and then Waterstones produces a reading guide for you to download.

This month it's Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig.

You can download the reading guide here, including an 8 page guide, and 12 questions.

In fact Hearts and Minds looks really good!

On The Road, re-told by Google

2010-02-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

Another example of storytelling:

This was a book that really polarised the group - the boys liked it, the girls hated it...

Review of the TV Book Club

2010-02-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

We wrote about the new TV Book Club in January when it was first announced. Now, 3 weeks in, it's finally a proper discussion of books.

The first two weeks felt pretty weak and frustrating because too much time was spent on the celebs (Chris Evans and Alan Davies) with the book under discussion squeezed into too much time at the end. Also the interaction between the panelists seemed a bit false.

The third week was a lot better, though. Either by luck or design Gok Wan wasn't there, and one fewer person in the studio made it easier for the others to really get stuck into the book. They also seemed more natural together, and acting more like passionate readers and less like celebs ticking demographic boxes. You don't need to people to be famous, just to have strong opinions, articulately expressed.

For example, I really like Newsnight Review (now re-named The Review Show) on BBC 2, and as you get used to the people on it you look forward to seeing what they're going to think of the items under discussion. The classic line up of Tom Paulin, Tony Parsons and Alison Pearson in the late 1990s was really successful despite the fact that at the time none of them were well known before being on the show. I really wanted that for the TV Book Club, and although they've gone the celeb route, I really want people like Nathaniel Parker and Laila Rouass (neither of whom are really known to me) to live up to that. Hopefully by the time they get onto Matthew Quick's The Silver Linings Playbook I'll be anticipating the stands they'll take on different aspects of the story.

Anyway, it's now starting to feel like a real book club, rather than a plugging machine, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what they make of Juliet Naked, the only one of the books on the list that I've actually read.

For another example of the TV Book Club, have a look at what they do in Australia. They really get stuck in!

Links for the next meeting - Alice, Grimm, and Treasure Island

2010-01-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

A few notes on the books for the next meeting:

A few notes for the books:

Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wikipedia

Alice - from a scientific point of view - article in The New Scientist

Grimm's Fairy Tales
Wikipedia on the context & history

Click on individual stories for development over time and analysis, e.g. this on Hansel & Gretel

Little Red Riding Hood re-imagined (video - warning, music quite loud)

Treasure Island
Again Wikipedia

& a study guide

See you on Wednesday!

Channel 4's TV Book Club

2010-01-12T06:03:00.001-08:00

Starting next week on Channel 4 and More4 is the newest version of a TV book show.

Coming out of the ashes of Richard and Judy's Book Club (it's got the same producer, Amanda Ross), the TV Book Club will use 5 different presenters to introduce readers to ten new paperbacks.

The presenters are:

Dave Spikey
Jo Brand
Gok Wan
Laila Rouass, &
Nathaniel Parker

The books are:

Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger
Belinda Bauer - Black Lands
Sarah Dunant - Sacred Hearts
Nick Hornby - Juliet, Naked
Abraham Verghese - Cutting For Stone
Liz Jensen - The Rapture
Roma Tearne - Brixton Beach
George Pelecanos - The Way Home
Wendy Moore - Wedlock, &
Matthew Quick - The Silver Linings Playbook

(This site is selling all of the books for £3.99 each)

It's on More4 on Sunday nights at 7.30, and Channel 4 on Monday lunchtimes (rather bafflingly - why not put it on on Sunday teatime? Or after T4?), and since it's on Channel 4 I'm hoping it'll be on YouTube too.

It's sponsored by SpecSavers - 'Enjoy a Good Read with SpecSavers' - which is quite clever.

Update - There's a feature on the show in the Guardian.

Book of the Day Quote - Penguin Classics

2010-01-06T05:51:00.001-08:00

Little Red Riding Hood re-imagined

2009-12-29T02:49:00.000-08:00

Brilliant, surreal video.

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Alice's adventures in Algebra

2009-12-20T04:08:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting article from the New Scientist on the importance of maths, and partucular algebra, in Alice in Wonderland:

"The madness of Wonderland, I believe, reflects Dodgson's views on the dangers of this new symbolic algebra. Alice has moved from a rational world to a land where even numbers behave erratically. In the hallway, she tried to remember her multiplication tables, but they had slipped out of the base-10 number system we are used to. In the caterpillar scene, Dodgson's qualms are reflected in the way Alice's height fluctuates between 9 feet and 3 inches. Alice, bound by conventional arithmetic where a quantity such as size should be constant, finds this troubling: "Being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing," she complains. "It isn't," replies the Caterpillar, who lives in this absurd world."

For more of this sort of stuff read on here.

Noughty Books

2009-12-03T03:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a relatively random set of books of the noughties from the Telegraph.

It's based on books that 'defined the noughties', rather than ones that were best selling, or any good, but there are some interesting ones on the list, including (by my reckoning) ten that we've read, and a few others (inc The Line of Beauty) that we considered.

Plus - The Onion AV Club has a shorter list, but much more in tune with our tastes.

Favourite book shops - Daunt Books

2009-11-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

There was a really good profile of Daunt Books in the Evening Standard on Friday.

Specifically why they are booking while Borders collapsed. Extract:

"Daunt Books, the five-store chain with branches in Marylebone, Hampstead and Holland Park, has seen sales rise 7% this year, with double-digit increases over the past two months.Founder James Daunt admits the recent surge is due to poor comparables, but says that business is “booming”.

“We're doing well because we have good staff who concentrate on selling good books,” he says. “The products available now are fantastic — although there isn't a single book that's doing massive business, 30 or 40 histories and biographies are selling really well.” Daunt reckons his competitive advantage is his “bricks and mortar”. His stores host author talks and events “almost every night” — next month Michael Palin and Will Self are amongst the billing. “We make our stores really nice places to come into,” he says."

Full article here

Bad Sex Awards

2009-11-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

Hilarious, if pretty much NSFW set of extracts from nominees in this year's Literary Review Bad Sex Awards, featuring work from Nick Cave, John Banville, and Philip Roth among others.

I think most sex scenes, taken out of context like this, would seem pretty hilarious; I actually like the Nick Cave one and it's made me more likely to buy the book.

Rent an Author

2009-11-27T09:53:00.000-08:00

This is a neat idea from the US - the charity 826Boston, which is dedicated to helping students aged 8-18 (no, I can't work how they got to '826Boston' either).

Raise $1,000 and your book group can have a well known author at your book group.

Any London authors want to try something similar? We can't guarantee to raise $1,000, but we can feed you lots of cheese...

Next meeting - Netherland by Joseph O'Neill - Wednesday 25th November

2009-11-22T02:40:00.000-08:00

The next meeting will take place this Wednesday, 25th, at Dan's flat in Clapham.

We'll be discussing Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, a book about New York post 9/11.

Here are some links:

The Guardian's review at the time of publication:
"At times it's hard not to wonder whether O'Neill, who's the author of an admired memoir as well as being a long-term member of the Staten Island Cricket Club, might not have done better to write a memoir-essay on New York cricket. And when Hans starts spending time with the eccentric denizens of the Chelsea, some readers might worry about what Joan Didion once called New York's "insistent sentimentalisation of experience". Yet O'Neill's take on the notion of the American dream is both unsentimental and cleverly attuned to that notion's grip on the local imagination. Perhaps stories of striving immigrants and America's ambiguous promise speak to New York reviewers on frequencies inaudible to outsiders. O'Neill has said that he wrote the book as "an American novel ... My first novel as an American novelist", and in this respect, he seems to have succeeded."

This from The Times:
"Hans's gradual understanding that the American dream has a dark underside for striving outsiders such as Chuck is particularly well rendered; for example, when Hans emerges onto the New York streets after a nightmarish tangle with the city's bureaucracy while trying to get a driver's licence. “I was seized for the first time by a nauseating sense of America, my gleaming adopted country, under the secret actuation of unjust, indifferent powers. The rinsed taxis, hissing over fresh slush, shone like grapefruits; but if you looked down into the space between the road and the undercarriage, where icy matter stuck to pipes and water streamed down the mud flaps, you saw a foul mechanical dark.” Chuck's tragedy is that he never really sees this darkness, never understands that America might value his energy while having no time for his dreams. Or, as a would-be investor in his grand venture explains, “there's a limit to what Americans understand. The limit is cricket”. "

A 5 star review on Amazon:
"If you, like me, don't care for, or even understand the game of cricket, don't fear that you'll be embroiled in endless descriptions of the thwack of leather on willow, this novel is not about cricket in that way. Cricket is a mechanism to explore the city of New York with its ability to create the diaspora of almost everywhere else. What captivates is the voice of Hans describing his life, his love for his wife, Rachel and his child, and the gift of friendship with Chuck, who has endless stories to tell, as well as fantasies to dream about.
Wry, gentle, sensuous and sensitive, Hans battles to understand himself, his wife and the city of New York and we learn much about the history of the city and its inhabitants in this stunningly intimate and moving narrative. This is an absorbing and captivating read, one of the most memorably pleasurable books I've come across this year."

& a 1 star review:
"The basic idea of this book is appealing. Cricket in New York has a quirky ring to it. Quite why the additional quirk of a Dutchman playing it has been introduced, is hard to say. It smacks of O'Neill simply trying to squeeze all the things he knows about, into one novel. It doesn't work. There is not a love of the game flowing through the words - it is too carefully aimed at Americans who have never heard of the game. Hence, the cricket-as-metaphor idea falls flat on its face. It is perfectly possible to write about cricket and the characters who love it. But not if you're trying to explain the rules to the reader. After 250 pages, you don't care what the ending is. There is no `big reveal', no satisfying outcome. Hans just stops gently whining. Nothing has hung together; nothing has resonated or given you pause for thought. This is an Emperor's New Clothes novel, which has somehow been marketed into a success, by implying that if you do not love it, you're intellectually unworthy of it."

& one final one stressing the connection / similarity with The Great Gatsby:
"Many tout this as the top book of 2008—and it's easy to see why. Netherland is a stunning read, a 21st-century send-up of The Great Gatsby—the Gatsby figure, in this case, a charming, enigmatic immigrant from Trinidad, Chuck Ramkissoon. The Nick Caraway narrator for the book is Hans van den Broek, a Dutch banker living in Manhattan, whose wife, in the aftermath of 9/11, leaves him for their home in Britain. Lost and abandoned, Hans turns to the game of cricket to fill time and alleviate his loneliness. It's how he first meets Chuck Ramkisson. O'Neill gives us a kaleidoscope view of New York—a world of immigrants and Wall Street bankers, of shifting identities and aspirations, of solitary desolation and odd relationships. Chuck, a gregarious, charasmatic, and tireless entrepreneur, draws Hans in through the force of his personality—and it's mainly through Chuck that we see the variety that is New York."

Email me (or Northernlinebookgroup@googlemail.com ) if you need the address. See you on Wednesday!

Writers don't get paid as much as you'd think

2009-11-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

This is a fascinating article written by author Lynn Viehl, whose book Twilight Fall (no, not part of the Twilight series) was a New York Times top 20 best seller.

"My advance for Twilight Fall was $50,000.00, a third of which I did not get paid until the book physically hit the shelf — this is now a common practice by publishers, to withhold a portion of the advance until date of publication. Of that $50K, my agent received $7,500.00 as her 15% (which she earns, believe me) the goverment received roughly $15,000.00, and $1594.27 went to cover my expenses (office supplies, blog giveaways, shipping, promotion, etc.) After expenses and everyone else was paid, I netted about $26K of my $50K advance for this book, which is believe it or not very good — most authors are lucky if they can make 10% profit on any book. This should also shut up everyone who says all bestselling authors make millions — most of us don’t."

Buy lots of books, and don't feel guilty about buying expensive books - the authors work hard for the money!

Missing the point

2009-11-18T09:11:00.000-08:00

I love the feature in Amazon that lets you look at reviews for a book specifically by how many stars people have given it.

For example I read Me Cheeta, the fake autobiography of the chimp in the Tarzan films, by James Lever, on a recent flight, and was laughing like a drain for a lot of it.

It's really just a very bitchy, funny, showbiz memoir, which probably makes a lot of stories up, and steals others from books like The Moon's a Balloon. It's great fun, especially if you like films from the 30s and 40s.

Some reviewers on Amazon have rather hilariously missed the point though, like this one:

"My book group read this book as we had been impressed by the reviews, but we all, without exception, thought it was awful: badly written, tedious, with no redeeming features other than the photographs. We tried, and failed, to find it amusing. We tried, and failed, to understand what the reviewers saw in it, and it's a mystery to me how it has made it onto the "long list" for the Booker prize!"

Or perhaps it's me that missed the point. Anyway, the story about David Niven, Johnny Weissmuller, two dwarfs, a lion, a Rolls Royce, and Cheeta is worth the price of the book alone - and that's only about 2 pages of it.

Next Meeting - The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene

2009-10-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

Meet tonight at the Priory Arms, at 7.30 for 8pm.

The Priory Arms is in Stockwell - Map here

There's not much information around on the novel, but here are a couple of reviews from Amazon:

Five stars

Three stars

Plus a review on a blog

Perhaps it's best known for the film adaptation by Fritz Lang - wikipedia entry here

Video trailer for the Freakonomics sequel

2009-10-16T01:07:00.000-07:00

Called Superfreakonomics, naturally...

Oh - and there's a quiz here

Ten good second hand book shops

2009-10-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

List from today's Guardian

This is the only London one - Any Amount of Books in Charing Cross Road

Are we ready for 'Vooks'?

2009-10-02T04:59:00.001-07:00

Taron sent this link to an article in the New York Times.

Extract:

On Thursday Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King, is working with a multimedia partner to release four “vooks,” which intersperse videos throughout electronic text that can be read — and viewed — online or on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
And in early September Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the television series “CSI,” released “Level 26: Dark Origins,” a novel — published on paper, as an e-book and in an audio version — in which readers are invited to log on to a Web site to watch brief videos that flesh out the plot.
Some publishers say this kind of multimedia hybrid is necessary to lure modern readers who crave something different. But reading experts question whether fiddling with the parameters of books ultimately degrades the act of reading.
“There is no question that these new media are going to be superb at engaging and interesting the reader,” said Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development at Tufts University and author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.” But, she added, “Can you any longer read Henry James or George Eliot? Do you have the patience?”

Read on here

Next meeting - Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

2009-09-29T05:53:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we'll be meeting to discuss Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey, at the Eagle Bar & Diner in Rathbone Place. Map here.

Be there at 7.30pm for 8pm.

Here are some links to explore before the meeting:

The official page on James Frey's site

Including this extract, which (I think) is clearly Frey's response to the 'Oprah' furore

Irvine Welsh loves it

The LA Times hates it

As does The Onion

Read other reviews at James Frey's blog, Big Jim Industries

Plus here's Perez Hilton's site - he's one of the most easily identifiable real people in the book

See you tomorrow!

Read the first 25 pages of Neil Gaiman's Odd and the Frost Giants

2009-09-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is his new book for kids.

Read inside the widget:

Or see it here

Lee Child's recommendations at Waterstones

2009-09-23T05:46:00.000-07:00

More recommendations from Authors at Waterstones - look out for the well piled tables in your local branch.

Lee Child has a pretty good list - quite a few thrillers as you'd expect, but also some non fiction like The Road To Wigan Pier (which is great).

See the full list here

Get a free proof copy of the new John Irving novel

2009-09-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

John 'Cider House Rules' / 'World According to Garp' Irving has a new book out soon.

Bloomsbury have 10 proof copies to give away - just send an email to sneakpeek@bloomsbury.com by the 30th September, and ten winners will be selected at random. Please include your name and address so they can send you a copy if you win.

Full Ts & Cs here

About the book:

"In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County - to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto - pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them."

According to this useful chart in Wikipedia (so it must be true), it's his 4th book to feature bears.

Sounds good!

Update - 18th November - Good things do happen - I was sent one of the proof copies of the book!

Read the first Chapter of William Boyd's Ordinary Thunderstorms for free

2009-09-09T00:40:00.000-07:00

The new William Boyd novel Ordinary Thunderstorms is out this week; read the first chapter on his site (Even though they've hidden it very well. & not given it a logical URL. Who's doing his website?)

It sounds great - a chase thriller set in modern day London.

Amazon link here

(William Boyd's Any Human Heart was voted our favourite book earlier this year)

2009 Booker Shortlist

2009-09-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

Nothing that's really grabbing me this year, unfortunately.

The list:
AS Byatt - The Children's Book
JM Coetzee - Summertime
Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze
Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall
Simon Mawer - The Glass Room
Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger

The Guardian has a good summary of each.

On second thoughts the Adam Foulds sounds intriguing:

"Poet-novelist Adam Foulds is shortlisted for The Quickening Maze, a historical reconstruction of the meeting of the poets John Clare and Alfred Tennyson at a lunatic asylum in Epping Forest. "

More Waterstones author recommendations

2009-08-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Both good selections; lots ot explore:

Sebastian Faulks - includes Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, George MacDonald Fraser (his WWII memoir, which I'd never heard of, and looks great), Anne Tyler and Emile Zola

Kate Atkinson - includes Tim Winton, Angela Carter, Lewis Carroll, Ford Maddox Ford, and Henry James.

Earlier:

Nick Hornby's list

Kate Mosse's list

Next Meeting - The Turn of The Screw by Henry James

2009-08-25T01:08:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, 26th, at 7.30pm for 8pm at The Bread and Roses, Clapham Manor Street, SW4

Map here.

Hopefully the weather will hold out and we'll be able to sit in the garden.

Wikipedia article on The Turn of The Screw

SparkNotes analysis

Amazon link, including multiple reviews

Short stories on twitter

2009-08-23T05:08:00.001-07:00

I love this challenge, issued as part of the West Port Book Festival - write a short story in under 140 characters.

Some lovely examples here (can take a while to load)

Tory MPs' summer reading lists

2009-08-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

An interesting list published by The Times, showing which bookd David Cameron has recommended Conservative MPs read over the summer break. It's a pretty solid political list, but also with lots about the conflict in Iraq. I can't find lists for the other parties; not sure if they produce or publish them.

Here's the first twelve:

Terror and Consent: The War for the Twenty-First Century, Philip Bobbitt
Tony’s Ten Years: Memories of the Blair Administration, Adam Boulton
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini
Muqtada al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq, Patrick Cockburn
Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean 1521-1580, Roger Crowley
Boris v Ken: How Boris Johnson Won London, Giles Edwards and Jonathan Isaby
Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India and Japan will Shape our Next Decade, Bill Emmott
Munich: The 1938 Appeasement Crisis, David Faber
A Million Bullets: The Real Diary of the British Army in Afghanistan, James Fergusson
A Political Suicide: The Conservatives’ Voyage into the Wilderness, Norman Fowler
A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East, Laurence Freedman
Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World, Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart

List continues here.

Influence: The Psycology of Persuasion looks quite interesting, despite the self-help style cover.

The Hills Are Stuffed With Swedish Girls

2009-08-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

We've been sent info on this book by a very kind publisher. Sounds intriguing, and they've made a great site for it, with free pages to download. I'll read it and report back...

Note to publishers - we're always open to hearing about books, and other forms of inspiration!

Trailer for Fantastic Mr Fox

2009-07-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the first trailer for the stopmotion film of Fantastic Mr Fox that I was talking about on Wednesday:

Looks like they've Americanised it a lot, which seems a shame because I've always seen it as one of the more 'British' Roald Dahl books, along with Danny The Champion of The World, unlike say Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, and James & the Giant Peach which were clearly based around America and American culture.

We shall see...

Borders Oxford Street closing down

2009-07-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

Must close in early August. In the meantime all stock (barring vouchers etc) on sale at 50% off!

Loops Journal

2009-07-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Loops Journal is a new twice-yearly literary music journal, published as a joint venture between Faber & Faber and Domino Records.

Imagine a cross between Observer Music Monthly and Granta magazine and you're in the right sort of area. The first issue is on sale now (£12) in places like Foyles, and comes with a download code that lets you download a free album.

Their site gives you a flavour of what's on offer, but not that much. Here's James Yorkston reading an extract from his piece:

James Yorkston reading his article from Loops Issue 01 from FaberBooks on Vimeo.

Also - see other Faber videos here

We've never done any music books, but it might be good to try one at some point... Any nominations? Kill Your Friends?

Next Book - Burning Your Boats by Angela Carter

2009-07-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

Kelly writes:

Our next book club meeting is next Wednesday, 28 July. We’ll meet at the Wine Wharf at Vinopolis at 7.30 for an 8.00 start. Do please let me know if you’re coming within the next day our thereabouts so I can book a table.

The book is Angela Carter’s Burning your Boats. Here’s a link to the NY Times book review

And one to an online chapter from Margaret Atwood’s Writing with Intent about the stories

and some user reviews from goodreads.com

If you don’t get through all the stories don’t worry! We’ll still love you, and we can talk about the ones that people have read.

Post-it Note Stories

2009-07-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

A very cool collection of stories illustrated by Post-it Notes, like this one The Four Minute Drug

"I knew this guy when I lived in Chicago named Dave. He was the underachieving little brother of a successful fashion designer. He was pretty paranoid and loved conspiracy theories. One night when we were out at a bar, he pointed to a poster of the moon landing and grunted. “Can you believe they’re still trying to sell us on that one?” he said."

Read on...

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

2009-07-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

Book trailers are becoming more common it seems (even if they're pretty low budget).

This one is for the sequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, from Quirk Books. Could be worth discussing!

Oh - and here's a pdf of the first 3 chapters of P&P&Z. Enjoy!

Fifty Two Stories

2009-07-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

Really nice idea - a new story by a different author is uploaded to this site every week for a year. We seem to be about half way through...

For example, The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde

Tomas by James Palumbo

2009-07-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

There's a very bizarre campaign for this book by James 'Ministry of Sound' Palumbo, currently showing all over the tube and - um - YouTube.

Do we fancy going trashy one month and giving it a go?

Here's a review by Stephen Fry:

Persepolis 2.0

2009-06-30T01:23:00.000-07:00

Have a look at this new online version of Persepolis, re-edited from the original to reflect the events of the post-election uprising. You can read the whole thing online here

Oxfam's Ox Tales

2009-06-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Watch out for Oxfam's new collections of short stories, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, collectively known as Ox Tales, to officially go on sale this week (although I've seen them on sale already, and bought the 'Water' one).

Each book has about ten short stories around the central theme. Included are some of the authors we've read, including Mark Haddon, William Boyd, Zoe Heller, Jonathan Coe, Giles Foden, DBC Pierre and Lionel Shriver.

They cost a fiver - 50p goes to Oxfam.