The Bibliovore

Working for The Devil

2006-10-05T16:45:00.000Z

Things have been a little quiet on the blog recently, and I'm afraid it's down to sheer laziness rather than a lack of interesting stuff going on. That doesn't bode very well for my efforts at NaNoWriMo, I suppose. You may remember that I was planning to sign on to www.nanowrimo.org to join in a group effort to write an entire 50,000-word novel in a month. Well I signed up just after the site opened up to new registrations of the 1st of October, and I've since been happily puttering away on their forums asking questions and electronically mingling with like-minded aspiring authors. The mood is really supportive and the place is packed with constructive advice, so if, like me, you've been planning or writing that blockbuster for a few years now, I highly recommend you take a look.

As for books, I finished reading Air by Geoff Ryman and my opinion of it remains unchanged, even if I was a little disappointed by the ending. I'm afraid the whole concept of the main character having a baby develop in her stomach rather than her womb and then giving birth through her mouth (ick!) was a little too far-fetched for me. I can't really see how it was necessary to the plot and I'm afraid it seriously strained my suspension of disbelief. Nevertheless, it's still high-concept stuff that dares to be different.

I've since started reading Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow. I suppose you could call it an "Urban Fantasy" in that it's set in the future and makes ample use of ultra-technology like plasma rifles and hovercars, but still incorporates magic and runes and more "traditional" non-human fantasy races like demons. It's certainly got plenty of action, but sometimes it's a little light on explaination and you're left wondering exactly what a "Skinlin" is, or what the difference is between a Shaman and Necromance. It's fast and punchy and fun in places, but I wouldn't rate the quality of writing all that highly. Saintcrow repeats things far too often and her dialogue is sometimes too implausible for comfort, but it's entertaining enough to keep me reading so far.

Air

2006-09-25T15:08:00.000Z

I never actually got around to reading End of the World Blues by John Courtenay Grimwood because I my attention was diverted by something far better. I'm actually about half-way through Air by Geoff Ryman, and it's proving to be quite rewarding. It's the first SF title I've read in quite a while, and while there may be better books I could have chosen for a return to the genre, there probably aren't many. What makes this book different and worthwhile is the fact that it's set in the tiny village of Kizuldah in a (fictional) impoverished third-world central Asian country called Karzistan, where there's an intriguing mix of Buddhist and Muslim living side-by-side.

Kizuldah is the last village in the world to go on-line, but the whole internet is about to be made obsolete by a global wireless system called "Air" in which information is beamed directly into peoples' minds without the need for implants or access to technology of any kind. Suddenly, everyone in the world can contact anyone else, regardless of whether they have access to the net or even a computer. Every place on the planet will be connected through Air, even forgotten little corners of the world like the village of Kizuldah.

The book explores how the villagers come to terms with the prospect of this life-changing development and how it affects their lives. The main character, a middle-aged "fashion expert" called Mae, decides that if she cannot stop the coming of Air, she can at least help the villagers prepare for it by educating them via the existing internet. Others in the village however, see the net and Air as a threat to their very way of life and try to destroy the couple of access points they have. Ryman does a great job of bringing the village to life and of making us see that sometimes the "have-nots" might not want to have...

My only sticking point is the main character of Mae. At the start of the book she comes across as bitchy and shallow, and this may put some readers from persevering with the story, as it's hard to empathise with her. Those who stick with it will be rewarded, though, as she develops from an acidic, self-centred gossip to a much warmer deeper woman who is determined to do all she can to survive and to help her village at the same time. Anyway it's a departure from the usual slick SF that's set in America or the cooler parts of Japan. By maintaining an earthy edge and focusing on real human concerns and how technology affects our relationships with each other, Ryman really sets this book apart. Well worth a look.

Fity-page Flops and the Inner Bouncer

2006-09-19T10:27:00.000Z

Not so long ago, there was a time when I'd feel guilty if I didn't finish reading an entire book all the way through, no matter how awful it was. I'd force myself to wade through the most awful, steaming piles of crap ever written because there was some tiny part of my brain that believed every book should be given a chance before passing judgement. As a result of this little inner critic, I've had to endure ridiculous plots, flat, lifeless characters, atrocious dialogue and some truly lazy writing in which the protagonists stand around and explain huge lumps of the plot to each other for the supposed benefit of the reader (Dan Brown, I'm looking at you...).

At some undefined point in my life, however, I realised that life was simply too short for crap books. I had that wimpy little inner critic shot for incompetence, then hired a much bigger, burlier critic with a monobrow and far less tolerance for drivel. Kind of like a bouncer, but literate. Since then I've been able to enjoy books guilt-free, secure in the knowledge that I can simply toss the bad ones aside as soon as they started to stink the place up. I decided that if an author wasn't able to maintain my interest past fifty pages, then it was his fault, not mine.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

2006-09-14T15:30:00.000Z

I haven't actually finished reading Bedroom Secrets of The Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh yet, but that's because I was sidetracked by Bill Bryson. It took me about three days to read The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid but it felt far shorter than that. I finished it on a packed train on the way home from Waterloo yesterday, and once I'd turned the last page I actually felt disappointed that it was all over and that there was nothing left. I was suddenly and cruelly booted back into the modern world, where you pay a fortune for the privilege of being herded like cattle in a sauna, and where a fellow commuter was happily drooling on my shoulder in drowsy oblivion. Anyway, it's certainly one of the warmest, funniest things I've read in a long time and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone in need of a chuckle. Crowd or no crowd, I laughed out loud on the train at a couple of parts, and the rest of the time I was fighting to keep the sniggers under control.

It doesn't really sound like the sort of thing you'd find funny. Bryson basically waxes nostalgic about his childhood in 50's Iowa and paints a pretty vivid picture of what life was like before the unstoppable rise of TV and the total dominance of the motor car. But his self-deprecating wit and refreshing honesty make this a really entertaining read. From describing his annual attempts to get into the stripper's tent at the Iowa State Fair to the time his friends accidentally blew up their house in an ambitious prank gone bad, he keeps you turning the pages until, all too soon, there are none left. I think I would comfortably have finished this in a day if I'd had the time, but it's definitely worth a look. Not sure what I'll read next - perhaps I'll give John Courtenay Grimwood's End of the World Blues a try as I haven't read much scifi lately.

Booker Shortlist

2006-09-14T15:03:00.000Z

Just a quick post first. The six shortlisted books for the Booker prize have been announced and are:

Author Title Publisher

Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss Hamish Hamilton

Grenville, Kate The Secret River Canongate

Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down Canongate

Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men Viking

St Aubyn, Edward Mother's Milk Picador

Waters, Sarah The Night Watch Virago

These were chosen from a longlist of 19 and I'm surprised that David Mitchell didn't make it, but I'm glad that Hisham Matar did. I have a sneaky suspicion that Sarah Waters will win...

Brilliant Blags

2006-09-11T16:38:00.000Z

A few more fantastic freebies today, one of which I can't believe I got. Apart from a copy of John Courtenay Grimwood's End of the World Blues, I managed to get my hands on a proof of Barry Unsworth's The Ruby in Her Navel (which is on the Booker Shortlist), and a "Specially Produced Bound Manuscript" of John Le Carre's The Mission Song. It says on the cover that it's one of just five copies, so I'm going to take extra-special care of it until it's worth millions and I can retire to the Maldives.

However, by far and away my best blag today was the numbered proof of Stephen King's new novel, Lisey's Story, which is apparently due out this November. I'm a huge Stephen King fan and would consider doing seriously illegal things in order to meet him, so this is one I'm really looking forward to reading. I also heard through the grapevine that there's a good chance he'll be coming to the UK in November to promote this, so stay tuned for further info. If I can actually have my picture taken with the man, I may be too awestruck to actually say anything beyond the odd wheeze or burble.

Fantastic Freebies

2006-09-08T16:22:00.000Z

One of the best things about working where I do is the fact that I have access to lots of lovely freebies. Publishers regularly send us proof copies or advance reading copies or even trade copies of loads and loads of new titles, and all of the spares are loaded onto a trolley where people can just help themselves. When I was working at the bookstore we'd also get a few proofs now and then, but never anything on this scale. Even sweeter is the fact that if there isn't anything on the trolley that takes my fancy, I can just email my contact at the relevant publishers and ask very nicely for something I'm interested in, and they'll almost always send me a copy (at least they have so far).

Today I was very excited to receive a brand-spanking-new copy of Bill Bryson's latest hardback, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. It looks like he's apparently returning to form after his brief foray into popular science and keeping it light and funny again, and I can't wait to finish the Irvine Welsh I'm on so I can start reading it. Bryson's warm and humorous recollections of his 50's upbringing in Iowa should make a nice change from the hardcore scottish alcoholism and substance abuse I'm working my way through at the moment. Oh, and the people at Transworld Publishing are very nice indeed - you can tell them I said so.

The best-laid plans...

2006-09-07T13:57:00.000Z

Following on from my previous post, I'm totally going for NaNoWriMo this year and I think I can make it. If you break it down, 50,000 words in one month is only 1,667 words a day and I think I can do that in about three hours. I've been know to churn out 750 words in half an hour, but that was a totally disjointed stream-of-consciousness splurge that I probably wouldn't be able to keep up for any sustained length of time.

I know that if I just try to wing it and write "whenever I get the chance", I'm never going to find the time. Therefore I've been incredibly geeky and practical and put together a daily schedule for the month of November to make sure I get enough writing time in each day and still get enough sleep as well. By getting up an hour earlier every morning, writing while I commute and writing some more during my lunch break, I can squeeze in a respectable three hours a day before I get home from work. The rest of the evening is then mine to have dinner and relax in guilt-free bliss until I hit the hay.

That's the plan, in any case. Time will tell if I can actually stick to it.

NaNoWriMo

2006-09-05T13:35:00.000Z

If you just took a look at the heading above and thought that I'd had an epileptic fit at the keyboard, don't worry, I'm fine and dandy. NaNoWriMo is actually short for National Novel Writing Month, and you can find out all you need to know at www.nanowrimo.org. It's an online communtiy devoted to getting people to write - not to edit, not plan to write, but to actually write.

The whole idea is to have everybody sign up and start writing to the same deadlines and to the same goals. Starting on the stroke of midnight on the 1st of November, everyone who enters will try to write an entire 50,000-word novel by midnight on November the 30th. By focusing on sheer output, writers are free to churn out anything that comes into their heads without stopping to edit or fuss about it. There's an overwhelming surge of creativity as thousands of people across the globe start frantically pounding away at their keyboards, desperately trying to make their word-count. You can edit as much as you want later, but the whole point is to make the deadline.

I think I'm going to go for it. Those who know my personal circumstances will also know that the 1st of November might not be the best time for me to try and write an entire bloody novel in a month. But that's the whole point, isn't it? There will always be another excuse not to start writing and life will always interfere if you let it. If I can devote myself to cranking out 1,6666 words a day for 30 days, I might just have what it takes to keep going and polish my work up to a publishable standard, and then persevere even further and find an agent. At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to try and scale back the 100,000-word novel I've already outlined back down to 50,000 words or whether I'll start an entirely new novel from scratch, but I'm sure as hell going to write something.

I might not make it to 50,000 in time - few do. But who knows? It can't hurt to try, and the only thing I'm likely to lose is my sleep.

Grit and Ink

2006-09-04T12:13:00.000Z

Like many book lovers and booksellers, I'm also an amateur writer and have been working on something of my own a couple of years now. It's one of those projects that progresses in fits and starts - I'll work on it for a couple of months in my spare time (i.e. on the train to work and during lunch breaks), then put it back on the shelf for a while as life takes over. So far I've done all the character creation, worldbuilding and the full plot outline from beginning to end, and right now I'm working on the scene-by-scene outline. That will give me a step-by-step guide to how I want to write the thing, and then once that's done I can take a deep breath and start on the actual first draft. I'm aiming for a total of 100,000 words, and at a conservative estimate of 500 words a day it looks like it's going to take me a while...

I have no idea if this is ever going to be published. I know just how tough the market is out there and I know for a fact that there are many writers with more perseverance than I have who have tried and tried and have never caught a break. However you do still hear stories of the lucky ones. New author Scott Lynch was discovered when he published excerpts of his book The Lies of Locke Lamora on his blog for some friends. An agent caught wind of the hype, checked it out and signed him on. Now there's talk of a possible movie and Lynch has been locked in for a seven-book series. But while there's nothing wrong with taking every opportunity to make your work known, it would be a mistake to think that there are any shortcuts to getting published. The vast majority of new authors got where they are today through the usual slog of submitting work and continuing to knock on doors despite repeated rejection. While some people might think that writing is an easy alternative to a "real" career, it looks like authors actually need a hell of a lot of self-discipline, determination and old-fashioned grit if they want to be successful. Writing the damn book is actually the easy part...

Free Books For Everyone!

2006-09-01T15:49:00.000Z

Google are now giving people the ability to download entire books for free via their BookSearch facility. All non-copyrighted books can now be downloaded, which means that if you have a few reams of paper handy and are in the mood, you can now print out the complete works of Shakespeare or Dante's Inferno for gratis. A lot of publishers really hate this idea and have spoken out against it, but I'm not so sure it's a bad thing.

Just because someone can print out a classic at home, it doesn't mean that they'll stop buying much nicer-looking published editions from the shops. Indeed when you print something out, all you'll have is bare text on a stack of A4 paper which you'll then need to organise and bind into something a little more manageable. Somethow I can't see a nice leatherbound set of Shakespeare being replaced by a row of ring binders. And even though the text itself is free, in some (admittedly few) instances it may actually still be cheaper to buy the book than to print it out. I'm not sure how much a ream of printer paper costs these days, but a Dover Thrift edition of Huckleberry Finn costs £1.25 new on Amazon - that's still hard to beat.

So I don't think that cost is really the issue here - those that want to spend plenty of money on classics with lots of additional notes and commentary will continue to do so, and those who want cheap editions can still get them at the shops. I actually see this being more useful to students and researchers and the like who need to get their hands on the whole text of a novel fast for a project or something like that. When you need to take notes and mark up a text, plain A4 is probably the way to go.

I think this could actually be a good thing for publishers as well as the public. As I understand it, the copyright on a book runs out 50 years after the author's death (or is it 75 years? I'm sure someone will know...), so once a writer has been dead that long, why shouldn't their work be made available free to the world at large? Publishers would certainly love to be able to keep control of everything, but how much of a hit in the pocket would they really take when a classic becomes free? They can continue to produce great-looking editions that people will want to buy, but people should be able to enjoy the option of free downloads as well if they want to. In fact I think that releasing older books into the public domain would probably force publishers to focus on new and existing talent rather than relying on the old standbys. They should be taking chances on promoting exciting new writers so that we as readers can continue to enjoy fresh talent.

Come to think of it, Project Gutenburg (www.gutenburg.org) already provide a library of 17,000 free ebooks whose copyright has expired, and have done for ages. I'm not sure if publishers made much of a fuss back then, but it certainly hasn't affected their profits.

Anyway, that's just my two cents. No doubt some enterprising people out there are already working out ways of starting a print-on-demand publishing company that will produce nice editions of non-copyrighted books for a fee. Just imagine being able to order an edition of The Illiad in your choice of cloth or leather, on your choice of paper, and even in your choice of font! I'm sure there's tons of money to be made here somewhere...

Mount To-Be-Read

2006-08-31T11:57:00.000Z

As any serious reader out there will know, there's never enough time to get through all the books you want to read. I tend to hoard anything that looks vaguely interesting with the honest intention of reading it later, but in the end the books just pile up and pile up as newer, even more interesting stuff gets added to the list. A friend of mine was spot-on when she once called this towering pile "Mount To-Be-Read"...

My situation has actually worsened now that I've got a new job that's closer to home. Rather than the leisurely train journey that I used to take each day, my new commute only takes me half an hour each way. I've barely settled into what I'm reading before it's time to put the book away. It's gotten so bad that I actually tried getting up an hour earlier today so that I could have some blissfully quiet reading time to myself in the morning with a cup of tea. I was initially quite chuffed at coming up with such an elegantly simple solution, but as soon as the alarm went off at 6am this morning I just hurled the bloody thing across the room and went back to sleep until the slightly more civilised hour of 7am...

Colonial Chinese

2006-08-30T15:19:00.000Z

When you work in retail you're essentially dealing with the public day in and day out, which means you have to be able to handle pretty much any weirdo that walks in off the street. When you work as a bookseller that's compounded by the fact that you also have to deal with a whole new subspecies of literary weirdo. One of my colleagues once had to deal with a guy who cornered her when she was working alone upstairs towards the end of the day. He wanted to order some books (no problems there, always happy to help, sir) , but he wanted them in a hurry because the aliens were going to take him away to another dimension in a couple of weeks...

And then there was the mystery customer who left a (mercifully empty) condom wrapper placed neatly on my till, or the gentleman who grabbed a book from the front of the store, walked through the main hall, up the stairs and right to the back of the shop, only to hand me the book and ask me how much it cost, whereupon I turned the book over, looked at the back cover and told him.

What is it with bookshops and oddballs? Don't get me wrong - most of the book-buying public are perfectly polite and reassuringly normal, but there are worrying numbers of people who wander into bookshops after having apparently left their brains or their manners at home (frequently both). Yes, I am standing behind a till. No, that does not mean that I am mentally deficient. Nor does it mean that you can swear at me when I tell you we don't carry books on bestiality, and nor does does it mean that you can let your toddler piss on a stack of books and cause £200 worth of damage because you're upset that we haven't got any customer toilets. Some of the stuff we have to contend with just beggars belief, and there's a reason my employers train their staff on how to avoid conflict and defuse potentially dangerous situations with abusive customers.

Sometimes the customers aren't so much abusive as...confused. When I was an eager rookie, I once answered a call from a lady who wanted to know if we had a book about "Colonial Chinese". I dutifully looked through the database for her, but to no avail. She didn't know the exact title or the author or the publisher, but she was adamant that there was a book about "Colonial Chinese" currently available and she wanted it. After about twenty minutes of fruitless searching with the phone glued to my ear, I heard some muffled whispering as she conferred with someone, only to inform me that she was actually after a language book on "Colloquial Chinese"...To top it off, she actually had a copy in the house and just wanted another one. As I battled the red mist that was descending before my eyes, I told her that it would probably be a good idea if she fetched it so that we could have a look at the details...

What the hell am I doing here?

2006-08-30T12:21:00.000Z

Everywhere I go on the web, it seems like everyone has their own blog. Some of the other book-related blogs out there in particular look as if they've been going on for years. So I have to admit that I was a little nervous at the idea of starting one of my own. Sure I loved books, that much was obvious, but was there anything I could possibly say about them that hadn't already been said a thousand times, and far more eloquently? When I looked at the likes of The Woolomaloo Gazette and some of the others out there, I had to wonder whether I wasn't just wasting my time.

Then I just decided "Sod it - I'm not aiming for a Pulitzer here, I'm just sharing my thoughts about books, book-selling, and the literary world in general." I'm not a published author or a noted publisher or even a celebrity blogger (maybe that should be "celeblogger"...) but I knows what I likes, dammit! I've been a bookseller for a few years and I'm still employed by one of the UK's largest specialist book retailers, so I'm in a good position to know what customers are like and what goes on in the book trade itself. I've had to deal with nutters on the shop floor and have had the pleasure of meeting and organising events for authors like Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Wilson, so maybe someone out there will find my random burblings vaguely interesting!

Anyway, I'm still reading Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh, and it's getting really good. I'll write a review as soon as I'm done, but as I only get to read for an hour each day during my commute to and from work, this may be a little while yet...

The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot

2006-08-29T19:47:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago, I finally came to the end of The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren. Perhaps the title is less of a mouthful in the original Swedish, but the book itself was nevertheless very good indeed. Translated fiction has never been something I typically read so I surprised myself by picking this up in the first place, but I'm certainly glad I did. Perhaps the fact that it was a free publisher's proof had something to do with it...

The story is a dark and powerful picaresque tale with more than a hint of the Gothic, and it recounts the terrible misfortunes that beset the eponymous hero from his dramatic birth to his death just over a century later. Deaf, dumb and horrendously deformed, Hercules is forced from the start to struggle for love and acceptance. Only his transcendent love for Henriette Vogel allows him to survive in a suspicious and superstitious world that fears and despises him.

Hercules and Henriette are born within minutes of each other to prostitutes on a wildly stormy night in 1819. Henriette is a picture of health and beauty, but Hercules' deformities are so severe that his mother dies in childbirth and he is thereafter left to the surprisingly tender care of the assorted prostitutes in the German brothel that comprises his whole world. Hidden from visitors and kept away from the outside world, Hercules quickly forms an unbreakable bond with Henriette that is to sustain him throughout his lifetime. The crux of the story lies in the fact that although he is physically weak, Hercules has the ability to read and influence the minds of those around him. The book makes it clear that this is both a blessing and a curse - while it undoubtedly gives him great power over people, it also allows him to see into the very darkest corners of the human mind and to see the revulsion he evokes in people around him.

When the brothel is closed down, Hercules is torn from his beloved Henriette and from the only world he knows and is thrown into chaos and cruelty. His life from that point is a series of disasters - from being thrown into a nightmarish lunatic asylum to being forced to flee for his life from murderous agents of the Vatican who believe he is demonically possessed. Indeed the only thing that helps him survive and to cling on to his sanity are his mental abilities and his undying love for Henriette. In this, the story is as much about the irresistible power of love to overcome all things as it is a tale of unending woe. Vallgren does a fantastic job of evoking the reader's sympathy for his misshapen hero, and even when he later uses his abilities to do some truly terrible things, we can nevertheless understand the pain that drives him, and even (if we are honest) cheer him on a bit. Trust me - read the book and you'll see what I mean. As gruesome and surreal as some of the scenes are, they always pack an emotional punch.

In the end the strong dual themes of revenge and redemption through love were what made this book great for me. Vallgren resists the temptation to descend into farce or to present the world in black and white. His characters are strong and real and he plays on your emotions with a deft and subtle touch. Definitely worth picking up...

2006-08-25T13:56:00.000Z

I'm crazy about books - always have been. As soon as I was old enough to read I totally immersed myself in stories and utterly devoured every book I could get my hands on. Nowadays I'm a little more discerning about what I read, but there are still never enough hours in the day to get through all the books I want to. I only ever used to read Scifi and Fantasy (with a smattering of fiction), but over the past few years my interests have expanded substantially. Now I read a lot more Fiction as well as Biographies, Travel Writing, and pretty much anything to do with food. Occasionally I'll read some Popular Science or History, but I've never really gotten into Crime for some reason.

I'm definitely an avid (if amateur) collector. Sometimes I'll try and buy a signed first edition because of it's importance or because of it's inherent value or simply because I've read the book and loved it. However I have been known to buy old books simply because of their sheer beauty. I have a few cherished leatherbound volumes at home that smell just the way old books should. None of them are really worth anything, but just looking at them and handling them makes me deeply happy.

This is the first time I've ever really tried to maintain a blog and my aim is to review books I've enjoyed, muse a bit about my experiences as a bookseller, and generally share my love and enthusiasm for all things literary. I'll try to keep my personal politics out of here and just make this a purely book-related blog as I can always post those kinds of opinions somewhere else. I'll try to read and review a wide variety of genres, but I guess there will always be a slight bias towards scifi, simply because that's what i've always enjoyed.

Anyway, I hope you like what you find here, and you're always welcome to comment or share your views or even recommend other titles you're excited about. At the moment I'm reading Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh. I've never read anything by him before and I'm quite enjoying it. I'll be reviewing it properly as soon as I'm done, but before that I'll post a review of The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred by Carl-Johan Vallgren.

Thanks for stopping by!