KateT
I can't tell you how heartened I am to find this site! It seems that these are glum, benighted times, when not only is the reader's voice unheard, but the writer has been gagged also!
I am a best-selling author of nine novels (one has been published under a nom-de-plume). My tenth novel has just been (self) published, and has the distinction of being the very first Indie publication to be reviewed by 'heat' magazine. You can find out more about me by going to www.kate-thompson.com, and you can find out about my latest book by going to www.loveliesbleedingthebook.com - or simply by Googling 'The Clandestine Chapters'
Thank-you so much for taking the time to read this. I really hope you will support this venture, because the Independent of 12th March reports that: 'Some of the most distinguished names in British literature attended a crisis meeting called by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) at the British Library to discuss the plummeting income of authors and the copyright issues that threaten to make it worse. Some raged against Google's plans to make whole books available online for free.
But most were there to discuss authors' dwindling incomes: when you take away the superstar authors who are earning shedloads, the actual figure for the rest is closer to £4,000. That's less than it was last time anyone looked, seven years ago, and far less than the distant days when the Net Book Agreement kept prices high. Forget living on baked beans in a garrett; this is barely enough to buy stale bread and a tarpaulin for shelter. And it is only for the lucky ones: fewer authors are being signed up unless they're famous, advances are shrinking, and those who sell only moderately well are dropped, ending careers early.'
Food for thought, lads. Or, actually, should that read - no food for thought, lads?
PS: I'm thrilled that my top 5 books have been featured on the Booktribes Homepage, and that I've won a copy of Black Swan Green!
total of 0 books
Posted on Tue, 2007-04-03 23:00
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
A failure of translation? No, I don't think so. Maybe Hoeg was under pressure to meet a deadline, or maybe he just lost confidence in his protagonist. I have to say that I found Smilla to be uncharacteristically - and unpleasantly - brutish in the final scenes of the book.
Posted on Tue, 2007-04-03 22:16
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow
I agree that the book lost its way towards the end, and at this point Smilla was - for me - no longer convincing. I think I've made the point elsewhere on these boards that I am yet to discover a man who can write convincingly from a female perspective - with the notable exception of William Trevor.
Posted on Sun, 2007-04-01 23:04
Lolita
I wouldn't call it a slim work! It's a long time since I read it - and I adored it - but for the most sophisticated of Nabokov's word play, you must try 'Ada'.
Posted on Sat, 2007-03-31 22:56
Enduring Love
You must try The Child in Time. The sequence in the supermarket when the protagonist, Stephen, searches for his small daughter is one I shall never forget.
Posted on Sun, 2007-03-25 21:22
Riders
Yes - loved it. Jilly Cooper, Margaret Mitchell and Daphne du Maurier saved my soul when I re-read their work after studying Eng Lit at TCD. Only so much analysis one can do! Whatever happened to reading for pure fun?!
Posted on Sun, 2007-03-25 18:54
Silver Sword
Hey - you're just awakened a dormant memory in me! I loved this book as a child. Other books I half-remember are The Owl Service, Children of the New Forest and A Dog So Small. Does anyone else have half-remembered books?
Posted on Thu, 2007-03-22 00:04
Lord of the Flies
I read this when I was very young, around about the same time I read Henry James's Turn of the Screw. I just remember being horribly, thrillingly chilled by the books, I guess because they both investigate the potential for evil in children, which - as a child reader - I found both intriguing and unsettling. They haunt me still - both of them, as do the brilliant film versions by Peter Brook (Lord of the Flies) and Jack Clayton (Turn of the Screw, retitled The Innocents).
Posted on Wed, 2007-03-21 23:41
Beach
Thre were moments! The leap into the hidden lagoon was pretty memorable.
Posted on Sun, 2007-03-18 15:39
Wide Sargasso Sea
Agree! 'Sargasso Sea' is a gorgeous, richly textured read, and I like to think Charlotte Bronte would have approved. I can't imagine that Margaret Mitchell would have endorsed any aspect of 'Scarlett' - the ghastly sequel to 'Gone With the Wind' penned a decade or so ago. As far as I can remember, 'Scarlett' was commissioned, so the book was inspired by glittering venality rather than any glittering muse. Never a good idea...
Posted on Mon, 2007-03-12 18:47
Titus Groan
Yes, yes, yes! And his illustrations are pure genius.
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow