This is my new book blog
From now on, any posts regarding books will go here.
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Ending the year on a book
Christmas is approaching fast, and so is the new year. In the summer I set a personal goal to read thirty books, and my last pick was a free one: The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing: Everything You Need to Know about Creating and Selling Your Work. The actual content is less publication-oriented than the title suggests. It offers more insight into the writing process than marketing, but the book does contain kernels of both.
I love the book so far, and I highly recommend it to anyone pursuing writing seriously. Not only is it motivating, but it’s full of excellent advice from accomplished and well-published writers. Each section and chapter deals with a different problem area, from creating believable characters to combating writer’s block and manipulating pace effectively. The book is just as much directed toward aspiring novelists as it is writers of any form and genre, so I entreat you to give it a read—this year or the next.
Anyone else take up a book reading challenge in 2011? Are you aiming to read more starting in January?
The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Second Edition) and other helpful guides are still available as free e-books on the Writer’s Digest website.
Judging a book by its cover
eBookNewser has reported on a recent trend in the music and book publishing industries where higher quality, aesthetically pleasing product designs are being created to compensate for piracy and even digital purchases, such as e-books. The logic is that consumers are more likely to spend money on a product if its look and, I’m guessing, heft makes it more appealing to own in physical form.
This is a brilliant marketing strategy in my view because while price now greatly affects whether I purchase a print or digital copy of a book, my decision is also strongly influenced by how interesting the cover is. Whether we admit it or not, I think all bibliophiles judge books by their covers; otherwise book browsing wouldn’t make any sense. We look at shelves and tables in stores and linger on the books that catch our eye, partly for the wittiness of the title and partly for the creativity put into the book’s jacket. Sometimes there’s a funny animal on the cover, or the type treatment is smart, or we like the colors. The point is that we’re not sold purely on book reviews alone, and if a book is nice to look at, I’d much rather tote around a paperback than my Kindle.
That’s why I love graphic novels. They look so damn good on a bookshelf it’s ridiculous.
Would you be persuaded to buy physical copies of books or music if the product design and build was a little more collectible?
Books (and cookies) for the holidays
No matter what holiday you celebrate this time of year, any book reader can appreciate the thought of reading a new book, freshly printed or gently aged, amid the glow of a brightly decorated Christmas tree. That’s one favorite activity of mine, but even if you don’t celebrate Christmas or have snow falling outside your window these next few months, I encourage you to share your book plans here on the blog.
What books made your wish list? Do you have a beloved backdrop when reading? Do you prefer print or e-book? Personally, I go for both. I own a Kindle but still crave the nostalgic experience of turning pages and holding a work of creativity in my hands.
As for books, I’ve been meaning to check out The Monstrumologist, so hopefully that winds up under the Christmas tree (hint, hint).
A few October reads
October was an incredibly busy month for me, but I did manage to square away a few books. Two of them are graphic novels, but hey, who doesn’t love a good comic? On second thought, don’t answer that.
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Okay, I finally finished this bastard of a book. October has been an extremely busy month for me, and it didn’t help that The Girl Who Played with Fire was such an enormous step down in quality from the addictive and well-characterized Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The difference is more a cliff than a gentle drop.
Larsson’s second book took everything I loved about his first and spat all over it. Yes, this is an angry review.
Dragon Tattoo had an excellent build-up that hooked me and kept me interested from the second chapter onward (the first chapter is awful, but nevermind). The character perspectives were well-balanced, the detail of narrative was a good counterpoint to the suspense, and I started to understand why people love Lisbeth Salander so much.
Girl Who Played with Fire removes everything admirable from her personality and forces her into a cookie-cutter girl-power mold. The biggest change with her occurs very early on in the book, and it has to do with cup size (the end). While I can’t say that Larsson made her totally unappealing—she does rock some awesome moments, especially later on—he has made her more of an open book. Literally. We learn a lot about Lisbeth’s past, and it’s both compelling and terrible because Larsson spends so much time cutting her down and skinning her motivations so that they become transparent, uncomplicated, and boring. It’s a dual and very convoluted transformation, and Larsson is still busy pretending that she’s a mystery when he’s removed everything interesting and original about her mind and behavior.
The book also spends a lot of time switching back and forth between at least a dozen characters, and this is way too excessive for it’s own good. I much prefer the careful and controlled moderation of Dragon Tattoo. Plus, here I got to read the perspectives of various characters I didn’t care to know that intimately. Often they were mundane characters anyway, although a few gained my affection, and even still, Larsson makes it painfully clear that he has a prose formula that involves coffee and sandwiches and overnight visits with sexually open and forward women, a characterization and event that is both refreshingly frank (not all women are submissive or timid when it comes to matters of the bedroom) and seriously annoying because Larsson could have at least offset the sexually in-charge females with a couple good-wife types, but he chose not to take full advantage of his own clever thinking.
Because of the hodgepodge of characters, the plot is severely less interesting than the former book’s, and it failed miserably to capture my interest and hold it. The book does improve, but it took a long time to stoke its potential. For a book titled The Girl Who Played with Fire, it sure does need a lesson on passion and the benefits of impulsive and unpredictable writing. What we get is slow-building and dragged out, and not in the smart way Dragon Tattoo was.
Worst of all, Girl Who Played with Fire just gets cheesy, and at certain intervals I even felt embarrassed for Larsson for succumbing to such cliched and overwrought writing and plot points. I even finished the book aggravated because he ended it with such a blatant and unfair cliffhanger, which is the most unforgivable thing he could have done after boring me for so long and then finally managing to work up my interest. Now I’m cornered into reading the final book, which is supposed to be the best of the three as it happens, but if it wasn’t I wouldn’t budge on the issue. I would refuse to read Book Three. Thanks for 600 pages of torture and pain, Larsson. You really are good at this S&M stuff—which, by the way, you took to indulgent extremes. I need a really long shower now.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Because it’s a telling of one gamer’s lifelong quest for personal acceptance despite the demands of higher education, adulthood, and familial obligations, the comic is a bit aimless. You just have to sit back and go with it, wherever it decides to take you. I was deciding whether to buy this book as a gift for someone when I read it, so I’m not the most reliable judge of its narrative stability—I was obsessed with figuring out whether the intended receiver of the book would enjoy it, since it would have a more personal attachment for him than the common reader.
Still, it won me over and I went to the register with the book in hand. Yes, it’s largely about video games, but it’s not as filled with nerdy references as would something like Scott Pilgrim. The story veers into more serious discussions and events, so it’s more about life happening than it is about playing video games without shame or repercussions. This protagonist isn’t the lovable slacker Scott Pilgrim, whose greatest accomplishment would forever be gaining an extra life and powers of awesome. This book is a little more real world, and the real world can suck.
That’s not to say the book is dull or even uncomfortable. But it’s more emotional than the usual comic about video game love would be. And by the end, it ties everything together not neatly and conveniently, but in a way that speaks to a lot of us. It’s not about settling; it’s about opening yourself to the best of both worlds and finding happiness with what’s there in front of you, instead of trying to escape into a virtual world and running away from your problems in the real one. It’s a solid read, but maybe not what most people would expect.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lee Bermejo, who has illustrated such fascinating character tellings as Joker and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, sets down his brush long enough to try his hand at writing. His storytelling is, incredulously, as amazing and dedicated as his artwork. In Batman: Noel, he cleverly infuses Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with the superhero icon Batman and his city of Gotham, assigning Barbara Ciardo the role of colorist. Bermejo still provides visuals that will take your breath away, but this time he lets Ciardo light them all aglow in snowy whites and holiday reds, blues, and yellows. Superman himself illuminates a trash-heaped alley with his usual primary colors, now festively bright and cheery.
The only thing that suffers in Bermejo’s script is the ending, which is kind of abrupt and lacking, but otherwise Noel is a captivating and intelligent read. It’s definitely a perfect gift for comic book fans this winter season.
Keep an eye out for my interview with Lee Bermejo. I’ll update my review here with the link, or you can visit whatistechnoagain.com for new postings.
