Full Reading Record

Recently I took a look at my side bar and realised that my Reading Record was getting a little chunky. I've decided to keep the record here and will add it to BLOG EXTRA to keep as an archive  and trim off that list to just include the most recent year.

2014
May - American Psycho, The Bone Season, Gone Girl
June  - Popular: A Memoir, The Land Where Lemons Grow, Throne of Glass, Macbeth, Don't Tell The Boss
July - Dead Ends, What Was Promised, How to be a Woman, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Eat My Heart Out, Patient
August  -We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Behind The Beautiful Forevers, The Shock of The Fall
September - After Me Comes The Flood
October  - Heir of Fire, The Great Gatsby, Frankenstein
November - Her
December - Three Men In A Boat, There Will Be Lies

2015
January - The Minaturist, How To Win Friends And Influence People
February - An Echo In The Bone, Maggot Moon, The Secret Garden
March - Written In My Own Heart's Blood, Smoke and Mirrors, Rasputin's Daughter
April - The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year
May - Pride and Prejudice, Trigger Warning
June - The Architect's Apprentice, Birds Without Wings
July - Chickenhawk
August - The Moor's Account
September -The Life I Left Behind, Burnt Paper Sky, Chimes
October - Orlando, Vathek
November - The Bone Clocks
December - Sense and Sensibility, The Mistress Contract, The Poet's Wives

(24)

2016
January - Sea of Poppies, Umbrella
February - Lila, Emma
March - Shantaram
April - The Help, Americanah
May - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
June - The Old Mann & The Sea, Queenie, The Signature of All Things, The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society
July - The Moth, Binge, The Widow, Armada
August - The Man in The High Castle, Eat Pray Love, Leaving Atocha Station
September - Look Who's Back, Queen of Shadows
October - The Box of Delights
November - Blackass
December - Love Letters to the Dead

(25)

2017
January - Captain Corelli's Manolin, Othello, Playing with the Grown-ups
February - Half of a Yellow Sun,

Six Inspiring Movies

Talking of staying focused on reading schedules, here is a perfectly fair distraction. Almost as much as I love reading I love movies. I've always enjoyed films and love going to the cinema or snuggling up to watch an old favourite on VHS! I thought it would be a good idea to combine my two loves with a list of movies that inspire me to read some more.

Pride and Prejudice
Top of the list, front and centre is the brilliant Pride and Prejudice. I'm cheating a little here because I'm actually talking about the 1992 BBC TV series, so it's not technically a film, but I've never watched it in episodes and have only devoured it as a single mammoth film. While the emphasis on books is not as obvious there is a subtle current all the way through that we should all be broadening our minds "with extensive reading."  Cue swooning and picking up a book to flash at the boy you fancy. See this? I'm broadening my mind. If reading can land Lizzie Bennett a husband that's good enough for me. The whole film has shots of the sisters reading and their father spends most of his time locked up in his library wish a book in hand.

Iris
One of the most beautiful films in the world that never fails to make me cry. Author Iris Murdoch died of alzheimers and the film shows the process. I've never read any of her books, but I have just added one or two to my wish list for Christmas. It combines a few things that are dear to my heart. Biopics, Authors, Books, Kate Winslet and Judie Dench, Alzheimers. I was blown away by the film and it always makes me desperate to read, live, and love. It's based on her husband's book about the situation, Elegy For Iris.

Ink Heart
How to explain Ink Heart. It's about a man who when he reads aloud, his characters come to life, which means he could read out a villain and read IN people from the real world. Which is just what happens. HE and his daughter, who has a similar gift, travel the country looking for another copy of the book that his wife was read into. It is fantastical, it has Paul Bettany in it and is a bit of a whirlwind movie. It's good fun certainly and is all about books and reading and oral traditions and writing.

Becoming Jane
Another favourite that comes to mind is Becoming Jane. Partly for Anne Hathaway and James MacAvoy, arguably the best looking couple in cinema. Still they talk about books, and writing and definitely inspires reading to me. Its a fictional depiction of Jane Austin's life where we see the inspiration for several of her novels peppered through the story. I love the film and will instantly transport me into the kind of dreamy reverie that Jane Austin always delivers. I might even pick up one of her novels after watching it.

Dead Poets Society
It wouldn't be a movie list without Robin Williams featuring. One of the most fun films about teaching enthusiasm and joy for reading. If you're not reading poetry by the end of it your heart must be made of stone. It's such a powerful and sad film and is full of fun. I always want to pick up a book after I watch it so it's perfect for this list.

The History Boys
Definitely worthy of the title of inspiring. If only to put your nose into your books and love them. It's also so well crafted in terms of script, the way that they all talk is just fabulous and might make you a bit of a difficult person to be around for a few hours as you try to emulate them. See what I mean? Anyway, there is love of films, poetry, books and culture all wrapped up in this film and if you're not inspired to read anything they suggest, it inspires me to do what I love, which is to read.

How To Write Spooky Stories

It's Halloween tomorrow night and my tradition is to read by candle light. Something about the flickering shadows spooks me. There is a superstition to have a candle burn at your window to let the gouls and other beasties know that you are home and alive and not to come creeping. It is also supposed to be a beacon for loved ones who have passed on, to visit and come home, while the veil between worlds is at its thinnest.

This year I will be reading Frankenstein.

Hook

This is important in all writing. You have to make your readers interested in what you are writing about.  Your characters should make your readers FEEL. Make your characters loveable or loathsome, but the reader has to care about the characters. All suspense writing starts with the reader’s empathy and then reader’s concern.

Set up. Twist.
The greatest example of the set-up-twist is the two sentence horror story. Here is one taken from sunnyskys/blog by Therealhatman:

“I woke up to hear knocking on the glass. At first, I thought it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again.”

The reason that this works is because it has a set up. The reader is set up to think a certain way, a false sense of security even, and then the second sentence is the twist that makes you think very differently about the first. In a short story or a novel you can do this in every chapter by creating conflict between characters or in a scene. The secret is in the twist, so let your imagination run wild!

 

You can extend the ‘set up’ for as long as you like which brings me to number two.

Avoid the dot dot dot

Suspense is a very important part of writing scary stories. A cheat to build suspense in your writing is to make big promises of action, give the reader more information than the characters, extend moments of uncertainty and always keep your promises.

A couple plan to meet at a meeting point. That is a promise of action.

But the young man’s rival finds out and hides at the meeting point with a gun. Giving the reader more information.

The couple arrive at the place with no idea of the danger. Extend this moment for as long as possible and the reader will be on the edge of their seats waiting for the rival.

Conflict. Either a fight, or a murder, or another character arrives, whatever works for your story. Keep your promises.

Remember though, that a murder or violence is not suspense. Too much violence or gore will start to not mean anything to your readers. A murder is not suspense writing. An abduction with the threat of murder is.

NOTE: Using Elipses (…) is actually the worst and a very lazy way of building suspense, avoid the dot dot dot!

Description

One of the greatest writing tips of all time is: Show Don’t Tell. Most people don’t even notice when writers use this technique but it is what turns a good story into a great one. It can be hard, when you are writing a story to spend time on the description especially when you have a really good idea you just want to get on the page as quickly as possible. But when it comes to suspense writing you HAVE to show not tell and it really helps to extend those moments of uncertainty I mentioned. It will also make your moments of conflict when you keep your promises really exciting.

An example of show don’t tell:

Tell: Megan shot him.  Show: The smell of gun powder filled the air and Megan’s arm jolted back into her shoulder as the gun went off. She hardly heard the bang before her ears were ringing. She stared across the room, where a trickle of black blood was already being sucked up by the carpet; she could almost hear it.

Use all of your senses for description so that the reader is drawn into the scene.

READ

If you want to write scary stories READ scary stories. This goes for any kind of writing. This doesn’t mean just copy an author you like. There is actually a part two to this tip.

Read and Analyse.

When you begin to feel scared while reading, stop and think HOW the writer made you feel that way. Once you understand the technique they’ve used you can use a similar technique on your own story. Maybe you will notice a Set Up-Twist or the building of suspense. Take note of how the author did it and you can start to practice it with your own writing.

Man Booker Shortlist

The announcement was made this Tuesday! This is the Man Booker Shortlist 2014. Fingers crossed for the winner. (14th October 2014)

Very interesting list, I was surprised that Mitchell didn't make it on. But I am very pleased to see Karen J Fowler on there.

How to be Both by Ali Smith - Hamish Hamilton (Penguin)

J by Howard Jacobson - Random House

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee




















The Narrow Road to the Deep North

To Rise Again At A Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen J Fowler

Booky Gadgets

When you work in publishing, one can't help feeling the immense pleasure of being utterly UTTERLY swamped in books, I have books on every surface of my bedroom, the bed itself is surrounded on four sides by shelves and windowsill, desk and wardrobe, all of which have books on them. If there weren't shoes in the draw under my bed, there would be books in there too, but lets not get crazy and start throwing out pumps.

There are still a million books I want to read, and every birthday and Christmas, or just because, I am ALWAYS pleased to take a book as a gift. It is a definite winning gift for me. A book? Brilliant. I honestly love getting a book, especially if it is on my wish list. ;) 

But I've been thinking that there might be some other bookish things that people might like that are not books, and I'm not talking about Kindles, that is just a very fancy, very thin library. I'm thinking Gadgetry and accessories. So if you have a bookish friend with a birthday coming up, and you're not sure about what book to get them, why not try one of these:

Prism Glasses

Reading in bed is one of life's little luxuries, but sitting up to read can crick your neck and numb your tail bone. Or you lie on your side and read everything side ways. I would love to try prism glasses. especially at the bargain price of £6.79 on amazon. Buy here.

Transparent Book Weight

So, this is an awesome design by the geniuses at TENT. But after some research, you can't buy it anywhere, and it is almost £50 to buy it from Asia and get it to the UK! If you're ready to invest you can buy it here. I've wondered though, if it would break all your paperback spines...

A Thumb Thing

want want want want. Reading on the tube standing up has opened my eyes to the problem of one handed reading. This is how not to get an achy thumb! There are mixed reviews on Amazon, mostly about the size (medium is very small apparently) and some reports that it might damage your books. hmmm. 

Book-scented Candle!

From the Etsy shop Frostbeard studio, a husband and wife team make Bibliofile style candles including potterhead tea lights that bring the smell of your favourite books, movies and games into your room. And they're soy. Buy it from Etsy.

Magic Book Clip

Similar to the thumb thing, but I feel like this would be more of a textbook/student gadget. for when you need to prop open a book for reference for long periods of time. Buy it here!

Mark My Time Book Mark

This is meant to be to make reading fun for kids, with the Mark My Time bookmarks, you can time how long you read for, an hour here and hour there with an alarm that goes off when the hour is up. It also means when you only have ten minutes to spare before running out the door, you can lose yourself in the book without glancing up at the clock. 

The BookSeat Pillow

Another nifty solution to the crick in the neck. £35 from Amazon. There are a couple of complaints that it isn't weighted well enough and added some bean bag beans to help it stay in shape. Lots of people use it to multi-task while eating or standing and cooking, or knitting. A handy gift for anyone with RSI injuries or recovering from surgery.

Readers Night Stand

You can get these on Amazon for about £30. I think they're a great idea. Although, I do need a drawer for all the things I need every day, tweezers, sleeping pills, kindle charger...but perhaps that could all live in a box...Have a browse on Amazon.

Book Shaped Light

This clocks in at the most expensive at £95 or $160! But I just love this design. I think it would be the best bedside light ever, forget the glare of desk lamps, it casts a gentle light, and when it is closed you can just put your book on top or pop the Lumio into the bookshelf, so you can use the top of your bedside table for other things, like more books...If you buy a Readers Night Stand. Lumio is a Kickstarter success story, by designer Max Gunawan. There are a couple of things I'd be interested in learning about the Lumio design, if I ever get one, I would definitely review it with my thoughts.

Sadly I do not own any of these nifty things but I wish I did. Consider this my Christmas list.