If you haven't received yours or want to check it out you can grab a copy from the archive here
To subscribe for free, visit: http://www.compulsivereader.com
Showing posts with label literary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literary. Show all posts
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Compulsive Reader Newsletter - February
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Compulsive Reader Newsletter January
If you can't wait or somehow aren't getting it you can grab a copy in the archive here.
To sign up visit http://www.compulsivereader.com
Friday, June 30, 2023
CR Newsletter July
To subscribe visit: http://www.compulsivereader.com
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Compulsive Reader Newsletter June
"Books or just art?" by Alexandre Dulaunoy is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Friday, September 30, 2022
CR Newsletter October
Monday, February 28, 2022
CR Newsletter for March is out
Hello lovely readers. The Compulsive Reader newsletter for March is now on its way to your inbox. This month's issue features 3 new giveaways (get your entries in!), 11 new reviews including new books by Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, Lou Matthews, Fiona Sinclair, Keith Kopka, Louise Wakeling, Morgan Bell, Jennifer Maiden, Jessica Au and Robert Lopez, as well as interviews with Javier Sinay and Robert Croll, Tessa Wegert, and on the podcast, Jessica Au reads from and talks about her new book Cold Enough for Snow. As always we have a big roundup of literary news which includes such things as the Dylan Thomas prize, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Audies, the Story Prize and lots more. If you can't wait for it to arrive, or want to check it out before subscribing, you can find it in our archive here: To subscribe, visit: http://www.compulsivereader.com
Image: "Book" by Kamil Porembiński (CC licence)
Friday, May 1, 2020
CR Newsletter for May
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The Fictive Dream and why it trumps polemics
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with polemics in literature. Some of the best, most important books are inherently political, and overtly polemical. I’m thinking for example, of Salman Rushdie’s Step Across This Line, or the essays of Arundhati Roy. But neither Rushdie nor Roy employ polemics in their literature. That isn’t the same as saying that their literature isn’t political. The politics in both Rushdie and Roy’s work forms a powerful underlying theme – as can be seen by the political impact their books have had on those who’ve attacked these writers based solely on their fiction. But neither of these writers are present as mouthpieces in their fiction, which is one of the reasons their fiction is at least as powerful as their nonfiction. As a reviewer and manuscript assessor, I often come across work which has been written to make a point. It’s a kind of fictionalised polemic, where the author is arguing politics through character, plot and setting. Probably one of the best (worst) examples of this is Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I’m not (here) arguing against “objectivism”, but rather Rand’s use of characters as a sounding board for it. It makes for bad fiction. Her character Howard Roark is presented as an “ideal man”, but of course there’s no such thing (nor an ideal women) – just compelling characters with flaws that may or may not be endearing, and desires which may or may not be safe. Instead we have a wooden, unbelievable character using wooden, unbelievable dialogue, moved like a puppet along a contrived plot. We have a similar situation with Richard Flanagan’s The Unknown Terrorist, where the author’s argument takes precedence over characterisation, good plot, and multi-dimensional characters. Flanagan, and Rand could very easily have written excellent polemical nonfiction – both are clearly capable of it. And it would no doubt have been terrific, thought provoking work. But instead they created bad fiction.
Of course not everyone will agree with me on this point, and both Rand and Flanagan have many admirers (I actually love all of Flanagan’s other novels, none of which are even remotely polemical, although they still manage strong political messages). However, I feel quite strongly that there is no place for authorial argumentation in fiction. That isn’t to say that the author can’t have a political theme – even a strong controversial political theme – the best fiction often does. But simply that a novel's theme has to be driven naturally from characterisation and not the other way around. You simply cannot create a story and characters to present a political (or any other kind of) platform. It always comes out stilted and the characters become unrealistic sounding boards. The truth of the novel has to begin and end with the characters and you just can't have characters speaking the author's mind if you want the fiction to work, otherwise you lose the fictive dream entirely. The fiction forms its own truth and the story has to work with that truth.
Break the bond of trust between the reader and the writer – that is, the fictive plausibility of the character, the plot, and their interaction, and you break the fragile thread that holds the whole fictive process together. The fictive dream involves sympathy, understanding, reader involvement, identification, inner conflict, and character transition—all those things that make for excellent fiction. But it has to work naturally, and the work itself has to create a kind of inner truth that may well transcend the author’s own polemics. So be it. He or she can always revive those in the genre of nonfiction.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Book Geeks: on the intersection of literature and technology
Writing for me today, is such a different process from what it was back some 30 years ago when I first started writing poetry seriously. I only use my pen to sign things. I research almost simultaneously while I'm writing, looking for inspiration, images, meanings or chasing threads to pull into my work. You won't catch me talking or writing in binary - I'm just not good at that. It's still all about semantics for me, whatever I do - whether on a page or on a screen. But I'm surely glad someone is able to manage the back end coding. And I take Kostick's well made point that the notion of a 'digital work' is continuing to morph. The immersive experience isn't, and won't, but how to get a reader there might well continue to change. The geek in me is excited.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
An interview with Kathy Stemke, and a few of her main characters
I’d like to introduce the main characters in each of Kathy Stemke’s books. Sitting next to me is Shelby from Trouble on Earth Day, next to Shelby is Zachary the super hero from Sh, Sh, Sh Let the Baby Sleep. And finally, next to me is Winnie from Winnie’s War. Welcome to my blog today.
Shelby: Well, my proof will be in Kathy’s hands any day now soooo I would think the book will be on sale by June. I’ve been waiting two and a half years to tell my story. That must be some kind of record. Kurt Wilcken has drawn my beautiful pictures. I don’t mind waiting because I’m Kathy’s favorite character and kids will learn about being a friend while helping the environment.
Zachery: Wait just a minute Shelby, you’re just a talking squirrel. I’m a real boy. Kathy likes me the best.
Shelby: NOT! Did you know that my poster, RETHINK, REUSE, RECYCLE won a first place ribbon at school?
Magdalena: That’s very impressive Shelby. Thank you.
Zachary, tell us about your story.
That sounds exciting Zachary. I know Kathy is a retired teacher and she always tries to help kids learn. What will they learn from your book?
Zachary: She uses rhymes with consonant blends throughout the story. You know like sh, th, wh, br, and ch. If kids learn the blends that will help them learn to read. Oh, by the way, my illustrator is Jack Foster. He’s really cool and he captured my extreme good looks rather well.
Fantastic! Thank you, Zachary.
Winnie, you’ve been listening and waiting patiently for your turn. You’re in Kathy’s ‘work in progress,’ Winnie’s War. Can you tell us about your story?
Winnie: Yes, certainly. But first I have to clear one thing up. I can assure you all that I am Kathy’s favorite character. In fact, I’m her mother.
Do you mean to tell me that Kathy Stemke is writing a story with her mother as the main character?
Winnie: Yes, Luv. The story starts when I was seventeen in Birkenhead, England during WWII. My younger brother and two sisters were evacuated to keep them safe from the nightly bombing attacks. We never got word where they ended up. I made it my mission to find them. I even joined the Woman’s Land Army thinking I could find them on some farm somewhere.
It must have been difficult for you to endure all the physical and emotional hardships.
Winnie: It was a long hard war but some good did come out of it. I met Kathy’s father, Ralph, and married him. I fell in love with his curly black hair and turquoise eyes. Yes, they were as blue as the sea. And Kathy’s big brother, Joe was born in England too. That’s an exciting part of my story.
That sounds interesting, Winnie. What age reader do you think should read your book?
Winnie: Kathy calls it a YA historical fiction. If young adults or even old adults read my story, they will learn all about WWII.
Thank you all for visiting today. I’d like to ask my readers to answer the BIG QUESTION. Who do you think is Kathy Stemke’s favorite character Shelby, Zachary or Winnie and why?
Kathy Stemke is a retired teacher with a love for all things creative. She lives in the North Georgia Mountains with her husband, Tony and their dog, Lucy. Tony is a writer too, but they’re still working on Lucy. Kathy and Tony are participating in the A-Z bloggers challenge. They will write a blog to every letter of the alphabet in April. Check it out.
KATHY STEMKE'S WEBSITES:
Kathy’s blog: http://educationtipster.blogspot.com
Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965#
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285
Do drop by tomorrow to visit Virginia Grenier, who is featuring author Stephen Tremp.
Do drop by tomorrow to visit Virginia Grenier, who is featuring author Stephen Tremp.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Bob Williams rest in peace
Bob and I shared a number of interests, including James Joyce, Charles Dickens, and Virginia Woolf. He was a man with exquisite taste in music and books, and not until a few days before his death did he reveal to me that he was losing a struggle with progressive illness and failing eyesight. Bob leaves behind an amazing family, and many scholarly writings, including an exceptional body of work about James Joyce's Dubliners, Ulysses, and Finnegan's Wake. All writers need an ideal reader: the person who, immersed in your work, gets what you're trying to achieve and won't let you get away with anything other than the limits of your capability. For me, Bob will always be that reader. Wherever you are now, Bob, I feel certain that there will be music and words.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Twelve years online. Why review?
2012 is the 12th year that The Compulsive Reader has been in operation. In Internet terms, that's a long time! So I thought it might be appropriate to explore the question - why. Why do I do it? Why review? Before I hop into it, I thought I might explore why not. There are some good reasons not to write book reviews. The first is that it's time consuming - I can spend many hours on a single review. Generally speaking, I don't get paid for it. The time I spend writing reviews is invariably time taken away from writing other things - such as my next novel, poetry, some other piece of nonfiction (perhaps a paid commission), or time with my kids, working my reasonably well paid day job, etc. Managing a review website is also time consuming. Each review is personally edited by me, set up by hand, and hand coded - with images and links sourced, and an overall consistency maintained with each one, regardless of how they are submitted. I respond personally to every review request (and I get hundreds each month), vetting and distributing them to reviewers where appropriate and of course, I can spend many many hours researching for an interview and conducting them. So, back to the original question. Why? The simplest answer is always the same - love. The following bullet points explain why I love it:
- Reviewing a book is like a second, deeper, more interactive reading. I'll often finish a book - especially a complex one, and not feel like I'm quite finished with it. It isn't until I do a final revisit and analysis where I begin to understand what worked for me, what didn't, and what the ultimate value of the book was for me. I think back on the many books I read in the years BR (before reviewing), and I can't actually remember some of them. I remember everything I've reviewed - the characters, the plot, the settings, the voice, the point of view - it's all part of my active memory because of the extra, engagement after the reading. To me, the review process has now become an integral part of my reading process.
- I've got a habit to feed. I can pretty much request any new title that I want and get it sent to me by the publisher. This may seem like a minor payment for many hours of work, but as someone who tends to buy books as gifts, I know exactly how expensive a new book is (in Aus, it can be exorbitant - the last book I bought for my son was nearly $50). Being able to get in fast on those authors whose work I will always read and even obtain an Advanced Review Copy (ARC) is a pretty compelling perk, especially if I get to have a conversation with them afterwards about the book.
- Fame, glory, and a following. The respect that comes with being a known, oft-cited reviewer is often well above that which I receive as a lowly author. The 'following' aspect is actually a kind of community of people who are united solely through the love of reading. That kind of camaraderie is pretty wonderful. Yes - I'm talking about you - you're wonderful.
- Finally, because it feels like a good deed in the service of books and authors. As the points above show, I definitely get something personally valuable out of reviewing, but in the bigger scheme of things, I also get to showcase and help promote some utterly wonderful books that might have otherwise skipped the notice of the general public. My focus is always on quality, so I can add a tiny bit of 'non-commercialist' weight on the side of the literarily wonderful. That kind of positive power, however small, is probably enough on its own to keep me reviewing.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Interview with Mayra Calvani
Tell me about the origins of Sunstruck – where did the idea for the novel come from; what was the impetus?
The conception of this book stemmed from two factors: my personal observations of Puerto Rican artists when I was a teen and my love for satiric writing, a taste I developed in college. My mother was—and still is—an artist, and although she’s retired now, back in the early eighties she was an active painter in San Juan, showing her works at art exhibits and galleries regularly. She took me everywhere with her, so I attended all these shows and activities and I observed. Let me tell you something, the art scene can be extremely interesting and that is because so many artists are eccentric, unconventional people. And there’s so much jealousy and gossip!
I guess all these experiences must have made an impression on me. When the time came to write my book, I knew these were the people and situations I wanted to write about. I decided I would make the book a parody, this way I could keep it light and have the freedom to exaggerate to the point of being ridiculous. I decided an upbeat, sharp, satiric, darkly humorous approach would be perfect for In the Time of Dinosaurs, so that’s the style I went for. There are a lot of absurd situations in the book. For instance, one of the characters dresses as Zorro and slashes women’s behinds; another starts a hotel where people can share a room with the animal of their choice; another, a nun, rides in a motorcycle wearing cool black glasses and carrying a six pack; another uses fresh human blood to keep her skin looking young. There’s a lot of crazy stuff like that. Ultimately, though, is about a confused young woman looking for meaning among chaos.Tell me a bit about your protagonist, Daniella.
Daniella is in her mid twenties and already divorced. She’s trying to complete her architecture degree. She’s closest to her mom and her overweight Turkish cat. She doesn’t study as much as she should and drinks a lot more than she should. She’s naive and a bit scattered and keeps falling for the wrong kind of guy—the good-looking, irresponsible, bohemian artist type. She’s a nice girl, but she needs some serious reality check if she’s going to take control of her life. When she starts working at her ex-husband’s animal lovers hotel, she begins to realize there’s something very bizarre going on. At the same time, she’s trying to support her talented, crazy jealous boyfriend Tony, whose ego makes him blind and who doesn’t care about anybody but himself. Then something happens that changes Daniella’s life forever.
Your narrative style is an unusual one. Talk to me a bit about the point of view you chose and the structure and why it fit your characters.
I chose first person, present tense, and multiple points of view separated by chapters. So in each chapter the reader gets in the head of a different character. To be honest, I didn’t choose this consciously, it just happened automatically as I began to write. I should mention, though, that I wrote this book in my early twenties, so my writing style has changed a lot during the years. I first self published the book in Puerto Rico in the late eighties. Only 500 copies which, surprisingly, I managed to sell at local bookstores. Eventually the manuscript went through various edits until I decided to submit it to an American publisher. The editor at Zumaya Publications liked it and offered me a contract.
But to go back to your question, I think the style fits the tone and the story and gave me the freedom to explore the bizarre psychology and motivation of the characters.
What’s next for you? Are you working on a new book or do you have a wish list of projects that you’re hoping to get to soon.
Gosh, I have so many things going on at the moment. I’m a multi-tasker kind of person (sometimes I think this is a curse). I’m working on a YA novel, a MG nonfiction book, and various children’s books in different stages of development. At the same time I’m trying to find a home for a horror novel, an MG novel, and about 15 picture book manuscripts already completed. My friends don’t call me a busy bee for nothing.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
In praise of the slow read, or why we need longer attention spans
Monday, April 26, 2010
Why You Should Care About the Words You Share
Don’t believe me? Just look through the pages of any history book and you’ll see, at the heart of any major historical event (minor one too), is a powerful speaker rallying people, for good or evil, towards a shared goal. Look through the pages of any advertisement critically, and you’ll begin to see the motivational messages that drive people to put their hands into their pockets. There are all sorts of ways to influence people, but words are always the key. Words create images which build expectation, emotion, impressions, and ultimately action. So choosing the right word is important, and not just for poets, though poetry goes into the heart of humanity and winkles out all those little shiny bits you’d missed, forgotten, lost. If you allow yourself to live only in easy cliché, letting the advertisements, catch-phrases, and trite sentiments slip easily from your tongue in conversation, you may find that you don’t end up saying much at all. Your perceptions dull. Because you aren’t trying too hard, you don’t make connections with people in the same way, and nothing really sparkles.
Try looking just a little harder. Even casually, you can move beyond “fine” when someone asks how you are. Try the truth. And then give them time to speak the truth in response, and really listen to what they’re saying, and before you know it, you’re communicating. That’s something real, and special. Next time you’re writing (or better, making) a greeting card for someone, trying saying something to them that really encapsulates what you feel about them—something fresh and deep, or light and fun, but something that no one else can say, because it has come from your own individual years of experience, your own emotions, and your own unique perspective of that person. That’s a gift you can’t buy.
Of course not everyone’s a poet, and not everyone has a way with words, but there is plenty of poetry on offer, and poets ready to force you, willing or unwilling, to look at your own life and the lives of those around you in different ways--to close in and see things from a perspective you’ve never seen, or to open out and grasp the totality of an experience in ways that change you. Real, deep, thoughtful words—the words of poetry—are as vital now as ever, and not just for formal occasions. Words form a critical link between us—a critical bridge to ourselves—that exists beyond the quick and easy media grabs and sloppy exchanges that surround us. We should care about the words we share. We should share words that matter.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Free Books all week!
Firstly, there's Rita's own site: http://ebookweek.com/ which has lots of information and an online bookstore chock full of freebies from participants.
You can drop by my interview with Mark Coker at blogtalkradio and hear us talk about the implications and future of ebooks.
You can pick up my books Sleep Before Evening and Repulsion Thrust for whatever you want to pay (including nothing!) from my publisher's site at Smashwords. If you do decide to pay anything, all proceeds will go to the Red Cross effort on the earthquake-devastated island of Haiti.
You can get hold of my poetry collaborations with Carolyn Howard-Johnson Cherished Pulse and She Wore Emerald Then for free at: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/maggieball.
And above all, you can celebrate the diversity and availability of the written word, in all its forms and variations. Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Blog tour Guest Kristin Bair O'Keeffe
I'm very pleased to have a visit today from Kristin Bair O'Keeffe, who talks about her novel Thirsty. Talk to me about Thirsty. What gave rise to the book?
Thirsty is the story of one woman’s rather unusual journey through an abusive marriage, set against the backdrop of a Pittsburgh steel town at the turn of the twentieth century. Because I have a history of domestic violence in my family, I’ve done a good bit of thinking about it over the years, both personally and as a writer.
As I’ve moved through the world, I’ve witnessed how being a victim of domestic violence often is passed from mother to daughter…like pearls or a wedding dress. This cycle of abuse—along with the idea of genetic memory—tweaked my storytelling curiosity early on. In writing Thirsty, I wanted to explore the mother-daughter dynamic, how a young woman gets involved in an abusive relationship in the first place, why some women manage to leave abusive relationships behind, and why others simply cannot. The more I wrote and discovered, the more I realized how tender and complicated these situations are. As I wrote Klara’s story, I kept coming to the question of courage: “What is it? Who has it? Who can get it? What does it look like? And finally, can Klara ever find the courage to leave Drago?”
In addition, I’ve got a bit of an obsession with steel. I grew up in a suburb of Pittsburgh, and my maternal grandparents lived just down the road a bit in Clairton, one of Pittsburgh’s most dynamic steel communities. In the 1960s and 1970s, I spent a lot of time at their house with the smokestacks of the mills bearing down and barges hauling steel along the Monongahela River. My grandfather and great uncles worked in the steel mills so it was a big part of our family story. When the steel industry collapsed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, so did Pittsburgh’s steel communities. At that point, the storyteller in me jumped up and said, “Ooohh, there’s something to be told here.”
Somewhere along the line, these two inspirations merged and Thirsty was born.
Did you write the book after moving to China? Was it inspired by your travels?Actually I wrote the first scene of Thirsty in 1992 when I was a grad student at Columbia College in Chicago…long before I moved to China. Once I dug in, I was hooked. I became obsessed with steel mills, steel making, the life of women in Pittsburgh at the turn of the twentieth century, the psychology behind a woman’s reason for staying in an abusive marriage, and the journey of the main character, Klara Bozic.
Since moving to China in March 2006, I’ve actually discovered that Shanghai today is in some ways strangely similar to steel communities in Pittsburgh at the turn of the twentieth century. For example, the streets of Shanghai are filled with cart-pulling entrepreneurs who specialize in various goods and services; there’s a guy selling oranges, a woman collecting wood to recycle, a man selling stockings and nylon socks, a knife sharpener, and lots more. There were cart-pulling entrepreneurs all over the place in Pittsburgh steel communities at the turn of the twentieth century; you’ll see them when you read Thirsty. Who would have thought? (To get a glimpse into my writing life in Shanghai, check out the video interview with me at YouTube.
Tell me a little about your life in China - why did you migrate?
In 2005, my husband (who was then my boyfriend) said to me, “How would you feel about living in China?”
“China?” I said.
“Mmmhhm,” he said, “my company wants me to go there for a couple of years.”
Until that moment, I hadn’t ever considered living in China. Italy? Sure. Greece? Absolutely. But China?
It didn’t take me long to make a decision. I was an adventurous writer and a woman in love. Why not move to China? After a few short seconds, I said, “Sure, let’s go.”
Five months later we were married and living in Shanghai. I didn’t speak a word of Mandarin, didn’t know a soul, and honestly, knew very little about Chinese culture (other than what I’d gleaned during our three-day cultural training class). But I was fascinated. I grabbed my Mac and my camera and set off. I’ve been exploring ever since. (My second book is about China.)
How did you find Swallow Press (or did they find you)?
For the publication of Thirsty, I owe a big fat thanks to my good friend and writing colleague Christina Katz (a.k.a. the Writer Mama). She has been one of Thirsty’s greatest cheerleaders since we were in grad school together at Columbia. (She was also one of Thirsty’s first readers.)
In early 2008, Christina was at a writers’ conference in the United States. As always, she was talking up Thirsty to fiction folks, and on this particular day, the timing was right. She said something like, “My friend Kristin has written this amazing novel called…..” Someone looked up and said, “Ooh, Kristin should send the manuscript to Swallow Press. Sounds like a good fit.”
I did. And voilà! A short time later I had a book deal.
Talk to me about some of the promotional complexities that you've got. Is most of your promotion via Internet? Are you able to tap into ex-pat writing groups/communities or do you really feel like your day to day life is in one location and your 'book life' is in another?
Promoting a debut novel in the U.S. while living halfway around the world in Shanghai, China, is, well, a little nuts. After all, I live in a country that “manages” access to the Internet. I’m blocked from all social media sites—Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.—as well as many blogs and lots of writer-related sites. (I’m even blocked from my own blog!)
Thankfully I’m a creative soul and a determined author. And because I’m also the reigning queen of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), I manage to get to blocked websites on a fairly regular basis and therefore connect quite often with readers and writers.
In late September, I flew home to the U.S. for the launch of Thirsty. (October 1 was the official release date.) And from the time the airplane touched down, I was the (very exhausted, but very happy) marketing maven. I did an author’s feast at the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association convention in Cleveland, a flurry of radio interviews, a webcast interview with the books editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and a bunch more things that have become a blur. I also read and signed books at a number of bookstores in Pittsburgh, Massachusetts, and Maine, went back to my high school alma mater to yak with students in the creative writing classes, and talked to anyone anywhere who looked like they might be a reader. (I was the one in the international terminal at the airport calling, “Hey, hey, you! Yes, you! Do you read? Have you seen my debut novel Thirsty?”?)
We also have a terrific reading/writing community in Shanghai, and folks are very supportive of fellow expats. In the coming months, I’ll be doing as many events in Asia as possible. Right now I’m scheduled to speak to a handful of reading groups and give a talk at the most amazing Shanghai International Literary Festival (March 2010).
Living in China and publishing in the U.S. has forced me to think outside of the box. There’s lots more creative marketing ahead. Stay tuned!
You're a real juggler aren't you? (I know what it's like!) Tell me about some of the things you're juggling right now, and some of the balls you hope to add into the juggling mix in the future.
Yep, if this writing thing doesn’t pan out, I’m sending my resume to Cirque du Soleil.
Seriously though, in addition to being a new author, I’m mom to a brilliant, energetic, chatty 22-month-old. I blog, run a reading series in Shanghai for local writers, teach writing, and write a monthly column for Writers on the Rise. [link = http://writersontherise.wordpress.com/] I’m close to completing my second novel and a memoir (that’s the book about China). Since my husband is from Ireland and I’m from the U.S., we do a good bit of international travel. Therefore I spend a good bit of each year recovering from jetlag.
All in all, it’s a pretty cool life.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
'Best-Smeller' Lists: Should You Turn Your Nose Up At 'Top-Ten' Abuse?
In The Guardian this week, John Curran gives us his top 10 Agatha Christie Mysteries. The British periodical even has a whole page of top 10s, including top 10 psychological journeys, top 10 books about outsiders, women poets, short novels, books set in Japan, even smelly books.
It isn’t only The Guardian, though it does it particularly well, using well respected authors to create lists that tie in with their own genres and themes. For years Mark Flanagan, over at About, has been creating a range of literary lists from his annual top ten books of that year, to the top ten best novels of the century, top ten contemporary authors or top ten holiday books. The ABC has the Australian top ten, the New York Times does it every year (as does almost everyone else), and Barnes & Noble does it every day. There’s even a book solely devoted The Top Ten. (How about top ten books about top ten lists and so on and on?)
It’s easy enough to come up with a list, and as an author, I could be forgiven for desperately wanting to be included on one of these lists (with the exception of most smelly), as I’m sure they’re excellent for sales. But are they worthwhile? Do they have a function other than to guide readers towards specific books in bookstores? I can see the pros and cons. On the pro side, they call attention to what ought to be quality-based work in a crowded market. Readers who aren’t sure what to buy can use this as a guide, especially if they trust or have similar taste to the compiler. Just print, bring into Borders, and bang, your Christmas shopping is done.
On the con side, any list is both subjective (like, I have to admit, a review), and exclusionary. My top ten is not only limited to what has come into my view, but also limited by the time and place in which I pull the list together, and by the need to limit the number I choose. Even when I have created such lists (and I have to confess that I even have one of those “so you’d like to..” lists on Amazon), there are always great books I’ve just forgotten to include. And there must be thousands of wonderful books I’ve never heard of, or heard of but never read.
That said, I’m sure the next time I’m asked what I think were the best books of 2009, or the ten best young adult books, or the best literary fiction of all time, I’ll be ready and eager to share my list. I may also go and have a look at The Guardian’s list of lists the next time I’m looking for new authors to read – after all, if it’s good enough for Cormac McCarthy, it’s probably good enough for me. But my list won’t be comprehensive. None are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)