The Guardian's Blog, page 130
May 9, 2014
Self-publishing: what's your personal read?
For Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors , it feels like the 1960s. "Something really revolutionary is happening and it's incredibly exciting to be part of that." Speaking on this week's Books podcast she describes how as an author who had been published by Attic Press and Penguin she was sceptical at first, but as soon as she pressed that "publish" button for the first time she realised she was doing something "radical, really revolutionary within my world". She hymns the heady pleasures of taking control of your own work, of publishing your own books in the way you had envisaged them, at a rhythm you can determine yourself. For her, the stigma that used to surround the idea of publishing your own work has completely evaporated. "Self-publishing is not for every writer," she says, "but every writer should self-publish at least once."
You might want to quibble with star self-publisher Hugh Howey's figures, or with the sweeping conclusions he draws from them, but with an ever-increasing roster of bestselling authors and almost 400,000 titles self-published in the US each year, the revolution is clearly having an effect on writers. Mark Coker's indie author manifesto puts writers front and centre on the barricades when he declares an author's "right to publish", to decide "when, where and how [their] writing graduates to become a published book", and declares: "My writing is valuable and important. This value and importance cannot be measured by commercial sales alone." But what about the readers?
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Alan Bennett: drama over his distaste for novels
Mark Lawson on Bennett at 80: 'no national treasure'
An A-Z of Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett: a career in pictures
No 80th birthday party should pass without the birthday boy saying something embarrassing or naughty, and Alan Bennett duly obliged by telling Nicholas Hytner (in a BBC4 interview being screened on Saturday) that "I don't feel any of the people writing in England can tell me very much". What's more, "I like American literature more than I do contemporary English literature, Philip Roth for instance".
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May 8, 2014
Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society takes off
I am not a member of a book club perhaps it is rooted in the days of my education, but I just feel that I'd hate having to read something by a certain time. However, I am loving this week's slew of articles about New York's Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, a book group which loves "good books and sunny days and enjoying both as nearly in the altogether as the law allows".
As it's sunny in New York, they've been stripping off all over the place, most recently "the rooftop sundeck of a nude-friendly, gay-friendly, everything-friendly boutique hotel", where they read books "from hardboiled crime yarns to ancient-astronaut tracts to the indescribably glorious ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENTIAL FUCK MACHINE".
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Swearing in literature: share examples of bad language in good books
Art and literature would miss out without the rude language of everyday life share examples of the quality quotes that would fall foul of Putin
If Vladimir Putin gets his way and he tends to any book published in Russia that contains "foul language" will soon have to be sold in a sealed package and marked with a warning. Swearwords will also be banned and fines issued to anyone who sneaks them into films, plays, music gigs and any other public performances, according to the law passed this week by the lower house of the Russian parliament.
Not only is vulgar slang a vital component of Russian literature and art, but the clampdown is completely preposterous per se, argued Irvine Welsh
It seems to be an attempt to erase and/or marginalise certain cultures, ie the working class, the ghetto, and so on. Language is a living, organic thing. If you start to try to control that and prescribe what people say, the next thing is prescribing what people think.
Jenni Fagan's The Panopticon gets top marks just for the swearing. I mean, really, this is top-tier stuff: profane, inventive, funny and gob-smackingly offensive. I'm not being facetious: dialect is hard to get right and can be hard to balance. Fagan has a great ear for dialogue and has captured Lothian/Edinburgh Scots perfectly (and, yes, that means a huge amount of profanity). Coming from the area, there was an extra pleasure for me in reading familiar words, some of which I hadn't heard since school, e.g. spraffing, shan, chore, ken, ay (pronounced like a capital A) used as an interrogative, the word "how?" used to mean "why?" and something giving you the boak).
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Amazon's 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime lists are full of gaps
Ever since George Bernard Shaw mischievously declared that America and Britain were two countries divided by a common language, there's been a steady cultural commentary exploring the nuances of difference.
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Karen Russell's Sleep Donation is not a new paradigm, it's just very good
"No one would argue with the fact that legacy publishing is depressed or that a new paradigm is urgently required."
So says new publisher Atavist books, which claims to have something different to offer:
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May 7, 2014
What should be on the A-level syllabus?
Is including Russell Brand in the A-level syllabus a "rubbish" idea or total genius? Tell us what you think should be on the reading list
Exam season approaches and with it the season of hysteria about dumbing down of the school curriculum. The latest furore was sparked by news that Russell Brand, Caitlin Moran and Dizzee Rascal were to be added to the A-level syllabus. How horrifying that Brand's 2012 testimony on drug use to a House of Commons committee will be added to an A-level in English language and literature, in a development cooked up by the OCR exam board and the educational charity, the English and Media Centre. Worse still, it will sit alongside Caitlin Moran's Twitter feed, the BBC Newsnight interview with rapper Dizzee Rascal and the work of former Guardian columnist the Secret Footballer.
News about these new unorthodox texts has already provoked members of the Department for Education to denounce the new A-level as "rubbish". "It is immensely patronising to young people to claim that they will only engage with English language and literature through celebrities such as Russell Brand", said a senior source in the department.
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PG Wodehouse's creative writing lessons
"I have been wondering where you would take this reading group for the book, although very enjoyable, isn't particularly nuanced or layered. What you read is all you get."
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May 6, 2014
Readers' panel: experiences of books in prison
From Othello to Oscar Wilde four readers explain why books mean so much to people in jail, and name the books that helped them to survive it
The ban on sending books to prisoners has been causing a big stir among publishers, authors and the public. While the condemnations of the changes introduced by justice secretary Chris Grayling continue to pour in, we turned to our readers to ask what books they would give to someone in prison, and we had some very touching and interesting responses from people talking from direct experience. We asked them to tell us more about literature and its relationship to incarceration, as well as the troubles they went to to get access to books during their time inside. Here are some of their stories:
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Tips, links and suggestions: What are you reading this week?
Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
Welcome to this week's blog. Here's a roundup of your comments and photos from last week.
The jury is indeed still out on the praised The Goldfinch, with Sara Richards sharing her thoughts as she goes. The Goldfinch chat also started a great sub-thread about an 80-page rule from her librarian:
Still reading The Goldfinch and after a stunning start the section I am currently reading feels contrived but I feel I have to read to the end because this was a prizewinning novel and I want to see why. I was talking to the librarian at our local library and she said she had an 80 page rule. If a book wasn't totally convincing by 80 pages or sometimes less, out it went.
Does anyone here have a similar 80 page rule? Is it worth struggling sometimes with a difficult text? For example, I have read Ulysses three times and that was tough going especially the first time, but in the end I still feel it was worth the effort.
The thing is, I am getting on and time is precious but I feel guilty if I start a book and don't manage to get to the end.
Hunter S Thompson had a page 69 rule which I use from time to time. If page 69 is interesting read it. If not don't. A surprising number of non-fiction books have a page of photos for 69. HST was the originator of what he called "Gonzo Journalism".
I try to distinguish between "difficult to read because this is a woeful book" and "difficult to read because I am a woeful reader". (I do realise that I may sometimes confuse one with the other.)
50 pages is my aim. I don't always make it that far. Demonstrably woeful books that have won prizes and critical acclaim annoy me. Or rather, the critics who've hyped them do.
It's rather good but a little depressing. I'm half way through and just about the right time for someone to spoil it. I like the themes and ideas that are raised and I am just waiting for someone, anyone to give poor Theo a break. That kid has been dealt a bad hand. Please let it get better!
Nearly 20 years since first published, 20 years since I was a child and 3 years since my partner first suggested them, I have finally given in and started reading His Dark Materials. Great fun.
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28 April 2014, 12:18
Having said only last Friday on TLS that I've now drawn a Very Firm Line under my 'to read' list, on Saturday I received a visit from an old friend who is shedding some of his library and brought a few along in case I was interested.
So I have acquired four volumes of Warrior of Rome by Harry Sidebottom, A Song of Stone and Whit by Iain Banks, Dark Matter by Michelle Paver, The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaneimi, a history of The Teutonic Knights by William Urban, The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, and In Search of England by Michael Wood.
It is a crime that the late Khushwant Singh was virtually unknown outside India. For the quality of the prose and precision of the narrative, TTP should be ranked among the most significant short novels in English in the 20th century, alongside Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
It is really beautiful - a true love of language - close to Hesse, Ondaatje and with something of the grandeur of Cormac McCarthy only more concise. It makes you reconsider your place in the cosmos the enigma at the heart of human life - nearly finished the Fictions will soon be on the essays and the parables.
I recently finished Jenni Fagan's The Panopticon, which gets top marks just for the swearing. I mean, really, this is top-tier stuff: profane, inventive, funny and gob-smackingly offensive. I'm not being facetious: dialect is hard to get right and can be hard to balance. Fagan has a great ear for dialogue and has captured Lothian/Edinburgh Scots perfectly (and, yes, that means a huge amount of profanity). Coming from the area, there was an extra pleasure for me in reading familiar words, some of which I hadn't heard since school, e.g. spraffing, shan, chore, ken, ay (pronounced like a capital A) used as an interrogative, the word "how?" used to mean "why?" and something giving you the boak).
A weekend way posed a slight challenge. A city break, so comfy shoes should have been higher on the list of what to include in the limited hand luggage, but severe twitchiness develops when I don't have a book by my side.
A copy of The Guardian always sees me through the tedium of the flight out, but a search of my shelves was necessary to provide something to slip into my shoulder bag for those quiet interludes on a park bench.
Aggie's mentioning Portnoy's Complaint reminded me that it was the first novel my wife and I ever read aloud to each other. Nowadays we lean towards short stories and poetry. I'm wondering how dull-normal or odd-ball we are. Anybody else here read aloud to anybody else?
Fateful Year by Mark Bostridge is splendid.
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By TomFrost
29 April 2014, 2:17
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30 April 2014, 22:02
The Spiders Truce: My mum recommended me this book, saying the story explores the life of a boy who thinks in an abstract way. I started reading it and immediately fell in love with both Ellis and the description the emotions. I take English A Level so nowadays these sorts of passages go over my head, but the depth of emotions absorbed me. It's an excellent coming of age novel, that can be pretty hilarious at times.
Who are we? And why are we who we are?
Accessible, funny and full of honesty. I'm about a decade late getting to it but I'm really glad I have.
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By misscom
2 May 2014, 15:48
@GuardianBooks good manners 1916 style - because correct behaviour never goes out of fashion pic.twitter.com/3sYfgq8LTb
@GuardianBooks The Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham. My favourite author and one of UK's great undervalued national treasures.
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