Allison Symes's Blog, page 24
May 1, 2021
Why Books Are Special To Me
I could write chapter and verse on this week’s topic, appropriately enough. So where to start on why books are special to me?
My love of books and stories comes from my late mother who encouraged my love of reading and taught me to read before I started school.
Books were regularly given as presents. I would often buy books with pocket money and money gifts sent by my relatives for Christmas etc. I went to the library a lot.
Best of all, Mum had a lovely collection of books herself, which I now have. And I so wanted to have a collection of my own (which I have).
As well as being read to as a child, which is so important, I saw Mum read for pleasure herself more often than I could say. It sent the unspoken message that this was definitely an okay thing to do - and it is!
Then there are the books with particular meaning. I treasure the Bibles given to me by my late parents and the one given to me by my son.
I love The Reader’s Digest of Classic Fairytales two volume set. I spent hours reading those and loving the beautiful illustrations. I remember the shock I first had on reading The Little Mermaid in here and discovering fairytales didn’t always have happy ever after endings.
I identified with the way The Ugly Duckling felt and cheered when all did work out well in the end. (You know full well as a kid it doesn’t always work that way in life, You know it even more as an adult).
I treasure my paperback of The Lord of The Rings and my copy of Pride and Prejudice.
For me, there is absolutely nothing about a book to dislike.
I like my paperbacks, my hardbacks, my audio and ebooks. The format doesn’t matter.
The fact it is a book does!
Happy reading!
My love of books and stories comes from my late mother who encouraged my love of reading and taught me to read before I started school.
Books were regularly given as presents. I would often buy books with pocket money and money gifts sent by my relatives for Christmas etc. I went to the library a lot.
Best of all, Mum had a lovely collection of books herself, which I now have. And I so wanted to have a collection of my own (which I have).
As well as being read to as a child, which is so important, I saw Mum read for pleasure herself more often than I could say. It sent the unspoken message that this was definitely an okay thing to do - and it is!
Then there are the books with particular meaning. I treasure the Bibles given to me by my late parents and the one given to me by my son.
I love The Reader’s Digest of Classic Fairytales two volume set. I spent hours reading those and loving the beautiful illustrations. I remember the shock I first had on reading The Little Mermaid in here and discovering fairytales didn’t always have happy ever after endings.
I identified with the way The Ugly Duckling felt and cheered when all did work out well in the end. (You know full well as a kid it doesn’t always work that way in life, You know it even more as an adult).
I treasure my paperback of The Lord of The Rings and my copy of Pride and Prejudice.
For me, there is absolutely nothing about a book to dislike.
I like my paperbacks, my hardbacks, my audio and ebooks. The format doesn’t matter.
The fact it is a book does!
Happy reading!
April 24, 2021
Book Disappointments
Are there any books that have disappointed you? I’m glad to say mine are few and far between and it is almost always because I’ve not been convinced by the characterisation. Something doesn’t quite ring true for me and that lets the whole story down.
The good thing about that is you can learn from it if you’re a writer. I do try to analyse what I liked or disliked about a story and its characters.
I also look at how the author shows us what their characters are like. I want to see for myself that Character A is mean to their granny or what have you. I don’t want the author telling me. I want to work it out myself. And great stories and books always allow you to do just that.
After all, what do we look for in a good read? A story and characters that will take us away from our daily lives.
Therefore the characters have to “take us with them” on their journeys and be such that we will want to go with them.
Even in the case of a villain, it will be a case of wanting to find out how they get their comeuppance but if you have got to the stage where you want that, the author has written their character well to get you to feel that way.
I must admit I resent book disappointments more now than I used to as I don’t want to waste time on reading something that is going to let me down and make me wish I’d been reading something else instead.
Also I am only too aware there are so many wonderful books out there, so I don’t want duff stories getting in the way!
The good thing about that is you can learn from it if you’re a writer. I do try to analyse what I liked or disliked about a story and its characters.
I also look at how the author shows us what their characters are like. I want to see for myself that Character A is mean to their granny or what have you. I don’t want the author telling me. I want to work it out myself. And great stories and books always allow you to do just that.
After all, what do we look for in a good read? A story and characters that will take us away from our daily lives.
Therefore the characters have to “take us with them” on their journeys and be such that we will want to go with them.
Even in the case of a villain, it will be a case of wanting to find out how they get their comeuppance but if you have got to the stage where you want that, the author has written their character well to get you to feel that way.
I must admit I resent book disappointments more now than I used to as I don’t want to waste time on reading something that is going to let me down and make me wish I’d been reading something else instead.
Also I am only too aware there are so many wonderful books out there, so I don’t want duff stories getting in the way!
April 17, 2021
One Liners
What are your favourite one liners from stories etc?
I love the opening to Pride and Prejudice.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Sets the scene and the tone. Beautifully done.
I also love this one, by complete contrast, from Good
Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
“Many phenomena - wars, plagues, sudden audits - have been advanced as evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man, but whenever students of demonology get together the M25 London orbital motorway is generally agreed to be among the top contenders for exhibit A.”
Hard to argue with that one! It certainly explains the queues…
A good one-liner usually makes me smile or laugh out loud. A really good one-liner will make me pause, read it again and enjoy it again, before moving on to the rest of the story.
And there are far too many from P.G. Wodehouse to quote here but that in itself is a tribute to his wonderful ability to come up with lines that just “hit” you and make you laugh out loud.
As you will gather from this, my favourite one-liners are of the humorous variety. Which are yours?
I love the opening to Pride and Prejudice.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Sets the scene and the tone. Beautifully done.
I also love this one, by complete contrast, from Good
Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
“Many phenomena - wars, plagues, sudden audits - have been advanced as evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man, but whenever students of demonology get together the M25 London orbital motorway is generally agreed to be among the top contenders for exhibit A.”
Hard to argue with that one! It certainly explains the queues…
A good one-liner usually makes me smile or laugh out loud. A really good one-liner will make me pause, read it again and enjoy it again, before moving on to the rest of the story.
And there are far too many from P.G. Wodehouse to quote here but that in itself is a tribute to his wonderful ability to come up with lines that just “hit” you and make you laugh out loud.
As you will gather from this, my favourite one-liners are of the humorous variety. Which are yours?
April 10, 2021
The Greatest Characters
The greatest characters in any story are for me the ones where I’ve got to find out what happens to them.
Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings is an obvious one for me here, as was Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (especially after the sacrifice scene).
But characters who back up the main leads grip me too. I have a very soft spot for Sam (and Frodo would have failed in his mission without him). I also have a soft spot for Lucy in the Narnia Chronicles.
Any great character, for me, is one where I can identify with them in some way. They’re not perfect. Good. Neither am I.
They have virtues I aspire to and flaws I’m glad I don’t have as well as some I know I do! But they come across as fully created beings I want to find out more about even if they’re not human.
Great characters for me include Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Sam Vimes and Granny Weatherwax throughout Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (though he makes my skin crawl with his miserly ways at the start of the story).
Great characters can also be redeemed as Scrooge shows and the theme of redemption is a powerful one.
So who would you nominate as your greatest characters?
Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings is an obvious one for me here, as was Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (especially after the sacrifice scene).
But characters who back up the main leads grip me too. I have a very soft spot for Sam (and Frodo would have failed in his mission without him). I also have a soft spot for Lucy in the Narnia Chronicles.
Any great character, for me, is one where I can identify with them in some way. They’re not perfect. Good. Neither am I.
They have virtues I aspire to and flaws I’m glad I don’t have as well as some I know I do! But they come across as fully created beings I want to find out more about even if they’re not human.
Great characters for me include Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Sam Vimes and Granny Weatherwax throughout Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (though he makes my skin crawl with his miserly ways at the start of the story).
Great characters can also be redeemed as Scrooge shows and the theme of redemption is a powerful one.
So who would you nominate as your greatest characters?
April 3, 2021
What Makes a Book Special for You?
It’s always good to start with a leading question, isn’t it?
Okay then, maybe starting with two of them is then!
Seriously, what does make a book special for you?
For me, it is always about the characters. I have to want to know them and come to love or loathe them as the case may be but they’ve got to intrigue me enough to make me want to read their stories.
I’ve got to understand their needs and motivations, though I don’t necessarily have to like or agree with them.
And if at the end of the story, I feel sorry that I am “leaving” the characters behind, that is a good sign.
Those characters really have got to me - the way they should do.
The characters don’t have to be human. I can understand the rabbits in Watership Down. Their needs, their quest is an understandable one.
But there absolutely has to be something I can latch on to about whoever leads the story. It is their journey I’m following after all.
Okay then, maybe starting with two of them is then!
Seriously, what does make a book special for you?
For me, it is always about the characters. I have to want to know them and come to love or loathe them as the case may be but they’ve got to intrigue me enough to make me want to read their stories.
I’ve got to understand their needs and motivations, though I don’t necessarily have to like or agree with them.
And if at the end of the story, I feel sorry that I am “leaving” the characters behind, that is a good sign.
Those characters really have got to me - the way they should do.
The characters don’t have to be human. I can understand the rabbits in Watership Down. Their needs, their quest is an understandable one.
But there absolutely has to be something I can latch on to about whoever leads the story. It is their journey I’m following after all.
March 27, 2021
Reference Books
Reference books are dipped into rather than read through as such, but they are invaluable.
Other than my combined dictionary/thesaurus, my favourite reference book is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. But I have to watch how long I spent with it.
Looking up an entry can so easily led me into looking up others I don’t really need at that moment. The book is a huge, fascinating world of words and their origins. What’s not to like there?!
So which reference books would you not be without and why?
I think it is easy to forget this “section” of the non-fiction world. I know many authors would be lost without these books, myself included.
It is not a case of using the nugget of information directly. Often it can be a case of looking something up and that will then affect what I get my character to do. That in turn has a direct result on the story outcome.
So let’s hear it for the reference books then!
Other than my combined dictionary/thesaurus, my favourite reference book is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. But I have to watch how long I spent with it.
Looking up an entry can so easily led me into looking up others I don’t really need at that moment. The book is a huge, fascinating world of words and their origins. What’s not to like there?!
So which reference books would you not be without and why?
I think it is easy to forget this “section” of the non-fiction world. I know many authors would be lost without these books, myself included.
It is not a case of using the nugget of information directly. Often it can be a case of looking something up and that will then affect what I get my character to do. That in turn has a direct result on the story outcome.
So let’s hear it for the reference books then!
March 20, 2021
Coaxing in Reluctant Readers
I’m a flash fiction writer and one of my hopes for the form is that it may prove to be an excellent way to coax in the reluctant reader.
For one thing, with flash fiction stories coming in at a maximum of 1000 words (and often considerably less than that), I’m not asking a reader to commit to too much in one go!
I’ve loved stories and books all of my life (thanks to my lovely much missed mum encouraging and developing that love) but not everyone “gets” stories and books.
So how do you reach them and persuade them books can be “their bag” too?
No easy answer to that but I hope films might draw people in to read the books the movies are based on. I also hope audio can be a way in. You can listen to a great story as well as read one.
And as I say I hope flash fiction, which reads well on screens, would also help here.
I do know that the love of reading should be encouraged. I think it is a question of convincing people there really are books out there which would suit them.
For one thing, with flash fiction stories coming in at a maximum of 1000 words (and often considerably less than that), I’m not asking a reader to commit to too much in one go!
I’ve loved stories and books all of my life (thanks to my lovely much missed mum encouraging and developing that love) but not everyone “gets” stories and books.
So how do you reach them and persuade them books can be “their bag” too?
No easy answer to that but I hope films might draw people in to read the books the movies are based on. I also hope audio can be a way in. You can listen to a great story as well as read one.
And as I say I hope flash fiction, which reads well on screens, would also help here.
I do know that the love of reading should be encouraged. I think it is a question of convincing people there really are books out there which would suit them.
March 13, 2021
Books as Gifts
I always love to give and receive books as gifts. For me they are the perfect present and so easy to gift wrap too!
Also no calories are involved whatsoever and a good book as I’ve mentioned before will take you to all sorts of wonderful worlds.
Books are the places to escape your cares for a while. (This is just one reason why I can’t read misery memoir. When I read, I do want to escape. I guess that is why fantasy IS high up on my reading list).
]
But flipping this topic, let’s wonder about what books would make great presents for fictional characters.
Scrooge - The Art of Generosity. (He would have got more from this after the visits from the ghosts).
Jane Eyre - Exploring the Attic.
Elizabeth Bennet - Knowing Your Own Mind
Frodo Baggins - Appreciating Your Friends
Miss Marple - Anything from the I-Spy collections.
Hercule Poirot - Hair Care for the Fussy
Okay over to you - what books would you give to fictional characters?
Also no calories are involved whatsoever and a good book as I’ve mentioned before will take you to all sorts of wonderful worlds.
Books are the places to escape your cares for a while. (This is just one reason why I can’t read misery memoir. When I read, I do want to escape. I guess that is why fantasy IS high up on my reading list).
]
But flipping this topic, let’s wonder about what books would make great presents for fictional characters.
Scrooge - The Art of Generosity. (He would have got more from this after the visits from the ghosts).
Jane Eyre - Exploring the Attic.
Elizabeth Bennet - Knowing Your Own Mind
Frodo Baggins - Appreciating Your Friends
Miss Marple - Anything from the I-Spy collections.
Hercule Poirot - Hair Care for the Fussy
Okay over to you - what books would you give to fictional characters?
March 6, 2021
Where I Want A Book To Take Me…
A lot depends on what I’m reading, naturally.
For fiction, I want to explore the writer’s created world and characters and be immersed in that for the duration of the book.
For non-fiction, I want to stretch my mind and learn. For both I want to be entertained while all of that is going on! No pressure then…
I am thankful that the days of non-fiction being the poor relation to fiction are over. No more boring books of lists and dull facts.
What we have are books that engage with the reader, making you want to find out more, actively encouraging further reading in the subject.
As for fiction, even the world is not your limit. I love the way fiction can take you to fantasy worlds, worlds that could exist out there somewhere, maybe, and the books that help us explore our world, right here and now and backwards and forwards in time.
Books have the potential to take you anywhere and that’s just how it should be.
For fiction, I want to explore the writer’s created world and characters and be immersed in that for the duration of the book.
For non-fiction, I want to stretch my mind and learn. For both I want to be entertained while all of that is going on! No pressure then…
I am thankful that the days of non-fiction being the poor relation to fiction are over. No more boring books of lists and dull facts.
What we have are books that engage with the reader, making you want to find out more, actively encouraging further reading in the subject.
As for fiction, even the world is not your limit. I love the way fiction can take you to fantasy worlds, worlds that could exist out there somewhere, maybe, and the books that help us explore our world, right here and now and backwards and forwards in time.
Books have the potential to take you anywhere and that’s just how it should be.
February 27, 2021
Cherished Childhood Books
I owe my late mother a huge debt. She encouraged my love of books and stories from an early age and she was thrilled to see my first story in print, A Helping Hand, in Bridge House Publishing’s Alternative Renditions anthology way back in 2009.
Sadly, Mum didn’t get to see either of my two flash fiction collections (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic) though my Dad did see the first one.
But thinking about them, and in particular, Mum, led me to recall some of my cherished childhood books.
To name a few:-
Black Beauty
Heidi
The Famous Five - I had most of the set (close to about 20 books or so).
The Reader’s Digest Collection of Classic Fairytales - a huge two volume set beautifully illustrated too.
And then there were various Ladybird books as well.
And I used to collect the old I-Spy books which were themed on topics and you scored points for everything you observed on that topic when out on walks etc.
The best gift that comes from having an early love of reading?
Well it’s a gift that doesn’t leave you and you keep on reading. What you read changes of course according to age and taste but there is a reading journey as well as a writing one.
What matters is to ensure you thoroughly enjoy your reading journey (and if you have one the writing one as well).
Sadly, Mum didn’t get to see either of my two flash fiction collections (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic) though my Dad did see the first one.
But thinking about them, and in particular, Mum, led me to recall some of my cherished childhood books.
To name a few:-
Black Beauty
Heidi
The Famous Five - I had most of the set (close to about 20 books or so).
The Reader’s Digest Collection of Classic Fairytales - a huge two volume set beautifully illustrated too.
And then there were various Ladybird books as well.
And I used to collect the old I-Spy books which were themed on topics and you scored points for everything you observed on that topic when out on walks etc.
The best gift that comes from having an early love of reading?
Well it’s a gift that doesn’t leave you and you keep on reading. What you read changes of course according to age and taste but there is a reading journey as well as a writing one.
What matters is to ensure you thoroughly enjoy your reading journey (and if you have one the writing one as well).
