Wednesday 31 August 2011

My latest ramblings

I was feeling a bit poorly a couple of weeks ago so spent some time curled up in my bed with kindle.  I seem to have gone through a lot of Crime fiction in a few days.  It made me think that I actually read a lot of crime novels. I think in order of preference I prefer Fantsy then Sci-Fi then Crime. It's weird because I seem to have read a lot of crime this year.  I think I find it's a bit of a comfort thing reading Crime Novels.  I end up thinking well at least i'm not as badly off as the characters in these books.

So what have i been reading this year in Crime.

Girl 4 by Will Carver

His first book, and a nice chap to say hello to on twitter.  A slightly different book, which I really rather enjoyed.  It needs a second reading to hunt for clues that you might have missed the first time around.

Ruth Rendell

I've read quite a few of her books on and off but I just had a bit of a urge for some Ruth.  so I read.  End in Tears, which I enjoyed, Shake hands for ever.  struggled a bit with this.  The Vault.  OK, quite fun seeing Wexford as an ex cop. I then got stuck on The Speaker of Mandarin, and will go back to it some day i'm just not in the mood for it at the moment.

Stuart Pawson

I found a writer that has been around for a while who i've never read and found that his detective books are rather fun!! He is Stuart Pawson, His main character is DI Charlie Priest.  I was slightly frustrated as I wanted to read all of his books but there were only 4 on kindle.  So I read all of these which were. The Picasso Scam , A very Private Murder , Deadly Friends , The Judas Sheep .  They were all a really enjoyable read, not the worlds most modern author but I found them really enjoyable.  If there were more of his novels on Kindle I guarantee I would buy them.

Other Crime that i've been reading this year includes a lot of Scandinavian authors.  Karin Fossum , Anne Holt , Camilla Lackberg , Liza Marklund, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo , Hakan Nesser , Gunnar Staalesen , and Per Wahloo / Maj Sjowall

Also the latest Mark Millingham.

I'm trying to work out if I have actually read more crime novels than fantasy / Sci-Fi Novels.  I think the answer is no but I read a lot higher percentage of Crime novels on my kindle then I do Fantasy and Sci-Fi. 

I think some of this is that I am coming to these authors fresh without having a large library of their books.  for instance I buy Agatha Christie books, because I have all the Miss Marple and a few Poirot in Hardback, so i've only got one Christie on my kindle.  The same with a lot of fantasy.  I enjoy having the hardback copies of the books.  It's weird but I don't want hardback books to disappear.  I could do away with paperbacks and replace them all with books on a kindle but I just love the feel of a hardback book!! daft I know.  For example somehow I have ended up with first edition copies of all the Terry Brooks books.  I don't know how, but it's happened, so now it seems a shame even if I actually struggle to read them as they are all a bit samey, but it seems a shame to spoil the collection by not having the latest!!  [EDIT: The struggling to read it bit applies to Brooks but not the other authors mentioned] The same with Peter F Hamilton Alistair Reynolds , and various other authors, I just enjoy having a nice shiny hardback copy of their books.

It probably sounds daft, but there is a very small extra pleasure snuggling down with a decent hardback and a nice Whisky that just isn't quite there when I settle down with a Kindle.

Yes, I am a sad completist... (if such a word exists).

Thursday 4 August 2011

Chilling

Nice evening. It rained earlier but it's all dry now.

Sitting in a deckchair in my garden, reading a book, pottering around the net. I have a decent whisky beside me, and I am keeping my feel warm as my choccie lab is curled up around them.

Hey, some evenings you just need to relax.

Steph

Wednesday 3 August 2011

The Joy of Books

I am sure a lot of people will put this better than I can, but isn't it fantastic when you find a new author who's books you instantly become addicted to.

This year it's happened to me for the first time in a while.  Mark Charan Newton is the author.  I picked up his first couple of books at the beginning of this year, and it is such a good series.  I have reviewed the 2nd and 3rd book of the series, Legends of the Red Sun. Follow the links on the right if you want to read them. 

This series has helped me to read and review more books this year.  I was getting a bit lazy reading the latest from the same old x author, and I stopped hunting around for new authors. I pretty much lost my passion for books. Now I feel re-energised and I have spent a lot more on books this year, and I have even gone to to some book events run by alt-fiction

So even though he will never find my tiny ikkle blog with 1 follower, thank you Mark for reigniting my passion for books.

What i've been upto and what I want to do.

Hello.

Please do not faint!! I am a bit stuck working a lot at the moment, but to be honest I am just not very good at doing this blog thing.  I'm still writing book reviews on fantasybookreview.co.uk a very good site and you should spend your time reading lots of the reviews.

I've also signed up to be part of the Angry Robot Army, so I'll review some of their really interesting books.  Great small publisher, which a great offer for an annual supply of all their books as ebooks.  Take a look at their website angryrobotbooks.com

So hopefully I will get my busy work period of work out of the way in the next couple of weeks, and then I will try to update this site a bit more!!

Also I am trying to find the time to join in a great idea from @fantasyfaction fantasy-faction.com to write 500 words, a day, and as an author pointed out recently if you type at 60 words a minute, then that's only 9 minutes of your time per day. 

Oh.  I also need a nicer editor to write these blogs it's horrible the basic editor within blogger.

Have fun in whatever you are doing, and just remember read lots of books.