Books finished in November 2011

[vivdunstan]

It's been a busy month for book reading, though I got off to a relatively slow start with a number of longer novels. But the number of books finished has grown steadily. All books were read on my Kindle, apart from Here Be Snapdragons! which I read in PDF form (purchased from DriveThruComics.com) on my iPad.

First up was The Small Hand, by Susan Hill, author of The Woman In Black. I started reading this over Halloween, when a ghost story seemed highly appropriate. I was rather disappointed though. It wasn't nearly as scary as I'd hoped, and I found the ending underwhelming. Reviews on Amazon seem similar: it's a bit of a marmite book, and most people seem to have fallen on the disappointed side of the fence.

After that I read a draft novel for a Lovecraftian friend. Very long novel. Still needs some revising and reworking. But very enjoyable, and after a somewhat slow beginning totally hooked me.

The long book reading continued with The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel, by Anthony Horowitz. When this was announced, I was rather sceptical. But I think the author did a very good job. It reads like authentic Conan Doyle, although it took me a while to get to grips with a longer novel: even the original Sherlock longer stories, like The Hound of the Baskervilles, aren't very long novels. It was gripping, and I read it in a relatively short time. Enjoyed immensely.

The first of my graphic/comic book novels this month was the very short Simon's Cat: In Kitten Chaos, by Simon Tofield. This was the first Simon's Cat book I've read, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. Though it didn't always hit the spot for me, and I couldn't always work out what was going on in the pictures. And that wasn't a fault of the Kindle. Where necessary I could zoom in a lot.

I read two "Guardian shorts" books this month, collections of Guardian articles bunded up and available on the Kindle to buy from Amazon. The first was How to write fiction: a Guardian masterclass (Guardian shorts). This was good. I want to work on my creative writing more, and although I'm more of a non-fiction writer than a fiction one there were lots of tips and ideas to spur me on. I have a few books to work through on the subject later, but this was a good start.

Torchwood: First Born, by James Goss is the first Torchwood book I've read in a long time. It's a prequel to "Miracle Day", and features Gwen and Rhys, and their baby. Not sure that I liked it so much. It was ably written, the characterisation was good, but it just felt too ... light, I suppose. The plot seemed stretched to me, and padded, and it was also quite overtly sci-fi which doesn't suit me. Have another couple of the recent Torchwood novels waiting to read on my Kindle soon.

Next finished was Who's Who? The Resurrection of the Doctor (Guardian shorts). This was a collection of articles that have appeared in the Guardian newspaper since 2003, when the announcement was made that Doctor Who would be coming back to the TV, and the recent past. It doesn't include everything the Guardian has published about the series, so no episode by episode reviews for example. But it includes many interviews with the main actors, writers and producers. And other analysis. I enjoyed this.

Slightly worn out I think by some of the longer books I'd been reading in recent weeks I then turned to something very lightweight: The Wombles to the Rescue, by Elisabeth Beresford. This was fun. Not earth shattering, but fun. I was a big fan of the Wombles TV series as a young child.

Continuing the Doctor Who theme I read Elisabeth Sladen: the Autobiography. This was much more enjoyable than I expected. I know it was written with a co-author, who presumably interviewed Elisabeth and turned it into a smooth narrative, in her words as much as possible. But it was highly effective, and extremely detailed. It's more an account of her professional life, so focusing on her early years in the theatre, and subsequent TV work, including Doctor Who, and less after she left she show. But there are many insights into her character. Highly recommended.

My second graphic novel was Here Be Snapdragons!, by John Kovalic and Liz Rathke. This is a bit like a younger version of Dork Tower, and sees a group of young children play roleplaying games and have fun. Very amusing. Given that it's co-written by John Kovalic, of Dork Tower, I wasn't too surprised when some Dork Tower characters made cameo (or larger) appearances.

And then I whizzed through The Twitter Book, by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein. This was on special offer in their regular ebook deals, so I snapped it up. Although a beginner to Twitter might learn more from it - though perhaps be a bit overwhelmed by everything to learn in the process - I learned new things too. For example I now understand much more about lists, and plan to use those, and am looking into better integration between Twitter and my other social networking profiles. A light read, a quick read, but still recommended. I started reading it on my iPad, but switched to the Kindle to finish (O'Reilly provide ebooks DRM-free in multiple formats).

Sadly there were also two books I had to give up on, and are now shelved on my "unfinished" shelf on Goodreads.

The first was Dublin: A Portrait, by V.S. Pritchett. I found the writing far too dense, and was really struggling to wade through it. Reading shouldn't be hard work, so I eventually stopped.

The second was The Wizard's Coming, by Juliet E. McKenna. It's just a short story, released as an ebook to give a taste of her writing. I should have read it in a flash. But from the very beginning I was struggling with extremely long overly descriptive sentences. Then a rash of characters were introduced, which I couldn't distinguish between properly, and became quite baffled. Maybe I was too tired. But I kept trying, then gave up.

I now have a lot of books on the go as usual. I was really craving fantasy, so decided to go for the obvious thing for me, and am now continuing my The Lord of the Rings reread, now onto The Two Towers. It's like revisiting an old friend, and such an easy read for me. And I have a number of more technical or non-fiction books on the go too. And Terry Jones's new short story collection Evil Machines from Unbound, which I was a supporter of, and got the hardback (which hubby greatly admired - "That's how books used to look!") as well as the DRM-free ebook in various formats.

So far this year I've finished 92 books, smashing my original goal of 50 books, and then my revised goal of 75. It would be nice to reach 100, but I'm doubtful that will happen. Still, it's a huge achievement to have read so much. Just a couple of years ago I wasn't reading recreationally at all, far too badly affected by the brain damage to manage physical books. eBooks made the difference, firstly on my iPod touch, then my Kindle, and they've transformed my reading habits.