European Reading Challenge

I've just found out about the world of reading challenges (beyond the Goodreads challenge) and so shall be signing up for at least two. The first of these will be the European reading challenge hosted on Rose City Reader invites participants to read their way through Europe. Rules and sign up can be found in the post above. I'd like to pledge a book for all of the countries, in an ideal world, but I know that won't happen. Instead, I'll aim to read at least the four following books:

• Bone Jack by Sarah Crowe for the UK
• Mio, min Mio by Astrid Lindgren for Sweden
• Tintenherz by Cornelia Funke or Die unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende for Germany
• Chagrin d'école by Daniel Pennac (or something else) for France

If possible, I would like to add a book from Finland (either The Rabbit Back Literature Society or It Came from the North, an anthology of Finnish speculative fiction), and Odinsbarn from Norway. Beyond that... who knows? Maybe some Milan Kundera for Czech, or something Russian, or Spanish, or Italian might even creep in! [Almost] anything is possible, and I'm excited!

The reviews for my challenge can be found here.

L... Li... Lit corner!

So much trepidation. Is it really - could it be a lit corner? Yes, it is and it can!

I mentioned last post that a lit corner would be coming up soon... but then soon never happened. Most unfortunate. A forewarning: this Lit Corner is heavily sponsored by the French Language.

Another thing, before I get to cornering proper: I said that I had finished three books since the last post. However, looking back on it I have read far more books since the last Lit Corner. These books will not be making an appearance here, although my thoughts on most of them are to be found on goodreads.com. Also in Category: Books that Will Not be Appearing Here are all of the books I mentioned in my last post. In fact, only one book of the following has ever seen the light of this blog before!

So, with all that said...

The first book I finished was Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Okay, so perhaps this one has made it here before? Who can be sure?* At any rate, it had been sitting on my bookshelf for three years. The reason why it stayed there for so long is because I loved the film so much and then when it came to reading the book... well, I just couldn't get behind it. This year, however, I said that enough was really enough, it was a crying shame to leave this book lying around when it was really short and something I would probably enjoy and which probably wouldn't even take me that much time to get through. Okay, I didn't say all of that. So, I buckled down and read it. Aaaaand... eh. Well, eh. I gave it four stars on goodreads, but it hindsight I might say that was a little bit generous. But I wanted to be fair to the book. I was, and still am, aware of the fact that my view of the book was very much coloured by the film. Or rather, it might be more accurate to say that my view of the film drained colour from the book, because there were certain things not present in the book that were there in the film. In fact, one of my favourite scenes was very conspicuously not present - although I understand that it would have been very different from book to film.

All of that being said, I would like to say that there were things in the book that I absolutely loved. Tristan doesn't start off a lovable scamp, as he does in the film, but I do like finding out about his family about background. Likewise, I like that we see more about the town of Wall and its inhabitants, and about Faerie, also. But, this leads to more niggling annoyances. Perhaps there is an author's preferred version out there somewhere that resolves these things. I like to imagine that there is. But it feels like Gaiman rushed the end of the book, so the things that could have given more depth and more colour were skated over. We don't see the moment where Tristan and Yvaine fall in love, as we do in the film. We don't see their lives together. We don't see anything of some kind of conspiracy theory which is brought up without warning or explanation. We just see 'and then the did a bunch of exciting things that you will never hear about and then they ruled for a little while and that's about that.' Which, really, is somewhat lacking. So, altogether, I wasn't nearly as enchanted with this book as I would have liked, and I probably would stick to recommending the film if, by some mysterious chance, someone has not yet heard of either.

The second book I finished was Arsène Lupin: Gentleman-Cambrioleur. This book was of the kind that can rightfully be called 'a riotous romp' and a 'bundle of fun'. It had an episodic format, and one chapter wouldn't really need to be read to understand the next. This makes perfect sense, as it was designed to be a French answer and counterpoint to the Sherlock Holmes stories. Arsène, like Sherlock, is a genius whose exploits are documented by a trusted third party. Arsène, unlike Sherlock, plays a large role in this documentation: he recounts the stories, and often even provides articles of his more laudable exploits to a newspaper. This book was a fun read, but nothing of any real depth. It was therefore easy to dip in and out of. I doubt I'll be reading any of the following stories any time soon, but I was fond of Arsène and would recommend this father of the Gentleman-Thief.

Finally, I finished Nagasaki, by Éric Faye. Really, I ought to have finished it long before I did, but then I put it down and then it got lost, and then other books trumped it in importance... but I refound it and got to business. I am sad to say that I am not quite as enamoured of the book as I first hoped. The story was fascinating, the language and the telling was beautiful... but something about occupying the point of view of Shimura, one of the two main first person narrators, made me very uncomfortable. I imagine that this was an intended effect - both narrators were alienated, and the narrator of the first part of the book appeared to preoccupied with his solitary lifestyle, the fact that he was single, the thought of what his life would have been were he not... these thoughts are central to the story, I think, but nonetheless made me feel one more than one occasion that I would rather not see them.

At first, I compared this book to something Julio Cortazar but it became more Henry James à la Turn of the Screw and finally something of it's own. Éric Faye really does use the French language in a lovely way, and I am looking forward to more.

So concludes the Lit Corner. I would like to promise another one soon, but that does not seem to be likely. My to-read list is a long as ever, and priorities have shifted so that a book which wasn't originally on it has moved up into first place. Another, similarly unknown book has weasled its way into regular reading, while my reread of Låt den rätta komma in, the Swedish original of John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In has taken up so much spare time that even Kaninhjärta has had to take a backseat. Speaking of that latter, however, we have finally gotten to the bit which will take us to the bit where we can some action! Glory be, it's only taken thirty pages...**

So, good luck and godspeed to me, and
Happy Reading to you!
Little Newman

*Google, that's who. Also, me, because I think I talked about it on the day that I bought it, book haul style. Except for the fact that, back then, I didn't know what a book haul was.
**Okay, I still really enjoy this book, and it was good getting to know Anne and Mary in so much depth, and there was foreshadowing and setting up to be done... but after a while, being told 'this will have dire consequences' and 'if only they knew what would happen next' gets irritating and you just want to skip to the dire consequences...
Well. Rant over.

/Currently Reading/General Update

And, to keep things interesting, I'll write this post in reverse order. Why? Well, why not? And why cram so many things into a single post? Why not make three separate posts and so better make up for my pitiful failure to stick to my resolution?

Well, because nothing much has happened to me recently. Or, rather, nothing I can quite get myself to spin into a lengthy blog post, hence the complete lack of such over here.

So, of all the nothing that has happened to me, where do I begin? Well, the most exciting thing by far was my boyfriend's visit. In that week I went to both Winchester and Hay. Yes, The Hay, the one on-Wye. Winchester was very nice, but why talk about Winchester here when I could be talking about Hay? Hay was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I was only there for about eighteen hours in total, as it took six hours to get there and around five to get back, and we only stayed one night. That is not a mistake I will be making again!

The hotel we stayed in, The Swan, was lovely. The staff were all very friendly, and the food was very delicious - I was treated to the best pork crackling I ever had, and who knew I would warm to black pudding? Sadly, I had an awful headache that night, and managed to come out in hives on top of that, so we couldn't go out into the garden and look at the stars as we had planned, but we were assured that the garden was a perfect spot to stargaze from.

And Hay, what little I saw of it in around eighteen hours, was gorgeous. The bookshops were plenty, and so were the hills, impressive scenery and cosy-looking eateries. If I had more money hanging about, waiting to be used, I would have impulse-bought a house and settled down there immediately.

And finally, the books. I had actually done a lot of bookshopping in the weeks before, courtesy of a good friend whose family gave me a National Book Token voucher worth fifty pounds. And so, just two days before arriving in Hay I was, if you will believe it, burnt out from book shopping. I went into Foyles, and saw a few books that have been on my TBR for the longest time and I... I left them there. With money remaining on my voucher, waiting to be spent! That, of course, didn't bode well for a trip to the town of bookshops, but thankfully things went down fairly well. Nothing like crammed second hand books to refresh the reader's soul. I ended up buying eight books, including three Granta magazines and a Paris Review. I am still slowly reading my way through one of the magazines (Granta no. 16 - Science. Number 16! Wow!)

Oh, and did I mention that these eight books cost me no more than £24? Because those books, together, cost me no more than £24. The only regret I have is that I didn't pick up more Granta magazines...

So, as we can see, the trip to Hay was an all-round success to be repeated, if possible, without the horrible headache next time.

Other than that, I have been deeply thinking about my plans for the future*. These plans seem to include moving to Sweden, at least for a short while. Only a few months ago, these plans seemed permanently directed towards study in the Netherlands, but the Sweden plans feel a bit less likely to change.

However, the future still feels far off to me, so far off that I can even dream of finishing all twenty two books on my currently reading shelf by then... wow, what an elegant segway that was. I hope we are all taking notes. Yes, my currently reading list is long, so ridiculously long that I have sectioned it into books that I am actively currently reading, and books which I am not currently currently reading, but which I was once currently reading and expect to be currently reading again soon. And that doesn't even include the forty something books I've placed on hold until further notice. Like that, it almost makes me want to cry.

So, what am I currently reading currently? I am continuing with Kaninhjärta by Christin Ljungqvist and, as Swedish has suddenly jumped up in my list of priorities, so has my progress through this book been ramped up a few notches. It continues to be interesting and lyrically written, but it has actually taken a while to get to the action. Even now, over a quarter of the way in, are we only beginning to see the story proper progress.

I am also slowly making my way through Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London as a tandem read with a friend. Said friend has recently started a job which requires her to read very boring documents all day long, which leaves her with little mental energy to read the fun things. This tandem read was dreamed up for several reasons, the first being that I intend to get her to read aloud from it (as practice), the second being that we both have had it on our TBR without getting more than a chapter or so in and the third being: she needs to get back to being able to read for pleasure. It'll be great for us to read this together and discuss, I think. We are also planning on finding books in French and German to read together, wish us luck.

Lying somewhere in between the 'currently reading right now' and the 'currently reading a bit later' sections of my currently reading are The Magician by Raymond E. Feist, which I may have mentioned a little while ago, and Ancilliary Justice by Anne Leckie, which was probably mentioned in the same post. If it wasn't, it ought to have been. I am also, as said, reading through the Granta 'Science' issue, which is extremely interesting.

I was going to finish with a Lit Corner here, as I have finished three books since the last post and we all know that three is the perfect number for a Lit Corner. However, this post turned out a bit longer than I expected, so I'll save the finished books for another time.

Happy Blogging!
Little Newman

*A time period which, when used by me, tends not to extend more than a few weeks, or a year, at most. In fact, that is a most particular, far flung future that lasts about four years. Even typing it out seems strange, to the me who lives day-by-day.

Hej, allihoppa!

Hello, hello all! Look who's back, just like she promised...!

I feel like I have done a lot of language related things in the past week, and it is almost entirely due to these things that you see me here now.

This, right here, will be a multilingual lit post!*

I have started five new books in the past seven days, some of which I absolutely adore. I'll start with the German book, as my German is no way near good enough to write in.

The book is Splitterherz by Bettina Bellitz. To be honest, I am little more than a page in, and this is not due to my almost non-existent grasp of the language. No, the reason my reading of this book lags is because I already don't think that I like it. The Prologue was actually doing a good job of holding my respect until I got to the bit about the weeping moon. Which is... somewhat melodramatic. In hindsight, with my 'objectivity' glasses on, it is a good prologue, and I wish I could have taken it more seriously. Intrigued by the prologue of weeping moons and innocent yet wild souls** - or rather horrified by my choice - I went back to the blurb to find out which book it was I was actually reading. It turned out to be the one with the arrogant yet fascinating boy who has a deep secret that turns out to be tied to the protagonists own family history...
Yeah, so, not my thing. Recently, I have been finding myself being turned off by the mention of arrogant yet fascinating boys. Their fascination seems always to lie in the fact that are cryptic and act in an awful way but because of Reasons. Well, for my own Reasons, I don't like the romanticisation of this type, but I am still willing to continue on with the book as it is the only one of the German books that I earmarked that is available as a kindle sample.

And now for something completely different...

J’ai commencé trois livres français cette semaine. Le premier était Je suis un dragon de Martin Page. C’est un livre dont le concept m’intéressé depuis sa parution au début de l’année. J’ai à peine lu deux ou trois pages (je ne suis pas sûre, je l’ai lu sur mon iPhone), mais je l’aime déjà. Le personnage principal est une fille doué des pouvoirs surhumains. Je ne sais pas trop quels pouvoirs, mais elle semble être impossible à tuer – ce qui aurait me déranger, je peux vous dire. Cette puissance semble de la dérange elle aussi, parce qu’au début du roman elle est soumis à une expérience tellement violent pour démonter ses pouvoirs, une expérience qui finit par une perte de vie…

Fin, je ne veux pas trop dire et en tout cas je ne peux pas trop dire mais ça y est. Je suis impatiente de lire la suite, et je vais l’acheter dès que possible.

I started three French books this week. The first is I am a dragon by Martin Page. The concept of this book has interested me since its publication at the start of the year. I've hardly read two or three page (I'm not sure, because I was reading on my iPhone), but I like it already. The main character is a girl gifted with superhuman powers. I don't really know what powers, but she seems to be impossible to kill - which would bug me, I can tell you. This power seems to bug her, too, because at the start of the book we see her as the subject of an extremely violent experiment to demonstrate her powers, an experiment which finishes with the loss of a life...

Okay, so I don't really want to say too much, and I can really say that much, but there it is. I'm impatient to carry on reading, and I'm going to buy a paper copy of the book as soon as possible.

Le deuxième roman que j'ai commencé à lire cette semaine ne m’était pas aussi impressionnante. En fait, mes sentiments face au ce livre sont à peu près le même que ceux j’ai exprimé sur Splitterherz. Le roman est intitulé Les Cendres d’oubli par Carina Rozenfeld et la description m’a vraiment intéressé. Mais, dès le prologue, qui était encore une fois pleine de mélodrame, je n'ai plus beaucoup d'espoir pour ce livre.. En ce cas, c’était un mélodrame amoureux qui m’a exaspéré beaucoup plus que tous ces beaux mots des lunes pleurantes et âmes armées aux griffes… Oui, parce que ça, ça se trouve aussi ! Cependant, le concept de ce livre reste captivant. L’histoire est celle du Phoenix ou plutôt des Phoenix parce que, effectivement, il y’en a toujours deux qui doivent existe au monde en même temps. Donc, évidemment, il y aura de l’amour, de drame amoureux, des malentendus et moments précaires. Mais ce n’est pas impossible que je l’aimerai, malgré tout ça !

The second [French] novel I started this week wasn't quite as impressive. In fact, I feel about the same way about it as I felt about Splitterherz. It is called The Ashes of the forgotten*** by Carina Rozenfeld, and the description was really interesting. But from the prologue, which was once again full of melodrama, I don't have much hope for this book. In this case, the melodrama was of the romantic type, and it exasperated me a lot more than all that talk of weeping moons and souls armed with hooks... because, yes, those came up, too! However, the concept of the book is still interesting. It is the story of the phoenix, or rather, of the Phoenixes, because actually there are always two who have to be alive at the same time. So, of course, there is going to be love, romangst, misunderstandings and moments where everything looks to go tits-up. But I might just like it, even with all of that!

Et puis enfin le troisième roman [français] de la semaine ! Ceci est Nagasaki d’Éric Faye, et c’est un livre duquel je ne veux pas trop dire. La raison pour cette réticence peu typique est qu’un critique irréfléchi a spoilé le livre pour moi. Mais ça a l'air d'être quelque chose qui aurai pu été écrit par Julio Cortazar lui-même, si Julio Cortazar a écrit les livres en Francais, fondés sur les évènements réelles, qui déroulent au Japon... Le petit extrait m’a révélé un coup de cœur. Je l’ai vraiment adoré. En fait, je ne peux pas me restreindre, je crois que je l’achèterai aujourd'hui!

And finally the third [French] novel of the week! This one is Nagasaki by Éric Faye, and I don't want to say too much about it. The reason for such uncharacteristic reticence is because an unfortunate review spoiled the book a bit for me. But it seems to be something that could have issued forth from the pen of Julio Cortazar himself, if Julio Cortazar wrote books in French, based on true stories, set in Japan... I think that, from the extract I read, I'm going to love it. In fact, I don't think I can restrain myself, I'm probably going to buy it today!

Och jag ska sluta med den svenska boken. Jag ber om er ursäkt innan jag börjar, för jag är lite osäker på att tala och skriva i svenska. Kaninhjärta av Christin Ljungqvist verkar vara en blandning av en spökhistoria, en psykologisk thriller och en deckare. Hittills har jag läst utomkring tre sidor av boken, kanske flera. Och det är mycket intressant. Författarens stil är något nytt för mig och meningarna rinna om som en flod. Historian handlar om två flickor, tvillingssystrar Anne och Mary. Den ena, Anne, kan se spökar som tar kontroll av hennes systers kropp. De beskrevs som en person med ett tänker, då är de ett medium. Jag ska inte tala mer om boken tills att jag har läst ännu vidare, men jag tycker om den och jag har redan köpt e-boken.

And I will finish with the Swedish book. I ask for your forgiveness in advance (oh, mighty Swedish speakers!) because I'm kind of unsure about speaking and writing Swedish. Rabbit Heart by Christin Ljungqvist seems to be a mixture of a horror story, a psychological thriller and a murder mystery. So far I've read about three pages, maybe more. And it's very interesting. The authors style is something new (at least, for my Swedish self), and the sentences flow  along and carry me with them. The story is about two girls, twin sisters Anne and Mary. One, Anne, can see the spirits which posses her sisters body. They are described as one person with one mind, so it follows that they make up one medium. I won't say any more about the book until I have read even more, but I like it and I have already bought the e-book.

So, this post has been a long one, and it took me a while to write. I'm actually pretty proud of myself, to tell the truth. I wasn't expecting to be able to write so much at all, especially not for Swedish. As far as I can tell, only Nagasaki has been translated into English, published by Gallic books. If you speak any of the other languages, though, or if, like me, you are willing to stumble blindly through, I really reccommend Kaninhjärta and Je suis un dragon.

Happy reading :)

And happier blogging,

Little Newman

*Not a lit corner, I feel compelled to add, because I haven't actually finished any of these books yet. So, we stick with post.
**Okay, I thought that bit was silly, too.
***Extremely liberal translation there from me...!

Resolution

So, why is a resolution called a resolution? Or, perhaps more reasonably, why are resolutions not the same as resolution? This is an important question, and one which I will not attempt to answer, or even think about further. Okay, so that's a lie. I probably will. But we can be almost sure that I will have forgotten about it by the end of this post as I will make no attempt to answer, or even clarify, the question for you, my dear, potential readers*.

The following will be a post in which I will state to you some things which I intend to do, and I hope very much that I actually do them.

THING THE FIRST.

- I will update my blogs more. I have spoken more about this on the Kaffee und Kuchen blog which I keep over on wordpress.com (sorry, blogger). So I'm already doing well with this one!
To be specific, I will try to update this blog every week. Kaffee und Kuchen will undoubtedly be updated less often and less regularly, as it is a writing blog and I do not do much writing anymore. Updates here will not follow any pattern. I guess they never have, so no need for surprise on that count. I will blog about the things I usually blog about: my travels, my studies, the things I've read and the things I've seen. It's called Lily on Life for a reason. The only things I will NOT talk about here are the things I've eaten. There is a dedicated blog about this floating around in the interspace, and while it is as sorely neglected and as sorely in need of updating as any blog of mine you care to mention, I will respect its existence by not even thinking of talking food critique anywhere else.

THING THE SECOND

(I should probably mention here that these THINGS are in no particular order. Now that that is done...)
- I will read more. Reading is a good and laudable activity, and one of my favourite things to do. So, in view of that, I will try to actually do it. A book a week would be the ideal, but I know myself, so I'll make no promises here. Of course, reading more means blogging more because lit corners are my favourite types of blogpost. I have recently picked back up Darkmans, a behemoth of a book which is very post everything. This brings me swiftly to a subthing of Thing Two: I will read the books loved by the people I love. This is not an idea I had all on my own. I would have never thought of such a thing had Johannes Punkt, reviewer of fake books; creator of strange fictions; merchant of words and a general Person de Qualité in a way that the good Abbé Prevost probably never even considered, not come up with it first. Of course, I have read books that my friends have loved before. And I know that they have read books that I have loved, too. But this is because our tastes naturally overlap. Yes, Anna loved American Gods and recommended it to me, but ultimately I read it because I was sure I would enjoy it, too. I read it because I liked it, which is noble and perfectly correct.  But I did not read it because Anna loved it. I read it for myself.

Reading a book that someone else loves, purely for the fact that they love it, is something else entirely. It allows you to become closer to that person in a very small, very strange way. I started reading Darkmans because it was given to me as a present - again, by Anna. It was this that managed to get me almost of a quarter of the way through a book which numbers more than eight hundred pages in total. I picked it back up, because Anna loves this book. I am no longer reading it simply to find the things in it that I can love for myself, although if I find these things, I won't suppress or ignore them. Rather, I am reading to find what Anna might have loved when she first read it. I am reading simply to know that I have done something that she has done, and to enjoy that feeling just as you might enjoy being in a room that someone you loved has spent a lot of time in. I no longer feel a weight on me to enjoy the book as much as or in the same way as Anna has done, which is how I might perhaps feel if this were a simple recommendation. I feel instead that I am putting on a jumper which she has leant to me, despite it being her favourite one. I am feeling honoured that I get to share this book with her.

For the same reason, I intend to pick back up The Magician by Raymond Feist. For the same reason**, I have bought a copy of Sabriel by Garth Nix.

And for the same reason, I hope to finish these books soon.

Moving swiftly on from the depths of my sentiment, which threaten to drown me at any moment, is:

THING THE THIRD

- I will use my languages here, on line, on my blog. I may, every now and again, post something in another language. I may or may not provide translations. Please, do not feel alienated by this. I love languages, but I am not very confident when it comes to producing them. Having my texts out there in all of their gory, grammatically incorrect glory, will hopefully help change this. If you are really offended by posts in different languages, this probably isn't the blog for you, anyway. In addition to posting in the languages I learn, I will also, possibly, post about learning them. The situation is not the same for each language. One I have learnt formally, the rest have been self studied. Some I find easier, some I find much harder. Some I am happier to read in, others to speak in. Some I like more than others... wait. No, I don't... one should not have favourites. Ahem.

THING THE FOURTH before I embarrass myself further and alienate any of my languages

Er, what was the Fourth Thing again? Perhaps there was no Fourth Thing.
In which case:
- I will endeavour to be the best me that I can be, to do all of these things with gusto, because I am sure that I will enjoy them. However, I will also be sure and assured that it is okay for me to make mistakes, that I can skip a week of posting, or that I can post about absolutely nothing if I so wish. I will be sure and assured that this blog is recreational only, and I will not hesitate to run at the first sign of it becoming a chore or a drag. There are times in life when persevering through things you do not enjoy is the right thing to do, things that, really, we ought to continue. This blog is not one of those things. Since my very first post, it has been the place where I come to blather about whatever I like, and I intend to keep it that way. If that means I give it up whenever it becomes too onerous, than so be it. Yes, I may have neglected it for long periods in the past, but I always come back. Because I enjoy writing this blog, and I owe it to myself, as well as to any readers I acquire, to continue writing it as long as I enjoy it.

So, these are the things that I have quietly said to myself I will do, and now I am saying them a little bit louder.

I'll be signing off now, hopefully to see you soon, but before I go I guess I should mention the fact that I GRADUATED.

It has felt long at times, although looking back it feels short, and I haven't always given as much as I should or could have, which I regret. However, I do not regret anything at all from these last two years of study, and I am glad that I have made it this far.

So,
Happy Blogging, y'all!
The ever faithful, in a strange, periodic way,
Little Newman

*You are dear to me, even though you currently exist only in potentia. You will remain dear to me if you shift into real time, but I am afraid to say you will be slightly less shimmery. I am sorry.
** Okay, and because I kind of want to read it anyway, a little bit I guess. And because I saw it for 75p in a charity shop. So sue me.

Oh, what's this thing again?

Hello, all, hello. Well. Urm. It's been a while, hasn't it?

Oops.

And I even started writing two very long posts!

So, what have I done since last May? I visited a château, I left Tours, I goofed around in London, I read books, I received visitors, I studied, I read more books and I went to Sweden again.

And now, here we are, all the way in 2015!
2014 ended pretty well, with my visit to Sweden before Christmas. Two friends came over from France soon after, to celebrate my birthday with me, and I had a princess party!

But, this blog is about none of these things, for this blog is a...
LIT CORNER!

Amazing, I know.

So, I recently finished three books, the perfect number for a Lit Corner.

First was Lexicon, by Max Barry.

I had first come across the book through Goodreads first reads, but sadly I didn't win a copy of the book :( the concept was incredibly interesting - 'poets' who can use words to quite literally force people into following their orders. We're not talking persuasion here, unless it's the kind of persuasion that puts a gun to your head.

So, I liked this book. It wasn't until just before midway through that I realised what was going on: we have two stories being told in parallel: the story of Emily, a young homeless trickster with a way with words, and the story of Wil, an Australian whose day gets seriously interrupted by abduction.

So Barry takes these two people, and weaves a tale where language - where words - are weapons and the bad guy is coming for us, and we have to stop them NOW. This is not Sci-Fi, but I'd hardly call it fantasy, either. It's cleverer than that. It's a thriller, and one that kept me well and truly hooked, but it's also a story about love, and the way that society keeps tabs on and controls us. It's also a lot about being human.

While this was a great book, I feel it could have been executed better. Parts of the ending didn't sit right with me. However, I can't really fault the character building and the ending as a whole, although not perfect, made me contented enough.
Also, the cover is beautiful.

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The second book I managed to make my way through was The Word Exchange, by Alena Graedon.

Here is another first reads book. I bid for this at about the same time as Lexicon, and although I was more excited by Barry's offering, Graedon's is what I received. The Word Exchange is about a not-too-distant, startlingly familiar future, where devices called Memes (a smarter version of the smart phone) are beginning to do all of our thinking for us and... spread disease?

I was pulled in by yet another gorgeous cover, but somehow found myself being let back out again really quickly. I reviewed it on Goodreads, and here is (roughly) what I said:

I started this book when I received it, several months ago, put it down, and then only very recently picked it back up once more. In all honestly, it's not too difficult to plough through, but that is what it feels like: ploughing through. It's incredibly verbose and full of quite unusual, sometimes ill-advised word choices. Two very ramble-y narrators only make the going tougher.

But the story they tell is compelling, and when I actually applied myself to the task, the reading became much easier. However, I am left with questions which I feel will never be answered, the foremost of which is: how does this disease work? It is central to the plot of the book, and yet aspects of it remain very fuzzy indeed, and not just because Graedon applied Science in order to make it seem more plausible. I mean, okay, I understand how one strand of this disease works, and I can just about lower my plausibility defenses enough to let it pass. But apart from that, I have no clue. None whatsoever. The book leaves off before the characters have managed to reach any solution, which is perfectly fine in general, but here it makes things feel as though they have simply been skimmed over.

My other issue is with the romance. I honestly wanted Bart and Anna to get together, and as characters I believe they suited each other. But the way the romance developed felt so unnatural and false: worse than a case where two characters are simply forced together by a willful and headstrong author is a case where two characters, wonderfully compatible, still feel forced together. It's a massive shame.

Otherwise, the book is an interesting read. It tries, perhaps, to do a bit more than it was capable of - certainly, a book which fails to do all that it is capable of doing - but it still offers quite a pertinent look at the way we use technology, and how this changes the way we use language and interact with the world around us.

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And, finally, in quite a different vein from the other two is Notes From Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

I have also reviewed this book on Goodreads, and here is more or less what I wrote:

'because I am a cad, because I am the nastiest, most ridiculous, pettiest, stupidest, most envious of all the worms on this earth...' (p.143).

Well, Underground Man, when you put it like that, I'm almost thankful. You said it yourself, now I don't have to.
I wanted to like this book, so very much. I wanted to find it 'hilarious' and engaging, and so much more, but I didn't. I hated the book, and I hated the Underground Man: in his own words, he repulsed me.

But at the same time, he is all of us. Like him, 'we have all got out of the habit of living, we are all in a greater or lesser degree crippled... We have really gone so far as to think of 'real life' as toil, almost as servitude, and we are all agreed, for our part, that it is better in books' (p.151).

Yes, Underground Man, you are right. I do feel that way. And perhaps, Underground Man, what I hate most about you are the things that I see in myself, exaggerated a thousand times. The little insecurities and bitternesses, the pettinesses, the humiliations that we all of us have experienced are put under the microscope by the Underground Man and we have to face everything that we wanted to avoid.

That being said, ignorance is bliss, and I'd be quite happy to never have forced my way through this very short book, and to never, ever have to read it again.

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Other than these three books, I have also read (since last Lit Corner): A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf, Phaedrus by Plato, Popular by Maya Van Wagenen, Deerskin by Robin McKinley and Let the Old Dreams Die by John Ajvide Lindqvist, but I think you will probably all be sorely deprived of a lit corner on these gems.

So, until next time round,

Happy reading and
Happier blogging,
Little Newman