How I Write

How I Write

Review coming soon

Chalked Up

Chalked Up

Review coming soon

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

I’ve just finished reading ‘the reluctant fundamentalist’ and must type a review whilst it is still fresh in my mind.

The cover states that its been nominated for a ‘booker prize’. I do not know what a ‘booker prize’ is, but sense that it would do well to award this book the title, rather than muck about ‘deciding’ on who else should be awarded the merit.

‘The reluctant fundatmentalist’ is an astounding read. The first I have ever experienced – I hope it is the only one like it in the world and it becomes internationally recognised for conversational viewpoint. Argh. I’m spoiling the surpirse!

The title is the conversation of one man – not so much written from the first perspective (which indeed that is true) but more than that, it is written with no other characters or conversations other than that from within the memory of our teller.

All the conversation is directed towards one man, that never speaks throughout the entire book, and we only recieve splashes of description from other people about the scenery.

The story – if I had to plot its shape on a piece of paper – would resemble a steady inclination rising from left to right, building and building, and not indicating at all where it is leading – we can guess, as I did, but I failed to see how it would end. But end it did, and the story finally revealed within the last few pages, and the tale is literally wrapped up only in the final sentences.

This is a rare read. I can see why it was ‘nominated’ – and I can also see why it deserves to win. I don’t know if it has already, but if not, then I am certainly interested to know who on earth can better a plot like this one.

This book has restored my faith in simple ideas told really well, are better than all the complex plots you can think of. I say to anyone that is wrestling with a complex script or novel, to read this and you’ll instantly understand where you’re going wrong.

A short read, double line spacing and only 200 pages – this is worth your hard earned cash and is memorable and re-readable. 

Born On A Blue Day

Born On A Blue Day
Ok this was probably the quickest book i’ve ever read. For a couple of reasons, firstly its a true story. Not autobiographical, but more like a travel write for a recent journey, ever since Daniel Tammet recalled publically Pi to about 22,000 digits. I do like faction, so that helped. Also the formating is good and with it being a hardback you know theres going to be plenty of margin & line spacing. Basically the subject matter meant I couldn’t stop reading this. I’m researching aspergers for a book I’m writing so this was spot on. Oh also I recently watched the accompanying TV programme featured about Daniel. This is definitely a niché audience read, but I’m still giving it 4 stars… it gripped me all the way through.  Click through to amazon to learn what its about.

No Plot? No Problem!

No Plot? No Problem!

I have the feeling that most readers, secretly (or publically) want to be writers… and if you agree, then you like me, could do with the right read to write right. Enter this title. I dug through an entire shelf before settling, as i really liked the different approach it took. NP?NP! takes on the angle of ‘finishing’. The hardest challenge any writer will face. And it does it beautifully. So if you’re thinking ‘I could do this’ but have never gotten round to actually commiting yourself, then be sure to check out this book first. Its the perfect kickstarter… trust me!

The formating is really good, its a small sized book, not quite pocket sized, but that’s okay, the paper is really good quality, nice and flickable /thumbable, great font, loads of excellent formating… and at around 175pages its no struggle to get through. If only all novels were written with this degree of formating! 5stars.

One Red Paper Clip

One Red Paper Clip
I don’t really remember too much about the formating on this one, but the story is so good it’ll really appeal to non-readers. It starts with a sale of a paperclip on ebay and continues on and on with various sales getting big and better…until.. well you’ll have to have a look at it to discover where it leads. I recall decent margins, the occasional picture and easily managable chapters. But as I’ve already said…. the unbelievable, incredible, fantastic story is the selling point here. A really mesmerising read.

Life on the Refridgerator Door

Life on the Refridgerator Door
This is probably my first true ‘girly’ book, which I’m regretfully proud of. Regretfully, because I guess I should have found one a lot earlier. But anyways… not very many pages, and short well formatted chunks of text. Basically this is what it says it is, notes left on the fridge door about the relationship between a mother and daughter (if I remember correctly). Whilst I didn’t read much of this book in the shop, it did make a large enough impact on me to ‘phone-it’ … hate reading? you’ll love reading this.

The Long Dry

The Long Dry
119 pages, big margins & paragraphs. Good linespacing, font and the paper was reasonable. Odd story, but a quick read. I’m not sure what caught my eye about this read, there was possibly a bunch of them together on the shelf which did it. Anyways… i sat and scanned the pages whilst making notes in my phone. It looked like it was all descriptive, but hidden within the blocks of paragraphs, there is dialogue, which is nice. Tho I’d rather it be sectioned off personally. This is a quick book, the story didn’t grab me at all, but it could be one of those life changing reads… if only we give it a chance. Seek it out, and give it a thumb.

The End Of Mr Y

The End Of Mr Y
This was a surprise find. Its big bold red spine grabbed my attention and was stunned to see the pages were all black (not the faces, but just the edges). I knew this would be a good one, cause anyone going to that length for presentation alone, deserves to be purchased. The cover is quirky, the back cover is equally as mysterious…. and even tho its states itself as being ‘a thrilling adventure of love, sex, death (ed: yawn) … and time-travel’ <– Ooo ello, this raises an eyebrow. Sooo… all this manages to get me to to open the pages and have a flick through… lovely big line-spacing, and a decent font, but other than that its pretty standard format, normal margins, lots of pages of unthrilling text and paragraphs that don’t really look much like paragraphs at all, cause the indents and gaps aren’t big enough. But either way, I sat for a bit and read the first few pages. Thankfully, its a contemporary tale, set in the ‘now’ which makes it much more palettable in my (pun) book, I’m gunna give this one a go anyway… I’ve bought it so I might as well.

I’ll probably add more this once I’m done, or mid way at least. Worth checking out I think. 4 stars for the black edged paper alone, how often do you see that??

The Raw Shark Texts

The Raw Shark Texts
This book took a bloody long time to get on here. Why I’m not sure, because I’ve been stalking it in Waterstones for aaages… waiting for it to come up in a ‘3 for 2′ offer no doubt (like it did in Leeds, when I ’should’ have bought it) Grrr. anyways….

this is like a picture book with text… formatted wonderfully… loads of effort gone into making it diverse and interesting. With each turn of the page you’ve no-idea whats coming next… and that’s without reading a word of the story. This is a grand book. A real non-readers book. I will buy this in its hardback version, cause I’m not 100% certain that they’ll continue the formating in a paperback version (I hope they do cause its kinda key to the storyline) … click the cover above and read about it. The story has got flavours of the Matrix and Memento.