More of what I’ve been reading recently…

THE EYRE AFFAIR – Jasper Fforde

This introduction to the life of literary detective, Thursday Next, is quite bizarre. Set in a world where her father is a fugitive in time and stops the clocks to visit his daughter, Thursday’s adventures begin when her former mentor steals the original manuscript for Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. The seemingly unstoppable bad guy has plans in store for the book’s characters and, when foiled, turns his attentions to Thursday’s favourite tome – Jane Eyre…

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HEMINGWAY’S CHAIR – Michael Palin

This is a book I’ve been aware of ever since it was published, but never had chance to read it. So, when I spotted a copy at my local car boot sale, I happily parted with the 10p the stall-holder was charging for it. The book tells the tale of Martin Sproale, Hemingway obsessive and ineffectual assistant manager of a rural post office, and his Canutian battles against the tide of progress and technology. Hilarious, yet moving.

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DRACULA – Bram Stoker

Oh my goodness, this book was everything I’d hoped it would be – and more! I’m frequently disappointed when I head back to read the original classic behind a literary legend (I couldn’t get through The Great Gatsby, no matter how many times I tried), but this book was a rare treat. Told through the memoirs and journals of a group of friends, the great Professor Van Helsing sets out to locate and destroy the source of a powerful evil: the original vampire, Count Dracula himself. Read it now!

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Yet more reads soon!

Tommy

I read Bad Dreams, one of the books in RL Stine’s FEAR STREET series, recently.

He was one word away…

Tommy

More of the books I’ve been reading lately…

THE WITCHES – Roald Dahl

I love re-reading Roald Dahls’s books from time to time – partly to remind me just how great children’s novels can be, and partly just for a fast, fun read! the Witches is one I missed out as a child, for some reason, but I love it now. The Grand High Witch is a wonderful creation and the way Dahl writes her dialogue is a masterclass in creating a character with an accent. Superb stuff!

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PREDATOR’S GOLD – Philip Reeve

I was a huge fan of the first book in this series: Mortal Engines. I have to admit, however, that although this novel is packed with excitement, it didn’t grip me quite as much as its predecessor. It’s not a bad book by any means, and I’m sure I’ll go on to read the others in the series but, if you’re looking for a steampunk style fantasy with entire cities hunting each other down, Mortal Engines is the book for you!

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AN UTTERLY IMPARTIAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN – John O’Farrell

A bit of a break from the fiction with this one! I’m a big fan of John O’Farrell’s writing, so a look at 2,000 years of British history through his humour was too good a chance to miss. Covering everything from Julius Caesar first eyeing up this green and pleasant land up to the end of the second world war, this book gives you all the facts, with plenty of laughs thrown in.

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More books soon…

Tommy

One of the questions I’m often asked during author visits is what type of books I like to read. The answer is hard to pin down, as I get through a mixture of children’s books, new titles and novels I pick up at car boot sales (yes, I’m the guy who rummages to the bottom of the book boxes in windy fields every Sunday!)

So, I’m going to start writing about the books I read here, recommending what I liked and trying to offer my thoughts on those I didn’t. I’ll start with those I’ve read over the past few weeks:

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BLOOD RITES – Jim Butcher

The sixth book in The Dresden Files series. Despite the easily watchable TV series coming to a premature end, the books on which it was based continue to win fans the world over. The tales of Chicago’s only professional wizard are page-turning stuff and, in this adventure, Harry Dresden found himself both trying to stop a lethal curse and dealing with a new-found member of his family. Highly recommended.

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THE TIME MACHINE – HG Wells

I love the work of both HG Wells and Jules Verne but, for some reason, this book had slipped me by (I think because I knew the story, I presumed I’d read it at some point). Very different from the movie starring Guy Ritchie (which is, nevertheless, a fun film) this was one of Wells’s short stories, first published in 1895. An exciting, gripping read.

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DEMON APOCALYPSE – Darren Shan

The sixth book in Shan’s Demonata series features the goriest opening scene I have ever read and the horror continues unabated as the book quickly becomes a fast-paced adventure. For those of you who’ve read the earlier installments in this series, Demon Apocalypse answers a lot of questions. Plus, we say goodbye to one major character and, unexpectedly, welcome back another…

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More book recommendations soon…

Tommy

Nothing to do with writing at all, but bizarre enough for me to want to mention it here…

I did some gardening over the weekend and, yesterday afternoon, I loaded several bags of rubbish into the car and headed up to the local tip (or, as they like to call it now, household waste and recycling centre).  Only, when I got there, the tip was closed – for refurbishment.

I couldn’t quite believe it.  Who refurbishes a rubbish tip?  Even more pressing was the question of what I was going to do with the bags in the back of the car.  I nipped home and checked online for another nearby tip.  Turns out there’s one in the next town, so back in the car and off I go… to the poshest tip I’ve ever seen in my life!

The skips were indoors, and each was guarded by a recycling officer (uniforms and all!)  Plus, there were bins all around for clothes, shoes, books and CDs.  The whole place was spotless.  It made me want to take my garden rubbish home and give it a good clean before I dropped it off.

They take their rubbish seriously up this way…

Tommy

Top Australian author, Simon Haynes, is offering a very generous giveaway to help promote the fourth in his hilarious series of Hal Spacejock books – the entire first book for free!

Simon and his publishers, Fremantle Press, have teamed up to provide Hal Spacejock in ebook format (in three handy formats, no less) simply by visiting this page. You can also buy the following books at a discounted rate and low postage here. (No, I’m not on commission – just a fan!)

What are you waiting for? Go get your free serving of Hal!

Tommy

Darren Shan has recently been putting together details of his early author tours and events – and they make fascinating reading. You can see them here.

Some of Darren’s experiences in his early days reminded me of when I was running events to promote my non-fiction books back in 2001 and 2002. These range from being kicked out of a bookshop in Staines for causing so much mayhem with a school class to turning up at a shop in Brighton to discover they had no idea I was coming (when I asked the manager what he expected me to do, he suggested I approach random kids browsing in the children’s section and introduce myself!  Somehow, he didn’t see my point when I suggested I could easily be arrested for following his advice!  It’s the only author event I’ve ever walked out of).

My favourite events were those I ran at Books Etc. in Whiteley’s Shopping Centre, Bayswater (see pictures). Through RIF (Reading is Fundamental – part of the National Literacy Trust) I met with a school class at a time to share some of the more boisterous activities from my boredom beating books. Great fun!

Let’s hope the Scream Street events prove to be just as enjoyable!

Tommy

Today is Towel Day – a day when fans of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (among other books) carry a towel with them to remember the great man and his work.

Why a towel? Well, as the Hitchhiker’s Guide itself says:

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

I took mine for a jaunt around my local car boot sale (Kirsty made me walk a few steps behind her for some reason). I didn’t see anybody else with a towel but whether that’s a comment on the reading habits of car booters in Whitley Bay, or a sign of how utterly sad I am, I’m not certain.

Do you know where your towel is?

Tommy

Through a contact at GHOUL – Government Housing Of Unusual Lifeforms – who shall remain nameless (and, as it happens, noseless – but that’s a different story…), I have been able to subscribe to Scream Street’s very own newsletter, The Terror Times.

Issue one can be found here. Feel free to send it out to friends, family or annoying acquaintances that you want to scare silly!

Tommy

I’ve posted a shorter version of the second Scream Street trailer here – for those who want to bypass the talking and get straight to the werewolf transformation!

Tommy