Vacation stage 1: select reading material

Published by ndixon on September 28th, 2008

Just a few days before our two week vacation and I have finally managed to select some reading matter to fill up those endless days doing very little. But in these times of writing my own novel, and wanting to take only my Sony Reader, selecting a book was less than straightforward.

Avoiding disappointment

First criteria is to select something I will spend real money on that will not leave me feeling I should have spent that money on a couple of good cappuccinos. I think I have read more words of reader reviews than are contained within the books themselves!

I wrote recently about my continuing disappointment when searching for new writers to taste. Who can you listen to for advice? Thankfully, I am lucky enough to have someone close at hand who has intimate knowledge of many of the currently available best selling novels. It helped narrow the field.

Reading around what I write

I have written before about the trappings of reading works that are too similar in style to my own writing. My mind instinctively tries to emulate any other style I enjoy reading myself. Not a good prospect, of course, but less so now that I am over 100,000 words into my own novel.

However, as I do so little reading, each selection to some extent falls into the realms of research. Whether it be research around subject matter, or simply looking at how another author might have tackled particular situation, reading for me has to be more than pure pleasure.

I don’t want a real book

This one proved to be a rather inhibiting criteria. I am taking my new Sony PRS-505 ebook reader on vacation. This immediately limits my selection to what is available in ebook format, and the publishing industry, though accelerating, is still some way off having an adequately broad selection. Add to that sometimes poor implementations of the ebook sections of online bookstores - even Waterstones do not have the ability to search through just the ebooks! - and the search for a chosen title grinds to a sluggish shuffle.

Thanks to bloggers and Amazon

My selection is: Banquet for the Damned by Adam L.G. Nevill - get the ebook version from Waterstones
Few believed Professor Coldwell was in touch with an unseen world - that he could commune with spirits. But in Scotland’s oldest university town something has passed from darkness into light. And now the young are being haunted by night terrors. And those who are visited, disappear. This is certainly not a place for outsiders, especially at night. So what chance do a rootless musician and burnt-out explorer have of surviving their entanglement with an ageless supernatural evil and the ruthless cult that worships it? This chilling occult thriller is both an homage to the great age of British ghost stories and a pacy modern tale of diabolism and witchcraft.

I’ll report back what I think of this book, but with all eight Amazon reviews giving it full five stars, I think I am in safe hands. What could be better than sitting in the Spanish sun reading of ghostly happenings in dark, damp Scotland!

Tags: ebook, horror, reading, Sony reader, vacation
Posted in Journal |