This morning J.K. Rowling announced that she will be writing a trilogy of books based on teenage vampires.
The first book in the series, April’s Wings, will be released this time next year.
What do you think?
Will the Harry Potter author be able to successfully follow in the footsteps of Stephenie Meyer?
I read 16 books in March and managed to get a fair way through a few more. A combination of miserable weather and my family suffering from colds and flu meant that I spent a lot longer than normal in the house. It isn’t nice looking after people who aren’t well, but it did mean that I had a lot of spare time to read while they slept.
As usual I read a range of book in terms of both in enjoyment and subject matter. I especially recommend When I Was Five I Killed Myself which I am considering promoting to 5 stars!
The Blasphemer – Nigel Farndale 
The Woman in the Dunes – Kobo Abe 
Red Dog, Red Dog – Patrick Lane 
The Solitude of Prime Numbers – Paolo Giordano
Black Mamba Boy – Nadifa Mohamed 
The Native Hurricane – Chigozie John Obioma
July’s People – Nadine Gordimer
So Much For That – Lionel Shriver
I am going to finish and write reviews for:
The Kindly Ones – Jonathan Littell
Hurting Distance – Sophie Hannah
My Father’s Paradise – Ariel Sabar
The Weight of a Mustard Seed – Wendell Steavenson
Due to the vast amount of reading I did in March I have actually finished/nearly finished all of the above. I haven’t quite managed to keep up the 50 page a day pace I set on The Kindly Ones, but I have now read 300 pages and hope to finish it this month.
I have a lot of books that I plan to read in April. It wasn’t until I wrote them all down that I realised I had far too many! I’m not sure which ones I’ll get round to reading, but here is my over ambitious plan!
Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter
The Hiding Place – Trezza Azzopardi
Angelology – Danielle Trussoni
The Rehearsal – Eleanor Catton
Good to a Fault – Marina Endicott
The City & The City – China Mieville
The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
A Life Apart – Neel Murkherjee
I Do Not Come to You by Chance – Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
The Temple-goers – Aatish Taseer
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan Bradley
Which books from my list should I ensure I read?
Do you plan to read any of the same ones?
I hope you have a fantastic April!
Thank you to everyone who entered my Solar give away.
The 3 Solar T-shirts go to: Jane Willis, Natalie Newham and Teresa Majury
Congratulations to the winners! I will get in touch by email soon.
As a book seller on Amazon I am quite annoyed by their new policy which forces sellers to ensure their books are not cheaper on other selling platforms. Luckily I don’t normally have the same stock for sale on different sites at the same time, but this will have a big impact on some people.
This is a lovely little video about the publishing industry – I thought it was very clever!
I have heard lots of discussions recently about whether the race or gender of an author makes a book more appealing, but I feel both these factors are irrelevant. I have recently stumbled upon a more important factor: The Age of the Author.
I have discovered that I am far more likely to enjoy a book if the author is slightly older than me (I’m 31). If the author is younger than me then the book tends to lack depth and I find I have little to learn from reading it – I just don’t enjoy reading these simpler books.
If the author is significantly older than me then I struggle to connect with the themes in the book – older authors seem to produce more reflective and thoughtful works, lacking the complex plots and action I enjoy.
Connecting with authors who are of the same generation makes sense to me. In real life we tend to become friends with people who are of a similar age group as we have more in common with them. That doesn’t mean we don’t occasionally want to spend time with other generations, but that we share the majority of time with our own.
Catcher in the Rye was published when J.D. Salinger was just 32. It seems no coincidence that this book has huge appeal to teenagers, but fails to resonate with adults.
Stephanie Meyer was exactly the same age when Twilight was published. This book is also a teen phenomenon, but seems to have a corresponding fall in popularity as the age of the reader increases.
.
Audrey Niffenegger was 40 when The Time Traveller’s Wife was published and Lionel Shriver was 45 when We Need to Talk about Kevin shot to fame. I loved both of these books, but have heard many older people (and younger in the case of We Need to Talk About Kevin) saying that they didn’t enjoy them.
At the older end of the spectrum, Marilynne Robinson was 65 when Home was published. I tried really hard to read this book, but it just bored me. It won the Orange prize, so some people clearly love it. I wonder if I am simply not old enough to appreciate the slow, reflective pace of this book.
Offshore wins the prize for the dullest book I’ve ever read, but with an author aged 63 my lack of passion for it can now be understood. Perhaps it will become one of my favourites in 30 years time?
All these numbers seem to support an optimal author age 10 years greater than the reader.
So I propose the formula:
I’ve included this table of books, so you can see if my calculation works for you:
These findings could have big implications for the judging panels of major book prizes. If reading taste changes so drastically over a life-time then I think it is important to have representatives of each generation on any panel. Following this theory only those under the age of 30 should be able to spot books that will appeal to teenagers and should be the only ones allowed to judge YA book prizes.
If the big literary prizes, such as the Booker and Orange, want to appeal to a larger audience then they simply need to include a full spectrum of age ranges on their judging panels.
There are of course exceptions to every rule. Saramago was 73 when Blindness was first published in Portugal. I put this down to his genius, one rarely matched whatever the age of the author. Or perhaps he is just young at heart?
What do you think of my theory?
Highly flawed?
….or do authors slightly older than you have a special ability to connect with you?
Has your reading taste evolved with age?
Do you now love books that you once hated?
Should we all start checking the age of the author before deciding to read a book?
I’d love to know your thoughts!!
To have a chance of winning just answer the following question in the comments section of my blog:
Who do you think will win the Booker prize this year?
The competition is open Internationally!
The closing date is: Saturday 27th March at midnight GMT.
Winners will be picked at random and notified by email.
Good luck!
The Orange Prize long list was revealed this morning. I tried to predict who would make the list last week and did a terrible job! I successfully predicted only five of the twenty books:
The rest of the long list:
I have only read two books from the list:
The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters 
….although I did fail to complete Wolf Hall too!
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel 
(DNF)
This is How – MJ Hyland (I remember that a lot of people were surprised this wasn’t on the Booker list last year and I nearly read it in 2009 – I then forgot all about it!)
The Long Song – Andrea Levy
I need to investigate the rest of the list a bit further. I’m planning to read the entire short list when it is announced, but am not going to rush out to read all these books.
Which ones grab your attention?
Are there any you recommend?
