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Quiz Uncategorized

The Best Books for…Understanding the Darker Side of Society

Last week I reviewed The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanigahara and realised how much I enjoy reading about the darker side of our society. I love the ability to get inside the head of someone who commits evil acts and for some reason I like it even more if I am able to understand their motivation for committing a crime.

I began to think about other books which shared this property and before I knew it I had a list long enough to justify a full blog post!

Here are my favourite books about the more unsavoury characters in our society, but be warned, most of these books will make you feel very uncomfortable!

Note: Book titles link to my review; covers link to Amazon. 

The Kindly Ones

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell

The Kindly Ones is one of the most controversial books written in recent years. It is fictional biography of Max Aue, a senior SS officer, present during the Holocaust. It graphically describes his brutality, but also has a strange way of making you understand how he came to be that way. It’s deeply disturbing.

Rupture by Simon Lelic

Rupture is a like a cross between Notes on a Scandal and We Need To Talk About Kevin but this book makes you have real sympathy for the teacher who shoots his pupils. It’s thought provoking stuff!

Beneath the Darkening Sky

Beneath the Darkening Sky by Majok Tulba

This brave book explains exactly how innocent children are turned into ruthless killers. The plight of child soldiers is a difficult subject, but Tulba handles it with great sensitivity. This book deserves a much wider audience.

Lost Memory of Skin

The Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks

If you don’t think you could ever have sympathy for a registered paedophile, read this book and see if you’re wrong!

The Wasp Factory

The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

The Wasp Factory contains one of the most disturbing characters I’ve ever read about, but for some reason I still have sympathy for this violent child. Does that make me weird?!

Tampa

Tampa by Alissa Nutting

This sexually explicit book is disturbing in the way it makes you question whether or not female paedophiles are worse than male. It’s thought provoking stuff!

The Sinner 

The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr

A young mother stabs a man in front of her family and friends during a quiet picnic by the lake. I was surprised by how much sympathy I had for her in the end.

Out

Out by Natsuo Kirino

This book isn’t for the squeamish, but I loved the way I became attached to the central character, who dismembers her husband. Would you help your friend to hide body parts around your local area?!

Beside the Sea

Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi

I can’t explain exactly what happens in this book without spoiling it, but this dark book will give you some insight into the difficulties of parenting.

Monster Love

Monster Love by Carol Topolski

A couple hide their child in a cage. Topolski’s career as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist gives the reader a scarility realistic insight into their minds.

Mountain People

The Mountain People by Colin Turnbull

This real-life account of a society that leaves its young and old to die when times get tough is difficult to read, but it raises many important questions. I highly recommend it!

Which are your favourite books for understanding the darker side of society?

 

 

Categories
Discussions Quiz

The Blurb of the Future?

Last week I read an interesting article about the data collected by e-readers. Unknown to most readers these electronic devices collect a vast amount of information about the way we read books. This data could be  analysed and displayed alongside a book to help the reader make purchasing decisions, or used by publishers to create books that are more engaging. I am fascinated by this and wonder if the publishers of the future are likely to embrace this new data.

With the huge increase in books available, mainly fueled by the rise of self publishing, I wonder if statistics could become the new gatekeepers?

Could this be the blurb of the future?

Average Reading Time

Without the ability to flick through a physical copy it is difficult to judge how long a book is. Knowing the average length of time taken to complete a book would be a useful addition to the blurb.

Percentage of Readers who Complete the Book

Knowing how many people complete a specific book would also be of interest to me, although this would have to be viewed in conjunction with ratings data. A low completion rate could indicate complexity or books that divide opinion and so would not necessarily be an indication of quality.

Average Number of Reader Highlights

This would be one of the best indications of quality. Outstanding books have an enormous number of different quotes that could be highlighted, whereas good reads that are for entertainment alone may not have an individual passage that stands out.

Average Reading Pace

I’d find a graph of average reading pace very useful. I enjoy both slow, complex reads and fast entertaining ones, but need to be in the right mood for each. Some books are marketed in a confusing way and the reading pace is not always obvious from the cover. It would mean that I’d never end up trying to understand complex theories on public transport again!

It would also be useful to know whether the pace of the book increases towards the end or remains slow throughout. Some books have slow opening chapters (as they develop the characters and the setting), but suddenly increase in pace later on. Knowing when this cliff-hanger occurs can be helpful.

Other Statistics

Other statistics like the average number of different sittings the book is read in, or the percentage of people who go on to buy other books from the same author, would also be interesting, but I don’t think they’d have any influence on my book purchasing decisions.

Publishers could benefit too

Publishers could study this data to discover more about the way we interact with books. Before publication they could find the point at which most readers abandon a certain book and edit that section to make it more engaging. They could also mine the information to discover the chain of events that lead customers to buy more books from the author.

Consumer feedback has been used by film and television companies for years, but this is a completely new development in the field of publishing. It may prove useless in the unpredictable world of literary fiction, but if it can be used to improve profitability in commercial fiction then there’ll be more money available to take risks in other areas. I think that analysis of reader behaviour can only be of use to the industry,

Would you like to see statistics about the books you are thinking of purchasing?

Do you think publishers could benefit from mining this reader data?

Categories
Classics Other Quiz

Can you guess the classic from it’s cover? The answers.

Last Saturday I challenged you to guess the classic from the pictures below. All are classics that we know and love, but did you guess which was which?

Here are the answers:

covera

A – Wuthering Heights

 

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coverb

B – The Moonstone

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.

 

 

..

coverc

C – Bleak House

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..

 

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coverd

D  War and Peace

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 .

covereE -Pride and Prejudice

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..

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coverf

F – Frankenstein

..

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..

coverg

G – Treasure Island

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.

..

 

Congratulations to everyone who guessed a cover correctly – especially Claire who managed to guess Treasure Island!

Categories
Classics Other Quiz

Can you guess the classic from it’s cover?

The pictures below are all covers of classics that we know and love, but can you guess which is which?

You should know all of the books, but the covers get more obscure as you go down the list.

I’ll give you the answers next Friday, and a few clues along the way if no-one can is getting close.

Answers now available here.
It’s just for fun, but GOOD LUCK!

 covera

 

 

 A

 

 

coverb

 

 

B

 

 

 

coverc

 

 

C

 

 

 coverd

 

 

 

 

 covere

 

 

E

 

 

 

coverf

 

 

 

 

  coverg

G

 

 .

.

.

This week all the Weekly Geeks are creating quizzes, so if you’d like to challenge your brain visit the other Weekly Geeks.

Categories
Other Quiz

Can you judge a book by it’s cover? #3

Star ratings taken from Amazon UK.

Categories
Other Quiz

Can you judge a book by it’s cover? #2

Congratulations if you guessed the correct answer last week!

William Horwood is one of my favourite authors. How well do you know his books?