MisLit Interpreted

MisLit (miserable literature for those of you who have managed to evade its presence) is the genre equivalent of shopping at a pound shop. It is considered tacky, unsophisticated and although most of us have been in one at some point, it is looked down upon by most, and especially those who aspire to dizzying literary heights. You can recognise MisLit at twenty paces. The books have titles like 'Mummy, No!' or any negative past-tense verb (think 'Damaged' or 'Cut'). They have pictures of sad children on the front and the font is in the style of handwriting. They describe horrific stories of abuse and abandonment. But what exactly is it about these books that repel so many of us? Shouldn't we feel sympathy instead of a sense of superiority?

MisLit produces a similar feeling to watching a car crash. We don't want to stand and stare, but we can't tear our eyes away. We instinctively feel that viewing such misery and horror up close is somewhow intruding, that to gawp is vulgar. It can also be argued that such literature brings home the evils of the world when we would rather focus on more positive content. It can be difficult to accept the worst of humanity so we choose to ignore it as much as we can. Other reasons for the lowly status of MisLit may include the suspicion that many of these 'autobiographies' are in fact invented, which again may stem from the fear that if we acknowledge the darker side as real we leave open the possibility that it could happen to us, or to someone we love.

I personally enjoy sad books, but not as a defining feature. What do you think?

Writing from beyond the grave

When an author dies in the middle of writing a book, or before completing a series, there is the possibility that someone else will be enscripted to write for them, and finish their work. The thought of this can pull fans in two opposite directions; they may be dying to read the rest of the story, and to find out what happens in the end, and so would be grateful to the substitute author, and eager to read their offering. On the other hand, there may be a strong sense of loyalty to the original author, especially if they were well known, wrote prolifically, or had created a long series of books.

This is what happened when Robert Jordan passed away in 2007, leaving a plethora of fans and books, including the unfinished Wheel of Time series. In his case, death was not sudden, and so he had the chance to share his notes and ideas concerning the last book (split into three volumes). He also chose the writer to continue the work, Brandon Sanderson.

When I heard this news, I was sceptical. No-one could possibly follow such an amazing author, and the story would obviously suffer as a result. Still, it was equally impossible for me not to read the new installment, so judgement firmly in place, I bought the book and started to read.

I was halfway through The Gathering Storm before I remembered this wasn't Robert Jordan, and that it was meant to be worse and that I would definitely hate it. Brandon Sanderson has done an incredible job, and the next book, Towers of Midnight is possibly my favourite of the entire series. It just goes to show that people can surprise you, and judging a book by its author (or cover, or genre etc.) is often mistaken. I'm so glad this series has continued, and am looking forward to reading the final final installment when it comes out next year.

Endings

*Minor Spoilers Alert*

The ending of a book is very important, as it fixes the overall impression that you are left with, and this feeling will determine whether you look back positively on the book or not. Yet it is quite tricky, and often rare to find the perfect ending. Although this is entirely subjective, books should finish in a way the reader agrees with; they should be realistic, tie up all the loose ends and leave you thinking. Whether its a part of a series or not, the ending should make you want a sequel. Either that or a frontal lobotomy so you can start at the beginning and enjoy it all over again.

Twists are good- something unexpected that makes you mentally go back through the book to see all the clues you missed. Thats much of the appeal of mystery or thriller novels, and while some people take pride in being able to predict the ending, I always like to be surprised. I'm quite a gullible reader anyway so am easily led down whichever mistaken path of thought the writer may want to lead me. Case in point: in a series I am reading, a woman 'disappears' never to be heard of again (for several books), with all evidence pointing to her death. When she came back I was pleasantly shocked, not having questioned the death theory at all.

Happy endings are not essential for me, I quite like sad books. If it must be happy, it should be good in an unexpected way to avoid being a cliche. With sequels and multi-book series there is even more pressure to get the final ending just right as the story is longer and the reader will be more involved. The ending should not feel as if it is rushed, or comes too quickly, or it can make you feel cheated.

My personal worst ending is the Harry Potter series. Sickeningly cheesy. In books with major battles or wars, the 'good' side always sustains only a handful of casualties and the main characters are rendered invincible regardless of the danger they are frequently in. One of my favourites is Perfume: the story of a murderer. It's different, and brings everything together in a fascinating culmination of events. What's your favourite ending?

One more thing; never read the ending first. You'll only ruin it for yourself. 

Lisbeth Salander: Anti-heroine

Much has been written about Stieg Larsson’s female protagonist, so different and so much more complex than the cookie cutter women we find in so many books. Lisbeth is cold and unfriendly and acts almost purely for her own self interests. She can be violent and crude. She wouldn’t like us, yet we still feel affection for her. The injustice she has had to face justifies much of her antisocial behaviour in our eyes and we admire the way she makes her own rules. Her loyalty for the few that she allows near is touching, even more so as we appreciate how difficult it is for her trust people and to form normal social relationships. We want her to win, and at the same time are intimidated by the methods she will take to achieve her goals. Her survival instincts are incredible, and this drive to get what she wants, whether revenge, security or independence, pulls the audience along. We would feel sorry for her, but the tough exterior rejects pity like a shield. Lisbeth does not need our sympathy, indeed her lack of dependence on others is something we may find hard to accept. So the positive regard we feel collects vaguely around her as there are no recognisable normal methods of ascribing this to her. One thing is certain; Lisbeth Salander is a pretty unforgettable character, and the perfect anti-heroine. What do you think of her?

E-readers

I didn’t always love e-readers. People say there’s something special about an actual book, and they’ve got a point. Real books have eye catching covers and interesting blurbs, a certain smell and weight that can’t be replicated by electronic versions. Besides, I couldn’t live in a house with an empty bookshelf. When I tried one for the first time, my real-book-only snobbery left me in a minute. They are amazing! Honestly, if you haven’t yet, just try one. Not an i-pod with a screen so small you have to turn the page once a second, a proper e-reader. Mine’s from Sony and you can download a free classics collection to start you off. They’re so convenient for travelling, my number one reason in their support. They also come with extra features. You can write notes (granted, I’ve only ever written notes whilst demonstrating to friends that you can write notes, but still) and the dictionary is pretty cool. You can even add photos and music, so if I’m ever stranded with just me and my e-reader, I’ll be happy. Recent news has suggested that publishing is set to follow the music industry as people pilfer digital files, and that’s a real shame. As libraries start lending e-books, you can get them for free! I hope this doesn’t damage publishing completely, but it’s difficult to enforce regulations and payment on a product that is so abstract. What do you think about the e-reader versus paper books debate?

E-Library

Manchester has an e-library. This is excellent news. I love my e-reader and use libraries profusely, so I've been waiting for Birmingham to get on board with the scheme ever since I first heard about it. My hometown's unlikely to upgrade anytime soon- it's too small and the population mostly elderly. But Manchester is close by and I visit a lot. I feel justified in joining my third library in the country if its Manchester. Of course, you can join as many libraries as you like in England, but it does seem a bit greedy. Anyway, you can even join online, by filling in this form. I plan on going away this summer and being able to borrow ebooks will reduce my luggage load by approximately half a suitcase. You might suggest I actually buy some ebooks instead of waiting around for virtual libraries to appear, but I am a firm believer in unrestricted reading. Everyone should have the opportunity to read and modern technology means this is available in different mediums of access. I'm not even sure how borrowing ebooks will work to be honest; do they just disappear after 21 days? How do they know when to self-destruct? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Anyone else an e-library fan?

World Literature Weekend

The London Review is hosting its third annual festival for foreign writers and books from around the world, how exciting! The theme this year is history and its traces on the present. The weekend includes workshops on how to translate from several different languages- which look amazing but quite pricey. Other events include talks from authors and publishers, the independent Foreign Fiction prize, and two social evenings (think singer-songwriters and cake, rather than the local band and gravy). Its on from the 17th to the 19th of June and you can get your tickets here. It takes place in various locations in London, the nearest tube station is Russell Square. I've got my eye on the Scandinavian crime talk and the 'literary Kaffeeklatsch'. Possibly because 'Kaffeeklatsch' is one of the best words I've heard in a long time. It means an informal social gathering with coffee and conversation. While I haven't read much 'world' literature (mainly due to my less-than-fluent second language skills), I am really interested in translation and how it affects writing, shaping and presenting ideas in a slightly different way.

Anyone else going to the festival?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I decided to start reading The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, by Scott Fitzgerald, and was shocked by how short it is. I’ve seen the film and to say it was long would be an understatement, so when I realised that the book is little more than a pamphlet I was taken aback. The same key events occur in the book, just significantly pared down, with a minimum of description. It skips over milestones such as marriage and joining the army with scarcely a backwards glance. The main idea is so interesting, so different from most storylines that I can’t help but feel disappointed with the lack of expansion in the book. Although my stance on film adaptions is generally ‘the book always wins’ I have to say that this case is an exception. Screenwriter Eric Roth may have taken the story to the other extreme in terms of length, yet I feel he has significantly added to it.

The book does include some aspects that the film omits, or skirts around, especially the generally painful atmosphere of watching as Benjamin grows up (or down?) in a family that directs so much negative emotion towards him. Fear, confusion and anger surface over the abnormality which is out of their control. Benjamin’s growing dissatisfaction with his ageing wife is also fascinating, an aspect of the story, and almost certainly of certain people’s lives, which is deemed distasteful by Hollywood, which seeks to glamorise and centralise the romantic element of the story.

Unrelenting in its pace, changes happen in the book before the narrative moves swiftly on. At the end of the novel, there is less than sufficient time to absorb all that has happened over the course of this incredible life, and then its over. The fairly callous, abrupt nature of the writing is certainly a style that makes you think- and although I wish there was more, perhaps the questions raised are designed to be answered in a personal way. Unfortunately my expectations had been primed by the film and so I will never know how I could have interpreted the book alone.

All in all, the style is as weird as the concept, and humanity’s swift rejection of the unfamiliar is clearly represented in the book, with the reader definitely left wanting more. Have you seen the film? Or read the book? Which way round?

Top 50

To welcome you to this blog and to give a little insight into my reading preferences I have compiled my top 50 ‘books everyone must read’. I will continue to update the list whenever I read something new and amazing, or if I remember some forgotten gem I should have included. What are your favourite books?

1.       Enders Game-Orson Scott Card

2.       Towers of Midnight- Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

3.       His Dark Materials- Phillip Pullman

4.       The Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis

5.       Poirot Books- Agatha Christie

6.       The Wind on Fire- William Nicholson

7.       Alice in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll

8.       I Am David- Anne Holm

9.       The Help- Kathryn Stockett

10.   The Solitaire Mystery- Jostein Gaarder

11.   Little Women- Louisa May Alcott

12.   Ludo and the Star Horse- Mary Stewart

13.   The Time Traveller’s Wife- Audrey Niffenegger

14.   Mister Pip- Lloyd Jones

15.   Passenger- Billy Cowie

16.   Letters from the Inside- John Marsden

17.   A Different Life- Lois Keith

18.   Noughts and Crosses- Malorie Blackman

19.   Earth’s Children- Jean M. Auel

20.   The Midwich Cuckoos- John Wyndham

21.   Room- Emma Donoghue

22.   North Child- Edith Pattou

23.   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks- Rebecca Skloot

24.   The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time- Mark Haddon

25.   You Don’t Know Me- David Klass

26.   Riding Tycho- Jan Mark

27.   Uglies- Scott Westerfeld

28.   Addition- Toni Jordan

29.   The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold

30.   Little House on the Prairie- Laura Ingalls Wilder

31.   Arabian Nights- Various authors

32.   1984- George Orwell

33.   Perfume- Patrick Suskind

34.   Mondays are Red- Nicola Morgan

35.   The Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank

36.   Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro

37.   The Ice Cream Girls- Dorothy Koomson

38.   The Diving Bell and the Butterfly- Jean-Dominique Bauby

39.   The Girls- Lori Lansens

40.   Plain Truth- Jodi Picoult

41.   Millennium Trilogy- Stieg Larsson

42.   A Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

43.   Just So Stories- Rudyard Kipling

44.   Homeward Bound- Diana Wynne Jones

45.   The Kin- Peter Dickinson

46.   The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkien

47.   The Deepwood Chronicles- Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

48.   The Song of the Lioness- Tamora Pierce

49.   The Phantom Tollbooth- Norton Juster

50.   Coram Boy- Jamila Gavin