It's less than a month till Christmas...

Don't worry, I'm not about to announce a list of festively themed books (do they even exist?), I'm just noticing how little of the year is left. I'm really excited to start categorising all the books I've read this year and seeing how many are re-read, or recommended or what. But I've noticed that I'm up to number 40 and there is a small but insistent voice inside that is calling for the final tally to be a round number...50 in fact. This would mean I would have to read more books per month than I have done in the previous 11. I will have the Christmas holidays, and being on holiday earlier this month has definitely given me time to read more, but still its a lot. So I'm not sure if its possible but I kind of want to try. I am reading four at the moment, and other things I want to read include a book called Blue Eyed Boy (blurb makes it sound much better than the title), the next in the Game of Thrones series, and the last two in Wheel of Time (I'm really running out of time with this one, and I need to be ready for the finale come 2013). I'm definitely not going to be able to manage two WoT books, but maybe one, which would leave me at seven. And it's practically a certainty that I will be given some form of bookish present for Christmas. If I was really cutting it fine I could probably just read chicklit or childrens books to round it up!

Flood - Stephen Baxter

Finished this late last night when I just couldn't put it down. Apocolyptic fiction at its finest, especially because the danger described in this book seems so much nearer, so much more real than most of the books in this genre.

Apart from a really good plot, I particularly like the way the character's personalities and flaws are exposed as time races by and panic increases. It's a really good look at how humanity would react (not well, by and large) to circumstances they simply never believed could happen. The strength of denial as a defence mechanism should not be underestimated.

It's also quite sad, not just for the demise of civilisation, but SPOILERS! for the way all the hostages strive to protect baby Grace, who grows up throughout the novel. They believe they are constantly acting in her best interests, but it becomes clear that they simply have no idea what those would be, having never taken the time to really get to know her and ask what she wants. A simplistic drive to keep her alive at all costs, in response to a promise made to her mother before she died, is arguably much more harmful than allowing her to go her own way and live in whichever way she chooses.

But, there's a sequel! I'm very excited.

IQ84

I had quite high expectations of this book, based purely on the blurb and cover of course. It just looked like something that would be really good, and fortunately it was. It's got all sorts of elements I am intrigued by, including Japan, magic and cults. It also demonstrated the perfect way to maintain tension and to keep your readers hooked (something I'm trying to deconstruct in the books I read now that I'm writing again). Each chapter is told from one of the two main characters' perspectives. Usually when writers employ this trick, the reader tends to prefer one character, or one plotline, and so can feel slightly irritated at the end of a chapter, when they realise they have to switch. In the case of IQ84 I did feel irritated at the end of each chapter, but for a different reason - both stories were so good, and they so often ended on a mini-cliffhanger that I would be annoyed I'd have to take a break from one character. But then I would remember I'd felt the exact same thing just a chapter before, when I couldn't wait to keep reading about the original character, so I was always happy to be reading more about both of them.

It also raises very interesting questions about reality and perception: in short, how can we tell that the world we are living in is a) real and b) hasn't changed into something else without us realising. My pragmatic response would always be that regardless of any higher truth about reality, we have to live as if this is the only reality we know and always have known. Anything else is futile really, as we have no way of knowing any differently. There's only one moon in our sky.

NaNoWriMo

I heard about NaNoWriMo five days too late, although I don't have anything planned to the stage where I could start immediately anyway. It's a shame because it seems like a great campaign, to help and support writers to write 50,000 words in thirty days - a novel in a month. It also fits in very nicely with the 30 days to a first draft excerpt I've been reading; a month to plan and a month to write. All sounds very structured and quick and easy, although I'm sure it's not. Anyway, I've been following people's progress on their own books and trying to soak up as much advice as possible. The main thing I seem to have found is: Write every day, don't worry about the quality of the work - that comes later - just write. Perhaps I will wait till next year to start, or maybe just December. I'm working on an idea, and hopefully soon I will be at a stage of preparation where I am ready to just write.

On a brief note from Sweden, all my holiday reads were great. Well, apart from Written on the Body which was a bit too love sick for me, and seems to have the potential to irritate people both in and out of relationships. But Eat Pray Love I really, really enjoyed and the Snow Child was just as perfect as I imagined it to be. Perks of Being a Wallflower was also very good, but the film adaptation I'd seen was very true to the book, so it was probably a bit too soon to truly appreciate it.