Tag: Pod

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish

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This is a bit of a challenge for me because it is really rare for me to give up on a book! I like to think that this is because I find it easy to find something to enjoy in most books: the genre may not be a favourite, but I may like the characters; I may not like the characters but the language could be sublime; I may find the language pedestrian but the plot could be thrilling; the plot might be cliched and quotidian but the ideas and themes might be powerful. And oftentimes, if I do put a book down, its because I was not in the right headspace for it then but I may well go back to it later... a pause does not a DNF make, does it? On the other hand, it may also reflect negatively on me as a person. I am generally a completionist, keen to finish a book - or a series - just because I started it. Yes, I am that sort of person who cannot leave a sidequest incomplete in a game! I also fall foul of the sunk-cost fallacy easily: I feel that when I have invested in a book (the time to start reading it probably more than the price), I must "get my money's worth" from it, even if giving up and finding a book I do love would be a much more enjoyable use of my time. And perhaps my eternal optimism: even halfway through a book, even three-quarters of the way, I might still be thinking This could get better any moment...

The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023

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do try to follow a number of book prizes over the year - The Booker Prize, the Women's Prize, the YOTO Carnegie Medal, the Hugo Award ... I find it's a great way to stumble across new authors and it is through these awards that I have found so many of my now-favourite authors: Maggie O'Farrell, Meg Mason, Bernardino Evaristo, Elif Shafak, Becky Chambers, Arkady Martine. And this year I am in the unusual position that I have read - or at least begun - all of the shortlisted novels and some of the longlisted novels. I'm not sure how it happened: possibly I had coincidentally read some before either list was announced - certainly I read some via Netgalley; possibly a number of those I chose to read from the longlist were later included in the shortlist... perhaps I neglected my work in order to read more... But I am in a position to make comment on some of the issues and perhaps rank the novels.

Top Ten Tuesday: Things That Make Me Instantly NOT Want to Read a Book

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This week's topic is an interesting counterpart to last week's list of things that automatically make me want to read a book... It would be tempting simply to invert those notions - what would turn me off a book? Unconvincing characters, inauthentic relationships etc... and yes that would be true. But a little bit of a cheat perhaps! That said, my wife came home from work yesterday with conjunctivitis which she has merrily shared, so my vision is a little blurred right now... tonight, I am not averse to the concept of a short cut! My other issue is that I do read widely and whilst I will offer some of the themes and tropes that may discourage me from reading a book, none of these will necessarily stop me from reading it. They may, however, make it an uphill job for the author to grab my attention. I wonder what examples of these I can come up with that I did read...

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Spring 2023 To-Read List

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As I have said on this blog before, I don't really do to be read lists. Whilst I may intend to tackle a certain set of books, I am more than happy to pick up this other one that caught my eye in Waterstones or the library, or that one that I began and put down six months ago, or this book that a friend recommneded, or that one which is all over social media, or - let's face it - sometimes this random one which I opened on my kindle by mistake! But this time of year coincides with the release of the Women's Prize for Fiction and I do try to read along with that longlist each year - to varying degrees of success - and so this week I offer you that longlist which I hope to have read some or most of before the 14th June when the winner is announced.