Miscellanea

Thanks to everyone who's participated in the discussion on my post  The pitfalls of receiving free books, or how not to risk your book blogging credibility. I've been totally overwhelmed by the responses, which have been coming thick and fast since I (tentatively) pushed the 'publish' button yesterday afternoon. Please forgive me if I don't respond to each comment individually, but I've enjoyed reading everyone's views and am pleased that it's got people thinking about a topic that's been bugging me for months but seems to have been largely ignored by book bloggers in general.

If you haven't already had your say, please do leave a comment under the post when you've got time.

I should probably qualify my 'rant' by saying that ethics was my favourite subject when I studied my Master of Journalism course back in 1994/95. In fact, my tutor, whom I thought was brilliant (sadly, I can't remember his name, but he used to bring wine and cheese to our sessions, and then sit back and watch us all trying not to throw it at each other -- the arguments in that class were legendary) told me that I was too ethical to be a journalist! Hmm... he was probably right, which is why I eventually got into the production, sub-editing and management side of things.

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Congratulations to Patricia Storms whose brilliant blog BookLust is currently Typepad's "featured blog". I've been reading BookLust for about a year now and I always love seeing Patricia's amazing illustrations and reading about her bookish interests. Do pop on over if you've never visited before.

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Turns out my chest infection is probably pneumonia. I went back to the doctor yesterday and have been signed off for another week. I've had this damn lurgy since October 25, which means I've been ill for three weeks now! The only positive thing to come out of this is the amount of reading I've been able to do! I have certainly whittled down my TBR piles. Who needs reading challenges!!

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Speaking of reading challenges, is there anyone out there who hasn't signed up to Overdue Books'  From the Stacks Winter Challenge yet? Nah, I thought not. Except me. See above for reasons why.

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As some of you know, I went to Venice for a week's holiday (while trying not to cough my lungs up) and I'm only now beginning to sort through my photographs. I'm going to start posting them on my new revamped 'general' blog, kimbofo, which has been resurrected after I pulled the plug on it earlier this year. I honestly thought I'd never post on that blog again (in fact, I deleted two years' worth of posts because I couldn't bare to have them sitting there) but I've missed it, hence the return, albeit in a different format.

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I have just finished reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and enjoyed it very much, even though I thought the little boy who narrates the story was a pain in the arse. I'm sure if you look up precocious in the dictionary you will see the name Oskar Schell!

I am currently reading Per Patterson's Out Stealing Horses, which won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in May. I'm only a few chapters in but I can already tell I am going to love this book, mainly because it is so evocative about Nature and the writing has a calm, meditative quality to it.

Comments

[patricia storms]

Hey, thanks for the plug! It was a real treat to be featured on Typepad's blog, I must say. And if you get featured, they send you a free Typepad T-shirt! Can't wait to get mine!

Oh, and re: 'Extremely Loud..'
I tried so very, very hard to finish that book, but I must confess that it did get on my nerves too much. So I eventually gave up. It wasn't just that Oskar was so annoying – I found Foer's writing to be so contrived, so aware of his own supposed greatness. It just got to be too much for me. I didn't read his first book, but LOVED the movie version of 'Everything Is Illuminated'. Mind you, I've been told that the movie is very different from the book, and the actor Liev Schriber wrote the actual screenplay for the film. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

So in my opinion, I have serious doubts about the supposed talent of Mr. Foer. His wife, Nicole Krauss, is a far better writer. When you get a chance, do read 'History of Love'. A beautiful, beautiful book.

Sorry for the long post!

[Lesley]

Pneumonia - yikes! Be careful and hope it clears up soon.

I can't decide whether I want to read JSF's books or not. People seem to either love them or hate them and I'm curious as to which side of the fence I'd be on.

[marydell]

Interesting observation about Oskar. I loved him, but I think I may be biased since I used to teach special education. My students spanned the disability spectrum, but I was always particularly drawn to the autistic. Oskar reminded me of one former student who had Asperger Syndrome, a kind of autism characterized by quirky eccentricities. I don't know if Foer modeled Oskar after a child with AS, but the behaviors he wrote about fit the disorder perfectly.

[patricia]

Oh, yes, please forgive me for not commenting about your health! Pneumonia is pretty serious, but at least doctors know how to deal with it and cure it (as opposed to the common cold!)

You must rest and get completely better. And unfortunately, from what I know, once you get Pneumonia, you are statistically more likely to get it again in the future, if you're not careful (it's happened to my brother, and the poor bugger works in a hospital!)

So take care, relax and make yourself feel better with all that reading!

[Amelia]

I'm sorry to learn about your pneumonia! I hope you feel better soon!

[kimbofo]

Patricia, I had no idea he was married to Krauss. I haven't read 'History of Love' but it sounds like I should do so, I have only heard good things about it. As for the pneumonia, I'm sorry to hear about your brother. If I worked in a hospital I would be completely paranoid. I was actually very worried last week when I saw the doctor for the first time that he would shunt me into hospital (I honestly felt like I was dying) because it was the last place I wanted to go -- apparantly many British hospitals are rife with MSRA!

Lesley, I am definitely on the mend now, thanks for your good wishes. The book is definitely one you either love or loathe, but the only way you're going to find out is to read it. Perhaps my review http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/2006/11/extremely_loud_.html) might help?

mary, your comment is really interesting because I thought Oskar was very similar to the character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and that character has Asperger Syndrome.

Amelia, thanks for your well wishes. I'm definitely feeling better, but I am a little bored -- our TVs gone bung and there's only so many books you can read before you start to feel exhausted!

[Susan]

I hope you're over the pneumonia soon and feeling better.

I'm going to have to get around to reading the Foer. I'm really curious to see how it compares to the Krauss (which I loved).

[kimbofo]

Susan, thanks for your well wishes. I'm the reverse of you: I'm curious to read the Krauss to see how it compares to the Foer!