Cashmoney by Martin Kingsley (via Flickr)
Great news for us book lovers–it seems that we can expect more books under the Christmas tree this year. Oh, yay!
Meanwhile, if you’re out buying books, make sure you’re comparing prices, because some retailers are actually setting prices above the recommended retail price (RRP).
Bookstore sales in November are better than last year’s
The Age reports that bookstore sales in November have exceeded last year’s numbers. Angus & Robertson has also said that their sales are up from last year. According to Chris Redfern of Avenue Bookstore, “books are seen as affordable and a reasonably priced alternative to high-end products.” The managing director of Angus & Robertson says much the same thing.
I don’t know about high-end products, but I’d certainly prefer a paperback romance by a midlist author than a random item of clothing which won’t survive an encounter with the dryer.
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Abandoned Book by swotai (via Flickr)
Today I started reading the first book in a paranormal series that seems to have been generally well received. I got up to page 16 before I closed the book, knowing I’ll probably never read this series. Sixteen pages were enough to tell me that the author’s voice and style are just not going to do it for me.
For one thing, certain words bugged me as sounding out of place or not quite right. Like when a writer uses a word and you know what they want to express, but the actual word is just an approximation, or they’ve tried to turn a verb into a noun (or a noun into an adjective, etc.) but used the wrong morphology–or worse, turned it not into a noun but an adjective being used as a noun when a perfectly good noun already exists.
Another problem was the awkward management of POV (point of view). I’m not against POV changes within the same scene. I even tend to prefer them in general (although I concede there are certain types of stories that are strengthened by restricting POV). But when I notice and am jarred by the POV changes by page 16, I think it’s safe to say that it will only get worse as I read on.
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Lover Unbound by J. R. Ward (The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 5)
J. R. Ward addresses the ending of Lover Unbound in the BDB Boards. (You need to register if you haven’t already.) She’s also written a Slice of Life that’s supposed to show how the characters have ended up.
I don’t know. Whenever authors have to add extra info to reassure fans, I tend to think it shows that the book has problems (think Taming of the Duke). I mean, I’m glad she’s going to clear things up, but I’m disappointed that it wasn’t addressed and closed off in the book. After all, when I read a book, I expect to get all the info I need from that book (or series of books), not search online for a proper resolution.
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