The Labyrinth Effect?

[Russethouse]

How many books are worth a second read ?

I know I have read 'Little Women' more than once, and last year I re-read 'Katherine' by Anya Seton, because after getting a placing in some top 100 pole it was republished - I think I read the Shell Seekers twice too..........possibly Great Expectations - I think most of Dickens could do with reading twice because you see different facets.

OTOH I have seen lots of films twice, 'Remains of the Day' will always entertain me, and The Glenn Mille Story will probably always make me feel sort of choked............... and I would still like N igger to be alive at the end of the Dambusters........[:(]

 

[Tresco]

Books, worth a repeat read: just the first that come to mind:

Pride and Predjudice

Great Expectations (Definitely)

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (sp) I read it every three years approx.

War and Peace

Any book by John Steinbeck

Any book by William Kotzwinkle

Any book by Richard Brautigan (all of which prove I am a hippy of some sort)

Films:

The Great Escape, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia  ('chilhood things')

Brief encounter

Most Ealing Comedies

Saving Private Ryan (guaranteed 4 crys every time)

The Deer Hunter (same)

American Beauty (modern, so i may go off it)$*

Some Like it Hot (will love till I die)

 

 

 

[PossumGirl]

[quote user="Dotty0"]

I'm sure I replied to this earler, but for some reason its not on the forum. 

[/quote]

I'm actually glad to see this has happened to someone else!  I've had it occur to me once or twice and I found it strangely disturbing.

PG

[Clarkkent]

So, why would I say that Harry Potter is worth reading but The da Vinci Code is not?

J K Rowling makes demands of the reader, Dan Brown does not. The most satisfying reads are those which engage the reader and force him to use his own imagination and creativity in order to enter into the writer’s world. Rowling does not patronise the reader (just as with Richmal Crompton, the English style is firmly adult). She develops characters with depth, motives and personalities. She creates contexts and back plots which explain current situations (for instance, the political interface between the Ministry of Magic and the British Government) and which provide consistency throughout all the novels.

Brown writes in bite-sized chapters to prevent boredom. You learn little about his characters which does not exist on the surface. His “research” is superficial. In The da Vinci Code, the Paris and the London he describes do not coincide with my own experiences of these cities – I get the feeling that he has only learned about them from second-rate tourist guides. My own reaction when I finished reading it (a very rapid process) was “so what?” I went on to read two others of his novels (I was given them - I can’t remember their names but one was set in Rome the other in Seville) and the plots were identical to da Vinci.

Rowling stretched my imagination. Brown passed the time.

I shall go and buy Labyrinth and see what that does to me.

[Pangur]

[quote user="Russethouse"]

How many books are worth a second read ?[/quote]

If it's worth reading, it's worth reading twice at a minimum! 

I wasted a few hours of my life on the Da Vinci Code.  I'm amazed it managed to get published and even more amazed that it sold by the truckload. I'll avoid Labyrinth if only because on Amazon it's been recommended by people who enjoyed the DVC and apologies to those of you who enjoyed it, but I couldn't trust your judgement on a good book!  I'll quite happily read crap, but it has to be well-written crap.

Harry Potter is a book for children, and I'll leave it for them.  I love children's literature, but the stuff I read as a kid.  I don't like stealing theirs from them....

If you want a good light read set in the French past, Tracy Chevalier's The Virgin Blue is pretty enjoyable.  I also finished  Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner recently and it was really moving and beautifully written.

 

[Dotty0]

[quote user="PossumGirl"][quote user="Dotty0"]

I'm sure I replied to this earler, but for some reason its not on the forum. 

[/quote]

I'm actually glad to see this has happened to someone else!  I've had it occur to me once or twice and I found it strangely disturbing.

PG
[/quote]

Its annoying though.  You spend time putting together a half decent post, only for it to vanish in to thin air.[:@]

[Owens88]

Which is more annoying:

*losing a post you have 'crafted' with loving care

*reading a Dan Brown book and realising, yet again, that he has built a cracking pace but doesn't know how to finish an adventure story?

 

Meanwhile. Lots of admiration for the parent who even considered reading a HP book aloud !  JKR seems to have used different ghost writers for different books but the early ones had such long sentences that one might fall asleep before the full stop.

[PossumGirl]

[quote user="Owens88"]

 

Meanwhile. Lots of admiration for the parent who even considered reading a HP book aloud !  JKR seems to have used different ghost writers for different books but the early ones had such long sentences that one might fall asleep before the full stop.

[/quote]

Have you considered that as she has moved on as a writer, her style has changed and moved on as well. Why would you say she has used ghost writers?  She clearly has a vision for her universe (whether you like it or not, but that's a seperate discussion), she knows who her characters are and where they're going.  There is no evidence that anyone but she has written her books.

PG

[weliveinhope]

Re Harry Potter, I was involved in publishing children's books for a long time. I read our own books and I read the books of the competition, including Harry Potter, and it irritated and infuriated me that good, well written children's books (not just ours) were selling a few thousand copies whereas the Harry Potter hype meant that those damn books sold millions even though the quality was far inferior to dozens of other books to have been written/published at the same time. At this point JK Rowling could publish her weekly shopping list and there would be millions of people out there who'd be queuing up at midnight to be the first to buy it.

The argument that is frequently used in support of Harry Potter is that it introduces a whole new audience for books, a new generation of reader. They don't. Sales figures of children's books in general haven't risen. There's a phenomonen in place now where the kid buys and reads the newest instalment and then sits and waits for the next one, or rereads all of the others while waiting for the next one.

Publishing children's books is tougher now than it was 10 years ago before the Harry Potter 'revolution'.

[PossumGirl]

[quote user="weliveinhope"]

Re Harry Potter, I was involved in publishing children's books for a long time. I read our own books and I read the books of the competition, including Harry Potter, and it irritated and infuriated me that good, well written children's books (not just ours) were selling a few thousand copies whereas the Harry Potter hype meant that those damn books sold millions even though the quality was far inferior to dozens of other books to have been written/published at the same time.

[/quote]

I've been making my living as a writer for over 25 years, and I have to say that it has always been frustrating to not know what it is that makes one thing popular, while another that is equally good goes unnoticed.  This applies not only to children's literature, but to adult literature, films and television as well.  As William Goldman, one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood for many, many years once said, "Nobody knows nothin'."

Right now, I'm reading The Stones of Camelot, an excellent fantasy novel by Brian Stableford.  Brian has published more than 50 novels, a couple hundred short stories, is a university lecturer and STILL had trouble finding a publisher for this novel. 

I have other author friends with great track records, loyal fan followings, etc., and they struggle to continue to be published and put food on their tables.  It's a cruel business.  However, I have to say that almost all of us would prefer to see a Harry Potter-style success happening to someone, than it never happening for anyone.  It gives us all a small ray of hope!

PG

[Russethouse]

Do you specialize in a particular 'genre' ?

[Owens88]

>She clearly has a vision for her universe (whether you like it or not, but that's a seperate discussion), she knows who her characters are and where they're going

Agreed

>Have you considered that as she has moved on as a writer, her style has changed and moved on as well.

I am no literary critic but it I haven't seen other authors change style so dramatically within the same sequence of stories. Hence my comment. I wouldn't build a court case on it though.

 

cheers

[PossumGirl]

I've written a pretty wide variety of things over the years.  My first paid published work was in medical journals!  Then, I moved on to writing about the making of various movies (not celeb gossip, but interviews about how a particular film was made).  After a while, I wanted to be a bit more creative and have written screenplays (which were bought but not filmed) teleplays for animation (all produced) lots and lots of comic books (both for the U.S. and French markets), a couple of children's books, a couple of novels, and many  non-fiction books on various subjects, including one that has just come out about our life here in France!  I've also done a great deal of translation of French novels and comics into English.

I suppose most of what I do falls into the SF/Fantasy genre, just because that seems to be where my husband and I are most known.

PG

[PossumGirl]

[quote user="Owens88"]

I am no literary critic but it I haven't seen other authors change style so dramatically within the same sequence of stories. Hence my comment. I wouldn't build a court case on it though.

 

[/quote]

From what I remember reading, I think it may be a conscious decision on her part to make things darker and more adult as the kids grow up, which may account for it.

PG

[Owens88]

Oh sorry I misspoke again.

I didn't mean the evolution of the mood and plots, I meant the use of English. The first book had sentences that were zillions of words long - the latest is very different. It is indeed quite possible to believe that there are different people transposing her 'thoughts' into words on a page. Or, as another poster suggested, she acquired an editor.

But its not my profession so I will tais-moi.

John

 

 

 

[PossumGirl]

John, I must admit it's been a long time since I read the first books in the series, so I don't have a clear view of the prose style in those.  Don't "tais toi" on my account!  It's rare to discuss books with folks these days.

PG

[PossumGirl]

I finally got started on Labyrinth this week.  I'm not that far into it yet, but I find I don't like the way she writes in the present tense for the modern chapters.  That works when someone writes in French, but I find it very odd in English.

The chapters in the past read better, in my opinion.  I haven't decided if I like it or not yet though...

PG

[Joh]

Hmmm, interesting thread here!

Have just returned from the Aude and whilst curled up on my sofa in the evenings I read Labyrinth (amongst many other books)... thoroughly enjoyed it although I agree with some of the earlier postings about it being a bit "flowery" in her in depth descriptions of things. However, "each to their own".

Perhaps I enjoyed the book particularly as I can associate with the areas in which the book takes place and I (like many others) am fascinated by the whole Cathar mystery.

I've been trying to read Holy Blood Holy Grail - but it's like sitting in a giant history lesson and I'm really struggling with it, I think it's going to be one of those books I pick up, read a chapter and put down again for another month!

I haven't read it yet but would be interested to know if anyone has read another book I have found that is also set in Languedoc: "To my daughter in France by Stephanie and Barbara Keating"

I want to know whether it's worth searching out a copy...... I just happened to see it on a bookstand at the Channel Tunnel the other week.

Jo

[PossumGirl]

I must admit that now that I'm further into it, although it does have its faults, I find it kind of fun to read about something that happens right out the back door, so to speak. It's kind of like when I see things that are filmed in L.A. and recognize the locations as my old stomping grounds!

PG

[Fay]

I was really looking forward to getting stuck into Labyrinth but have actually put it aside after about 80 pages, which is something I very rarely do... I found her style too 'historical romance' for my taste, plus the descriptions of the modern-day heroine's slender brown legs etc every few pages got on my nerves... I'll give it another try at some point I guess.

As another editor/writer (what a lot of us there are!) and ex-children's bookseller I read JKR in spite of myself but give me the two great Philips - Pullman and Reeves - any day.

And on the other bit of 'thread' - great re-reads have to include To Kill a Mockingbird and, with a French theme, Greengage Summer.

[Suze01]

[quote user="Fay"]I was really looking forward to getting stuck into Labyrinth but have actually put it aside after about 80 pages...[/quote]

I did exactly the same.  I read another book then came back to the Labyrinth.  I'm now on page 387 and for me the story has picked up in pace and is starting to grab my interest.

[PossumGirl]

[quote user="Fay"]I was really looking forward to getting stuck into Labyrinth but have actually put it aside after about 80 pages, which is something I very rarely do... I found her style too 'historical romance' for my taste, plus the descriptions of the modern-day heroine's slender brown legs etc every few pages got on my nerves... I'll give it another try at some point I guess.

As another editor/writer (what a lot of us there are!) and ex-children's bookseller I read JKR in spite of myself but give me the two great Philips - Pullman and Reeves - any day.

And on the other bit of 'thread' - great re-reads have to include To Kill a Mockingbird and, with a French theme, Greengage Summer.[/quote]

Fay, I have to give you points on the "long slender legs" bits, as well as the other extremely pointless descriptions of people running their hands over various body parts!  Not at all necessary for plot, characterization, or any real reason I can imagine.  I have to admit that it's taking me way longer to plow my way through than I had hoped.

I'm still a fan of JKR, but definitely agree with you on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  Also, I adore CATCH 22, periodically re-read the LOTR trilogy and, in French, adore ALL of the Pagnol works no matter how many times I read them.

PG

[Davidball]

I think the essense of the problem is that this is a 'girlie' book, one

reason I tend to shy away from female writers, as a male reader I just

got the 'this is a girlie book' feeling very quickly. That aside, I am

enjoying reading it. If Hemmingway had written it, I think it would be

about 80 pages long . . . now there's a man's writer!

One book I enjoy reading over is 'Sunday' by Georges Simenon. A salutary tale!

David

[Davidball]

[quote user="Tresco"]

Books, worth a repeat read: just the first that come to mind:

Any book by John Steinbeck

[/quote]

Except 'The Wayward Bus ' maybe?

[PossumGirl]

[quote user="Davidball"]I think the essense of the problem is that this is a 'girlie' book, one

reason I tend to shy away from female writers, as a male reader I just

got the 'this is a girlie book' feeling very quickly.

[/quote]

This is an interesting point, David.  When I was meeting with network executives, trying to sell animated series for the children's market, one of the things I was told over and over again was that girls will watch "boy" shows but boys will not watch "girl" shows.  Obviously, this is something that carries over to adults.

So, the question is why?  Why can we enjoy an action flick, book or television show and you can't (or prefer not to) enjoy something that appeals to us?

PG