Continuing my fascination with all things Neil Gaiman, I read American gods. It is set in the same world as Anansi boys, basically our world but with gods moving among us. American gods tells the story of a war between the old gods who were carried to America with various groups of immigrants and new gods & powers who presumably “grew” there. I have liked everything of Gaiman’s I have read so far and this was no exception. I did find it a bit slow to get going, but well worth continuing with.
The other day I posted a photo of books I’ve read but not blogged about. Since then the pile has grown by another two books. Once the pile started to grow I became overwhelmed and put off dealing with it. Then it got bigger and I put it off even more vigorously.
This has to stop.
If for no other reason than the fact that I have to take these books back to the library so other people can read them.
So over the next few days I will try to churn out some brief versions of what laughingly pass for reviews on this blog. That means I’ll write a few sentences giving some of my vague impressions of each book.
Enjoy.
I’ve been reading Book design review for a little while now and it’s really quite fascinating. It’s a blog that deals with the design of book covers. Not only do you get to see some interesting cover designs, but reading this blog you have the freedom to think about books in a different way – not worrying about what’s inside. Having said that, good cover designs are usually good because they make you want to read what’s inside.
Oh, and yes, the URL is odd, but seems to be correct.
Books I have read recently but not yet blogged about (as far as I can remember anyway)
It’s now Sunday night. I spent today feeling inspired about young adult literature following the conference. I also spent some time cleaning out my shed for our hard rubbish collection, went shopping with bookgirl to get a present for her cousin and attended said cousin’s party.
I would love to write heaps of stuff about the conference, but I’m tired and feel have been flirting with a head cold for the last few days. I feel like the flirting is about to move to the next level.
There were lots of highlights and I’m hesitant to pick a few because that would mean leaving others out. But I’ll do so anyway. David Levithan had amazing stuff to say every time he stood up. Scott Westerfeld is my teen fiction hero at the moment and it was great to hear him speak and get a signed copy of Uglies. Scot Gardner was hilarious on the panel about Australian voices. Meg Rosoff gave the keynote speech on Saturday morning and was interesting, funny, moving, and inspirational. I also particularly enjoyed hearing from D.M. Cornish, Justine Larbalestier, Margo Lanagan and Simmone Howell. I’d better stop now or I’ll end up listing every author that spoke.
It really was a fantastic conference. Or did I say that already? I came away thinking something along the lines of “Stuff grown up books, I’m going to read nothing but teen fiction for the rest of my life!” Of course that’s not quite true. But there’s certainly a much longer list of teen books and authors I want to read now.
Anyway. I’m going to bed. Have to read picture books and sing songs to preschool kids in the morning.
My job so rocks.
Last night I attended a debate as part of the Reading Matters conference at the State Library of Victoria. The topic was “Girls books vs boys books”. Three authors on each side. Andy Griffiths as a somewhat biased host. It was a good fun night. I don’t have time to say much more now as I have to go catch the bus to get to today’s sessions. All I will say is this: the debate will be up on Inside a Dog in podcast form sometime soon. Even if you don’t listen to the whole thing, do yourself a favour and listen to David Levithan’s part. Made me cry.