what are you reading/listening to at the moment

[DorothyD]

Exciting! I hope you'll post a picture if you meet him!

[Arthur]

Listening to "The Unicorporated Man" by Dani and Eytan Kollin.

/a

[aprilla]

I recently started The Passage. I am less than excited about it. I hope it improves. I seem to remember someone saying it had a slow start but then took off.

I am halfway through The Passage (Justin Cronin) .... agree with the slow start but am not really sure about it taking off, it's got it's moments I guess.
I had decided what to listen to next, but can't remember what that was

[mickyplum]

finished the quiche of death and i was very pleasantly surprised,it's completely different to my usual reading/listening that i wasn't sure i'd like it.the main character is like a middle aged,brusque,bullying miss marple type,she's not a nice person but i couldn't help liking her by the end of the book and the way she rides roughshod over everyone around her constantly made me laugh.the story centres round a quaint english village with vicar's tea parties,the women's institute and village fayres with a murder thrown in.i can't really say why i enjoyed it so much,maybe it was my sense of humour but i'll definately be looking out for more in the series now - i'll have to keep these as my guilty secret,i won't be telling my mates about these .
i need to get some man-points back now so next up for me is more swashbuckling action with the 5th book in bernard cornwell's fantastic 'sharpe' series - sharpe's prey.i'm also reading 'young bloods' by simon scarrow which is the first in his revolution series of books,they follow wellington and napoleon from children as they grow up through the ranks and inevitebly meet at the battle of waterloo.it's a great book and i'm enjoying it a lot but as it's a paper book it will take me a lot longer to finish than my audiobooks.i have the other books in the series so they will keep me going for a long time

mick

[madmary]

I saw jeffery deaver tonight. He signed my copy of the burning wire. My store didn't have an unabridged audio version so bought the hardback.

Mr deaver was really entertaining. A thoroughly nice bloke. And he's writing the new James bond novel due out in November.

Mary

[Meminger]

Time has passed. Since this thread is still going, I will do an update. I gave up on The Passage. For some reason, I intensely disliked it. Currently listening to Why Women Have Sex. Pretty interesting so far. Some surprises, it is keeping my attention.
Since this includes books we're reading, I must add my current paperback which is immensely enjoyable to me. Called Kitchen Confidential, it is an insider look at the world of cooks/chefs in New York City and elsewhere. It is utterly fascinating (to me) and I can't put it down. This book isn't for the squeamish or for those offended by profanity. If you can get past that, give it a try. Several times I have laughed out loud. Just looking at Anthony Bourdain's picture on the cover brings a big smile to my face. Sometimes pictures say more than words. This photo is a classic, which you realize once you're get to know the author.
Mick, this one will definitely give you man-points!

[aprilla]

I bought Kitchen Confidential for son (trainee chef at the time) and read it after him - don't books make great presents lol? - I really enjoyed it too, it's tough I guess but it's real, not over the top just for thrills.

So dilute those man points, this is a woman's view LOL

[mickyplum]

i've had a look at kitchen confidential and it does look good,not a book i'd usually go for but if it adds to my man points after agatha raisin then all the better.there was a programme on uk tv about 10 years ago following a young gordon ramsay in his kitchen and it was great viewing,very foul mouthed and a total bully but my wife and i loved it.definate man points for mickyplum

mick

[madmary]

Just to update folk. I went to the Jeffrey Deaver booksigning in Birmingham (UK) on Thursday night. He spoke for quite a while and was extremely entertaining and very funny. He mainly talked about the process of writing books to a contract and the need for an outline but he did it by pretending he was writing a new book. He said he wasn't an artist, but a manufacturer of books. It was really interesting.

Afterwards he took questions and I asked something about his part in The Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet where he starts and finishes the books but other authors write the in between chapters. I asked how that squared with writing to an outline which was what his talk was about. He said it was fun and he had no problem but that he did go back to some of the other writers to ask them to tweak one or two things so he could get in some ideas he had had for the endings.

He then signed copies of books and made sure to speak to everyone. There were some very greedy fans who I think believed that it was their god given right to hog his time and treat him like some long lost friend! *sigh*. After my husband and I went for a meal to celebrate the fact that he retired that day. The signing has inspired him to go to more.

One thing though, the shop had little or nothing by way of publicity, no collection in the window or by the door, no sign outside, just an A4 flyer pinned to a side window, and no signs in the shop. They only had two audio versions and these were the abridged versions. When I queried this they looked up the unabridged and said it was only available in the US. I know it's available in the UK as I had checked before I went to the signing.

Also they charged £3 each which isn't much money, but there were no nibbles or glasses of vino or even water. Signings are publicity for authors, they attract customers to the shops and people buy hardback copies of books that otherwise wouldn't shift much. I was surprised that there was a charge but it was still a good evening.

Sorry that this is in this thread but it follows on from my earlier posts so I thought I'd keep my story here.

Mary

[mickyplum]

thanks for the update mary,sounds like a great evening.i was very interested when you mentioned jeffrey deaver was writing the new bond novel,i didn't know about that but i'm really looking forward to it now.the bookstore you went to,was it waterstones by any chance?a couple of years ago i was in the manchester branch browsing and as i was leaving i noticed a single a4 sized piece of paper blu tacked to the window about a book signing by jeffrey deaver,just like you say with no other advertising anywhere.unfortunately i couldn't make it back for the book signing but i thought they would have made more of an effort for such a well known author.anyway it sounds like you had a good night and i hope your husband enjoys his retirement

mick