Thinning the Herd

There comes a time in every bookworm's life when the number of books he/she owns vastly exceeds the storage space available - even when forced to get really creative when defining "storage space". And no matter how creative we get, there are just no more nooks to stuff books into or surfaces available to stack them on top of. In an ideal world I would have a personal library space resembling the picture above, but unfortunately I have not yet succeeded in making my millions from writing or winning the lottery, so it's just me in my normal house with my books. And limited space.

On Monday this week I looked around and realised that I had unfortunately once again arrived at the point where my books:storage space ratio was dangerously unbalanced. Let me take you on a brief tour of my house. All of my bookshelves are stacked to their maximum capacity - and with some creative use of geometry, past that point in some cases. I have three boxes of books under my bed with another three balanced next to my desk. In order to get to my computer I have to move the piles of books from my desk to my bed. There are more piles on my dressing table. And finally there are the four towering piles of books that have colonised my bedside table - I run the serious risk of being smothered in my sleep if they were to ever gang up on me. Now, admittedly that wouldn't be a bad way for a bookworm to go... 

But I digress...

I found myself having to cull my herd of books. A sacrifice of few for the good of the many - I won't stand for mangled books because they have been stored improperly. So, taking a deep breath, I set out to determine which of the books in my library I would be parting with. There are always one or two that are an easy choice. You know the ones I'm talking about; they looked interesting in the bookstore or on the sales table, but turned out to be a complete waste of your time. Then things start to get a bit tricky. As I mentioned earlier, I would keep all of my books if I had the ridiculous amount of storage space needed, but I don't. So even having taken out the "books I wish I hadn't read", this leaves me with more books needing to be culled. I have learned to be relatively ruthless in this regard. It's a bit like ripping off a band-aid. I pull the books I will, in all likelihood,
never read again off the shelves and add them to the discard pile.

The choices open to any bookworm who finds themselves in this unfortunate position are as follows:

1. Sell your excess books. We're all familiar with the overflowing second hand bookstore, and chances are that at least some of the books now trying to kill you are from one of them. Online selling is also an option.


2. Send them for recycling. This is a horrifying thought I know, but I had to include it here in an effort to be as accurate as possible. One could lug all of those books to the local recycling centre and bid them farewell.


3. Donate them. School libraries, your friends who have been drooling over your collection and your local library would all appreciate a donation of some of the books you've had to cull from your library.

I have sold some of my books before, but I get a lot more joy out of donating them. That way, I know that at least they are still being read and appreciated. So this last Monday I packed up about two dozen books and made a trip to my local library. The appreciation from the librarians and the patrons who saw me coming in was amazing! It was definitely my feel-good moment of the week. 

If I have to get rid of books from my collection from time-to-time it makes me happy to think about how appreciated they are in their new life at the library.

What do you do with your books when you run out of space?

Review: The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Title: The Shining Girls

Author: Lauren Beukes

Genre: Thriller (Science Fiction)

Publisher: Umuzi        

Published: April 2013

Paperback: 298 pages

Stand alone or Series: Stand alone

Source of Book: Bought

Chicago, 1931. Violent drifter Harper Curtis stumbles upon a house that hides a secret as shocking as his own twisted nature: it opens onto other times. Harper uses it to stalk his ‘shining girls’ across decades – and cut the fire out of them.

He’s the perfect killer. Unstoppable. Untraceable. Until one of his victims survives and turns the hunt around.

Chicago, 1992. Kirby Mazrachi’s determination to find the man who tried to kill her has taken over her life. The cops no longer return her calls. Hr mother copes by writing morbid children’s books. Her only ally is Dan, the burnt-out ex-homicide reporter who covered her case.

As Kirby closes in on her would-be killer, what she finds is…impossible. Murders scattered across the decades along with evidence that makes no sense.

Meanwhile, Harper is closing in on her too.

Review:

Lauren Beukes has long been on my list of local authors to read. But it took reading an interview with her about her new book, The Shining Girls, to make me realise that I couldn’t wait a moment longer to explore this imaginative writer’s work. I have four words for you that will no doubt spark a similar response: time travelling serial killer.

The cover for The Shining Girls is a collage of photographs that invokes a sense of mystery. The images conjure a feeling of the different time periods visited in the book. For me they also represent how seemingly disjointed moments can come together to form a coherent whole; as Kirby’s investigation into Harper’s crimes does.

Time travel is difficult to write. The different events and locations scattered across various years can get confusing and authors often make mistakes with their continuity. I must tip my hat to Lauren Beukes – she has handled the time travel aspect of her story masterfully. The changes in setting and time flowed as a natural part of the story. Each setting has its own unique feel that allows the reader to instinctively know where in the timeline they find themselves. From the gritty feel of ‘20s and ‘30s Chicago to the more familiar ‘90s – each location springs to vivid life in the pages of The Shining Girls.

Kirby is an interesting heroine. Her world is falling apart around her and she doesn’t know what to do about it. The only anchor she has is her determination to find the man who nearly killed her. I really liked that Kirby isn’t your typical ‘damsel in distress’. Here is a smart girl whose already chaotic life (thanks to her free-spirited and sometimes absent mother) has been torn apart. But she is determined to do something about it. One could argue that Kirby’s obsession with the man who attacked her is at least partly to blame for her situation and I appreciate that Beukes allows the reader to entertain this idea. She has created a complex and driven heroine to drive her story forward and it works. The reader may be wary of Kirby’s motivations, but you want to know where her path will lead.

Harper, the villain of the piece, is a particularly nasty character. Upon discovering the house which allows him to move through time he sets out to find and kill his ‘shining girls’, women who have a particular strength of spirit about them. He never gives a reason for his crimes or tries to explain them away and this, as far as I’m concerned, makes him a truly interesting villain. Harper is just bad. Beukes makes no excuses for it. It makes him unpredictable and adds to the feeling of menace he evokes. I especially liked the detail of Harper leaving items from different times at the scenes of his crimes. It serves as a link between the women across the years.

The Shining Girls is a well written and entertaining thriller with a skilfully handled time travel element adding to the mystery. Recommended reading.

Rating: 9

Back to Basics

As some of the more determined followers of this blog may have noticed, my activity online has been very limited over the past few months. This has been due to personal and family health problems that needed me to commit my energy elsewhere for a time. Fortunately things seem to be settling back to what passes for normal in my life and I'm now looking forward to giving The Word Fiend some much needed TLC.

As any dedicated bookworm will know books continued to be my sanctuary during this time. I used the time to also consider my approach to blogging and reviewing in general and I've come to some conclusions that I want to put into practice here on the blog in the coming months.

They are:

• When I named this blog over two years ago now I incorporated a mission statement of sorts into it. The fiend does not refer to a small red imp armed with a pitchfork and horns, but rather to: a person extremely devoted to a pursuit or study. That is what I want this blog to be - a celebration of words and the people who wield them with such grace and skill.

• I love to read a wide variety of genres and often bounce between them as the mood takes me. I am in the extremely privileged position of having publishers and authors trust me with their books to read and review. It is a humbling responsibility and one that I take very seriously. But with this responsibility came a pressure to read books in an order that was dictated rather than my usual more organic approach. And I believe that my enjoyment of the books and my subsequent reviews were not as good as they could have been if I had been reading as the mood took me. This blog is a work of love and enthusiasm and so I have made the decision to read books in the order that I want to rather than forcing myself to meet an imaginary deadline. If I have been asked to review a book for its release I will make every effort to do so of course, but I also need to be the reader I am to give the best reviews I can (in terms of content, not necessarily ratings).

• There is so much to discuss about books, words and the people who write them that I would like to start a semi-regular series of posts on the blog discussing different topics, and hopefully get other bloggers and readers to join in with their own contributions.

I'm looking forward to this new chapter in The Word Fiend's life and I hope that you'll be coming along for the ride!

NaNoWriMo 2012: Week 1 Round-Up

So week one of NaNoWriMo 2012 has swept past and I am having so much fun with my story! I'm behind on the target word count, but I am actually not worrying about it. I will confess that I did have a few moments of panic in the first few days. But I always take a bit of time to get "situated" in the story and now I am in the groove. Plus there is plenty of time left to type like a writer possessed over the next three weeks!

One of the things that has made a big difference to my NaNo experience is the planning I managed to do before I started (and continue to do as the story moves on). There are SO many books and articles out there on how to outline plots and create believable characters. I've read a good number of them, but I've stumbled onto one for Character Creation that has really helped me:

Holly Lisle's Create a Character Clinic will allow you to come up with new characters from scratch or add depth to existing characters. It's also a very adaptable process, allowing you to go with what works for you.

I already had a couple of characters floating around my head, so I used a couple of the exercises outlined in the book to flesh them out. And they are so much better for it! I've also discovered some great potential for conflict and tension that I didn't know about before. And you know how much fun conflict is for a writer. *evil grin*

As I said earlier, there are so many books out there on the craft of writing, but I found that Holly Lisle's Create a Character Clinic suits the way my mind works and I would recommend that you give it a look.

Buy from: Author  |  Amazon

That's all folks! Back to listening to the voices inside my head now. :)

NaNoWriMo 2012 - The Madness Starts

Unbelievably it is indeed that time of year again ladies and gentlemen. The time where normally mild-mannered folks seem to take a dive off the deep end and lock themselves in studies and rooms around the world with laptops, pens, keyboards, typewriters, pencils and coffee. Their aim? To write 50,000 words over the 30 days of November. The maths has been done - it works out to 1667 words per day.

I've signed up once again this year (it'll be my fourth attempt at the craziness) and I'm hoping that I'll manage to push my way through to the end for the first time. That 50k mark has managed to elude me in the past, but I've always had a great time hunting it down.

In 2012 I have decided to modify my tactics. Not a difficult thing to do really since my previous attack plans have always involved a vague plot idea, some half-formed characters and me launching myself at the empty page from a standing start. Over the last three years I have discovered that I am most definitely NOT a seat-of-the-pants writer. I need some form of story skeleton to work with. So instead of a blind leap of faith into the void of my imagination I've been doing some basic plotting and characterisation and man am I having so much fun! The story is coming together with enough flexibility still in it to allow me to follow any new ideas or mad character behaviour that may come up. You have no idea how excited I am about this! *does happy writer dance*

Now all I have to do is successfully wrestle my inner critic into submission for 30 days and I see a month of creative fun before me. I have a tendency to over-edit, but the idea of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is for writers to produce a first draft of a novel. No one is expecting a literary masterpiece, just a first draft that can be looked at and edited once the dust of NaNo has settled. I just need to let go and have fun!

I'll be posting the odd update during the month and discussing any topics that I think may be relevant. Hopefully you'll find them interesting. 

My username is Archarad if anyone is interested in adding me to their buddy list. Moral support is always good!

Review: In a Fix by Linda Grimes

Title: In a Fix

Author: Linda Grimes

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Tor

Published: 4 September 2012

eGalley: 336 pages

Stand alone or Series: #1 in the In a Fix series

Source of Book: eGalley provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Thanks to Tor and Netgalley

Snagging a marriage proposal for her client while on an all-expenses-paid vacation should be a simple job for Ciel Halligan, aura adaptor extraordinaire. A kind of human chameleon, she's able to take on her clients' appearances and slip seamlessly into their lives, solving any sticky problems they don't want to deal with themselves. No fuss, no muss. Big paycheck.

This particular assignment is pretty enjoyable...that is, until Ciel's island resort bungalow is blown to smithereens and her client's about-to-be-fiancé is snatched by modern-day Vikings. For some reason, Ciel begins to suspect that getting the ring is going to be a tad more difficult than originally anticipated.

Going from romance to rescue requires some serious gear-shifting, as well as a little backup. Her best friend, Billy, and Mark, the CIA agent she's been crushing on for years—both skilled adaptors—step in to help, but their priority is, annoyingly, keeping her safe. Before long, Ciel is dedicating more energy to escaping their watchful eyes than she is to saving her client's intended.

Suddenly, facing down a horde of Vikings feels like the least of her problems.

Review:

Linda Grimes' debut Urban Fantasy novel, In a Fix, hit me like a breath of fresh air. It's filled with innovative ideas, engaging characters and effortless humour. I was completely charmed by In a Fix.

Urban Fantasy is one of my favourite genres to read. I love the interplay of the supernatural with the modern world that we are all so familiar with. But, truth be told, I do find that the usual suspects – the vampires, werewolves and demons – can feel stale after a while. But Grimes has taken the path less travelled and created a new and interesting supernatural group – aura adaptors. They're human, but they have the ability to borrow and use other people's auras – taking on the physical appearance and traits of that person. I think it's a fantastic idea and Grimes uses it with skill and humour in her novel.

In a Fix is a well-paced read and balances action, humour and even some romance to leave the reader wanting more. Grimes drags you into the world she has created from the first word and you will find yourself emerging hours later with a smile on your face and the desire to dive straight back in again.

The characters in In a Fix are a real treat – each has their own distinct personality; complete with quirks, habits and a solid backstory. Ciel Halligan is In a Fix's narrator and main character and I immediately liked her. She's unsure of herself, but has an underlying feistiness that is delicious to see when it does break through. Unlike many Urban Fantasy protagonists Ciel does not have amazing fighting skills or deadly magic, but she still manages to be a strong, independent heroine. Then there are the men in Ciel's life – Mark, her long-term crush, and Billy, her best friend. Ciel's interactions with Billy are easy and full of the sort of banter that comes from knowing someone for a long time. But there is an attraction bubbling beneath the surface which presents interesting possibilities. I really liked Billy – he's irreverent and fun, but there is a more serious, protective side to him which I felt gave the character more depth. Mark is a harder character to get a handle on – largely because he plays his cards close to his chest and is more circumspect with his emotions. It's obvious he cares for Ciel and I enjoyed watching him come out from behind his walls through the book. Ciel's ongoing crush on him also makes for an interesting, charged dynamic between the two.

In a Fix is an entertaining, addictive Urban Fantasy debut and I am dying to get my hands on the next book in the series. Linda Grimes has definitely earned herself a fan.

Rating: 9½

Review: Spud - Exit, Pursued by a Bear by John van de Ruit

Title: Spud – Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Author: John van de Ruit

Genre: Humour

Publisher: Penguin (South Africa)

Published: 1 August 2012

Paperback: 411 pages

Stand alone or Series: #4 in the Spud series

Source of Book: Review copy provided by the publisher

My thanks to Jean and Candice at Penguin (South Africa)

After an unexpected and diabolical farewell breakfast conversation with his father, Spud Milton returns to boarding school for his 1993 Matric year, his last as a schoolboy. Armed with a prefects’ tie and a raging libido, Spud soon discovers that being a large(ish) fish in a small pond has its fair share of challenges. He finds himself embroiled in fighting for his own room, directing a house play where both lead actors refuse to learn their lines, and assisting in Vern Blackadder’s dramatic return from the dead with nothing more than a drip cord and a pair of oven gloves.

Amidst mounting pressure in the classroom and on the cricket field, Spud prepares to face down the most feared and dreaded challenge of them all – finding a date for the Matric dance.

In this hilarious final instalment of the Spud series John van de Ruit brings to a close his savagely funny blow by blow account of the agonies of growing up. The embarrassments, the thrills, the defeats, and the sheer absurdity of daily life are wittily recorded in Spud’s unique voice as he prepares to make his own exit, pursued by a bear.

Review:

John van de Ruit's Spud books are a publishing phenomenon in South Africa. My theory is that a large part of their appeal is the fact that van de Ruit has managed to make the reader feel that they are part of the story. We've followed John “Spud” Milton through his last three years of boarding school – cheered at his successes, cringed at his family's madcap antics and followed his less-than-simple love life. And now with Spud – Exit, Pursued by a Bear we join Spud for one more year of adventure, discovery and would-be romance.

A book written entirely in diary form runs the risk of losing its sense of narrative, so it's a testament to John van de Ruit's writing skill that Spud – Exit, Pursued by a Bear reads comfortably as a continual story. It's been great to see how Spud's voice has matured through the series and it remains true to character and age. It's this consistency in storytelling and voice that allows the reader to dive straight into the book from page one.

In Spud- Exit, Pursued by a Bear John van de Ruit is back to the form that had me falling in love with Spud and the rest of the Crazy Eight in the first book. There's a great balance of laugh-out-loud humour with the more serious theme of personal identity and the challenges of impending adulthood and independence. And there are some priceless comedic moments which had me laughing out loud and in serious danger of choking on my coffee at one point. But the comedy never feels forced and that is the gift of a writer with real talent for the genre.

Spud – Exit, Pursued by a Bear is the perfect ending to a series that has captured people's hearts and imaginations.

Rating: 10