This was my experience (and I love the book). A few years ago I started reading it aloud to my wife, and it just didn't translate well to spoken word, too much textual trickery (for example, Death speaks in capital letters).
What are you reading at the moment? Recommendations welcome
- Thread starter Julie
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Pamela Jo
Full Member
- Oct 26, 2021
Have you watched the series with Tennant and Sheen. The audiobook may be trying not recreate that and filing. I read the book and admit I don't like Gaiman as much as Pratchett. It's very different than Pratchett's world. But the series was brilliant. Give that a go.I haven't, but I expect I will as that seems to be one of NG's most highly thought of. I am currently listening to Norse Mythology which is quite entertaining although obviously just retellings of the old texts and stories. I have also bought the new version of Sandman Book 1 (a snip at £3.00) and that's lined up too.
Re Good Omens. I have been thinking that perhaps because I listened to rather than read it, then it might not have transferred to the format so well. It's the brand new version too with Sheen and Tennant et al. But I would take some convincing if that's actually the problem, because as a veteran now of 100+ audiobooks, it would be the first time it's happened. I honestly found the multi-pronged plot far too rambling, really irritating and too manic.
- Mar 1, 2020
I did wonder as the positive reviews were almost unanimous in their praise..
Yeah, PJ. This coupled with @Rich. 's comment above I am beginning to suspect this could be the case. Tennant is superb in his part as is Sheen too, but perhaps the production has come out more like a radio adaptation / dramatisation with a full cast of players, despite them using (I'm assuming) the book's original text throughout.
E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
Was trying hard to distil it: Dibben is definitely working towards adult literary, but there's still that 'feel'. Quite marked in Tomorrow.
You've put your finger on it with 'more in the moment'. I was thinking, scenes are less complex and action moves on quicker... If I say 'a comfortable read' and 'page-turning' that sounds insulting, but isn't intended that way.
- Mar 1, 2020
Just finished The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri. Something that would definitely not be my kind of go-to book normally, but it came up as a freebie on Audible and I remembered quite a lot of talk about it when it came out.
It is brilliant!. Masterful storytelling, harrowing, heart breaking, shocking and ultimately a study of the human condition when faced with total adversity. Gripping and beautifully crafted.
It's my book of the year and literally was a case of my headphones being untakeoffable. So much so that I had two hours left but couldn't wait for my walk today so finished it last night.
I honestly can't recommend it highly enough.
It is brilliant!. Masterful storytelling, harrowing, heart breaking, shocking and ultimately a study of the human condition when faced with total adversity. Gripping and beautifully crafted.
It's my book of the year and literally was a case of my headphones being untakeoffable. So much so that I had two hours left but couldn't wait for my walk today so finished it last night.
I honestly can't recommend it highly enough.
Pamela Jo
Full Member
- Oct 26, 2021
- Mar 1, 2020
Just finished listeneing to Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology.
It was OK, but once again the sheer volume of gushing reviews elsewhere puzzles me. It's just a retelling of old texts with a slightly storybook voice that might be used for explaining the tales to kids.
Yet there it sits on Amazon's site at an average rating of 4.6 stars with almost 15.5K reviews registered. Now that's quite an ardent fanbase and no mistake.
Hmm... I'm beginning to think if Mr G wrote and recorded a phone directory or a list of the car registrations in Tesco's car park there would still be 5-star reviews aplenty.
I shall give him a break for a week or so, before Loading up Sandman Book 1. Fingers crossed I'm not disappointed.
It was OK, but once again the sheer volume of gushing reviews elsewhere puzzles me. It's just a retelling of old texts with a slightly storybook voice that might be used for explaining the tales to kids.
Yet there it sits on Amazon's site at an average rating of 4.6 stars with almost 15.5K reviews registered. Now that's quite an ardent fanbase and no mistake.
Hmm... I'm beginning to think if Mr G wrote and recorded a phone directory or a list of the car registrations in Tesco's car park there would still be 5-star reviews aplenty.
I shall give him a break for a week or so, before Loading up Sandman Book 1. Fingers crossed I'm not disappointed.
Bloo
Full Member
- Sep 16, 2021
Sandman is much better when read as a graphic novel. Do yourself a large and nab the physical copies.
I don't understand how some novels get such good reviews, either. I had major issues with Three-Body Problem. It had a great concept. However, unbelievable characters and a jingoistic plot device used only to foil an inconvenient interstellar reality ruined it for me.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf was another one. Great characters weren't enough to keep me interested in a long plot that led nowhere. My review is somewhere in this thread.
Both novels received near universal praise, but I just didn't see it.
Hannah F
Full Member
- Jan 18, 2020
I have the paperback Norse Mythology. I dip in an out of it. It just doesn't hold me enough to read it right through. His storytelling style is not really to my taste.
Serra K
Full Member
- Apr 2, 2022
Found this self-published book thrown out on the street called The Imnothero Principle, by Ian Purdie. Started reading, and oh boy, it's a gem.
Sandman is absolutely visual and wouldn't work as an audio narrative.
Ha! I wrote a poem based on car registrations on the M6. Maybe I should post it in WHERE THE NON PROSE GOES?
- Mar 1, 2020
Yeah it’s really manic but it sort of works for me.
I’ve never seen the comic or graphic novel but read a lot of DC comics as a nipper so can visualise it - but this is essentially a radio play and has very little bookish feel.
Won’t get Vol 2 but as Vol 1 was only £3 so it’s not bad bang for buck.
It's a very slight story with powerful art and concepts, so I don't see how it would work as anything other than a graphic novel or very SFX filled TV series or film.
E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O'Farrell
I found this disappointing. I hadn't read any of her previous work – Hamnet, for example – but the prizes, glowing reviews, etc had led to high expectations.
This is a tricky story for anyone to deal with, based on the marriage of Lucrezia di Medici of Florence to Alfonso (II) d'Este of Ferrara. The facts are quite well-known: she was barely 15 (he was more than 10 years older) and in less than 18 months she was dead. He had previously been the betrothed of her older sister, Maria, who died.
There are three main ways to approach the story: 1. the historical facts, as far as can be ascertained (relatively dull); 2. the plot of Browning's 'My Last Duchess' (highly coloured, sensational, fictional); 3. something else quite different. Plus, of course, 4. any combination of all these. O'Farrell goes for 4.
Briefly, I was puzzled and underwhelmed by O'F's obviously aspiring to the literary – I found her language simply odd, contrived, in places – at the same time as aiming at a page-turning yarn. Her plot is paper thin and turns on a number of increasingly incredible coincidences. There is one character, key to the plot, who is (to me, anyway) simply unbelievable, but pops up just when required.
For me, she missed the opportunity to use the historical window-dressing simply as a frame for the basic situation: a very young wife who suspects her husband plans to kill her. Instead O'F frequently obscures this under shovel-fulls of (not especially searching) research.
But maybe you'd like it...
I found this disappointing. I hadn't read any of her previous work – Hamnet, for example – but the prizes, glowing reviews, etc had led to high expectations.
This is a tricky story for anyone to deal with, based on the marriage of Lucrezia di Medici of Florence to Alfonso (II) d'Este of Ferrara. The facts are quite well-known: she was barely 15 (he was more than 10 years older) and in less than 18 months she was dead. He had previously been the betrothed of her older sister, Maria, who died.
There are three main ways to approach the story: 1. the historical facts, as far as can be ascertained (relatively dull); 2. the plot of Browning's 'My Last Duchess' (highly coloured, sensational, fictional); 3. something else quite different. Plus, of course, 4. any combination of all these. O'Farrell goes for 4.
Briefly, I was puzzled and underwhelmed by O'F's obviously aspiring to the literary – I found her language simply odd, contrived, in places – at the same time as aiming at a page-turning yarn. Her plot is paper thin and turns on a number of increasingly incredible coincidences. There is one character, key to the plot, who is (to me, anyway) simply unbelievable, but pops up just when required.
For me, she missed the opportunity to use the historical window-dressing simply as a frame for the basic situation: a very young wife who suspects her husband plans to kill her. Instead O'F frequently obscures this under shovel-fulls of (not especially searching) research.
But maybe you'd like it...
E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
- Blurb Your Enthusiasm: An A-Z of Literary Persuasion by Louise Willder
I bought the book in hopes that some sparkle might rub off on my 'hooks' and 'pitches', and I'm still reading, so it's not too late.
When I saw it included a long history of blurbs, I thought: 'Mmm, this is going to be a plod rather than a scamper.' But no, it's an enjoyable read, laugh-out-loud in places.
It includes a lot of fairly arcane information: for example, in US English, blurbs are the "such an amazing book!" pull-quotes on the cover from other writers. And Willder admits it is possible some of these writers may not have read the book to which their quote is attached – something I think we have all suspected.
Hannah F
Full Member
- Jan 18, 2020
I'll read it because I've loved everything else she wrote, but what you say is interesting. There were a couple of chapters of Hamnet that fell down that put-this-in-to-show-I've done-some-research scenario.
(If you want a really good O'Farrell book, read This Must be the Place. That's my favourite of hers. Absolutely love it.)
E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
Thank you. I'll look at that one.
The 'lumps of research' pitfall is a hard one to avoid, it seems.
The worst example I know is Tracy Chevalier's 'The Last Runaway'. I was horrified/bored stiff by how much minute detail she included about how to sew a patchwork quilt (like: how to thread the needle, knot the thread...), and the mechanics of the underground railway system for escaped slaves. At the expense of building danger, suspense, etc...
But for 'The Marriage Portrait', I think O'F falls between two stools: (A) re-thinking the whole business and reinventing it, and (B) making lots of it historically accurate.
Maybe she had to research the actual truth (mmm, not sure about that) before deciding to go for the re-think! That's as much charity as I can manage.
MattScho
Full Member
- Dec 3, 2020
But part of the reason it might be hard to avoid (the research dump) is that some of us absolutely love a good research dump. The narrative arc of, say, Friday Night Lights, is okay, but really, a high school American football season, I've got better things to do. but jeebus, the research dumps side trips ( there are a lot of them) move the book from fine into one of the best I've read in this year territory (back when I read it, been a while now). Same with A Perfect Storm. Now, non-fiction, sure, but also I love the research dumps Stephensen gives us in pretty much everything he does.
All to say, I get the critique, but it's a matter of taste
LA Thomas
Basic
- Jul 11, 2022
I’m reading Where the Crawdads Sing. It’s not my usual genre and is very flowery for my taste, but everyone was raving about it so I thought I’d give it a go and am enjoying it so far.
Hannah F
Full Member
- Jan 18, 2020
Loved that book even though I hope never to meet the author.
- Jan 14, 2022
All the King's Men. Fascinating narrative voice. Highly recommend.
LA Thomas
Basic
- Jul 11, 2022
Ohhh, why?
Hannah F
Full Member
- Jan 18, 2020
Wait until you've finished the book then read up about Delia Owens in Africa . . . truth hidden in fiction?
Finish the book first though so no spoilers.
LA Thomas
Basic
- Jul 11, 2022
I finished it this morning so will have a nose later…!
E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
But that was a book that wouldn't have worked for anyone outside of deep-sea fisherpersons and meteorologists without all that info, both as background and foreground. We wouldn't have seen why it was dangerous without knowing what could happen, and how.
E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
For translators, editors, especially – but a good read for anyone, really:
Daniel Hahn, Catching Fire, A Translation Diary
Despite the rather (?very, ?extremely) pretentious blurb on the back, this is a light-hearted and amusing book. As the author suggests, it's easy to dip into [I've just been reading it in the hairdresser's] because it's a collection of blog posts, his diary of translating a literary novel from Chilean Spanish into English. It does (pace the blurb) go into the philosophy of translation, but it was the 'process' of his working that I found most interesting.
I have never translated anything 'literary' – mostly I got heavy technical, and, for some reason I never understood, medical – but I can see that adds an extra layer of uncertainty. Fascinating. At least for what I was doing (French or Italian to English), it was safe to assume that where the text wasn't crystal clear, that wasn't intentional! And where a word was repeated several times, or a line broken off, that was an oversight.
[BTW, an aside Hahn made struck a chord with me. He writes: 'Incidentally, I warmed to Hunter S. Thompson considerably when I learned that he typed out The Great Gatsby, end to end, before he'd ever written a book of his own, just to see what it felt like.']
Daniel Hahn, Catching Fire, A Translation Diary
Despite the rather (?very, ?extremely) pretentious blurb on the back, this is a light-hearted and amusing book. As the author suggests, it's easy to dip into [I've just been reading it in the hairdresser's] because it's a collection of blog posts, his diary of translating a literary novel from Chilean Spanish into English. It does (pace the blurb) go into the philosophy of translation, but it was the 'process' of his working that I found most interesting.
I have never translated anything 'literary' – mostly I got heavy technical, and, for some reason I never understood, medical – but I can see that adds an extra layer of uncertainty. Fascinating. At least for what I was doing (French or Italian to English), it was safe to assume that where the text wasn't crystal clear, that wasn't intentional! And where a word was repeated several times, or a line broken off, that was an oversight.
[BTW, an aside Hahn made struck a chord with me. He writes: 'Incidentally, I warmed to Hunter S. Thompson considerably when I learned that he typed out The Great Gatsby, end to end, before he'd ever written a book of his own, just to see what it felt like.']
MattScho
Full Member
- Dec 3, 2020
Every book is this, to some extent, isn't it? If the story and backstory are known before something is started, what's the point or reading. We world build in fantasy and sci-fi. We legal proceedure it up a bit in cop and crime novels. etc. The fun of reading is often the glimpse of a new piece of the world, or a new world.
E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
Yes, but.
If you get the chance to check out 'The Last Runaway' – I wouldn't pay for it, IMHO – do. I think you'll see the info dump is just OTT. Unless you're into the really minute detail of sewing patchwork quilts.
- Mar 1, 2020
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. Amazing story and spellbinding writing if you grew up in Belfast in the early 70s during The Troubles.
www.theguardian.com
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy review – love amid the Troubles
An affair between a young Catholic woman and a married Protestant barrister drives this brilliant debut set in 1975 Belfast
www.theguardian.com