reading

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The Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013

Today I decided to take up the Challenge – will you join me?

http://australianwomenwriters.com/2013-challenge/

Australian Women Writers Challenge

After I registered I stared to look at the reading/review lists and found a few book I  have already read – which was interesting and yet somewhat surprising  – I hadn’t realised I had read Australian Women’s voices. Is that a good thing or not? The fact that Australian Women Writers voices were just as good as any other and by and large did not leap out at me as Australian is good, isnt it? I suppose because I read  mostly crime fiction and contemporary fiction maybe place is not such an obvious marker of  writers voice?  And should  we only write/read about the region we live in? I think not – today we are all citizens of a global world.

I do however think that the words we write are shaped by our experience  and where/how we live does have some influence here, but does not necessarily prescribe our words or our stories. We can write about anything, and write well. For example – look at these 2 amazing yet vastly different  books, Questions of Travel  by Michelle de Krester and Bone Ash Sky by Katerina Cosgrove – what brilliant diverse voices!  Or look at the new voices soon to be heard,   Miss Blossom Makes A Mean Red Velvet Cake,  plenty of talent here.

So who will join me in this Challenge? Readers from any region welcome to join.  I dare you!

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To Read or Not to Read That is the Question?

William Faulkner says: “Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” 

And I am….reading as much as I can as often as I can and without prejudice – I will just about read anything….unless the script is full of typos and poor grammar. Then I find myself correcting and not reading. As Angela Carter wisely says: “Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.”

And I wholeheartedly agree; your own experiences of the world influence how you read/what you read and consequently how you feel about a book. My views on any particular book are a personal response that reflects my life experience, my reading experience, my personal taste  and as such I say read  my reviews and the descriptions/synopsis – and then decide for yourself if you think the book is worthy of YOUR interest. These days I read for entertainment, for pleasure; I am not interested in providing high brow critical analysis in my reviews, I merely want to share with you my individual response to the script; enthusiastic or…. not so much; loved it, couldn’t put it down…or not. I hope you enjoy my reviews and are maybe inspired to seek out some of my reads. I, in return  for your interest, will always provide you with my honest response to the book I am currently reading.

So without any further ado I introduce you to my new regular weekly spot – Post Script.

First review will follow soon.