Chick-lit and Lad-lit

October 2, 2010

Talking about intellectual snobbery, I just started reading a book called The Friday Night Knitting Club. Last year, every book blog was raving about it, every reviewer I knew had it on their must-read list. I finally got my copy of the book this week and I was disappointed. Coming soon after The Help (Kathryn [...]

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The bigger picture

October 2, 2010

I bumped into an old friend yesterday and told her about the graphic novel giveaway. Oh that’s interesting she said, but do people read graphic novels? Aren’t they, like, sorta like, comic books for kids? I wondered if she was kidding. Yes, sure, books for kids are better with pictures, but when did we decide [...]

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… Now a major motion picture

October 1, 2010

It seems as if it is the superhero genre that dominates the graphic novel made movie category. And I didn’t really think about it much before. I have for long believed that books cannot, should not be made into movies. But I am willing to make some exceptions. I really did enjoy Iron Man, V [...]

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A letter from a concerned parent

October 1, 2010

Deepika Mital, a well-read lady, and mother of two, sent in this letter yesterday. I believe each reader can offer Deepika some recommendations and/or words of sympathy Any magazine / newspaper worth its views will constantly lament that the reading habit is a dying tradition, or at least in its bi-annual features. But why don’t [...]

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In the news today

September 30, 2010

So, I read with interest the results of a recent study. One in four adult readers of graphic novels (in USA) is over 65 years old. And Anthony Bourdain, the celebrity chef, is working on a graphic novel which will be a ‘gourmet slaughterfest’. Hm. Do my eyes decieve me or is the genre expanding? [...]

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The space between

September 30, 2010

Two days ago, the painters arrived to transform my home from a dusty, lived-in apartment, to a sparkling shiny new home. Or at least that’s what I thought. They trooped in looked at the books that fill up every nook and cranny in my house and shook their head in disappointment. ‘Madam, yeh sab hatana [...]

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Adventure ahoy!

September 29, 2010

Camping out on a strange island with no adult supervision around… lunching on sardines and baked potatoes with some butter and tinned orange juice, making friends with a kid from the circus who has a pet monkey, visiting a strange land on top of a tree every week… As a kid these ideas from the [...]

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The reader is in the details

September 29, 2010

I just realised that reading a graphic novel is actually very hard work. We live in a very visual society. Long gone are those 18th-19th century books, which had pages and pages of descriptions about entire houses, dresses, emotions, mountains, rivers etc. Most books these days, do not dwadle around the scenery. It is the reader [...]

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Monsters in a strange land

September 28, 2010

Whether they appear at the start or towards the end, monsters instantly drive the plot forward. Some authors use them as an effective plot device — to get rid of the bad guy, or as many of the bad guy’s flunkies as possible, or they use the monster to show how brave, strong, kind, beautiful, [...]

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More than just an author

September 28, 2010

Sometimes authors do more than just write books. Isaac Asimov was a professor of biochemistry, Graham Greene was a spy, Daniel Defoe ran a brick factory… And Yann Martel sends one exceptionally good book every second Monday to the Prime Minister Stephen Harper ‘to make suggestions to his stillness’ . I found this endeavour so [...]

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