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RE: Great Reads - Rey - 09-03-2011 08:59 AM
This question is mainly directed towards BrianW (or anyone else who might know). I recently bought a book at a thrift store, and when I got it home noticed by the title it says "Advance Reader's Edition". Then I looked on the back cover, and at the bottom there is says "Special advance reader's edition, Not for sale, Uncorrected proof".
So I imagine this is some sort of advance copy maybe sent to book reviewers before the book is released or something. Only peculiar thing is, the book has no quotes at all around any of its dialogue. It just has a hyphen before anybody says anything. Also, none of the dialogue is referenced by a "he said" or "she said". There is just a hyphen followed by the spoken words without quotes. You kind of have to guess who is saying what.
I am enjoying the book so far, it is really not bad, but I find this dialogue setup to be very awkward and confusing. So I am wondering, is this because it is an advanced copy? Would an author write without quotes and speech references only to fill it all in later? Is this the "uncorrected proof" referred to on the back?
Or, would an author write dialogue in this way as his own personal "style", and this is the way it is meant to be?
(If it matters, the book is called "Sun Going Down" by Jack Todd.)
RE: Great Reads - SpaceCadet - 09-03-2011 07:40 PM
(08-31-2011 12:41 AM)Scythe Matters Wrote: Moving on now to Brave New World. I tried to find the Huxley book that Bubba wrote about but it wasn't available for my Kindle. So I got Brave New World for the time being and will find a copy of the other.
When I read Bubba's latest post on books, it made me feel like I should just abandon everything and try to find an elementary school that will take a middle-aged moron. I've always had a love of books similar to his, but I have not yet scratched a divot into the bottom of a surface-scratch of what he's plowed through, to say nothing of the entire corpus of literature out there.
What I really wish is that he'd publish a kind of recommended reading list - as distinct from his actual reviews - that we unread barbarians out here could use as a road-map (pun if you want one,) for literary study, but I have no idea how you'd relay the request. Perhaps an Admin here would be kind enough to oblige?
And yes, I suppose you could call that the request of a lazy bum, 'cause a perusal of the 'Net would likely yield dozens of such lists from people known and respected. But still.
.
RE: Great Reads - Jetrow - 09-04-2011 08:10 AM
It's been a great summer for reading for me. Rekindled my love for being swept away and as NEP says in his latest book review posted, Ta Brutus for the heads up, the empathy you get from sharing so closely with the author.
While I wait for the next "Pearl From Peart" I read On The Road and Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. Both a great adventure into the unknown
and maybe an insight into my own love for a good traveling book. Like Neil's own books these two are about traveling around the US and a little into Mexico that I must say have really captured my imagination and rekindled my own wanderlust.
More than ever I find I am interested in the lives the characters led and become quite empathetic to their situations, trials and tribulations vicariously. I also find how they reflect some of my own in a better turn of phrase than I could muster.
I mentioned before about a neighbor who is suffering his own trial at the moment and that giving him Ghost Rider helped to relieve some of her burden and spark that little light inside once again. Well as part of an update there, we've created a monster! At this point he's now read all of Bubba's books, and though an old timer relatively speaking, has started his own journey with Rush. He's heard of them vaguely but never listened to any of the music knowingly. I've explained a bit about the band and recommended that he start at the beginning with Rush, and listen to each album in order so he can see the changes and evolution of and within the band.
I admit I am getting quite a thrill out of his excitement and his exuberant devouring all the books and back catalog of Rush with such innocent abandon and wonder. A bit like finding an old guitar in a cave some place and thinking what a game changer it is.
Anywho, bought a couple of books of poetry (Kerouac and Bukowski) and try to hold on to a regime of reading one poem a day and reflecting on that for the rest of the day.
I also have started the Illiad and have the Oddesy by Homer to follow. A bit more difficult I find in the descriptions in the books slow the pace a little too much. Still oldest of literature and all.
RE: Great Reads - BrianW - 09-06-2011 11:02 AM
Hi Rey,
To answer your question: your 'new' book is either an advanced readers copy or a galley. They are both pre-publication review copies (not to be sold). An author, say Bubba, submits a manuscript. After editorial it is produced as a galley to be reviewed, etc. Corrections can be made, and then an ARC (usually these have a mock-up of the cover art on it) is minted. These I consider, the book before the book. In any of these you can find typos and spelling errors, punctuation, etc. I even found a basic math booboo in a Clive Cussler thriller once that didn't get corrected. But don't let the truth stand in the way of a good story! Hope that helps.
On an older post of mine for the book Remembering The Music, Forgetting The Words: Travels With Mom in the Land of Dementia by Kate Whouley went on sale today. It was very good!
RE: Great Reads - ladijules - 09-06-2011 08:10 PM
I wandered on to this thread looking for some good books to read... and it sounds like I found the right place! My reading tends to be all over the board when it comes to genre's. I usually just grab whatever comes to hand, either off my bookshelf out of the library. Right now, I'm reading a book trilogy very similar to "The Lord of the Rings", Its called "The Iron Tower" by Dennis McKeirnan. I can't say it does much to expand the mind, but its really nice for just pleasure reading! Its like reading the Hobbit, but on steroids! I guess every now and then the mind just needs some imaginary down time!
RE: Great Reads - BrianW - 09-07-2011 09:33 AM
(09-06-2011 08:10 PM)ladijules Wrote: I wandered on to this thread looking for some good books to read... and it sounds like I found the right place! My reading tends to be all over the board when it comes to genre's. I usually just grab whatever comes to hand, either off my bookshelf out of the library. Right now, I'm reading a book trilogy very similar to "The Lord of the Rings", Its called "The Iron Tower" by Dennis McKeirnan. I can't say it does much to expand the mind, but its really nice for just pleasure reading! Its like reading the Hobbit, but on steroids! I guess every now and then the mind just needs some imaginary down time!I've heard it called brain candy!
RE: Great Reads - BrianW - 09-08-2011 03:55 PM
Just picked up a copy of Duane Swierczynski's second book in the Charlie Hardie series, Hell & Gone. Holy crap is he good!
RE: Great Reads - Scythe Matters - 09-09-2011 01:57 AM
(09-03-2011 07:40 PM)SpaceCadet Wrote:(08-31-2011 12:41 AM)Scythe Matters Wrote: Moving on now to Brave New World. I tried to find the Huxley book that Bubba wrote about but it wasn't available for my Kindle. So I got Brave New World for the time being and will find a copy of the other.
When I read Bubba's latest post on books, it made me feel like I should just abandon everything and try to find an elementary school that will take a middle-aged moron. I've always had a love of books similar to his, but I have not yet scratched a divot into the bottom of a surface-scratch of what he's plowed through, to say nothing of the entire corpus of literature out there.
What I really wish is that he'd publish a kind of recommended reading list - as distinct from his actual reviews - that we unread barbarians out here could use as a road-map (pun if you want one,) for literary study, but I have no idea how you'd relay the request. Perhaps an Admin here would be kind enough to oblige?
And yes, I suppose you could call that the request of a lazy bum, 'cause a perusal of the 'Net would likely yield dozens of such lists from people known and respected. But still.
.
That would be great!
I've read a lot in my 50+ years but Bubba leaves me in the dust, too. He's quite the prolific reader and doesn't seem to be afraid to read outside of his comfort zone. I try to do that when I can and have found some really interesting stuff that way. I'm a big non-fiction reader so to grab a completely unknown work of fiction is a big deal for me.
RE: Great Reads - old honda rider - 09-09-2011 07:55 AM
During my recent hours and hours and hours spent in my car, I picked up an audiobook copy of A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester about the 1906 earthquake that leveled San Francisco.
Winchester is reknowned for his telling of Big Human Events: Krakatoa, about the volcanic eruption and The Meaning of Everything, about the compilation of the first Oxford English Dictionary. (Sounds dull as rust, doesn't it? It's not. Full of mystery, intrique, love gained and lost, fascinating characters... all in a book about the OED! I kid thee not. Check it out!)
Now, this isn't some light fireside reading (or listening). Winchester, a geologist by training, goes to great lengths to tell the reader/listener about the state of seismology in the early 1900s, supposedly-unrelated seismic events such as the New Madrid series of earthquakes and much, much more.
OK, well, I know Winchester can be a bit long-winded and more than once I pressed the FFWD on my CD player. That said, his magic with words gives the listener/reader good context into which the 1906 quake took place.
If you plan on driving a lot over the next weeks, then get the audio-book version.
Recommended if you have even the slightest interest in geology (which I do) and Big Human Events.
RE: Great Reads - ladijules - 09-10-2011 03:04 PM
I've moved on from one Brain candy to another: Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Cross time Saloon". Its an oldie but goodie if you want some light but enlightening reading.