Selecting the Next Read
Blog: 06 Jan 2018: How I Select the next book and review
OK. Welcome to my first official blog. I did try writing a couple of blog entries at the end of 2017 but they turned into articles in their own right. New year new regimen, and I am determined to keep these as blog entries.
Book Buying
I try to avoid the book stand at the supermarket because I can’t resist buying, even though I know I have at least twenty at home lined up waiting to be read. But I’m such a sucker I found myself perusing the latest offerings, again. Going through each back page synopsis and mentally saying to myself, “I don’t need another book,” and placing it back on the shelf. Then involuntary picking up the next one.
This repeated for five or ten minutes, could have been longer you just lose track of time, until I picked up The Mistletoe Seller by Dilly Court. It’s not a genre that I would normally read, or even buy. I was half way through the ritual of saying “I don’t need another book,” when I noticed the model on the front cover looking very much like an actress used in a recent TV commercial for chocolate that I particularly liked and had a closer look. Half her face was covered by a sticker, but it was definitely her.
Recently I was telling a friend how I go about buying a book and said that I go to a supermarket book stand, peruse a bit, read a few synopsis's and perhaps a random paragraph and throw the first one that takes my fancy into the cart, and then continue with the food shopping. He was amazed that I was so cavalier. What he does is research several books at once, gather all the information he can, before deciding on one. He then sits on that decision for a week, and if he still feels comfortable with his choice, he will buy it.
I am such a contrarian that I decided to tell this friend that the reason I bought this particular book was only because of the model on the front cover. It was the same actress as in a TV commercial that I liked. I will reason that the TV commercial was so good that it was a given the actress would only associate with quality productions. So, therefore this novel must be the best and I should buy it. I know the logic is a little suspect, but I can certainly propose this argument just to wind the guy up. (he he he-see translation below)
So, I bought The Mistletoe Seller and to my surprise it jumped the book line and was the very next book I read. It’s about the growing up of an abandoned baby girl, left in Whitechapel, London, one Christmas Eve in the 1800’s. The genre is HEA (Happily Ever After), which I didn’t know at the time, so at various points in the plot I was concerned for her well being, needlessly. My heart strings were tugged. There are some incredible coincidences, but hey, that’s fiction, they could have happened. It was a page turner of the first degree. I wanted to know what happens next and how the characters got on.
There are a couple of perfect character names. Angel Winter, the orphan found on Angel Lane in the middle of Winter, and Lumpy Lil, but I can’t remember exactly how she got her name. True to form this is a feel good novel with the requisite Happily Ever After that makes one feel good. An enjoyable read.
[edit] And my friend? The one I was going to wind up? Did I wind him up? Alas no. He read this review before any attempt and has vowed to never believe a word I say in future, but I just see that as a challenge...
The end of my first blog, see you next time.
ooops. I used the British idiom “wind the guy up” (“wind” pronounced as in clockwork train wind up) which a lot of readers from other parts of the world won’t understand. It’s usual use is to profess the truth of something that is blatantly not true. The bigger the lie the more fun is extracted when victims are convinced. One avenue of logic is that what you are saying is so fantastic that it must be true ie “truth is stranger than fiction” and “you couldn’t make this stuff up.” This is done in jest as a joke rather than in a cruel way.
One of my favourite wind-ups was on my then girl-friend. We saw a sandwich bar called “Exchange Sandwiches.” I convinced her that it was special. If you didn’t like a sandwich you bought you could take it back and exchange it for another one. I embellished by saying it was a way to get people to try sandwich fillings they wouldn’t normally, but you had to take back at least half, so they can give the untouched bit to someone else. In truth it was named Exchange Sandwiches because of the area of London it was in, close to the London Stock Exchange. (sorry Tina)
