i thought The Appearance of Print in Eighteenth-Century Fiction
(cambridge university press) sounded as if it would be quite interesting to all of us who are interested in writing, publishing, and reading. i lifted the following paragraph, more or less in total, from a mailing from case western reserve u.: in The Appearance of Print Fiction , the author christopher Flint examines how the era’s printing resources shaped the organization of the written word—from typography to page format to book construction. He notes that “the novel” began exclusively as a printed object. Unlike drama, epic poetry or even the Renaissance romance, it was written explicitly to be published. It oriented readers toward the visual particularities of uniform alphabetic letterpress.'
sounds to me as if it is worth looking into. any comments?
speaking of comments, i want to thank g. p. in california for her suggestion about finding the remnants of booktour on godaddy. good idea. and i talked with nice godaddy employees, but nothing came of it. i guess my booktour info. is lost. lost. lost.
another nice comment on this blog was rec'd from Deron Paul. unfortunately, he has the two audrey lavins who are writers confused. the california audrey lavin, or the OTHER audrey lavin as she is known around here, is the one who wrote the children's book about divorce. my last book is an anthology of prose and poetry Turning Leaves: an anthology of prose and poetry
and my newest book is a murder mystery eloquent tattoo. thanks anyway, deron.
dr. f. w. writes from florida to tell me that he finds my blog interesting. i guess that can mean anything!!
more comments about the subject of series from c.l. in the san francisco area. he writes: 'i like your (and l.l's ) point about Evanovich, that a loyal fan base props up her duds. I have a guilty pleasure book series I love. It is fantasy Xanth series by Piers Anthony. Each book is about 200 pages, lots of corny jokes and is at a middle school reading level. The first two books are excellent. The next 7 are pretty good. The trilogy after that was interesting. The next 23 books in the series are mediocre, some better than others, but it is very formulaic (the author has even explained his formula in depth in a book).
We keep reading because each book still brings us back to the world, characters and story that first excited us. We read the duds in hope to find remnants of a glorious past. As the author keeps disappointing us, we lose faith in the series. But as long as enough die-hards remain, new books will keep coming out.' absolutely right on the nail.
a final note is my suggestion to take a look at the light poetry in the new book 'swing' by akron poets and sisters ruth hale and maryann fear.
now to the mystery of the day, lee child's The Affair: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher)
. this is sub-titled 'a reacher novel.' i am embarrassed to say that the sub-title meant nothing to me. i must be the only person in the u.s. who doesn't know who jack reacher is since the affair is child's sixteenth (yes, 16th) novel about him.
i think there must be a special audience for the sub-genre of tough army guy who solves crimes. and this guy is tough. at one point (i can't help smiling as i write this. where do these people come from? child looks attractively normal in his cover shot.) anyway, at one point reacher is faced with and easily defeats six big, burly tough macho guys, who come to hunt him down. the reader gets a good description of each blow reacher lands. this kind of detail by the author works much better in his sex scenes or scene. pretty good.
the story take place in carter crossing, mississippi, in 1997. elite military cop jack reacher's orders are: go undercover, keep your distance, monitor the investigation. of course, there is a beautiful sheriff to help.
the cover-up of murders by famous people for famous people (famous in the context of the story, perhaps powerful would be a better descriptive) is no more a problem for reacher than those six steroidal guys are. he solves the problems and, in doing so, gives good reason why he is not still in the army.
i don't know how much suspense this novel holds for the average reader. i would guess not much, but the pace picks up as the reader continues along. if you like tough guys, you're going to love jack reacher. you probably already do.
delacorte press is the publisher of this 405 page novel.
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