The Difference in Guidebooks

Whilst I was dreaming of my next holiday I will probably never afford, I started looking through the guidebooks in our house. I don’t think I ever really appreciated the huge differences between the companies, I was naive enough to assume that one book was pretty much the same as another. I couldn’t have been more wrong, some go through describing a place initially by words without a single photographic prompt, where as others feel more like a printed slide show. On reflection I can see why each company has decided to do things differently, as otherwise each book would become (as I originally thought) a clone of the other.

The other thing that I noticed was that whilst each book had spent some time working on the cover, none of them appeared to consider the content layout of the book to be of particular importance. I find this really odd, you expect to feel seduced into visiting all the exotic places on each page. Instead I found myself thinking, “why did they try and put so much on one page I’m getting a headache”. Obviously I am making a very general and biased overview here, but from the 7 different companies books that I looked at, not one of them really looked as if it had been designed. So just a thought, if anyone does know of any good guidebook companies that make their books enjoyable not a chore to read, please do let me know.

Edit: I have since found a book by Alistair Sawdays that does exactly what I was struggling to find before. Also I really liked the bit in the front of the book where it basically said, if you don’t agree with what is written here, let us know, we don’t claim to be objective, this is a book on our opinion and experiences and it wouldn’t be a very good guide book if it wasnt. (I am paraphrasing as I can’t find the book at the moment)

Susan Howatch, The Rich are Different

I read this novel first about a year ago, but have just got hold of the sequel so decided to reread it and refresh my memory. ‘The Rich are Different’ tells the story of Paul Van Zale, (an incredibly rich investment banker) and other key characters whose lives coincide with his New York world. The novel is split into five sections with each of these being told through a different character in the book. This is quite a common and clever feature of Susan Howatch’s writing, as just when you are becoming involved with a character and their story, you switch and see it from another perspective. The result of this is that although you begin the story seeing the world as Paul does, you finish with a far more rounded view of the society he was in and also a hint to the repercussions of his actions. The book is set around the time of the 1929 wall street crash and through it you get a hint of just how the economy may have failed at this time.

I enjoyed reading this book the first time, and even more the second, but right at the beginning I was reminded of something I said when I lent it to my sister; Stick with it, the beginning may seam dull but it is important and when you get past the first 30 pages you will be gripped. In a strange way this book seamed to take longer to read than most, it wasn’t that I was less interested in the plot or that I was bored etc. It was more that each sentence is packed with so many words and so much information, it takes longer to digest. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading, it may not be ideal for those that prefer magazines to books as you do have to persist with it in places, but when you finally get into it, its well worth the wait.

Summer marketing Phenomenon

Having just gone through the summer when the final instalment of the Harry Potter series was released “The Deathly Hallows” I felt I had to at least comment on it. I am not going to try and review the books individually or as a series as I am sure that every person out there who is interested in reading the books has already done so. Everyone who has already experienced the world of Harry Potter will no doubt have formed their own opinion, and those that have been less interested will probably not want to read a series review anyway.

I have decided therefore that I would look at the ‘media machine’ and ‘hype’ that surrounded this famed book’s release. On the 21st of July 2007, approximately 10 million people across the world first opened Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Not only was this a phenomenon for the people who worked to keep the plotline a secret, but also for those that have been waiting for ten years to finish reading the series.

At the time I followed the news articles about this book, I was not only one of those waiting to read it, but I was curious about how much interest that it was generating. I remember watching the news the day before it was released to see that some fans had been queuing for 36 hours outside a london shop for it's release. Many people have criticised JK Rowling and the “hyping hands behind Harry Potter”. With this and all the ‘Potter merchandise’ that is on sale, you could easily start to think that this is a worldwide brand and no longer a book series. However, the one thing that I did think was a bit unfair was the criticism of the author for wanting to keep the plotline totally secret. Yes there is no doubt that there was an unprecedented amount of interest and security surrounding the release of one single book. However, I personally have read the books since the age of eleven, which means that it has taken nine years to find out what has happened. If you look at it from that perspective then its hardly surprising most people wanted to discover what happened for themselves.

But even with the secrecy issue aside, you can’t blame the publicists for wanting to capitalise on the situation that they found themselves. As Dave Yoder a writer for Sioux city journal said “There’ll never be another Harry Potter, just like there will never be another Beatles. It’s not just the books, it’s the times that made it a phenomenon.”
I agree with this, the amazing success can’t be contributed to any one thing; no-one at the beginning could have predicted that the fans would become so fanatical about the series, no-one can have guessed that the author would be so well received or that the marketing would even work.

The fans and the media have made the Harry Potter series into the untouchable marketing power that it is today. With this in mind who can criticise the publicists for wanting to make the most of it. Whilst I have not counted up the column inches or the time speant talking about Harry Potter this summer; I can’t help feeling that this book’s release and the hype surrounding it, has got to be one of the most unique marketing events we have seen all summer.

On a different note, with regards to the book cover, I remember this particular article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/06/22/nosplit/booldharry12.xml) which said that there were suspicions that people were opting not to buy the traditional children's version of the book as the preferred the cover on the adult's. Although this is not exactly surprising, it does underline the importance of book covers. If you extract Harry Potter from the exceptional circumstances it was released in and the fact it is part of a series, I wonder how many people would have been put off buying the book altogether if they didn't like the cover.

Articles quoted;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/07/18/nosplit/ftpotter118.xml

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/08/02/news_opinion/dave_yoder/3953aff49d3825418625732a007970bd.txt

Robert Goddard's 'Never Go Back'

The publisher describes this book as being the ‘new mystery by the master of the clever twist’. This is actually a very accurate introduction to this novel By Robert Goddard titled ‘Never go back’. Since reading it I have found out that it is the last in a series of three books about the character Harry Barnett and although I had read several of this authors books, I had obviously missed these other two.

I have started reading mid way through a series without realising it and found it really difficult to finish the book as because you have so obviously missed chunks of what has happened. It wasn’t the same in this case, this book really stood on its own.

Like most of Robert Goddard’s books (and as indicated in the publisher’s released comment), this book tells the story of his lead character’s surprise encounter with an old friend which in turn leads to more mysteries and twists than the reader could ever anticipate. The plot line sees Harry Barnett travel to an RAF reunion in Scotland, back to a place that he hasn’t been for fifty years. After two members of their party die in suspicious circumstances and Harry himself is suspected of their murder, he endeavours to find out the reason behind the deaths himself and hence putting himself into the path of more trouble.

My main impression of this book is that is a very well written mystery novel. Whilst I don’t think it’s my favourite Robert Goddard’s books, it is none the less one I enjoyed reading. My favourite aspect of this author’s books in general is the way that he works to make sure he is always one step of the reader. Whilst I am not one of those people who takes pride in guessing what is coming next, sadly some stories are so predictable that you cant help but come to the correct conclusion. These books are not like this, they always have something else to discover as you carry on, with the result being that you are interested from cover to cover.

Finally a quick note about the cover, whilst I am not a fan of the proportions given to the text vs image (they almost seam to be fighting for your main attention) I actually quite like the decision to use the castle as the subject on the cover. This is a central part to the books plot, whilst its significance stays unknown to some extent until near the end.

The main downside I think with it (apart from the overly large text) is that it is not particularly eye-catching. I suppose that as with Pompeii they are hoping that the author’s name will be the main pull of the book. Whilst this may be true, I still think that a bit more attention in this area wouldn’t go a miss. As Michelle Almond pointed out in her blog, we all know the phase don’t judge a book by it’s cover but lets face it, this is exactly what we all do.

Penguin Books "We print the words, You do the Covers"

I decided to go to into borders earlier to look continue my book cover investigation, I deliberately went in not looking for anything in particular so I could just walk up and down the isles and see what stood out. There were several different ones that I did notice but the most significant were the Penguin Design your own book cover novels.

The editorial Director commented on this innovative project saying “Anyone can draw sketch or scribble their own cover, and make the outside of the book as personal as their reaction to the insides.” I love this idea, every person reacts differently to books, situations and stories, the reason I chose to look at book cover art in the first place was because I noticed very few reflected the contents of the novel.

Have a look at the gallery of art that this has produced, I could talk about the idea and concept of this for ages, but to be honest its best if you view the results yourself.

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/mypenguin/gallery.html

Pompeii by Robert Harris

Pompeii follows Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD and the events immediately surrounding it. Robert Harris’ main character is aqueduct engineer Marcus Attilius who has been recently posted to the Bay of Naples following his predecessor’s mysterious disappearance.

The book begins just days before the eruption and we see our main character struggling gain the respect of his colleagues and managing the challenges of his new job. The plotline cleverly uses this engineer’s knowledge and experience to guide the reader through the warning signs of the eruption and the impact that it had on the Bay. Throughout the book we come across several characters both historical and fictional, this helps to create a very plausible book and helps to understand why the volcanic eruption had such a huge impact at the time.

One thing that was apparent from the start was that the author had done a large amount of research before writing. I visited Pompeii last year and through reading the novel I almost felt as if I were back walking through the streets once again.

The story worked hard to contain detailed accounts of both the explosion and the culture of the people living in the Bay of Naples at that time. Although this research is essential for this to be plausible, it is in my opinion one of its biggest downfalls. I love reading, yet I found the book quite hard going at times. It felt that you were wading through paragraphs of information and facts before you reached the storyline.

I almost think that this book was trying to do too much at once, it was balancing a love story, with the missing person plotline, whilst providing an account of the events from both a 21st centaury and a 1st centaury perspective. The result of this is that the characters are never fully developed and at times it is like reading a textbook account instead of a novel.

Overall I would say that this is a very well planned and thought out piece of writing. It would probably suit someone who is particularly interested in finding out more about this era. However, as I have said, the sheer volume of factual information contained often makes it feel that the tale of the characters is an afterthought.

There were some elements that I really enjoyed about this book, however I was surprised at how successful it had been. From what I can tell it has received good reviews from both readers and critics, it was readable but unlike many other novels, I wouldn’t choose to pick it up again.