Sunday 31 March 2013

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

First Published: 2012 by Hesperus Press Limited (London)
Date Started: 28th March 2013
Date Finished: 30th March 2013
Genre: Humour
Read for: Casual
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The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson tells the very funny story of Allan Karlsson, who on his one hundredth birthday is being thrown a party in the Old People's Home that he doesn't want. The mayor and the press are going to be there, and he will do anything to get out of going to it. So, not wanting to go to the party, he does what the title of the book says: he climbs out of the window.
Allan goes where life will take him, and soon ends up going on one huge adventure, meeting many people on the way. Most of these people end up being friends with him, but there are a few who are quite the opposite. Being a rather clever man when it comes to getting out of bad situations, and with the help of friends along the way, Allan continues to go with whatever will happen and with not a lot of bother and care whenever trouble is involved (which is pretty much the majority of the book).

I've never read anything quite like this before, and even though it is early on in the year, I have to say that this is my favourite book so far. It's laugh out loud funny and some of the characters are very unique. The narrative is written very well and at times made it hard to put down. The book is a translation done by Rod Bradbury as the original is written in Swedish. Although I've not read the original version (I'll let you guess the reasons as to why), I feel that Bradbury has done an excellent job of translating it to English. I did have some difficulty trying to think how to read the names of a few people and places, but nevertheless, I carried on reading.

One of the ways that I love the way that it's written is that it not only follows the present life of Allan, it also goes back in time to when he was younger, starting from when he was a child all the way to how he ended up in the Old People's Home. It really helps you to understand as a reader how Allan is the way that he is. Like in the present time of his life, Allan's life before he ended up in the Old People's Home is an exciting adventure. I'll not describe it to much as I don't want to tell any spoilers, but he ends up meeting with a lot of famous 20th century political leaders along the way, some end up being good friends and remembering him rather well, others who would very happily kill him.

This is a book that I would happily recommended to anyone who wants a good laugh and an addictive read. As it says on the cover, it's an international bestselling sensation,and I can see why it is. I have a feeling this is one of those books that I will re-read over time and still enjoy may years later.


Friday 29 March 2013

York Literature Festival 2013

The week of 19th-24th March 2013 was a big week for literature lovers like myself. That week held the York Literature Festival, an event in which many guest speakers come and participate in events like reading from their work and teaching special workshops.

When I first heard about this a few months back, I was very excited. Getting told about writers coming to York and talking about what they do for their living made me feel over the moon. Studying for a joint honours degree in Creative Writing and English Literature, I loved the fact that I was able to take part in this event. I had never been apart of something like this, so as a student, and as someone who loves to read, it made me very happy.

The first event I went to was a workshop called Create Characters Not Caricatures with Kathlene Postma. Kathlene lives in the USA, and teaches creative writing at Pacific University in Oregon. She also writes poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction, as well as being an editor of the literary magazine, Silk Road. Kathlene has recently finished writing her first novel.
The aim of this workshop was to be able to write better characters in your stories, to make them seem more believable and making them more interesting to read about. Characters are one of the most important things when it comes to creative writing, so being able to present them well is a required skill. Giving out useful tips such as all characters have good and bad things about them, even if they only appear to be one or the other, made me realise how much attention needs to go into creating characters.

As well as this workshop, outside of the York Literature Festival, she came into my creative writing lecture and seminar that week to teach us students who were enrolled on the course. The creative writing side of my degree does feature a lot of guest speakers coming in to talk about their work, giving out advice, and allowing any questions we may have for them.
My assessment for this module is formative assignments, and for the week that Kathlene came in to teach us about fiction writing, focusing on the task for this week to write a fairy tale, the fairy tale being re-written in a contemporary form, or inventing a new one. Yet again, she gave us useful tips, which I shall hold on to very tightly.  Like in the workshop, we got to do writing exercises and she gave us useful feedback, telling us how we could improve our characters even more.
I felt like a learnt a lot from Kathlene that week, and I have to say that she has so far been my favourite guest speaker.

Moving on from Kathlene, I went to two other events. The first one of these was Will Self in Conversation. I hadn't read any of Will Self's work before, but knowing that he is such a well known writer and writes for newspapers like The Independent and The New York Times, I knew I wanted to see him. There is also the fact that his latest book, Umbrella, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2012, a definite bonus. On arrival at the event, there was a table selling his books. Judging from past experience, the books would have a few quid knocked off them, and there could possibly be the chance that he might do signings at the end. I eagerly bought Umbrella, with £2 off the original price. Being the huge book worm that I am, I tried to get the best seat I could (fifth row, right hand side, second seat to the left facing the stage, if you're interested).

When the event began, Will was interviewed by someone who helped to organise the York Literature Festival. His questions were mostly about his work but was asked about other interesting things too. I vividly remember him saying that 'Fifty shades is w**k' and that the new university fees which were recently put in place are 'dog-s**t'.
That aside, Will read an extract from Umbrella, explaining before hand where his inspiration to write the book came from. The reading was entertaining to watch, and he did get into the role of the characters.
At the end of the event, he did do signings, but he didn't have long to do this, so this end up leaving me quickly to gather my things, attempt to get out of the room as quick as possible, and rush to get into the queue. Luckily I was first (the lady next to me let me go ahead, thank you whoever you are. I am eternally grateful).

The other event that I went to was Simon Armitage. I knew some of his poetry well from school when I was doing my GCSE's. His poetry was some of the work featured in the anthology, so to be able to see him live in person was something I was very much looking forward to. The same procedure happened again for me: buy one of his books with a few quid knocked off (£2 again) and get a good seat (fourth row, right hand side, first seat to the left facing the stage, this time). I did though keep my book very close by, ready to pick up, along with my other things, if he was doing signings, so I could escape as quickly as possible.
Unlike the previous event, there was no interviewing going on, just him reading several extracts from his works. Unbeknown to me, he also writes fiction, which the book I bought was one of his fiction books. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be able to read more of his poetry, but then I realised that it gave me the opportunity to read another side of his work that I didn't know about.
 Like Will Self did with his book, Simon explained the reasons why he wrote each piece of the work he was about to read out. It helps give a better understanding to the work knowing why it was written. He even read out some poems that I recognised from school which gave me a feeling of nostalgia.
I did get my book signed at the end of the event. I wasn't first in the queue this time, but I was quite close, so I was happy enough. As long as I would get it signed, that would leave me very happy.
 I really enjoyed going to York Literature Festival. I had such a good time. I've learnt new skills that will help me with my writing, and I got to listen to talks from famous writers and get their autographs. It was a brilliant week and I can't wait for next one.


Below are recordings I did of Will Self and Simon Armitage reading out their work if you want to watch it.
I'm not sure why they've turned on the side though and I apologise for the not so good quality. I had to lower it because the original files were too big and wouldn't upload.

Will Self is the top one. Simon Armitage is the bottom one.














Friday 22 March 2013

Just a quick little apology

So sorry that I've not been posting anything recently. I've been busy with uni stuff so I've not had much time to post unfortunately. However, I'm now off for 3 weeks for my Easter holidays, so I will be getting some posts up, including a post about the York Literature Festival in which I went to a few events.

I'll be back writing soon to make up for me not posting these past couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy reading!

Tuesday 5 March 2013

A lesson in the art of graphic novels.

This week in my creative writing module, Writing to Order, we are focusing on comics and graphic novels. As I don't tend to read them, I wasn't particularly keen on going to the lecture this morning. The week before, we had been given a handout with some comic and graphic novel sketches and scripts. I did have a quick flick through the night before, but I didn't really take much interest to it.                                                                                  I've never classed graphic novels as 'literature' as such, and for me, I didn't really understand why we had to study this. I have watched a review of some graphic novels on YouTube by booksandquills, which I did like watching, but I still was unsure by them then. However, by the end of the lecture, my viewpoint on them had taken quite the turn.

Our guest lecturer was someone who taught film and media where I study, but also does some teaching on the literature course. He would often talk about how he thought it was an art, and at the beginning, I was failing to understand his views on this. To me, they were just the comics and graphic novels that you would give to kids, teenagers, comic nerds, and manga lovers. They were, just basically, not my thing at all.

It wasn't until he gave us a five minute task to draw a few blocks of our own that my viewpoint changed. I'm not sure why it changed, but perhaps it could have been that because I was doing it for myself, I understood more how graphic novels can tell stories in the way that they do. He had explained this before we did the task, but I wasn't completely convinced. 
I'm not the best artist in the world, and plus we only had five minutes, but I felt like a story was beginning to get told. When I was doing this, it gave me the idea that if I had writers block, perhaps drawing out my ideas could help me out.

I've not converted to being a graphic novel fan as I've not read any for myself, but I'm thinking that I could give one a go and see what it's like. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments.



By the way, this is what I did. I told you I'm not an artist!

Saturday 2 March 2013

Sex and the City: Book vs. TV Series


Book: Written by Candace Bushnell
TV Series: Produced by Darren Star (HBO) from 1998-2004
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Ever since I was first introduced to the TV Series of Sex and the City, I was immediately hooked. I loved the four main characters, I loved the stories in each episode, I loved the fashion, and I loved New York City.
 
For those who don’t know what Sex and the City is about, it is about four best friends who live through the daily drama of a New York City lifestyle.  The four main characters are Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte; each successful in their own right, but when living in the big apple, there is always something bound to go wrong.  There is a main focus on Carrie though; a journalist who writes her own column based on her current life situations and those of her friends. This column is centered on each show and we often see her in the TV show on her laptop typing up articles.

What I do like about the book is that the New York City lifestyle is more focused on, not just with Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha, but with other characters mentioned as well (in the book, Charlotte is rarely mentioned). Characters are drawn into conversations about life in the city in a majority of the book and as a reader; it helped me establish a better sense of what it would be like to live there.  In earlier episodes of the show, this too does happen, but as the producers of the show make more series, this tends to happen much less, if at all.

The first TV series does follow some aspects from the book and when either reading or watching the show (depending on which you do first) you can see this quite clearly. The characters on the TV series are like the ones in the book which is something I really like the show as it is entertaining seeing how the producers of the show have attempted to portray them on TV.  As the making of more series happens, more characters are introduced. Not all of them are as important as the four girls, but some of them do play a big role and end up on the show until the end of the final series.  

In most cases, I prefer the book to the film or whatever it has been adapted to, but in this case, I actually prefer the TV series. I did like reading the book but I felt the TV series made it much better. With the TV series, I felt I could connect more with the four main characters and understand why they do what they do in order to get by. With the book, at times I felt as if there were too many characters and it made it difficult to engage with specific characters.  The blurb on my edition of the book mentions Carrie, Samantha, and Miranda and how they try to get on in their life, but they aren't seen much together, especially as a three. I felt as if Carrie is only really important towards about three quarters through the book, unlike in the book where she is highly focused.

I am glad that I read the book because I loved the TV series and so being able to see what it was like was a big enjoyment for me. Also, because I had read the two prequels of the book and series (not published till much later though), I wanted to see what this one would be like.  Knowing that I have read the book, I can happily state that I have read it, and seen the shows (as well as the two movies). As I have said, I do prefer the TV series more to the book, I think reading the book is something you should do if you like the show. One thing I would say though before reading the book is that don’t use your knowledge of the show as in a lot of the ways, the book is different and so might ruin the reading for you.