British newspaper, The Guardian are this coming week giving away a booklet listing the 1000 novels the newspaper feels everyone should read before they're brown bread. Each day there will be a genre specific booklet - today it is LOVE, tomorrow is CRIME.
The remaining genres are COMEDY, FAMILY AND SELF, STATE OF THE NATION,SCI FI AND FANTASY and WAR AND TRAVEL.
Every book selected will be a novel, no short stories or memoirs.
I buy the Guardian daily in any case but I think the inclusion of this series would have provoked me to buy it if I wasn't a regular reader. The first section of love/romance novels is probably of the least interesting to me but I did find an article on the history of pulp romance novels to be interesting. And I'm especially looking forward to the Crime booklet which will be given away with the Guardian's sister paper, The Observer tomorrow.
There is a list of trivia in today's booklet that lists some of the revisions Hollywood made to some of the books selected when turning them into big screen melodrama. I found this quite fascinating but then I've got a trivia obsessed brain.
For instance to get his version of Lolita past the censors, Kubrick was forced to remove almost all references to Humbert and Lolita's relationship. In the book the character was twelve but actor, Sue Lyons was 14 when she played the part. She was not allowed into the cinema for the film's premiere because the film was an X (present day 18) certificate.
NEWS - Aspiring writers, hacks and dreamers check out the new blog from Elaine Ash co-editor of the webzine Beat to a Pulp.
And here's where I need some help. I'm designing a Jack Martin website - take a look
I want to feature all sorts of interesting stuff on the site so I was wondering what sort of content would make you want to visit a website on a regular basis? Any suggestions?
6 comments:
Gary, I'm digging the Jack Martin site. Well done, easy on the eyes, and it has a sharp western vibe about it. Nice.
And "before they're brown bread" is a phrase I will add to my vocab.
DAVID - Brown bread is long established cockney rhyming slang. I half inched it from them.
I like the Jack Martin site so far. Looks pretty cool.
Looks good so far, Gary!
What would bring me back? Usually, I only revisit Web sites when the author has a new book out or is running a contest or has "value-added" contest such as essays on writing topics, information on the historical period they write about, and other useful tips and information.
Lots of work for you but a great idea.
Er - no Westerns, then?
The site looks great, Gary.
Now off to Elaine Ash
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