from Villette by Charlotte Brontë (@princessjasmine41)
Source: bookmania.me
Wandering book has gone missing
Perfect Stranger no 1 left a copy of ‘Our Trespasses’ at Champney’s Spa to be found by Stranger no 2. Unfortunately, it seems I didn’t strike lucky twice and the book has gone aground. Perhaps a staff member at Champney’s found it first and despatched it to the nearest bin. In any case, it looks like I will have to leave another copy out there… maybe en route to France this weekend.
In the meantime, the decorating of our 1930’s house is turning into a major distraction from getting on with ‘Madame Zhang’. The DIY continues over Easter in France to get Les Roches ready for summertime renting. We need to get the French House to pay its way pretty damn quick.
Can you renovate two houses and write a novel at the same time? It appears not. I’m finding it hard to write a very small word-count tweet at the minute, let alone my magnus opus. Things will have to change round here, or I’ll get twisted up (which is as unpleasant as it sounds).
I’ve started doing the lottery in the hope I win it and someone else can do the DIY (or D.I.Themselves) and I can get on with what I love doing. Some hope.
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with a compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.
Source: curiositycounts
“It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, and sorrows, into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power they obtain, must be obtained by their charms and weakness.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Today is International* Women’s Day, and in light of the recent happenings in American politics, this book deserves serious rereading. Women’s Rights are the same thing as Human Rights.
*Not National, as previously noted.
Indeed
Source: millionsmillions
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/
Sharing this with y’all. Apart from running the E-book Cover Awards (some rather marvellous ones to see) this is a very useful site for all e-pubbers.
Champney’s Book finder - where are you?
This is a personal message to the person who found a copy of Our Trespasses at Champney’s two weeks ago. It’s not a scam, it’s just a way of passing my book along to strangers and hoping they will get in touch via this blog to track its progress.
You will remain anonymous and all I ask is you read the book, or pass it onto someone who may want to read it, and then leave the book somewhere else - with the note attached you found it with.
Hope you enjoy the book and look forward to hearing from you…
Hello Stranger 2
So Stranger 1, who found their copy of Our Trespasses at the David Hockney show at the Royal Academy, has been a real sport and contacted me with her views (very positive I’m happy to say) and has left her copy at Champney’s Health Resort.
If you are my next stranger reading this post, please do contact me and let me know what you think of the book you found with the strange note attached at Champney’s… and don’t forget once you (or someone you know) has read the book, please pass it on with the note attached for Stranger 3…
Flukey
After reading the small print and online discussions regarding the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award I decided to retract my entry… or so I thought.
OT is through to the second round. Not sure how that happened but now it’s in the running, I’ve concluded it wouldn’t be so bad to get a little spotlight on the book…
Source: youmightfindyourself
Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.
By the time you swear you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying -
Lady make a note of this:
One of you is lying.
Dorothy Parker, “Unfortunate Coincidence”
[Anti-Love #6]
(via millionsmillions)Dorothy Parker saying it best, comme d’habitude.
Source: millionsmillions
Literary police sketches; Adding images to classic words…
“Ask any adaptation-hating book purist and they’ll tell you that one of the great joys of reading is the ability to form your own idea of how the characters look, without having dictatorial Hollywood in charge. Well, chances are they might hate to love Brian Joseph Davis a bit then. He’s scoured some classic books for the physical descriptions of the protagonists and created police sketch-like images of what the details suggest. It’s all painstakingly awesome stuff, which highlights how brilliant the casting of James Mason was in the original Lolita and how un-Michael Fassbender-y the actual Rochester looked in Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The following pictures are also accompanied by the details he used from the novels themselves. You can see more of his sterling work here.”1. Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
2. Vaughn, Crash, JG Ballard
3. Humbert Humbert, Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
4. Keith Talent, London Fields, Martin Amis
5. Edward Rochester, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
6. Pinkie Brown, Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
7. Emma Bovary, Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
8. Tom Ripley, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
Read more in Short List here.
Love this. Police style photofits of fictional characters.
Source: vintageanchor
An update from the Stranger
A note from the finder of the book I left in the Royal Academy:-
“Hi, I picked up ‘Our Trespasses’ at the RA. I thought it might keep me occupied on the long train journey home. I looked inside the first page to see if it might be a good read and became hooked when it first mentioned Morden, a station I know well and then Arthritic hands, a condition I know well. Now I have finished the book and to my surprise I can say I enjoyed it. Surprised because it is not the usual sort of book I choose. I am a fan of historical novels. It is very much written about the time I grew up and I can identify with a lot of what is written. Thankfully it does not describe my own upbringing. The characters are well portrayed and I feel that the author has a good insight into the conditions of such families at that time. I am thinking about where to leave my copy for it to be found by someone else. A great idea I am glad I was in the right place at the right time, thank you”
I’ve since been in touch with the kind stranger, who will be keeping me informed of it’s next drop-off point.
