Writer's Blog 18

Reading List

At one point, because I was writing a book, I was very wary of reading any else’s work. The fear was that I would find my own style influenced too much by the author whose work I was reading - so that, instead of being an original me (whatever that was) I’d turn into a pale imitation of someone else.

But after a while this moratorium on books became tedious. It’s just too difficult to sustain, if like me, you are usually working your way through a book of some kind . or another.
So reading has resumed. And it’s reading for a purpose, because I’m often looking at an author’s work to see how s/he handles particular aspects of their novel.

As an example, I’ve recently read Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. It’s basically a James Bond story, re-told for boys of 12. So there’s no sex. But don’t be put off by that, or by the fact that it’s a children’s book. Stormbreaker is a good example of how to tell a story with pace and tension.

Ash and Bone by John Harvey was something rather different – a crime novel by an author who specialises in “police procedurals”. As I had hoped, this book was solidly convincing (to me at least) in its description of the detail of police work. It’s a little too sober for my taste, though – if there’s any humour in this book, it would take Sherlock Holmes to find it. The book also features major roles for female characters. It’s always interesting to see how convincingly a male author can do this. Harvey gets mixed results. One or two of his women characters are three-dimensional, the others less convincing.

I’ve also just finished Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen. In this book, Hiaasen shows his usual ability to write wittily about horrible things. At his best, he is hilarious, cutting from scene to scene at dizzying speed, following up different characters, plots and sub-plots. Every change of scene seems to add impetus to the story. The other thing about Hiaasen is that the bad guys always get exactly what they deserve – and then some! Having said that, Skinny Dip isn’t his best. The ending that the book needs isn’t really delivered. If I had to recommend one of Hiaasen’s books it would be Lucky You or Double Whammy.

Now, on to the present. I’ve just started Fatlands by Sarah Dunant. My reasons for picking this book are four-fold.
First, I liked Sarah Dunant when she presented BBC2’s Late Show some years ago; she was sparky and bright.
Second, Fatlands won a Silver Dagger award back in 1993.
Third, Dunant is a woman author writing in the first person as “Hannah Wolfe”, a private investigator. So it should be interesting to meet the female characters that she creates.
And fourth, Barnardo’s charity bookshop in St Andrews were selling it at only £1.25.
That was the clincher.