Archive for March, 2012

Five by five by all the books

Reading paper books over breakfast can be problematic.

I was having the usual ‘physical books versus e-books’ discussion with someone on the weekend, and I came to my usual conclusion: that the worst book in the world cannot be made better by being made of paper, and the best book in the world isn’t diminished by being electronic. I think I always end up sounding like I don’t like regular ol’ books, when I’m really very fond of them. It’s just that I also like e-books. I’m fond of them, too. They suit aspects of my life admirably, moreso than ink and dead trees. Yet. Ink and dead trees can be SO LOVELY.

So here’s my top 5 reasons for loving e-books; and my top 5 reasons for loving paper books.

Traditional papery paper books with shiny covers? I’ll give you five reasons why you make my heart go pitter-pat.

  1. SHINY COVERS. Not all covers are lovely of course, but oh, those little artists’ impressions of what your innards are like? I adore them. I like to look at you and guess if I’m going to love you from your wrapping. Or if you’re going to disappoint me terribly. Or if you’re going to be an ugly ducking that grows up, by page 87, to be the bestest, most beautiful swan in the ‘verse. You’re tricky, cover art, but I love you.
  2. THICK PAPER. Some books, usually those with hard covers, have gloriously thick paper. It’s lush. It’s gorgeously tactile. I love the feel of turning a page of thick, textured paper. It takes reading from an intellectual and emotional exercise to one of physical sensation as well. Most books don’t have really lovely paper like this, but those that do… it’s a sensual experience. Even when the book sucks (which is a bit like fancying someone who dresses beautifully but turns out to be an arse, sadly).
  3. I CAN SPY ON WHAT YOU’RE READING. I confess, I’m a snoop. My husband tells me it’s perfectly natural, because I’m a writer. He sometimes threatens to make me a License To Be Nosy to flash around on the tram. Maybe I could use it to find out what people are reading on their sneaky e-readers. Hilarious erotica, possibly. I like peeking at what people are reading, though, either at the cover or, if I’m well positioned on the tram, over their shoulder to see what’s in the header. Maybe a couple of paragraphs. Yes, I know. I’m creepy. But I love how paper books conspire with me in public places like that.
  4. TANGIBLE PROGRESS. It’s quite nice to see my bookmark moving along the pages in that steadfast, inexorable fashion. My e-reader shows me a little dotted line; sometimes a percentage. Doesn’t seem quite so satisfying, somehow. Which leads me on to…
  5. BOOKMARKS! I have a nice little selection of bookmarks. Some of them I’ve had for years. Some of them I even remember to USE, instead of the bus tickets, cafe receipts, chopsticks wrappers and occasional bits of torn envelope.

E-books, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

  1. I CAN READ YOU WHILE EATING. I can open you to a page and pick up my knife and fork and you will not flow determinedly shut from the force of your excellent binding. You will allow me to rend my eggs and bacon into bite-sized pieces and simultaneously get on with the awesomeness of the story I am currently so steeped in that frankly, it’s lucky I remembered I need to eat. And I can change pages with a press of a button that only takes one finger! No more having to lay down arms, move the glasses case/travel guide/brick/cat I’ve been using to hold the pages down so I can either see the obscured paragraph or turn the page!
  2. YOU ARE SPLASH RESISTANT! And no sauce stains on The Hunger Games, or the Return of Sherlock Holmes, or anything by Lois McMaster Bujold, because I can wipe away the evidence of my grubbiness.  Take that, inability to eat tidily!
  3. DICTIONARY! So that when I’m reading, and there’s a new word, I can just highlight you (or tap on you if I’m reading on my iPhone) and my vocabulary E-X-P-A-N-D-S with hardly any effort. Ah, little e-book, whisper brand new words into my ear as often as you like. I can’t get enough of you. I sometimes find myself tapping at words on a printed page in vain, and then I get pouty. Paper books should have inbuilt dictionaries too. *sulk*
  4. E-BOOKS, LIKE GOD, ARE EVERYWHERE AT ONCE! I start reading a book on my Kindle at home! The battery goes flat while I’m out, OH NOES! but hello there, little iPhone, with your synchronised Kindle cloud, remembering where I am up to! Bless you! When I’ve recharged my Kindle, LO! the synch has spoken to you and you take me to the right place again. And if I give up on both of you and turn on my computer – WELL HELLO KINDLE APP ON MY DESKTOP.  So versatile.
  5. A HUNDRED BOOKS WEIGH THE SAME AS ONE. When I travel, I can take every book I want to read. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Even though I only ever travel with a small backback and a handbag. Because all the books fit into my one, petite, handy-dandy, purple-case-wrapped lovely little Kindle. I love you, compact little Kindle!

Got any loves of your own, for either format? Share the delight!

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2012
03/27
CATEGORY
e-books
writing
14 comments

It’s Showtime!!

This week on International Women’s Day (8 March), Twelfth Planet Press announced the official release of my new short story collection, Showtime!

I’m so excited to be part of TPP’s Twelve Planets series. I’m also excited to bring you four domestic (but not domesticated) horror stories.

  • Stalemate
    - a kitchen ghost story
  • Thrall
    - a Hungarian vampire finds the 21st Century doesn’t agree with him, and all he has to help him remedy the situation is a dowdy middle aged mum. With allergies.
  • The Truth About Brains
    - a teenage girl’s little brother gets turned into a zombie, and she’s trying to fix him before mum finds out.
  • Showtime
    - Gary the vampire and Lissa the librarian from The Opposite of Life go to the Royal Melbourne Show. Lissa is annoyed to discover vampires up to No Good at the Haunted House. Terrified, but mostly really annoyed.

US Author Seanan Maguire wrote a magnificent introduction to the collection that makes me feel amazed that someone could like something I wrote so much, and see so much in it.

An e-version will be available in due course, but in the meantime buy Showtime from Twelfth Planet Press.

Some bookstores stock TPP books, too, including Embiggen Books on Little Lonsdale Street and Notions Unlimited in Chelsea, so check with them. If you want your own local bookstore to order it in, the details are: Showtime by Narrelle M Harris, published by Twelfth Planet Press, ISBN 978-0-9872162-0-5.

The official blurb:

Family drama can be found anywhere: in kitchens, in cafes. Derelict hotels, showground rides. Even dungeons far below ruined Hungarian castles. (Okay, especially in Hungarian dungeons.)

Old family fights can go on forever, especially if you’re undead. If an opportunity came to save someone else’s family, the way you couldn’t save your own, would you take it?

Your family might include ghosts, or zombies, or vampires. Maybe they just have allergies. Nobody’s perfect.

Family history can weigh on the present like a stone.  But the thing about families is, you can’t escape them. Not ever. And mostly, you don’t want to.

It’s a beautiful collection of pieces, each one utterly classic and completely new at the same time… In Narrelle’s hands, everything old is new again, and everything new has the weight of age.  There’s magic in that, and in this book. — Seanan McGuire

These Australians give me hope for the future of female, and even feminist, writers in SF. – Gwyenth Jones

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2012
03/09
CATEGORY
Gary and Lissa
short stories
The Opposite of Life
vampires
writing
zombies
4 comments

Review: Walking the Tree by Kaaron Warren (AWW Challenge #6)

I’ve heard a lot about the publisher, Angry Robot, spoken of with enthusiasm and maybe a little awe by the likes of Alisa Krasnostein of Twelfth Planet Press and Tasmanian writer, Tansy Rayner Roberts. I had no idea Walking the Tree was an Angry Robot book, so I was killed two curiosity-birds with one e-purchase. The main reason for the purchase was to find out more about Kaaron Warren, who was also spoken of with much admiration.

Walking the Tree tells of a group of women who chosen to be ‘teachers’, who take a group of kids from their home village of Ombu on a pilgrimage around their island home, Botanica. The women are seeking other communities in which to settle and bear children (doing so within their own communities is taboo, because they are too closely related to the menfolk). The children go to learn about their world and the different societies that inhabit it. We see the journey mainly through the eyes of Lillah.

It took a little while to get my head around Walking the Tree. I definitely liked the writing style and the ideas. The world of Botanica was intricately built, both in its people and in the societies that lived around the girth of the giant tree that swallowed up the middle of the island. And when I say ‘giant’, I mean that the characters who go on the traditional pilgrimage around the tree know it will take five years to do so.

Five years. That’s one big-ass tree.

It took a little while to warm to the voice Warren use to tell the story. It has a quality of fable about it, like a very old fashioned fairy tale or Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia. The story didn’t unfold the way I expected it to, either. I’ve was expected an adventure story, following Lillah’s journey of self-discovery, perhaps. And it’s not that there isn’t one of those. But while Lillah seems to be at the centre of the story, she’s actually just the eyes through which we see the centre. Which is the tree and all the societies around it.

And about half way through the book, I got it. The purpose of the story is not to unravel and delve into the person of Lillah – it’s to unravel the world.

Walking the Tree is not one woman’s ‘adventure’. It’s more like a modern Chaucer’s Tales or The Pilgrim’s Progress. It’s a science fiction fable.

The quality of the writing and the vividly drawn world kept me involved even when I wasn’t sure what kind of story I was reading. And once I cottoned on, well, the whole book crystallised for me.

Kaaren Warren, in taking us on this pilgrimage around the tree, shows us intricate layers of ideas and meaning about women, relationships, belief and society.  Each society has different attitudes to the tree, to men and women, to the ocean and to death, creating a fabulous well that Lillah and the other pilgrims can dip into to unravel the ways that humanity is still, well, very human.

The characters are more than archetypes, though they are less individual, perhaps, than the world they inhabit. Lillah and her young charge, Morace, are intriguing and able guides to the world.

I’m glad I found a way to look at the book that clicked for me. It took my enjoyment of the prose to another level, to enjoy the entire spirit of the book.

Narrelle M Harris is a Melbourne-based writer. Find out more about her books, iPhone apps, public speaking and other activities at www.narrellemharris.com.

2012
03/05
CATEGORY
Reviews
2 comments
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