In the news this past week, including World Book Day announcement today

The Book To Talk About (World Book Day 2008) ...

Today, as part of the proceedings leading up to World Book Day (March 6th, 2008), the committee announced the shortlist of the ten books deemed to be the major competitors for the title of "the book to talk about".   You can find them here, along with the facility to register your own vote.

Guardian writers Richard Lea (who wrote the post on the Guardian's book blog) and Sam Jordison (who left a comment) are a bit flummoxed as to what it all means:

• Lea: 'It looks like a clear case of "ask a funny question, get a funny answer". What, after all, is a "book to talk about"? Is it really a book with "serious issues, character-led drama and often a splash of humour" as the committee suggests? Don't we just want to talk about good books? Whatever they might be ...'

• Jordison: 'I don't quite get it either, and am mildly miffed that the book I voted for (The Red Men) didn't get through to the last ten...  I also have a slight suspicion that the authors most likely to get through in an internet poll like this are the ones most able to cajole their friends into voting for them.  Then again, it's interesting/ gratifying to see a list so well represented by small presses and free of the usual suspects...  Plus, I've been meaning to read Lint for a while, and I guess this is another good spur/reminder...  So, er, in a roundabout way, I suppose I'm saying that the shortlist might well be a Good Thing.'

Lea also notes that the longlist was 'assembled by "industry experts"; clearly wondering what that means in reality and fact (World Book Day does not seem to be transparent in this).

But, well hell, let's have some fun with what appears to be, on the face of it, a Brownies' event bran tub: anything gets chucked in and anything can come out.  Yes, it's an odd list, but so be it.  I'd like to think that those who have voted thus far, and left comments are mainly readers, so it makes it a popular readers' vote.  That shortlist of ten might even be the top ten for readers' groups around the UK in finding the best they can imagine to "talk about" at their meetings.

Looking at that top ten shortlist, which now requires another round of reader voting, I am familiar with two names.  More on one of these later, as the crime genre is involved.  (Well, this is a crime fiction site, in the main.)  But, "Death of a Murderer" by Rupert Thomson also caught my eye.  Was it crime fiction?   When I read the page I was reminded of an interview I heard last year on the now sadly passed-into-the-digital-ether Oneword Radio DAB station, with the author and "Between The Lines" presenter Paul Blezard.  At the time, my interest was tempted; but this remains for another day or so's reading.  Comments on World Book Day are mixed, but I still have some fascination in seeking out this book which does not mention the name of Myra Hindley, but is clearly based on her, as the author openly admitted in that interview.  This was a case that shocked a nation beyond belief.  I believe that every mother of a young child at that time, however many miles away, was led to be over-protective to a degree.  However, the reaction of innocents can never detract from the immense and immeasurable loss that has no empathetic description for those who suffered at the hands of Brady and Hindley.  Approx. twenty years later, I thought about reading the transcript of the case in the Law Library when at university.  I never had the guts to do it.

Now onto the crime genre feature in this feast from World Book Day ...

A writer with quite a few Welsh genes, now living in England and setting her novels in or near Portsmouth, a certain Pauline Rowson is also in that top ten for her novel In Cold Daylight.  Congratulations to Pauline!

As she says in her post here, voting now starts all over again.  So if you enjoy crime and thriller fiction and love this novel, as she says: please vote for In Cold Daylight.

------------------

Arts Council Grant Cuts

Dedalus has relied upon a grant, nearing £25k, from the Arts Council England (ACE) to date.  They lost it and initiated an online petition which, as I write has in excess of 1,600 signatures, see here.

Nicholas Lezard in The Guardian's Blog believes that "ACE is not supporting literature, it's killing it".

Do you have a view?  Sign online or ignore.

Or sit on the fence like me.  I really can't make up my mind.  Commercial realities abound.  If people really want it they'll buy it surely?  And you have to at least break even on that?  Still sitting on the fence as we speak...

-----------------

Crime in translation ...

Comedian, David Baddiel struggles with fiction in translation in The Times but we can re-direct him to the winning way: Peter at Detectives Beyond Borders has done Siân Reynolds proud in interviewing her for his blog.  Siân is the translator for Freddie Vargas's French crime fiction tomes.  Both author and translator have been CWA award winners more than once.  Baddiel feels there's something missing in translation?  Try a translated Vargas, my dear man.  This is also my message to you avid readers out there: DON'T IGNORE VARGAS.  She is a quirky and yet, realistic take on life.

Buyer not beware on this occasion: buyer grab soon and make the most of...

Comments

[Peter]

I dropped in to comment on "The book to talk about," and I found your kind mention of my interview with Sian Reynolds. Thanks for the plug!

"The book to talk about" sounds like something we have where I live called "One Book, One Philadelphia," which seems to promote the idea that if everyone reads the same book, we'll, we'll, well, we'll all feel good and think good thoughts and reverse global warming or something. If this reaches people who might otherwise not read, it's all to the good. Failing that, part of me wants to organize a counter-campaign called "Millions of People, Millions of Books," which will urge city residents to turn of their TVs, put down their cell phones, and read a book -- as long as it's not the "One Book ... " book.

My goal would be to wean people off television -- and off letting pressure from above decide for them what they should read.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

[Clare D]

Of course Boy A is based on a crime too - the abduction and murder of a child by two older boys - although the actual crime is never actually described. It's well told and adventurous, but I wouldn't say it was literary (as someone does in the comments).

[crimeficreader]

Thanks Kerrie; it was an odd list to me too, but nothing like the old "prove its worth", eh? And so so good to see some newbies on the list too! What a shame the superb Robert Wilson didn't make it in all that competition. Falcon is truly a series to delight, savour and absorb...

[Kerrie Smith]

Thanks for the reminder about the Books to Talk about site. I found some of the categorisation of the books a puzzle, particularly with some books labelled thriller which I would expect to find on crime shelves.