Posted July 23, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary News / 0 Comments
The Winners of the 2012 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced today in a ceremony in Canberra. A big congratulation to the following winners;
- Luke Davies won the award for Poetry
- Robert Newton’s When We Were Two won the award for YA Fiction
- Mark McKenna’s An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark won the Non-Fiction award
- Bill Gammage’s The Biggest Estate on Earth won the Australian History award
And the winner of the award we are all interested in; best work of Fiction for 2012 goes to Gillian Mears for Foal’s Bread. Gillian was up against some great books including; All That I Am by Anna Funder, Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville, Autumn Laing by Alex Miller and Forecast: Turbulence by Janette Turner Hospital.
The most Interesting part of the award ceremony for me was when Luke Davies used his time to criticise Campbell Newman for scrapping the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, by saying “The clear message from Campbell Newman’s wrong-headed decision to eliminate the Queensland Premier’s awards is that reading is simply not important, not valuable to the greater culture and that celebrating excellence even less so”.
Well done to all the winners, each of them was also awarded $80,000 as part of the award.
Posted July 17, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
I’d like to say that there isn’t any book that I won’t read if it was recommended to me but there are books that I’ve put off reading but really need to get around to reading. My wife has been my biggest supporter; even before I became a reader she was encouraging me to read and to improve myself. I love her for that. One of the first books I read when I started out as a reader in 2009 was one of the books she gave me, which was Jeff Lindsay’s first book in the Dexter Morgan series; Darkly Dreaming Dexter. She knew that I loved the TV series and she helped use that as a good way to get me into reading. I did end up loving the series and is one of the few series that I’ve actually read all the books in it. But she has given me other books, which I’m still to read; mainly Confessions by Augustine of Hippo but the reason I’ve been putting it off because I have so many great books to read and I haven’t felt drawn to the book yet. I think if I read the book I might enjoy it, he seems to have had an interesting life and I’m interested in the internal struggle of a man between good and evil. There really isn’t a good excuse for not reading it. I should really read it sometime soon. I would love to hear from others if they want to answer this question also.
Posted July 11, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Adaptations / 0 Comments
I haven’t talked about an adaptation for a while, so I thought it was time to bring out another adaptation smackdown. The idea is to look at the book and then compare the movie and see which one was better or worth your time. I thought this time I will take a look at Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary which was made into a movie late last year. Set in the 1950’s this story involves a tangled love triangle of jealousy, treachery and alcoholism of the staff of a Puerto Rico newspaper.
The mediocre semi-biographical novel focuses on a very ill tempered, drunkard of a journalist. I was expecting something with a bit of excitement but the plot seemed to drag on and while hinting at a plot this book never really took off. So when it came to seeing the movie it was nice to see them really cut down the story to give a resemblance of a plot but like the book it still seemed to drag on way too much.
Advantages of the book
There are no advantages, this book drags on and there really isn’t any point in wasting too much time reading this book.
Advantages of the movie
Well for one, Johnny Depp plays the lead role and let’s face it, he is an expert in playing a drunk. Amber Heard is a beautiful and great actor but still she isn’t enough to pull this movie through. Other than that this movie feels a lot longer than 120 minutes.
Winner: No one’s a winner, unless you skipped them both.
Hunter S. Thompson adaptations seem to follow closely with the novels, which is good for books like Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas where you have a bizarre plot to read and watch but when you have a below average one, it really doesn’t translate well to any format. Now I’ve had a little vent about this book and movie, I might have to work on a new adaptation smackdown, so if anyone has some good suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
Posted July 10, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
I’ve always wanted a little reading room with floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall bookshelves, full of great books. I would especially love a whole lot of old leather bound books to grace my bookshelves. The shelves would be made out of a nice timber and the shelves themselves will be jammed pack with books that it might even be impossible to add any more books to the shelves; this is why there are piles of books on the floor as well. In the middle of the room, I would want some comfortable reading chairs with a nice coffee table to keep my notepad and coffee while I read as well as some reading lamps and I would want this room to be cool and comfortable to read in. This is also my idea of a man cave, maybe add a computer in the corner where I can write blog posts and book reviews and even catch up on twitter and goodreads. It doesn’t have to be a big room as long as the shelves are full of great books to read and enjoy. Even if I’m become more and more of a kindle reader, I would still want to be surrounded by books.
Here’s an example (with a chair not a bed)
Posted July 5, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Adaptations / 0 Comments
Since become a bibliophile I’ve tried to read the books before seeing the movie adaptation, but this is often difficult; there are so many books being made into movies and often I don’t find out about them until closer to the release date. There is a site called Read it 1st which sends out newsletters of books being turned into movies but sadly this site has been inactive for a while and Hank Green is just too busy doing all the jobs. So with a little help from an article from iO9 and some Google searching I’ve decided to give people an idea of the 30 new film adaptations currently in the works. Just a warning some of these movies are still in development and some may never make it to a release date.
- All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- If I Stay by Gayle Forman
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Maximum Ride by James Patterson
- Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
- Neuromancer by William Gibson
- Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- Ready Player One by Ernie Cline
- Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
- Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- The Forest of Hands & Teeth by Carrie Ryan
- The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
- The Hobbit by JRR Tolken
- The Host by Stephenie Meyer
- The Maze Runner by James Dashner
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
- Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
- Wettest County by Matt Bondurant
- World War Z by Max Brooks
Posted July 3, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Question Tuesday / 0 Comments
There are times when I feel like the book is just getting started when the book ends but then again there are times I feel a sense of closure from a book even if there is more books in the series. I haven’t read the rest of The Hunger Games series because I felt like the book ended at a good place and all I could see is an annoying love triangle if I went any further. But that might be another post; so I will head back to the original question. There are so many books I would love to have seen continued where I felt the story was just getting started or even that there was more of the story to be told. In Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, Nancy is finally happy and I would like to know what happens next. Or Looking for Alaska by John Green where I feel we can continue Miles story and explore more of his life and the effects Alaska had on him thoughout the rest of his life; even though I think John Green did end the book in a good place. Also speaking of John Green, in Will Grayson Will Grayson, Tiny is finally appreciated at the end, I’m sure there is more of a story to tell there as well.
I know authors finish a story and that’s it, the characters cease to exist beyond that, but it is really hard not to wonder what might happen to these characters that we have formed a bond with. I’m not sure but I think this is why people write fanfic. The fall in love with these great characters and they want them to keep on living in one form or another.
Posted June 30, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Monthly Reading / 0 Comments
What a great month we have had; with the reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray via the bookclub. There was some interesting discussions taken place about first impressions, the criticism, the idea of Prose vs. Plot? and Style vs. Substance? as well as people’s final thoughts of the book. If you haven’t read The Picture of Dorian Gray yet, when you do get around to it, please feel free to join in on the discussions. Remember next month we will be having a look at unusual settings in Literature and reading Life of Pi.
As for this blog, we have had some exciting conversations and with Armchair BEA being hosted earlier this year we have been pleased to welcome all the new readers and commenters here. It has been such a wonderful experience and I’m so pleased to be involved. My Google reader is now full of awesome blogs to read and comment on.
My personal reading this month has been wonderful; I’ve discovered some wonderful books, but also had a bit of a rage about one book in particular. Highlights from the twelve books I’ve managed to read this month include The Last Kind Words, a book of crime and family with shades of an Noir narrative this book blends mystery with literary elements. Empire State is a fun read set in an alternative world, the book blends Science Fiction with Superhero and Pulp elements; also the publisher has some interesting ideas on expanding this world. Gone Girl was the biggest highlight of the month (review will be up next month) a novel that kept me on the edge of the sit and occupied all my free time.
June’s Books
Posted June 29, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Top 5 / 0 Comments
I wanted to do something different for my next top five post and I was thinking about what genres I could probably do but I thought why not take it one step further. So I thought I might focus more on the pulp sci-fi genre and take it a little further than that with the addition of psychological science fiction novels. So here is my list of the top five Science Fiction recommendations from the 1960’s.
5. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
Far in the future, two powerful families are locked in a bitter feud; this classic series is not only a great example of a space opera but this book has some interesting political aspects as well.
4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962)
This fantastical world has elements of time travel, philosophy and religion. For a children’s book, this really has a whole load to offer and can be easy to read but complex to diagnose.
3. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (1966)
I have nothing bad to say about this book; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a sci-fi masterpiece. Without giving too much away this book has a strong political message but done in such a way that the story and climax is never effected.
2. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (1962)
Of course there was always going to be a Philip K. Dick novel here, the man is the master of writing sci-fi that will keep you thinking well after the book has ended. This book will challenge your views on society by showing what life could be like if the war turned out differently.
1. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
The whole story just has too many layers to try to explain, this was a book that just grows on you. It really highlights the effects of war on the survivors and what could be considered schizophrenia.
I would love to know what others would recommend when it comes to 1960’s sci-fi or even just psychological science fiction.
Posted June 28, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Book of the Month, Classic, Gothic / 0 Comments
Title: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Goodreads)
Author: Oscar Wilde
Published: Barnes & Noble Classics, 1890
Pages: 248
Genres: Classic
My Copy: Personal Copy
Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)
I feel perplexed about The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. On one hand, the story is well written about a young man being moulded and shaped. On the other hand, this book was incredibly flowery and doesn’t really start for 100 pages. Dorian doesn’t really know about life and meets an artist and an aristocrat that help him though his journey into manhood. The artist paints his portrait, subsequently making him keep his youth. The aristocrat had the biggest influence on Dorian Gray, though Lord Harry Wotton is very annoying. He talks and talks the whole way through this book, thinking he’s so witty.
Dorian Gray starts off in this novel as a blank slate, an easily influenced young man. Throughout the rest of the story he gets moulded and pushed into shape. After Basil paints his portrait Dorian starts to unravel, afraid to show the picture, he locks it way in a room and never lets anyone see it, protecting it at all costs. The whole thing symbolising the way we hide our real selves from the rest of the world, scared of what they may think.
The Picture of Dorian Gray would have been controversial in its day, with strong homosexual themes. Though the book itself is more about the life and morality, Oscar Wilde did a brilliant job of capturing this element of the book. For me the biggest downfall of this book was that Lord Wotton was too loud and dominates throughout the entire book.
Posted June 27, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary News / 0 Comments
American playwright, journalist, author, and blogger Nora Ephron has died in New York at 71. Ephron died from pneumonia, a complication resulting from acute myeloid leukemia. She will be remembered for her romantic comedies, in particular When Harry Met Sally… and Sleepless in Seattle. Other books include; I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections and Heartburn. Rest in Peace Nora Ephron 1941 – 2012.
