I have taken a quick dash round my bit of the blogosphere, and have a few links to report:
Problogger (at length) and Google (briefly) both post about a year of blogging, complete with the highlights and the "most read" posts.
Google blog search has now overtaken Technorati as the site of choice for people looking for blogs. Good, it would be nice to stop all this Technorati keywording in favour of an automatic, full-text Google-style search.
Norm/Uriah of Crimescraps writes about the beauty and inspiration of blogging. There are links in the post (via Crimeficreader) that advise on how to start a "reader" blog, in case it is not self-evident. Norm's post itself is a thing of beauty (courtesy Chicago 1920). Crimeficreader herself, at her own blog, It's a Crime! , provides information about a summer course in Wales for writers.
Here is another Anita Shreve book to read, over at Reading Matters. At the same blog, Kimbofo also posts about a nifty Waterstone's widget for instant recommendations of what to read (if you should be short of ideas).
Galleycat picks up on reports comparing and contrasting the book and film of Children of Men (P. D. James). I read this book too long ago to remember it, but I expect I enjoyed it. I missed the film as it was out for about a week (only) in our local cinema, and is not yet available on DVD on Amazon UK. I bought the book for Cathy for Christmas, so may quite soon either read it again, or see the DVD when out, or both. Phil at Brandywine books here posts about P. D. James's opening sentences. Impressive.
Last time I linked to a Susan Hill post I got rather told off, but I'll risk it again for this excellent post of hers, on celebrity autobiographies we will never get to read (but would sell). Thank you, Susan! Glad to be spared some of these, and will rather miss others.
Karen Chisholm of It's a Crime (no exclamation mark) here reviews Shame by Karin Alvtegen. "SHAME is challenging and sometimes harrowing. It is also compelling, taut, intriguing and, ultimately, uplifting."
That's it for tonight. A very happy new year to everyone. I look forward to seeing you all in 2007.
I was very struck by "The Children of Men" when it came out. The first 2/3rds of it were spectacular sci-fi, and then James just seemed to get tired of it. I felt she just rushed to the end of it. Nevertheless, I remember giving lots of people copies of the novel, because her vision of the (then) coming millennium struck a chord in me.
I would not have picked Clive Owen for the lead, though. Should have been someone less handsome, & quirkier. Alan Rickman or David Thewlis, p'raps.
Posted by: Susan Balée | 01 January 2007 at 00:42