I've just finished a second book by David Baddiel in a week. Have to say, this is quite impressive for me being as I generally manage a maximum of a chapter a night. I got so in to Whatever Love Means that I sat up in bed all morning to finish it. As I'm writing this, I'm trying to work out why I think it's good stuff. I need to say both of these novels were written at the turn of the century, but thanks to a chance comment by the author himself on Twitter, I've just discovered them. The Twitter comment alluded to an anal sex scene in the first book and I was curious as I have never seen anal sex written about in a work of fiction outside of porn stories. http://www.literotica.com/ has a fabulous repository, thousands of them.
Evidently, the books aren't scholarly or particularly smooth, I've seen the writing style described on an http://www.amazon.co.uk/ review as 'clunky'. In both books I think one of the characters is heavily based on Baddiel's long time friend Frank Skinner, which is distracting for someone who's read a lot of Frank's stuff. I always seem to enjoy a bit of art where I can feel the flaws, its like the pleasure of scratching a really itchy bit of skin, so I'm happy with the book's faults. Mostly I enjoyed the great plot of Whatever Love Means with the twist at the end that I didn't see coming. There is a bit of humour, which lightens it but not belly laughs which lets the plot keep its darkness. I am a bit alarmed in that I can see some parallels between my Two Hours to Taunton Deane in terms of one of the characters. This can only be coincidence, and just goes to show that nothing is 100% unique. It also makes me feel bad that I'm still groping for a plot for my masterpiece.
Last year, I read almost exclusively non-fiction, but I seem to be breaking away from that. If I was thinking tactically, I would be reading this year's prizewinning novels and working out how to copy 'em, but I don't have it in me. It would be like when I had a proper job and I used to read management manuals, calculating what would be good for my career. Well, it seemed to work for a while, but looking back, I can't believe I ever wasted my time with it. I'm just letting Amazon hop me from book to book, they seem to have someone there who is good at recommending stuff that I like. They are my bookish fairy (I don't like to think of worms), communicating through my laptop. In consequence, I've ordered Baddiel's third novel but not that CD by Elbow that's top of their list. I don't like that Elbow hit that's getting a lot of airtime, but who knows, maybe if I got the CD I'd think my familiar at Amazon was right again? I'm not going to though.
I need to start working towards getting some kind of job and on to a course for next September. I'm being very lazy about it because I've got too cozy sitting about the house entertaining myself. I tend not to experience boredom, and frankly, I think a lot of people you meet at work are gits so I'm deeply lacking in motivation. I need my arse kicking, and I'm relying on this blog to do that. If I don't start writing about my progress towards gainful employment I'll......oh forget it. I can't think of a worse punishment than having to stand behind another checkout.
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