August Big Comfy Book Club

It's book club time! Below are the 7 choices for our next book. Our first two books were 500 and 600 pages long so I've gone easy this time round as each book (more or less) is less than 200 pages. I've also decided to stretch the reading time til the end of August for whatever is chosen, as this way we can then read a book a month starting on the 1st and going through to 30th/31st. It will make it easier to keep track!

I've added a wee bit about each book too so you'll have more info on what you might like to read. Go on over to the Facebook group to vote. As always, if you're not on Facebook then please Tweet me or leave a comment on the end of this blog post with which book is your choice. You'll have until 4pm Sunday to make your choice and also, FINISH AMERICAN GODS! (I'm only on page 332! Half way, yikes!) I'll then post the winning book on this blog.

The Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes

You may have noticed over the past 2 book choices I like to include a Man Booker book in the 7 choices. I like to read what others seem to say is the best. Half the time it isn't. Here's a bit of blurb on it

Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson

I gave away Jeanette Wintersons biography for World Book Night. She's a wonderful person. Here's some blurb

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

An absolute classic. I've read it already but would gladly again. Blurby bit

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I know little of this book but have always wanted to read Marquez. Plus Mariella 'Book-show vixen' Frostrups favourite. Can I get a blurb?

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

Dark, gritty, distasteful, downright uncomfortable. Monday, Tuesday, Blurbday 

The Stranger by Albut Camus

Something a little different for the club? Blurbnation

Eric by Terry Pratchett

I LOVE Pratchett. One of my favourite authors. Love fantasy and comedy? Final Blurb

So there you go. All (mostly) are under 200 pages. Make your mind up then head on over to the Group, comment below or tweet me. 

Michael

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

Fun and happiness! Sorry, wrong book.

I seem to have acquired a few Murakami books over the years, yet I've only read one of them. I've read Norwegian Wood and thought it was excellent, although even that I had to restart as the first time I hated it and stopped after 20 pages. I picked this up when my band Barricades Rise did a photoshoot in local bookshop Astley Book Farm. This book can be seen in some of the promo pics we did with Redwood Photography. It's a slim book at only 187 pages.

Murakami seems to love heading straight for melancholy and staying in the middle lane throughout. He did with Norwegian Wood and he has with this. The story revolves around Hajime, a single child (rare in Japan in the 70's). Cast as an outsider due to his lack of siblings, he finds solace in Shimamoto the only other single child in his school. The pair connect on so many levels, winding up spending their entire childhood together. When Hajime goes off to college he realises swiftly he cannot adjust to life without Shimamoto, casting aside woman without thought. He marries and has kids but ultimately has a hole left in him. Until Shimamoto turns up once more.

I enjoyed the book, but can't really say it struck a chord like Norwegian Wood did. Like the jazz music that runs through the book, it seems to meander back and forth between complete hopelessness to overriding joy. Hajime and Shimamoto are a tragedy and it's clear from the start (and from the fact it's Murakami) what you are in for.

For those that like to shed a tear. A middle of the road 6.5 of the Comfometer.

Michael

A manic few weeks for The Big Comfy Bookshop

Trying to open a shop is hard, but when it comes together it feels fantastic. I'm not jumping the gun just yet but the premises I have lined up is fantastic, flexible and in the ideal location. But let me say this. It is not in Nuneaton.

Nuneaton

I've spent the best part of 9 months trying to start in Nuneaton to no avail. I've covered why in this blog here so I won't bore you with other reasons. I'm not announcing just yet where the shop will be until the lease is signed.

Last week though all the good vibes evaporated as I was burgled. I currently run The Big Comfy Bookshop from my house and so my day-to-day job involves cataloging books, writing blogs, doing social media stuff and generally spending 6-8 hours a day on my laptop. Last Monday though whilst I was out some ####ers smashed my kitchen window and stole my laptop and camera. A lot of the bookshop is backed up but some isn't, so this week will be damage limitations. The kick in the teeth though is that every photo of my 18 month old from the day he was born was on the laptop, and we have no back up. Couple this with the fact my wife Heidi who works at North Warwickshire and Hinckley college, had a week of rehearsals and performances of Miss Saigon at the local arts centre so she's been out for 12 hours a day, and then 3 gigs in my band Barricades Rise in 24 hours, it has been exhausting for both of us.
The college show was superb, see some great pics by Jonathan Coates at www.jscoates.com. The band gigs went well too with a great review by Rob at Redwood photos here.

Miss Saigon performed by NW&H College. Fantastic

This week though is a new start and back on track. I'll be updating the blog more often and letting you all know my thoughts on the shop, books and more.

I've just finished Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun so I'll be doing a review soon. I'm currently reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods for our book club. Feel free to join either by Facebook or just let me know on this blog (comment below). I'm also dipping in and out of Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Michael

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Book Club review

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was the Big Comfy Book Club's first book club choice. The Big Comfy Book Club got off to a storming start with nearly 50 people joining the online club. Out of the 7 choices available we voted for Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn as our first book. I received a lot of messages over the next 4 weeks telling me what they thought, where they bought it and what other books aill be in the future. It's been great already! But lets talk about the book itself. Beware, there are spoilers a-plenty.

The book has become a huge success both over in the USA and on our own Isles so the expectation by me and several other book-clubbers was high. A quick read of praise from the national newspapers on the cover gave it more gravitas too. So lets delve into it, did it excite and move me? Did it make a lasting impression on the club? In short. Not in the slightest.

The story revolves around Nick and Amy, a 'normal' couple living in New York. They have the great big posh flat, they are both authors and journalists, they met in a very meet-cute way. They are a Sophie Kinsella couple. But the story really starts after all this and how their relationship has dwindled due to the death of Nicks mum and his dads dementia. Amy has a huge trust fund from her parents, (Authors! Wow!) as their books are based around Amazing Amy, a fictionalised version of their real daughter. One day Nick gets a call from a neighbour saying his front door is wide open, so he returns home and sees that his wife has been involved in a struggle, and she's disappeared. She is Gone Girl. The resulting 250 pages are seen through the eyes of both Nick, at the time, dealing with what has gone on, the subsequent police investigation and the reveal of an affair, and Amy in the form of her diary written over the past 7 years. The format works to a degree but neither Nick or Diary Amy have many qualities to make you like them, Nick is weak and obtuse whilst Diary Amy is a pushover. I'm calling Amy Diary Amy as half way through there is a big reveal which I loved (the best part of the book). The format shifts slightly to the real Amy.

This shift kept the book alive for me as it was really starting to have that bad-movie kind of feel with very clichéd characters. The mum being posh and snooty, the dad being all 'hey sport' with the son-in-law, the good cop, bad cop couple. But really what I disliked was Nick. He's an idiot. He does the stupidest things for no reason. Only his twin sister Go (short for Margot) seems reasonable and normal. With the change in narration it gave a real insight into Nick from a different angle. But it didn't last long. The whole book was dragged to the finale. Gillian Flynn had written herself into a corner and had no way out and didn't have an ending. It was a frustrating, annoying read.

Once we'd all read it we had a long discussion on Facebook about it and nearly everyone agreed with me. We are still baffled as to why it has become such a best seller.

I've given it 3.5 on the comfometer. The lowest yet.

If you fancy joining the online book club then hop on over to the Facebook group and add yourself or alternatively if you're not on Facebook, just send me an email, tweet or comment on this blog telling me you're reading along. We've just started our next book, Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

Michael

Book club choice #2 - Neil Gaiman's American Gods

We've just chosen American Gods by Neil Gaiman as our book club choice. If you want to take part then beg, steal, borrow or buy a copy. Add yourself to the Facebook group if you want too or follow me on twitter @BigComfyBooks. Local bookshops are the best to buy from but don't fret too much if you don't have access to one. Get reading as you have til July 20/21 to get through it!

My copy comes from the fantastic local bookshop Astley Book Farm

Michael

The Big Comfy Book Club choice

The first month of the club has gone great. 46 people are on the Facebook group and a few non-Facebookers have joined too. We read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and will be chatting (via Facebook) tomorrow at 4 about it. I've just added the 7 books to choose from for this month on Facebook. For those non-Facebookers please have a look at these and tell me your choice via the comments at the bottom of this post. Add your name too so I know you don't get two votes!

The choices are:

The Fault in our Stars by John Green

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Michael

Nuneaton Carnival - My experience

Photo by Jonathan Coates - JSCoates.com

This Sunday June 9th I took part in the Nuneaton Carnival by holding a stall on the Gala field.
The Nuneaton Carnival occurs every year and each year has a different theme. This years theme was 'A Book at Bedtime'. Local schools, groups and clubs hired floats and got in the party spirit by dressing as their favourite book characters. I couldn't actually see the floats as I was in the field but I was told by my wife that everyone looked great. It was nice that authors and book characters were given the chance to come alive, although how Shrek can be classed as a book character baffles me a little!

Front

I was given a great pitch and was excited to use the large space. I could have bought twice the amount of books! I had a helping hand setting up then by 10.30 I was more or less ready to go. Up until 1.30 it was deserted, the odd few people passing, but this was expected as the carnival was in full swing in the town centre. Once 1.30 passed and the floats were finished the field was swarmed and people started buying books. I met some great people who had heard about the bookshop via radio, social media and this blog and came along to say hello.

Back

My brother gave a helping hand in selling and promoting the shop and together we felt we had a good day. About 4.30 the crowd had dwindled so we packed up and left by 5.15, with help from my dad. A family affair! Along the way a lot of friends came by and said hello (some using the gazebo and shade I had plus chairs to ease their weary legs for half an hour!). Overall the day was a fun, sunny, great success.

My musical partner in crime Jonathan took along his camera and caught some great shots. See them on his photography website.

Someone walking their fox at the carnival

I'm in Coventry at the POD, Lamb Street tomorrow Wednesday 12th June from 12-2pm selling books then again in Leicester at the LGBT centre from 11-3pm. It's a busy week!

I also will hopefully have news on a property by the end of the week. Fingers are still crossed.

Michael