When Mr Dog Bites, Brian Conaghan

I'm not sure what made me choose When Mr Dog Bites, but I am so glad I did. Not only is this book side-splittingly hilarious, it is heart-warming and heart-breaking. Conaghan has done such a fantastic job creating such believable characters using a difficult context. The book cover description of which says, ''a story about life, death, love, sex and swearing'' could not be more apt and all these components sum up the life of Dylan Mint superbly.

The main protagonist, Dylan Mint suffers from Tourettes Sydrome and on a routine visit to the hospital, he discovers he is going to die next March. Along with his best friend Amir (who is Autistic), he creates a bucket list - and in pure Dylan Mint style, called ''Cool Thing to Do Before I Cack It''. Top of the list? To have sex with Michelle Maloney! A story of friendship, a journey of clumsy self discovery and Dylan's determination to prove his self worth.

At first I was taken aback by the sheer level of profanities used in the dialogue, however it doesn't take a genius to understand how and why Conaghan has done this. Plus, Conaghan has introduced me to two of my new favourite words; Shizenowzen and Bahookie. You can't help but fall in love with Dylan.
As for Mrs Mint, I couldn't help but become increasingly frustrated by her, but by the end of the book, all you can do sympathise with her as we learn the truth about Dylan's father.

It's not often I would give a book 5 Stars purely based on fun, but this one I would. While its not a psychological thriller, it is still a thought provoking insight into this debilitating condition.  I will point out this book is profanity ridden and not suitable for a younger reader, or any readers with a predisposition to swear words!!!

This has got me thinking.....

Like most people I love reading. So far, I havent set foot into the world of Ebooks. I love the feel of a book, the small of them (old ones especially) and I like collecting them! I like looking at a pile of books and selecting one at random.....

The Amazon Kindle, or the Kobo Ereader as of yet, have not tempted me. Until I read this.....

The writer who made millions by self publishing online........


Amanda Hocking, an American author who dreamed of publishing her own books. After numerous rejections from even the small publishing houses she had a brain wave. Amazon and Kindle! Hocking is now known as a  catalyst in the evolution of E-Reading.....

I found the article via @GuardianBooks see links below.

It has got me thinking. To what extent can Kindle and Kobo go in being a new, albeit easier way to get unknown authors published......

GuardianBooks Guardian Books 

Meet Amanda Hocking, the writer who made millions by self-publishing online gu.com/p/34jzc/tw #longreads

GuardianBooks Guardian Books 

The writer who made millions by self-publishing online gu.com/p/34jzc/tf                                   

Update of sorts, but nothing special.....

OK, while my current booklist is ever growing and my attempts to actually document my readings so far have been feeble, my twitter feed has been gaining rather more attention that it usually would.... I will be adding various tweets and links from interesting literary related tweets....

Tweet No 1.... @GaurdianBooks
Moira Young's Blood Red Road leads Costa book winners http://gu.com/p/34e47/tf

Ah Life always gets in the way...

OK, Ive been abandoning this blog somewhat over the past few weeks. Life has been manic and somewhat messed up for me recently. So, as a way of re-starting my reading regime, I am writing my next Blog on one of my Birthday pressies, Cecelia Ahern's new novel 'Time of My Life' (very approriate I think).....

Reviewing will commence once Ive actually started!

Its a Kids World

Well, seeing as the previous reading exploits didnt work out quite so well, I thought Id revert to the good old childhood classics (my favourites anyway). You can never go wrong with the favourites from your childhood as everyone has differenyt faves. Personally anything from Dahl! The Twits, The BFG, James & The Giant Peach, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory..... the list goes on.

So over the next few weeks I am going to return to these books that sent my imagination haywire as a kid..... why? Just for the fun of it!

Give me (Another) Book anyday....

I can safely say I am very disappointed with Womack's The Other Book! I have been trying to read it for the past few days and have gotten no further than chapter 3, page 68 to be precise.

While the initial idea of the plot in itself is actually very good, Womack failed to draw me into the story beyond the first few pages, I fought myself as far as I did. Even by chapter 3 I was still unsure as to when the book is set. Yes best way to describe The Other Book is to think of The Spiderwick Chronicals; a boy discovers an ancient book hidden in a house out of which dark, evil forces emerge.... You get the picture. But sadly, I simply couldn't get further than grasping a basic gist of the story, even scanning pages didnt help.

The initial character building of the main protagonist, Edward Pollock was good to begin with, the reader is then left in limbo as to who he really is and how he has come to be at the school.... and how the manor has become a school for that matter. Yes that is possibly revealed later on, but the reader needs the pull from the author to continue reading and sadly Womack did not deliver this.

All in all, a good idea but one that fails on page and is poorly structured. Im not saying don't read it as Im sure some people would thoroughly enjoy it and it is worth the attempt to read, but for me personally it just didnt work.

And I am not someone to give up easily on a book!

*** out of 5.

My current reading....

The book I am currently reading is called 'The Other Book', by Phillip Womack. I nabbed it off my sisters shelf. Review to follow......