Really a week in which I've learnt a lot - as you'll see.This week's posts:
- A new tool - Screencast-O-Matic.
Sunnie pointed me towards a new web 2.0 tool that enables you to create a screencast of a screen on your computer. So I created a tour of my blog. You can listen to me for nearly 10 minutes showing and explaining aspects of my blog. You can leave a comment too. Not sure yet whether I get notification of the comments yet though. - REVIEW: RAFFLES: THE AMATEUR CRACKSMAN, E.W. Hornung.
For the last 2 weeks I've been listening to a reading of the 8 stories that make up this book. The reading was created by Librivox. My rating: 4.2. - My first Award.
A fellow blogger gave me an award and said nice things about me. So I then awarded 7 fellow bloggers and said nice things about them. - REVIEW: THE CLEANER, Brett Battles.
I was travelling on the weekend and on Monday and got a couple of books read. This is Brett Battles' first book, and already there is a second. My rating 4.2. I also answered a Weekly Geeks Challenge question posed by Book Zombie. - What a funny idea!
Two things here - I read a suggestion that some people would reject a book if it had an Australian setting. It never occurred to me that that could happen, because I never reject a book for that sort of reason.
The second thing is a suggestion that Helen Garner, a Melbourne author, is headed for a Booker prize. - Top 10s in the Guardian.
A set of lists in the UK Guardian related to crime fiction. - Around the world in 80 sleuths.
80 books matched to 80 sleuths in 80 destinations. Lots of omissions, but I love lists anyway. - REVIEW: DEATH OF A HAWKER by Janwillem van de Wetering.
Review of a book written in 1977 by a Dutch author who died just recently. Peter at Detectives Beyond Borders pointed me to it originally, and I also answered a Weekly Geeks Challenge question he posed. My rating: 4.4 - It Worked! - the commuting that is.
Two things in this post too. I commuted from Hobart to Adelaide on Tuesday morning. 3 hours after leaving Hobart I was walking in the door of the office in Adelaide. Not bad!
The second thing is that Sunnie pointed me to a tool which creates a podiocast of your blog, so now every one of my posts can be listened to. A great tool. I find it helps me check my blog too - missing words, misspellings etc that I missed in the first place, although I'm probably driving people mad with re-posting.
- now - THE QUIET GIRL, Peter Hoeg.
- next - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Stieg Larsson.
- audio book - BENEATH THE BLEEDING, Val McDermid.
If you've like to follow my blog you can do it in 2 ways:
- RSS feed - pop this into your PageFlakes or BlogBridge or whatever you use: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MysteriesInParadise
- Subscribe by email - this gives you one daily digest.
I loved 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. You'll find a review over on the blog. I can't wait for Larsson's next novel and can only mourn his early death. I envy you coming to this for the first time.
ReplyDeleteDeath of a Hawker sounds like a good one. Great review.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading :)
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/
Some interesting thoughts there. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteHere is my SS post
The screencast idea is strange. Do you send this as podcast to someone. It does give the idea that perhaps I could start using the add video feature so you could hear me performing my 50 word story( I do story-telling so not as odd as it sounds)
ReplyDeleteI also found Peter Hoeg slow going but not that book and by all account each book is completely different
My Blog
I'm looking forward to THE GIRL TableTalk. Just struggling with the Peter Hoeg at present.
ReplyDeleteI will be looking for some more van de Wetering Naida.
Thanks for dropping in Gautami. I'll come over and look at your blog sometime today.
John, I think you could very well read a story on the screencast. It would work well if you had some visuals showing as you read. I found the nearly 10 min screen cast created a 230MB .mov file though so the short files are the way to go. Then you can export them anywhere. I'll come over and look at your blog a bit later today too.
Is Beneath the Bleeding the first Val McDermid book you've read? This year I became a fan of Wire in the Blood on TV, but I didn't realize until recently that the series was based on books! I've added her to my long wishlist, but I don't know anyone who's read her and can tell me how her books are.
ReplyDeleteHi Kerrie - thanks for visiting my blog. It's funny about your comment re: Australian setting, I'd read your post earlier yesterday and also thought that was so odd. If anything, I'm intrigued by the setting (so why has it taken me so long to read Aussie authors???) I fell in love with Australian movies about 20 years ago. Any idea why the Oz setting is off-putting to some?
ReplyDeleteWhat Helen Garner books would you recommend? I see she's written a lot.
Interesting screencast idea! I can see how that would be useful for visitors who don't get the whole blog thing and are for some reason nervous about leaving comments (which is common, I find!).
btw I love your accent :o)
Jaime, I think Val McDermid is an author whom some readers find a bit scary. Over the years I have read quite a few. Some have made wonderful TV.
ReplyDeleteI haven't enjoyed either the Kate Brannigan or Lindsay Gordon series as much as the others. If you want to check titles and synopses go to http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/val-mcdermid/
Terri, I must confess I haven't read much Helen Garner at all. The Spare Room comes after quite a long break in publishing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/helen-garner/
She has won a heap of awards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Garner