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A little bit of what you fancy
While it is not unusual to make a partial review on a partially-read novel, especially when (say) the first half is so terrific that you've just read it in a few fantastic hours, it must be odd indeed to make comment on a partially-written novel, especially one that is being read by hundreds of thousands - if not millions - during the process.
The Dog Who Came in From the Cold is a serial novel - one chapter per day six days a week - and we are up to the third week.
So no, I can't read this all at once, or even devour the first half in a few fabulous hours. I must take my pleasure in small doses. Along with everyone else.
This is the sixth serial novel Alexander McCall Smith has written, beginning with a series set in Edinburgh, and now the second in his London "Corduroy Mansions" series.
And, as with the others, it is pleasure indeed to read a thousand words or so in the ongoing stories of the residents of an apartment building. Their lives are linked through the bonds of residence, but they also have ties to the neighbourhood, the city, the nation and the world. Increasingly tenuous, to be sure, but they are so solidly part of the web that binds us all that even in Australia, I can feel that these people are one with my other online communities. I'm reading a third-party blog, as it were.
More blogs should be like this: tightly written, pushing the stories forward, leaving teasers at the end to keep the readers coming back.
So far, I'm enjoying the show. There are spies, germs, art and musings of furniture. Not to mention the gentle philosophy that characterises Smith's work. He is a delight to read, whether describing civilised Gabarone or the moral wilderness of Glasgow.
I say "so far", because I have not yet finished reading this not yet finished book. But I doubt that the quality will fall off. Not unless the author walks in front of a bus and dictates the remainder of the novel under the influence of mind-bending drugs.
"Time for your novel, Mr Smith!"
http://twitter.com/freddiedelahay
The Dog Who Came in From the Cold is a serial novel - one chapter per day six days a week - and we are up to the third week.
So no, I can't read this all at once, or even devour the first half in a few fabulous hours. I must take my pleasure in small doses. Along with everyone else.
This is the sixth serial novel Alexander McCall Smith has written, beginning with a series set in Edinburgh, and now the second in his London "Corduroy Mansions" series.
And, as with the others, it is pleasure indeed to read a thousand words or so in the ongoing stories of the residents of an apartment building. Their lives are linked through the bonds of residence, but they also have ties to the neighbourhood, the city, the nation and the world. Increasingly tenuous, to be sure, but they are so solidly part of the web that binds us all that even in Australia, I can feel that these people are one with my other online communities. I'm reading a third-party blog, as it were.
More blogs should be like this: tightly written, pushing the stories forward, leaving teasers at the end to keep the readers coming back.
So far, I'm enjoying the show. There are spies, germs, art and musings of furniture. Not to mention the gentle philosophy that characterises Smith's work. He is a delight to read, whether describing civilised Gabarone or the moral wilderness of Glasgow.
I say "so far", because I have not yet finished reading this not yet finished book. But I doubt that the quality will fall off. Not unless the author walks in front of a bus and dictates the remainder of the novel under the influence of mind-bending drugs.
"Time for your novel, Mr Smith!"
http://twitter.com/freddiedelahay