#wonderoustales.com

[raymondwalker-co-uk]

How a cover can affect the purchase of a novel.

I can understand all writers feelings about the difference between the cover and what is contained therein and must agree with most to a great extent yet I still come back to; upon entering a branch of Waterstones (for example, please substitute Waterstones for the name of any other large bookstore that you know well) you will be greeted with a plethora of novels, many thousands of them. How do you choose which books that you will then go on to read the blurb. If you look at my previous comments you will see that I agree with most writers and like you all I have read many a novel with a nice cover that has turned out to be terrible and conversely have read many a great novel which has been clothed in rags.  Obviously we cannot read the blurb on the back of all those thousands of books, no one does, most are separated out into genre to make that easier but still there could be hundreds. If, like me, you are just looking for a good novel and care little for the genre then you are back to thousands. Even if you have time (which I mainly do not) there has to be a catalyst for the ones that you lift to then read the blurb and decide which you are buying. Like you all I will then choose the book on which the blurb and the reviews are best. Yet the catalyst for those that we lift to read more about, is either the cover, the title or the authors name as that is all that is visible until the book is lifted. If the book is on a shelf then only the spine, title and authors name are visible.

Of course if you know of the author then that decision is made as you will know wither you like them or not but otherwise it is down to the title of the novel and the cover for those that you will then pick up to read the blurb.  I do not consider this ideal but that's just the way it is.

[raymondwalker-co-uk]

Hardbacks, paperbacks and E-readers

I like the look of a hardback book and own many yet I would much rather have a paperback. They are lighter to hold, in bed, reading and more; as a bit of bibliophile as i suspect most of us are, I hate harming a hardback but do not bother so much with a paperback. Folding down pages to keep my place (I would never do that to a hardback) or cracking the spine. I bought an e-reader some time ago thinking that it would be even easier to hold up than a paperback but gave up on it rather quickly. Imagine heading to bed at night anticipating the next chapter (or ten) that you are going to read of whichever wonderous novel you are reading. You lift your e-reader to the message, "your e-reader needs to be charged please plug it in immediately". You do so and so cannot read what you were wishing to read and (hopefully) so looking forward to, so what do you do? Do you not console yourself with the thought that you might get another hours sleep that night? No you go to your bookshelves and lift another book to read. I found myself with both my pile of books and my e-reader lying on the bedside cabinet. An open book there in case the e-reader needed recharged and of course quickly realized that for an avid reader (as most writers are) the e-reader need not be there at all.

In addition to this here are a couple of other things. I bought it partly because I am growing short sighted in my old age and knew that you could change the font size. That is true and for about 45 seconds I thought it was great not having to wear my glasses to read it. But then on a freezing cold night in Scotland I realized that I had to have both arms out from beneath the covers to turn the page (impossible to do one handed) and worse because the print was larger you are turning the page every few seconds. Also I like to scan back on occasion when I am reading something quite involving and though this is easy enough I just found it rather annoying.

[raymondwalker-co-uk]

Folklore

I am a fan of folklore and have always been since i was young. I once went to the only small bookshop in a hundred miles (the highlands of Scotland) to buy a novel by the (weirdly aforementioned Tolkien- the Silmarillion) which they had sold out of. Being an avid reader i could not leave without a book and so i bought "The Wierdstone of Brisingammen) by Alan Garner. I was either ten or eleven at the time and it ignited in me a passion for faerie stories, legends and mythology and from that point in time i was hooked. I have been ever since then. I think (though it was a very long time ago now and i maybe wrong) that i started with welsh legend and from there to Arthurian legend and then to Greek myth and legend and then to Irish folk tales and thence to Scots legend and folk tales. The Welsh tales add themselves to high fantasy very easily where the Irish and the Scots faerie tales are far more fickle. I know it must seem that i have downer on Fantasy, given some of my earlier comments, but i do not at all. I am just fed up with the old routine stuff.  I do like fantasy (in fact i have written a fair number of fantasy tales in my time) folklore, and even new folklore. Oh if you fancy having a look just go to www.wonderoustales.com and if you click on fantasy you will get "The River Sprite", by me, for free. and then romance, nature, ecology and folk-lore all in one.