Well it was a fun week, although in retrospect I really didn't do all that much. I interviewed Damien Lewis about his soon to be released book Cobra Gold, and it turned out to be a great interview. It ended up in syndication, so everyone is happy! In fact Damien is so happy he is sending me a couple more of his books. Cobra Gold is going to be available in the US mid July, and I recommend that you grab this one.
And my literary 'rant' of the week has to be the very disturbing book The Street Series - Is It Suicide Or Murder by Kevin Weeks. This is a book in a genre that I had previously never heard of, Urban Lit! What is Urban Lit I hear you ask. Well it is street talk. Almost the entire book is written in urban gang slang. I really didn't care for it a lot, and I think that came through in the review. Maybe what disturbed me most was that the only audience that this book would appeal to (teens) are the group that should not be allowed to read it. Steeped in sex, violence, and glorification of gang life, it is not a book that I would want my teen reading.
In my opinion The Street Series epitomizes all that is wrong with the shift to print on demand (POD) and self publishing. Obviously no Editor was involved in the butchering of the English language. An author may create the book, but a good editor makes the book. What I find absolutely amazing is this damn book won some (admittedly obscure) award. Maybe the really depressing aspect is the word 'series', he plans on producing more!
I read a lot of books, and there are a lot of great authors out there, authors that deserve recognition, but get none, because last year 290,000 new titles were released in the US alone. The only upside that I can see is that Kevin is currently in jail, while this may not stop him publishing, it should at least slow him down.
In TV world I did my usual Big Ideas For A Small Planet gig. What an interesting show, and one that I can recommend to everyone. I even got to include a brief interview with a guy who makes eco-friendly skateboards!
In the music world apart from the great day Jan and I had last Friday where we got to meet Sam Moore, and listen to Blood Sweat and Tears it has been a dead week.
3 comments:
I only handle spam in english! And I don't like that very much! Rodrigo, consider yourself lucky that I am not your neighbor, cos life would be hell!
Thanks for linking to me Simon. I will reciprocate soon.
With your permission I am going to plug your blog in a separate posting. I think your beer box server is hilarious...and best of all, it just keeps working.
Enjoy your summer.
BB
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