52 Book Challenge - October

So this month was the worst so far, what with moving house and all the other things (mainly work and emotions) that kept me busy. Here's what I'm at now:

35 The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
36 One Day - David Nicholls

So the first one was in the Recommended by Staff section of the Waterstone's in Amsterdam. A former fellow student of English has been lucky enough to find work there, and she recommended the novel, so I simply had to read it. It's about a small boy in WWII London who finds a way into another world, one where fairytales are real - even if with somewhat different endings and morals than the real ones. I loved the premise (I've actually written quite a lot of stories that follow a similar vein, but then again, haven't we all?), and most of the first part when he was still in our world, but once he 'fell through' it all became a bit too obvious and flat. What with his unfailing abilities to see through things no one else can understand, presumed-dead characters turning up in the nick of time to save the day, and the 'face your fears' moral drawn out a bit too long, it became quite unoriginal and frankly boring. With so many variants of this idea roaming around on the Internet, it's almost a shame that this is the one that got published
Now One Day, my third David Nicholls novel, was something of a surprise in that I didn't see the 'Signed by the author' sticker when I bought it in London (also at Waterstone's) last July. So it was nice to see the hasty scribble on the title page; it is one of only a few signed books I own. The book itself is great; I'd say it's Nicholls's best, better than the much-acclaimed (or hyped) Us or Starter for Ten, which I loved but which lacks the depth of One Day. Again, the premise is straightforward: two people are followed on the same day for 20 years, starting on the 15th of July 1988 and ending in 2007. In that period, they go from being 22 to being 42, and the biggest and most important part of their lives take place. As with Us, the ending is not what you'd expect; I won't spoil, but the 500 Days of Summer warning "This is not a love story" should be heeded. The writing is beautiful; very funny but also very meaningful, with well-developed characters, scenes and feelings set out in just a few words. You really get to know the two protagonists; who they are, how they differ, why they do what they do, and also why their lives keep revolving around one another. David Nicholls is starting to become one of those authors who I want to read every single novel of, and I'm already quite some way along. If you're in for something new, try him. Stay away from Us, and read this one instead.
Looking at the bigger picture; I'm 36 books down and it's already week 44. That means I'm 8 books behind, with the craziness of NaNoWriMo looming. I'd be very very surprised if I manage to read 52 new books this year, but who knows what will happen, maybe a literary miracle!

NaNoWriMo 2015

For those of you not in the know: NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, which started in 1999 (wayyy before November became 'Movember' and all those other fancy scrambled month names) and has been going strong ever since. I've participated in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and I won (meaning: I wrote a novel of at least 50,000 words) in the last three of those attempts. Since then, I've been too busy with work (ironically, I started this blog in 2012 because I thought I'd have more time for creative pursuits, but that didn't really work out...) or travels to participate, but this year I will give it another go.
As with the 52 book challenge, I'm not hitting myself over the head if things don't work out, because the truth is that I'm still swamped with a lot of other things. But if you don't try you won't ever succeed, so this morning I 'created my novel', which means I picked a genre and put in a short working title and synopsis. My past NaNo experience tells me that the actual end result will probably be something only vaguely resembling what I wrote today, but the important thing is the first step.
If you've ever thought about writing anything but find yourself having (or making up) a lot of excuses for not actually writing, NaNoWriMo is for you. You have to write a lot, while turning your Inner Editor off: it's about quantity, not quality. December is the time for editing and fine tuning, November is the time for output.
Also, there's a really nice community of people all working towards the same goal, with online forums and real life meet-ups (Write-ins). So even if you don't end up with a novel, you may end up with new friends.
You can find my author's page here, but I'll keep you updated on my progress and word count as November comes around. And who knows; I may even post some excerpts!