Blogs The Bookworm

Dan Brown has made a lot of money writing books. He moves a lot of books. He has a loyal following. But he does have his critics.

Here’s one review by The Guardian’s Peter Conrad.

I finished reading my third Jilly Cooper novel today. My wife is a big fan and I have to admit the novels are fun.

The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous was a lot better read than Pandora, which I struggled to get through at different times.

I haven’t decided what I’m reading next. It’s between Liza MarkLund’s Lifetime and Liza Klaussmann’s Tigers in Red Weather. It’s odd that I’m just noticing now that the authors share the same first name.

I tried to read an earlier novel by Marklund but gave up, one of the few novels that I started but didn’t finish. This one is another Annika Bengtzon mystery. Bengtzon is a new reporter who solves murders. Maybe the reason this character has never appealed to me is: 1) Reporters don’t solve workers. 2) Most young reporters don’t work the hours Bengtzon work.

That’s not a slight against today’s young journalists. It’s just that I find the way some journalists are portrayed in the media to not match up with reality. I’ll give this book a try and perhaps I’ll be convinced otherwise.

It was quite the visit to Chapters at South Keys.
When you first walk in, there is a huge display of Dan Brown’s new book — The Inferno. I’ve read his previous two novels. Not sure if I will try this one. But it’s certainly at a good price; $15 — and that’s for the hardcover edition.

They also had a great selection in the bargain bin area. Here’s a selection of books you could get under $10, some of them hardcover.

And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman
Savages by Don Winslow
The Humbling by Philip Roth
London Boulevard by Ken Bruen
Limitless by Alan Glynn (This book was originally titled The Dark Fields, but you can find copies with the title Limitless to reflect the movie starring Robert Di Niro and Bradley Cooper)
There was also a novel by Philip Kerr

John Le Carre’s new novel — A Delicate Truth — can be had for 40 per cent off the regular price.

Some great books for great prices.

Thanks to the latest movie adaptation, The Great Gatsby is on the bestsellers list again. It’s also high on the Amazon list of fiction books. I noticed it’s on sale for $13 and change. That’s a lot more than I paid for it last year when there was no buzz surrounding the book. I guess that’s what you call supply and demand. It has more than 2,000 reader reviews.

Another book that has done well thanks to a movie is Silver Linings Playbook. It’s also doing quite well on the Kindle bookstore.

Lots of buzz out there over rumours that Microsoft will spend $1 billion to buy Nook Media.

So is this a sign that Microsoft wants to get into the e-reader business or is it most likely that they want to have access to a store on content that can be bought through an app on their own tablets?

If the sale goes ahead, I don’t think it will take long to get the answer.