Reading and Writing.

When I wrote my first post of 2013, and first mentioned Deal Hudson's list of 100 Best Catholic Novels, I knew there'd be little possibility of my reading all - or even many - of the 100 books listed. I'd do my best to read as many as I could. After 10 months, I haven't gotten close. Sad to say, there are a few that I began reading but couldn't finish.......some just didn't hold my interest.

En Route by Joris-Karl Huysmans and The Comedienne, by Wladyslaw Reymont are just two of those books.




Netflix has introduced me to Swedish crime novels (in movie form) - the works of Liza Marklund, Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell. It was only a matter of time before I'd be hunting down these crime novels in book form.

Unfortunately, the first one I bought was The Bomber by Liza Marklund. This book is the first in her Annika Bengtzon series. I throughly enjoyed the film series, but the novel isn't the page turner I expected it to be. I hope I can finish it.

Going from Swedish crime dramas to stories taking place in England (via Netflix) led me to the BBC series featuring Detective Inspector Lynley. The Inspector Lynley novels were written by an American, Elizabeth George.

I found quite a few of Ms. George's books at Amazon.com but, rather than order one of her crime novels, I purchased her book on writing fiction, Write Away. I'm very glad I did.

I'm having a hard time putting down this book; it's very instructive. Like countless others, I once started writing my own novel, but now I have a better understanding of my mistakes. I'm hoping that, upon finishing this book, I'll be a much better writer and able to repair my Philippine novel.

Time will tell, of course.