Transworld Reading Challenge

There's a built in alarm system for when my blog has been a little too quiet. My mother phones me up and tells me she is bored, and please would I post something. Because then she stops by and clicks on lots of comments and goes and reads your blogs and has a thorougly nice time, thank you very much.

And she's right - so I'm dragging my head out of the bookshelf and coming to say hello. This summer (well, this year really) has been a good one for reading. Somehow, when I worked at the bookshop, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of them. Paralysed with indecision. Too busy scanning blurbs and trying to remember relevant new stock so I could answer questions from customers. Assaulted by other peoples opinions - reps, customers, reviews.

This year, I have come to rediscover the pleasure of thinking something sounded interesting, picking up a copy and losing myself in it. Not because I felt I should read it, but because I wanted to. But sometimes it's good to be taken out of your reading comfort zone, so when Annabel mentioned it, I decided to take up the Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge.

The first one across my threshold was The Colour of Death, by Michael Cordy.

Here's what the blurb says:
In a quiet, residential neighbourhood of Portland, Oregon, an unknown young woman uncovers a shocking crime scene by inexplicably sensing the evil within its walls.To the police, she herself is a mystery.She appears on no government records, has no past and can’t even tell the police her own name.Christened Jane Doe and suffering terrifying hallucinations, she is assigned to Nathan Fox, a forensic psychiatrist struggling with his own demons after witnessing his parents’ murder as a child.Together they must piece together the jigsaw that is Jane’s identity.Then a sequence of brutal killings terrorise the city and Fox learns Jane is the only cryptic link between the unrelated victims.To solve the murders, discover who she is and diagnose her condition, Fox must discard his black and white preconceptions, look beyond the spectrum of normal human experience and confront the dark truth of her past&and his own.

I say, if you're partial to the odd Dan Brown-esque thriller, you'll probably derive much guilty pleasure from this. It's not lit-er-a-ture, but was compelling enough that I was forced to read it in a day!

Much of the plot hangs on Jane Doe's synesthesia (something that has always fascinated me). And now I've found a site that can answer all my synsthesia type ponderings - the color of. You enter a word, and it generates a colour, based on Flickr photos. I'm a little bit addicted.

Wisley? Well, that's where I'm headed tomorrow. Summer field trip. While I wait for the next book to arrive.

Comments

[dottycookie]

The reading challenge does look like fun, but I think maybe I'll use it as a source of book ideas rather than a formal participant as I know I'll never get around to reviewing four books in an appropriate time frame. Besides, I am for once enjoying our book group selection - but then, I did suggest it (The Fry Chronicles).

My sister is the one who phones me when I haven't written for a while. Not that she ever comments, but you can't have everything!

[PinkCatJo]

Domesticali isn't a brownish colour! It's bright and happy and full of fun! x

[Sue]

Another little toy to play with. Thanks Ali, I tried it with 'quince' naturally.

[daisie]

Hello Ali's Mum!! x

[Angel Jem]

No No No.
I do not need another blog on my blogroll.
I do not need a link to a site that seems to be soliciting reviews from bloggers and will send books out for free.
I do not need more books.
I will resist.
I will resist.
I will.... oh, bugger. What was the address again?

[kristina]

Oooh now I know what Wisley will look like tomorrow! Actually the colors do look quite Wisley-ish...

K x

[Cat]

Ha - I get the same from mine, and my Mother-in-law! I do keep suggesting that they start their own blog...

[Megan]

I wonder what the colour of colour is?

[Amanda]

I love getting into a new book so much you just have to finish it super quick. I've just started Don Quixote, expecting it to be quite hard going, but it's hilarious.

[Donna]

hello mum... you can come visit me anytime!

[Annabel]

I'm doing this challenge too, and the Michael Cordy is one of my four too. I'm just about to start 'Twelve' a Napoleonic/Russian vampire novel as my first read. Love that synaethesia site ...

[domestikate]

Oh what a brilliant site - thanks for the link! And I'm rediscovering the joy of reading this year too. Nothing quite compares to getting lost in a good book, does it? Currently devouring Nigel Slater's 'Toast' - it's so unusual, and very engaging!

[The Coffee Lady]

I do love a page-turner. We are immersed in many guilty reading pleasures this summer, and very happy about it.

I do like the look of that challenge...

[Lynn]

Wow, what a treasure box of goodies! I have eagerly explored the synesthesia links and am pondering the book, although I'm not sure I can stomach the latter.

And hello from across the pond, Ali's mum! My mother and mother-in-law BOTH remind me when I haven't blogged in a while...

[Ginnie]

Please thank your mom for me - great post!

[Janine]

Wow! Your mom reads your blog too?? :)

[Jackie]

the color of...ah a new addiction. the book sounds delicious.

[Emma (silverpebble)]

Both numbers and the days of the week are indellibly coloured for me. They're always the same when I think of them. Monday is red, Thursday is brown, Saturday is purple, three is orange. I always wondered if this was a form of synaesthesia (or just a form of weirdness). It even has a name: Colour-grapheme synaesthesia Thankyou!

[Annie]

I actually have very slight synasthesia ... some smells and tastes have colours in my world. It's funny how you take such things for granted, until someone reminds you that not everyone's the same!

[Monica]

thank you for the link... it's still August, do you think there's still time to join?

I always write a '3' when I mean 'e' and viceversa... does it have a name or is it just bad typing???