Book Buying Guilt

[callmemadam]

No, not guilt about how much money I've spent on books but about where I've bought them. This is an apology to all small independent booksellers struggling to keep going. W H Smith's are selling the new Jacqueline Wilson book Jacky Daydream at £4.00 off and including it in their 'second book half price' promotion. So I was able to buy Jacky plus Sarah Waters' Night Watch for less than the cover price of the Wilson alone.

Jacky Daydream is an autobiography written for children. It includes many photographs from JW's childhood, very similar to those in fashion in blogging circles at the moment (grin). At the end of each chapter is a question for the reader asking 'in which of my books will you find a character who...?' She really has become a brand. It would be interesting to compare it with Enid Blyton's The Story of my Life, with its many concealments, not to say downright lies. One can't imagine Blyton admitting to having peed on stage whilst reciting. Times change.



Edit. P.S. I now see that Wilson claims to have read The Story of My Life when she was six or seven.

Comments

[minniemoll.livejournal.com]

I bought it for half price in Waterstones yesterday....

I started it on the bus home last night, but I'm a bit disappointed with it. The actual book seems badly made - it creaks when being read, and the paper is nasty, especially the edges. And JW's tone seems unnecessarily patronising, I appreciate that she's writing for children, but all the 'and what do you think happened then?' type sentences really grated on me. It was as though one of her child narrators was writing, and what's fine for a child voice doesn't work when an adult is writing. Imo.

I'd be interested to read an autobiography written for adults, or at least in normal English. Although it makes me sad for the world that there has to be a difference.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying it but I know what you mean. The cheap paper doesn't do the photos justice and did you spot 'tandom' for 'tandem'? Tsk. I get irritated by the 'of course in those days there were no x or y or z', making it sound like the dark ages. But then, to the children reading it, it's practically history. I'll reserve judgement until I've finished it but as with all her books, every other book has gone on hold until I have. She certainly has something.

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested to hear what you make of Night Watch. I've enjoyed some of her stuff, and not enjoyed some of it. NW is currently near the top of my TBR pile.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

It will be the first of her books that I've read but I got it because I like books about the war. OTOH I prefer it if they were written at the time and am a terror for spotting the slightest anachronism, so she'd better have got it right.