Matt Brown's Blog: Blobs from Matt Brown's Brain - Posts Tagged "matt-brown"

Lucky is a boy who keeps having dreams that he can't control. When he wakes up one day to discover that his dream has burnt his bedclothes he begins a journey where the nature of the dreams will reveal themselves in the most dramatic way. Set against a backdrop of a war between aliens and humans that could tear the universe apart, Phoenix is an epic story of love, of longing, of belonging. I don't want to say more than this for fear of spoiling the journey for you. I will just add that as I was reading, I couldn't help but think of this wonderful mini-speech by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson when asked to reveal the most astounding fact of the universe. Read the book because it is beautiful... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05e...

I came to this book as a fan of Piers Torday. I adored his Last Wild trilogy and then read that he had completed his father's unfinished manuscript. The story (of writing the book) and the story (contained within the book) were too intriguing to ignore. In case you don't know, when Paul Torday died, his family found that the first two-thirds of the book he had been working on but the last act had not been written. Paul Torday had left a short synopsis and some notes and so Piers was asked by his father's publisher if he wanted to try and finish the story. Happily he did and the result is an electrifying and delicious examination of political power, spin and the awkward and difficult alliances that politicians make. A man with ambitions to lead the Conservative party accidentally runs over an owl (a protected species) and lies about it. Unfortunately his political advisor is a man compelled to tell the truth. I loved it and commend it to the house.

*This is an abridged version of a post I wrote on my website. For the full blog please visit http://mattbrownwriter.com/free-stuff/

This week an investigation by the BBC revealed that almost 8000 jobs in UK libraries have disappeared and 343 libraries have closed during the last six years. This stinky, fat nugget of crapola comes a few days after I was told by librarians in Merseyside and Buckinghamshire that libraries were “on the brink” after the latest round of cuts. In fact, the word ‘cuts’ doesn’t seem quite adequate, perhaps the phrase ‘slashes slashier than the Red Wedding slash-fest’ might be more appropriate (by the way, that's a Game of Thrones reference, you can pick up a copy at your local library).

The list of things libraries do is so long, I’ve come up with my own top 7.

Feel free to add to the list.

The Best Things About Libraries by Matt Brown

1. They have books that you can borrow… FOR FREE.
2. They have comfy seats where you can read a book… FOR FREE.
3. They are warm and so sometimes you will fall asleep on the FREE comfy seat while you’re reading the book that you borrowed FOR FREE but it’s okay and no one will wake you (unless the library is about to close or you’re snoring very loudly or you’re mumbling things in your sleep about Judith Chalmers).
4. Librarians are really lovely, happy people and they will help you find the book that you want… FOR FREE.
5. All the books are ordered alphabetically and categorized by genre. This is very helpful and means that you won’t have to look behind your sofa or under the fridge to find what you want.
6. Libraries are available to everyone, even the nobs who think that libraries are a waste of money.
7. Libraries contain the breadth of human knowledge and experience (unfortunately this means that you might find a book by Jeremy Clarkson or Donald Trump but if you leave it alone, you should be okay).
7b. Did I mention that they’re free?

The Imaginary is the kind of book that I wish I'd written, or at least had the talent to write. It is a beautiful, funny, heartbreaking tale of adventure, love and loss. The story orbits around Amanda, her imaginary friend Rudger and how they try and foil the wicked Mr Bunting. The rather too talented AF Harrold manages to punch through the wall that seperates the real world from the dream world and create a landscape both familiar and nightmarish in equal measures. Did I mention that the book is also as funny as hell? Well, it is. You should read it.