web stuff 4 writers

This morning, I finished Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi. Early this morning. It was one of those books where I woke up at 4.30, and couldn’t go back to sleep until I’d read the last 30 pages.

Life of Pi is the Guardian’s Book Club book for October, so – as is usually the case, it seems – the Guardian has published weekly articles about the book this month, as well as a podcasted interview between Yann Martell and professor of English, John Mullan.

I found it very interesting to hear Martell talk about the Life of Pi – his book about a boy and a tiger and a lifeboat – and the way he worked on creating realistic details so that he could convince the reader to suspend their disbelief. He also talked about how the writer’s impression of a book can be ‘very, very different’ from the reader’s impression, giving examples of questions he’s been asked and theories he’s been told at various literary events.

Previous Book Club interviews with authors such as Ian Rankin, Joyce Carol Oates, Ruth Rendell and DBC Pierre have also been published in mp3 format on the Guardian website, although the earliest links, to interviews with Zadie Smith and Rachel Cusk no longer seem to work.

The Guardian also publishes a whole range of book-related podcasts. More information and the feed URL can be found on their podcast page here.

Your thoughts

As a reader/writer, do you enjoy listening to other writers talk about their work? Do you think it adds anything to the experience, or would you rather let the work stand on its own?

Tags: Finding inspiration //