Allrighters' website

Go to or visit the Allrighters' website.

Tuesday 28 January 2014

Our Reviews on Amazon

While adding the Allrighters' best books of the year details to the list of the 140 plus reviews we have made since this time last year we realise why our overall rating at one time up under 30,000 has dropped to over 4,000,000. The Amazon system derives a rating from people looking at each of your reviews and then either liking it or not. Some readers of our reviews appear not to like what we have said about some of the books particularly Daffodils, Bring up the Bodies and Harry Bingham's book on writing.  Statistically I think there is a bit of a problem as only 32 or 25% of the number of reviews have registered comments. Also the adverse comments are those where we have made low star ratings so people are expressing a view that the book is better in their eyes than in our view. This seems to cross check against our belief that the Amazon system is weighted towards better rather than less highly rated books where people either do not read them in the first place or remain silent.

We have re-read the reviews which have been disliked and find no reason to change what has been stated. They are personal views anyway and the great thing about books is that not everyone likes or dislikes particular books. Life would be dull is they did.

Three people who commented have made some useful points about the reviews and these have resulted in additions or further comments which we were happy to give.

Books in the 24 hour read category have rarely raised interest and ratings above three stars. Perhaps we have become as bored with these books as we did when we stopped reading them in the 1990s and turned to factual books for more depth.

We will continue to review undaunted.

The Allrighters'

Sunday 26 January 2014

The Railwayman by Eric Lomax



The Allrighters are likely to read another 60 books or so in 2014. Reviews of all these books will be posted on Amazon.uk under the Alexander Kreator from Norfolk name. 

Where a book is given a five star rating it will be given a review on this blog as well.

The Railwayman by Eric Lomax - First published in 1995

Cover 3.0. I had the pre-film book cover. I would have included a larger picture of an actual engine used on the line.



I had been recommended to read this book and had this copy in my reading pile for over a year. The film release caused me to start reading the book.



I knew the ingredients would not be very pleasant and might prove to be harrowing. The actual book is to me very well written and gripped me as a reader through to the end. The description of the necessary ingredients to become a steam engine fanatic are a delight. Ditto the details of his background in radio. Both these factors caused him problems when captured by the Japanese. I knew something of the WW2 railway of death from a relation of my sister in law who survived who to me in my innocence always seemed withdrawn and unwell when I met him. Poor man I now know the likely reason why.



Eric Lomax as the main person in the book describes his life succinctly leaving enough for one’s imagination to go much further. His descriptions of his treatment and the conditions in the camps, hospitals and prisons painted a grim picture. No wonder he then suffered all his life when he returned home nearly a completely broken man physically and worse mentally only to face other tragedies. The book could have been written much more deeply and as a result it would have been much longer and maybe had less impact. Its relative shortness to me was a bonus.



If the book had been fiction I would not have accepted the facts and emotions of the ending as at all probable. The ending in the spirit of forgiveness gives one hope for the future.



The flow and speed of the book were well in line with Allrighters’ ideal expectations.



There were a few surprises including at least some apparently normal activity by the Japanese.  Eric Lomax must have been a very strong personality.



I am happier reading non fiction war books than fiction war books and this read was no exception. One cannot say one enjoys a book describing the horrors of war but from an interest and educational standpoint the book will remain in my mind and may well prove to be the best or one of the best reads of 2014.



I may read the book again after seeing the film.



A five star rating is consistent with other books I have rated at this level.



Alexander

Our reading and book reviews.



Following on from Stephen King’s advice to us as new writers to read as much and as widely as possible we have since we started writing in 2010, read more than ten times as much as we have written. We have also submitted reviews to Amazon under the Alexander Kreator of Norfolk name. We think reading is as essential a component of authorship as the act of creative writing. Similar to a marriage of husband and wife working together to produce books, like children, with a background of co-operation, differences and disagreements.

Our reviews have helped consideration of each book both after starting and on completion. Some authors have taken exception to our initial reviews being given soon after the books have been started. As potential readers can now see and read starting chapters on Kindle and even in hard copy we believe the importance of getting a good reader attracting start to a book cannot be stressed too much. Most of our initial star ratings on Amazon tend to start low and then improve.

Our 2013 fiction book reviews have been based on the following factors.

  1. Cover design rating out of 5.0. After studying cover design ever since we started writing in 2010 and being interested in the subject for life beforehand we have reached a view of what the Allrighters’ book covers will be. The essentials of a house style being as Ywnwab! with a double colour banding, a photo or picture spanning the whole front spine and back cover, title plus Allrighters text on front cover and on front and back covers text extracts from the book. We believe covers which give no clue as to the story or are not unusual often undersell a hard working writer’s efforts. To us your book must be stand out on Waterstones front table from the pretty cover norms.
  2. Ingredients and volume and whether well mixed and then well cooked. We have read several books with excellent ingredients let down by poor mixing and cooking. Many books we read have been far too long.
  3. Characters. We have probably been a little soft in this area and will harden up in 2014. In discussions with other readers and writers many have put reading about interesting characters at the top of their criteria for judging a book.
  4. Flow and speed. The Allrighters’ have a preference for books which flow well and at a reasonable rate of knots. Why books flow well is still being examined and we think this represents one of the keys to improving our own writing.
  5. Grip on the reader. Some writers grab hold of their readers and get them turning the pages. Finding these secret keys is crucial to improving our own writing.
  6. Surprises. A few of these create memorable books.
  7. Depth of reading from 24 hour, cannot put down easy reads, to the other extreme of books which are written so densely a page or a few pages a day are all that can be absorbed. We like both and those in between.
  8. Ending. We do like a satisfactory and realistic ending to the books we read. The cop out of they all lived happily ever after scores nil! We have in mind writing more alternative endings ourselves to many books we have read. This has been great fun so far. Copyright issues to be considered on any publication.
  9. Interest, education, enjoyment and above all memories of the whole, part or particular scenes in books we have read. Many books read years ago still drift back in the memory. (Await details in a future post about lifetime good reads and why.)
  10. Would we read again? Along with memories another acid test. For two main reasons. The book is worth reading again to repeat the good experience or enjoyment or we often believe the content has more to reveal knowing the end.
The Allrighters. 
  1.  

Allrighters’ Books of 2013

This post was delayed from earlier in the month in order to leave some space between reading late runners in December 2013 and reaching our decisions. Much of our thinking about the 60 or so books we read in 2013 had been completed for a likely post on the awriterofhistory.web page.



The Allrighters’ overall and non fiction book of the year is Why Bipolar? by Declan Henry. Memories of the hard hitting introduction and the lives of twenty people detailed in the book, especially Daniel keep coming back to us.



The Allrighters’ adult fiction book decision has come to a choice between two books. Never Forget by Angela Petch read in January and The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Ing read in December. We cannot really separate them so we make them a joint book of the year. Both books had a interesting and often frightening wartime background and strong story lines. The way the story in both books was told drew the reader closely into the life of each book's main character.



The Allrighters’ most memorable jaw dropping reading moment came in the form of a dark deed in Half a Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb.



Looking back a year Daniel Mason’s Piano Tuner remains the most memorable read of 2012.



Finding The Hill of the Red Fox after over fifty years and reliving the sad ending made the book the Allrighters’ best children’s book of the year.   

The funniest book read of the year was Quentin Lett's 50 People who Buggered Up Britain.

Allrighters' post on Authorsonline



http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/newsletter/jan14-authors-perspective.php

An Allrighters' perspective on reading writing and reviews

A Writer of History Two More Interesting Posts

Worth browsing

http://awriterofhistory.com/2014/01/14/a-readers-paradise/

http://awriterofhistory.com/2014/01/23/2013-favourite-historical-fiction-authors/

Interesting to see Diana Gabaldon so far ahead of the others and up from 2012

Friday 10 January 2014

Mary Tod's Historical Fiction Survey January 2014

Just published.

Well worth a read.

http://awriterofhistory.com/2014/01/10/2013-historical-fiction-survey-results/

A Reader of History.

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Welcome

Hello everyone.

This is the 2014 blog of Allrighters' reading and home of  A Reader of History with history being defined as follows.



OED – History. - The branch of knowledge which deals with human events. The formal record or study of past events, especially human affairs.
 
and just to get things going .... https://chronicle.com/article/Historians-Get-Advice-on/136489/



After the Allrighters started writing fiction in June 2010 they found a strong recommendation on a web site to read Stephen King’s On Writing book. They found the book justified the referral and they took his advice about reading widely, not to plagiarise but to absorb the atmosphere and ways of story telling. Since 2010 the Allrighters' have tried to read at least a book a week and ten times as many words as they write each year. Even then they know they are hardly scratching the surface of the millions of fiction and non fiction books available to read.



Please go to Amazon.co.uk - books -  Geoff Dyer - The Search – Review Alexander Kreator as the place to find Allrighters' reviews.

Good reading and writing to you all everywhere

The Allrighters