Welcome to Simply Stated!

Thank you so much for stopping by. This blog is something I've set up just for fun -- yours and mine! There are any number of things that may be discussed here from everyday living in the California desert to digital scrapbooking to my favorite books to cardmaking to the art of letter writing to caring for feral cats to movies I like. After you read my bio, you should have a good sense of other topics you may find here. I welcome your comments and hope you return again and again!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Recommended: Corduroy Mansions

Read a good book lately? Enjoy an eclectic group of characters? Like dry, British humor and laughing your fool head off?

Then, have I got a book for you!

Alexander McCall Smith is writing his first ever online novel Corduroy Mansions exclusively for Telegraph.co.uk. A new chapter will appear each weekday until mid-February 2009. As of this writing, Chapters 1-50 are published.

A friend and fellow cardmaker in Israel suggested this read. I'm a tangible sort of person when it comes to books, scrapbooks, and things like that, so I wasn't sure how I'd like reading a book online. My daughter Pine expressed my feelings perfectly when she said about herself, "I like the feeling of a book in my hands." Even so, I wanted to check out my friend's recommendation.

In practically no time, I'd begun reading the published chapters enthusiastically, wondering what new situations would arise? McCall Smith provides fascinating insight as the characters' lives play out, and his turns of phrase are amazing.

I soon caught up with all the chapters and am now forced to read the rest of the entries day by day! If you think you, too, might like reading this fun book, click here to go to the Corduroy Mansions home page and, Enjoy!

4 comments:

  1. Thanks! I think I'll give this one a try. I've read library books on line from Pima County Public Library (including language instruction for speaking Danish) and one on Stephen King's website, but after the initial chapter(s?) he asked a dollar per chapter on the honor system, meaning read it and pay as you go. He didn't have a thing where you couldn't log on to read; a lot of people just read it and didn't pay. He took it off line and I never got to finish it, so I've been reluctant to do that again.

    I read a humorous science fiction short-short story on line once. It was free and just posted there for anyone who happened upon it. It's called "Flying Toasters" by Ken Kousen http://www.intertext.com/magazine/v5n2/toasters.html. I discovered it while doing a search for the ancient screen saver called, guess what-- "Flying Toasters." Remember that? We had it on our 512 K, yes it was, Mac. The screen saver is still available, too, but I'll let you do your own search for that (I refuse to say, "... google it."

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  2. Of course I remember "Flying Toasters"! They were a hoot and a half! Seeing those was almost better than when pigs fly! ~js.

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  3. When pigs fly! That is a true coincidence, as I just posted a brief comment on former congressman Joe Kennedy eating out on Sundays at the Pig and Whistle diner in Brighton-- OK, sort of a coincidence.

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  4. Okay, it's either a true coincidence or the power of suggestion? ~js.

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