... to think we should shun the 3 for 2 offers...

[woollyideas]

I've read a few threads on MN where people are expressing their disappointment in books they've read and I can't help noticing that many of the novels are the very ones which are shoved under our noses at every turn - the ones on the three-for-two table in major bookshops, the ones on the supermarket shelves etc.

Recently I've been trying to read 'off-piste', looking at things from small publishing houses, or by authors who aren't household names. The three best books I've read this year are all by authors who you may never had heard of.

Out of the many titles they bring out each year publishers will only promote a small percentage and I'm beginning to think they're mostly shite not necessarily the most worthy, but are promoted because they're deemed to be 'marketable' (eg. household name authors, books written by wives of famous people, etc.) AIBU in thinking that just because a book is prominently displayed and widely reviewed it is not necessarily worthy of our attention? In fact, could I go so far as to suggest a boycott of the 3 for 2s?

Would anyone like to join me in recommending their favourite books of the year - something that wouldn't be on the 3 for 2 tables, or sold in Tesco?

Mine are:
Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller
Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown
and
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Tinypawz -

Seriously, I love knowing why people hated books I loved, or loved the ones I hated (cough Twilight cough).

Why did you hate it?

I second the recommendation of Danny Dorling's books (he's a demographer) and if you like his work, try Wilkinson, R.G., Pickett, K., 2009. The spirit level : why more equal societies almost always do better. Allen Lane, London. You might also enjoy Ben Goldacre's 'Bad Science' (or have a peek at his blog: www.badscience.net/).

In fiction I've recently enjoyed:
A.S. Byatt: the Children's Book
Barbara Trapido: Sex & Stravinsky
David Grossman: To the end of the land
Maghanita Laski: 'Little Boy Lost'
Edmund De Waal: The hare with amber eyes: a hidden inheritance

and apropos over-hyped books: I found One Day excruciating!

oops! De Waal is not - of course - fiction! But still brilliant. And unexpectedly in the bestseller lists despite very little hype at all. Just a lovely book by a quiet ceramicist that's caught people's imagination.

I love "I know this much is true". Brilliant book.

Just thought of another one unlikely to be on any 3 for 2 lists, Where Were You Robert? by Hans Magnus Enzensberger. It's described as a kind of time travel book, Robert keeps going further back in time, but it's not like science fiction stuff with time machines etc.

Tinypawz I'd still love to know why you hated the Shapton book. Based on your comment I had to get it out and read it again (still loved it) but from reviews and things it does seem to be a 'love it or hate it' kind of a book.

For my part, I bought it based on a tiny review that didn't explain the unusual concept, I bought it online without seeing a copy beforehand, wondered what the hell I had bought when it arrived, expected to hate it and loved it completely from just a few pages in.

Booksellers don't actually make any money on the 3 for 2 offers, they lose it, the only reason they are in store is to entice people to buy from them instead of Amazon. The idea is that if you buy the 3 for 2 then you will visit again and buy a full price book.
Although it is cheap, please please please don't buy from Amazon. You have no idea how badly they treat publishers. They are only able to offer their prices because they demand bigger discounts than high street booksellers. If a publisher refuses then Amazon refuses to sell ANY of their books until they agree to the lower price. This means that the publisher and author make significantly less than they do if you buy the book on the high street. It also means that high street stores begin to disappear. I know Waterstone's seems like it is making things worse, but actually they are doing a lot to help save the book industry by reducing the amount of discounts and making stock more locally orientated. Without the physical bookshops most publishing houses would crumble because of the financial implications of stocking with Amazon. So please don't buy there! (I'm a former bookseller (amongst many other things) and now a writer)

Don't want to disappoint some of you but some of your recommendations have been included within the much sneered at 342 promotion:-

woollyideas - Glasshopper and Ingenious Pain. Terry Pratchett is frequently included within a 342 shelf offer.

corvax - At Home and the Kite Flyer

GApants - The Road

Chocolate Digestives - new books from C J Sansome and Ken Follet are usually always in a 342

Justagirl - The Children's Book. The Hare with Amber Eyes was a Waterstone's link save - reduced if you spent over £10.00!

Bookshops can't win. If the price is too high, customers take great pleasure in announcing that they will go home and order it off Amazon. The fact that many of your recommendations have been included within a price saving offer during their print life does prove that it is not only 'marketable' and 'mostly shite' books which bookshops (please distinguish between these and supermarkets) are promoting. Nobody points a gun at your head making you buy three books you don't want just to save money. Doesn't hurt to have a browse, however - you might find some of the recommendations you may have deemed too worthy to be included in a price promotion.

Hardcheese - it's not just 'good independent bookshops which have well-informed booksellers.' Some of our staff have been working in store for over 30 years, run reading groups, write reviews for magazines and know far more than you ever would give them credit for. We work in schools and we do have some freedom to create our own displays, recommend our own 'undiscovered gems' etc. By the way, James Daunt is the new MD at Waterstones .......

Will get off my soapbox now.

Madamehooch - Do you work at the Big W by any chance? I'm proud of my 5 years of service there - best job I ever had. So glad you said that about booksellers, actually a great deal of current indie staff & owners are former Waterstone's employees. I've never met a Waterstone's employee that didn't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of books. Furthermore, Waterstone's children's booksellers now undergo specialist training which is unavailable anywhere else in the industry making them experts in their field. Amazon may be convenient but if I want a book tailored to suit my interests I always shop on the high street.
PS Everyone keep a lookout for 'The Night Circus' by Erin Morgenstern - I think it may be the next Harry Potter. Fantastic book.

I do indeed mummymccar and I'm proud of it!

Any recommendations for post-apocalyptic fiction that isnt vampire/zombie based?

I've just read the Hunger games trilogy which was surprisingly good. Also Room by Emma Donoghue, which again surprised me in how good it was (especially as it was on one of Those Lists that I am normally snobby about)

OhYouBadBadKitten - on the assumption you don't mind reading YA, I would recommend Patrick Ness, Moira Young, and Michael Grant. Also, not really post-apocalyptic fiction but can't rate highly enough the Stonewylde series by Kit Berry. Totally addictive!

Thank you madamehooch :) I shall look those up.

oh wow - they look perfect!

Madamehooch - Good for you! Former LB & hoping to go back once sprog is out and big enough for me to work.
Ohyoubadkitten - I second Michael Grant, absolutely fantastic series. If you want something aimed at adults try 'The book of Dave' by Will Self (a bit heavy going & slower but very thought provoking and actually quite funny at times) also Jeff Somers if you don't mind sci-fi, and of course H.G Wells (War of the Worlds in particular - don't let the Tom Cruise movie put you off!)

I like sci-fi very much (shelves are full of Asimov and Arthur C Clarke and the like) mummymccar :)
I'm really excited now I've been desperate for new books for ages - apart from the ones which I listed above which were gone in a week.

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. Really haunting novel with a brilliant twist. When I finished it I immediately read it again to see whether I could spot the signposts to the twist at the end. Best book I've read this year, I think.

Grace by Morris Gleitzman really made me laugh. I got it out of the library for DD, but the religious references went a bit over her head. Sensitive, funny, thought provoking and a really good read (even though it's supposedly a children's book).

The latest Southern Vampire Mysteries novel by Charlaine Harris. Not because I think it's the best of the series (by a long shot), but because the series is a brilliant one. Her Lily Bard series is fantastic as well; a really strong, flawed, interesting heroine.

If you like sci-fi you'll love Jeff Somers. DP has all of his books and is always very eager for the next one to come out. (also a W employee so knows his stuff!)

badbadkitten my favourite of that style is The Stand by Stephen King and his Dark Tower series which many of his stand alone books have links to almost without being noticable.

Madamehooch & Mummymccar I love Waterstones and I am quite fond of their 3 for 2 offers . The staff in our branch are lovely and are usually very good at advice and recommendations usually (I forgive them for recommending the dreadful 'I am Number Four')

Also badbadkitten have you read the collection of short stories by Piers Anthony called Anthonology? I recommend it if you haven't.

FigsAndWine - You're right about 'Grace' - it's fantastic and was in a Waterstone's 342!

takethisonehere - have to confess, I quite enjoyed 'I Am Number Four'.....

The sequel 'The Power of Six' is now out but I take it you won't be buying that one no matter what offer it's in:)

Not even if they were giving it away!

madamehooch I'm glad I'm not the only one to have really enjoyed a children's book. The bible style of the narrator is very funny, in a very innocent way, but the book raises so many issues. Wasted on children imo!

For the uninitiated, the heroine/narrator is a young girl called Grace, who is a member of a fundamentalist Christian 'cult'. The beginning goes thus;

'In the beginning there was me and Mum and Dad and the twins.

And talk about happy families, we were bountiful.

But it came to pass that I started doing sins.

And lo, that was when all our problems began.'

I was utterly gripped throughout, but sadly failed to convey to DD how funny it was (she still enjoyed the gripping plot). Like I said; wasted on the young.

The Stand is one of my favourite books :) I'll have to dig it out again sometime. The Dark Tower series is very very good too. The kind of books where you read to go on a journey. I'll look up Piers Anthony - thank you :) This is all making me almost look forward to autumn evenings now!

Buy a kindle and start reading some of the indy authors who often offer a book free for a limited period.
Amazon and smashworld books often have freebie or books from as little as 49p and i have discovered some real gems.