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ReadySteadyBlog

One of the Guardian Unlimited Books' top 10 literary blogs: "A home-grown treasure ... smart, serious analysis"

Tuesday 05 September 2006

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

Well, it worked for Dickens, so Penguin are giving the old serial another try. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters is, initially, only to be made available to 5000 subscribers ("Ten thrilling chapters in handsome perfect bound editions"), delivered to your door, over ten weeks, for just £25 (not sure of the overseas prices):


The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters will be available as an exclusive, limited edition subscription set of ten instalments beginning in early October and ending in December. To ensure you are one of the lucky recipients of these exclusive editions, you must sign up via the Penguin website in September. When you have signed up, you will receive one beautifully produced chapter through the post each week for ten weeks beginning in October.

Publishers are always looking for new (or old) ways to sell their wares, so you can't blame them for that. But the book sounds like terrible tripe:


When Miss Temple finds her engagement broken off without suitable explanation by her fiancé Roger Bascombe, she is given a choice: turn away from polite society or turn adventuress and discover the reason for her rejection. Deciding to secretly follow her former lover, Miss Temple finds herself a trespasser at a masked ball. There, strange and unspeakable acts involving electricity and books of glass (not to mention a murder) take place and Miss Temple almost loses both her virtue and her life.

Posted by Mark Thwaite
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Reader Comments

Wednesday 06 September 2006

Mark Thwaite says...

The Penguin blog (http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2006/09/throwing_stones.html) today says this is, "a limited edition offer purely for the UK readership", but there will be a hardback coming out in the UK in January and there will be a US edition too. Regardless, I still think the story sounds rubbish!

Wednesday 06 September 2006

Rev Grant says...

Actually the book is out now in the US, getting middling reviews at best. How odd that this would be the one they chose to serialize.

Wednesday 06 September 2006

Mark Thwaite says...

Hi Rev, Yup, you're right. Thanks for that. US isbn is 0385340354.

Tuesday 19 September 2006

Susan says...

I've read some good reviews on this book and welcome the serial. Also I have seen a link for the first chapter leaked on line http://thesuspensionbridge.blogspot.com/2006/09/downloadable-dreams.html
a good way to try before you buy!

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The Quarrel

The word I spoke in anger
weighs less than a parsley seed,
but a road runs through it
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that bought-and-paid-for lot
on a salt-sprayed hill in Truro
where the scrub pines
overlook the bay.
Half-way I'm dead enough,
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and my fierce hold on life.
If I could cry, I'd cry,
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Liebchen,
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-- Stanley Kunitz
The Collected Poems (W.W.Norton)

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