Dear aspiring critics,

I'm looking for book reviewers to help me out in Craccum this year. All you need to do is write 200 to 250 words on each book - in return, the books are yours to keep or sell or whatever. Ryan and I will divvy them out from Craccum, and then you just email finished reviews to me afterwards. Simple.

As far as I remember Sloanie and Steveo are interested, but it'd nice to have a few more, so that there's always something book-related in the magazine.

If anyone's interested in attending book launches, the Writers Festival etc and reporting back in more of a journalistic style, that'd also be cool.

Just post here or PM me if interested. :)

Yo sam, when are you getting a book list?

I emailed around six different publishers today, so I'll be able to let you know tomorrow what there is to order in. :)

Is Sloanie still up for it? Or anyone else? It takes at least a week for most people to read a book properly, so if there's lots of people reading and writing, there'll be a continuous stream of content in the magazine.

Plus, publishers love to see their books get heaps of publicity, so the more reviews (positive or negative) they get, the more books they'll want to send...

id been keen :)

Ooooh man this is such a tempting offer.

hey, I should forward you some of my writing. When I get into my writing zone, Im not actually ditzy, my writing zone means that my 'proper' writing is very different from what people would expect from me.

Coolness...

Just PM me with your contact details if you're keen. Let me know what you've written before (if you've written nothing, no problem there either) and what kind of stuff you'd be most interested in. There won't be much reviewing to do for the Summer School edition, but I'll make sure there's plenty to look at by March.

In the meantime I shall continue grooming the publishers for sweet booky goodness.

I will consider this but I'm not quite sure I'm craccum material :P Will think about it for sure though

I'm keen on the latter bit.

As in, attending launches, festivals and so on? I'm going to work hard on getting hold of press passes where possible, especially for the Writers and Readers Festival.

Yeah, i don't mind doing that. Sounds good.

i'll do anything that is required, book reviews or such, plus going along to those events. We need to just get really drunk before them, Sam. I think that's why that Workers Charter conference really wasn't that much fun.

Why do you need to get drunk for it? are they boring?

I've always got (good) shit whenever Ive entered competitions, even international ones, and my English tutors and teachers, just to sound really up myself, have always praised my work over anyone elses. i do allsorts of work, gimme a bit of time and il pass some stuff on to you to have a look at. I do quirky, serious, philisophical, unbiased, subjective, biased.....whatever.

Hauser is a socialist, Anti-Flag... he believes only in things that have substance, as it were. :P Actually, for book things, being sober would probably pay off. Just as long as you have a decent attention span.

Excellent. Send them through whenever you've got time. That goes for everyone else too - email or PM me with your contacts (or samples of work) and this thing will fly just fine in March. :)

Samf, my thoughts exactly...being sober would probably help. But i'd still like to see Hauser write something based on his drunken experience there. Should be entertaining.

Not the drinking sort yourself? :P

*waits for responding post of doom*

No. I don't drink.

Forceful, but not especially doom filled. Never mind. :P PM me at some stage and I'll let you know what's happening with books.

I'd be happy to review any military related books, if I have time. My writing skills are pretty damn solid.

Do you mean essay writing or journalistic writing?

Sloanie is no more. El Matador is the evolved, refined and updated Sloanie; A new Sloanie for a new semester.

And yes, he is keen to review books.

Yeah, I don't mind giving it a shot.

Haha, awesome, do you mean my future drunken experience at a conference of the (il)literati, or my future drunken experiences at left wing conferences? Or both? Both would be heaps of fun. Samf, I'll bring you along to the next workers charter thing, and we can just smoke a lot of marijuana in the car before hand or just bring in bottles of Russian vodka and proclaim ourselves as Stalinists to the conference and issue angry speeches denouncing Trotskyism and Social-Democrat-Revisionist-Maoist-Fascism.

How long does it take to learn journalistic writing?

A week to learn, a lifetime to master.












:fap:

If you're desperate i'd be happy to review any book. I'm no literary genius, but i'd like to review as much as possible since it's my last year.

What does 'fapping' have to do with writing?

Quite a lot when you run out of ink.

According to Bolshevik lore, back in the days when Lenin was stuck in a Tsarist prison, he wrote with improvised 'invisible ink'.

Basically, he poured drops of milk onto his bread buns and used a brush to write the milk on whatever paper he was provided with. Once such papers were smuggled out, his comrades hold it above the fire, so that the milk gets burnt and the text was revealed.

Thus Lenin remarked, "I swallowed three ink bottles per day."

Okay, I've gotten a fantastic response from you guys. Thanks! Looks like there's going to be a constant flow of reviews in Craccum this year.

Don't forget to PM me if you're still interested and haven't talked to me yet. All I need to do now is get enough books coming through...

I can read like fuck, but a lot of stuff bores me.

If you want, I can blurb about fantasy, sci-fi, or stuff that makes you think a bit.

Sure. PM for instructions.

I like books. I won't review any though. Sorry. Not that type, you know

I'll throw you my leftovers. By which I mean management books, religious tracts and anything by Charlotte Dawson.

Dibs on management books.

dibs on Charlotte Dawson

You realise that the books have double the street value of Charlotte Dawson herself... but yes Dr Steve, you've got first dibs on any of that drivel that comes through.

Okay, sorry to double post, but this needs to be seen... length on a book review should be closer to 400-500 words, rather than 200-250 as I posted (which was far too short).

That means a LOT more breathing space in your reviews. Of course, if another 150-250 words puts you off, then you're probably not up for this anyway...

ah thats quite cool.

dunno when im gonna get chance to re-do it though cos i'm off on monday for 3 weeks.