An author's perspective

I looked through the alphabetical archive of Authors on Tour, and was delighted to find J. Maarten Troost, whose books I have previously enjoyed, speaking about his book which I am in the middle of - "Lost on Planet China". Hearing him talk really enhanced my enjoyment of the book - I often try and imagine authors' voices when I read their books, and his was very much as I had imagined it to be. He began his talk by being openly critical of China's politics, pollution and state control, surprising me by being so outspoken. He then read a passage from the book, about visiting the Siberian tiger park in Harbin when one of the tigers escapes, in a casual and deadpan manner, finding a droll humour in a potentially life-threatening situation.

I then listened to Lynne Truss talking about her book on manners "Talk to the hand". Although I enjoyed the book, I found her voice irritating, and began counting the times she said "you know". She seemed self-consciously determined to elicit a laugh at the end of every sentence, so the podcast came across as a bad piece of stand-up comedy. So I had the opposite reaction to her podcast.

I've often felt that it would be really good for NSL to podcast our own author talks through the website, if the authors were agreeable. We are fortunate to have so many great author events and to be able to reach a wider audience would be a good thing. For new authors, or even some not-so-new NZ authors, any exposure through non-print media would be a plus. I wonder how many book clubs are aware of the Authors on Tour site? And how many patrons? And if it could be linked to our website under The Reading Experience? Another really enjoyable exercise - thank you.