{"id":1751,"date":"2014-12-03T17:53:50","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T17:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2014-12-03T17:53:50","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T17:53:50","slug":"doctors-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/?p=1751","title":{"rendered":"Doctor’s Orders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s Book Doctor <\/strong>sessions for my first engagement as Patron of Reading <\/strong><\/a>for Alexandra Park School<\/a><\/strong> were a blast<\/strong>. I saw fifteen students, spending fifteen minutes with each talking about what kinds of stories they liked before making a reading recommendation<\/strong> that I hoped that person would enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"DoctorsOrders\"<\/p>\n

These above are the books I chose. See that piece of paper on the right? That form was created by APS’ awesome librarian Ms Constantinou so that I, as Book Doctor, could prescribe<\/strong> my recommendations! Each student could then choose to get their prescription filled<\/strong> either by borrowing<\/strong> their recommended book from the school’s excellent library<\/strong> or\u00a0buying<\/strong> it from superb local indie booksellers The Big Green Bookshop<\/strong><\/a>, who offered my ‘patients<\/strong>‘ a generous 15% discount<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the full list of what I recommended:<\/p>\n

Retribution Falls<\/strong> by Chris Wooding<\/strong><\/p>\n

I Am Jackie Chan – My Life in Action <\/strong>by Jackie Chan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Persuader<\/strong> by Lee Child<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blade <\/strong>by Tim Bowler<\/strong> (though it’s Bloodchild<\/strong> in the pic; that’s terrific too!)<\/p>\n

Wolf <\/strong>by Tommy Donbavand<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sawbones <\/strong>by Catherine Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n

I Am Not A Serial Killer <\/strong>by Dan Wells<\/strong><\/p>\n

Terror Kid <\/strong>by Benjamin Zephaniah<\/strong><\/p>\n

Replica <\/strong>by Jack Heath<\/strong><\/p>\n

Web of Darkness <\/strong>by Bali Rai<\/strong><\/p>\n

Going Solo <\/strong>by Roald Dahl<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fever Pitch <\/strong>by Nick Hornby<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parasyte <\/strong>by Hitoshi Awaki<\/strong><\/p>\n

Claymore <\/strong>by Norihiro Yagi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drifting Classroom <\/strong>by Kazuo Umezu<\/strong><\/p>\n

-and-<\/p>\n

Ice Station<\/strong> by Matthew Reilly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every student I spoke to had strong opinions about what would appeal to them and what wouldn’t, and expressed them with clarity <\/strong>and passion<\/strong>. It was inspiring<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Then, in the evening, I took myself off to The Big Green Bookshop<\/strong> to catch SF grandmaster Brian Aldiss<\/strong><\/a> launching a new collection of his short stories<\/strong> and looking back at his amazing writing life<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Now, that<\/em> was a good day<\/strong>. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s Book Doctor sessions for my first engagement as Patron of Reading for Alexandra Park School were a blast. I saw fifteen students, spending fifteen minutes with each talking about what kinds of stories they liked before making a reading recommendation that I hoped that person would enjoy. These above are the books I chose. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-and-appearances","category-patron-of-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1751"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1759,"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions\/1759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mynameiso.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}