I'm officially giving up on Dragonhaven. The narrative voice--Rosie described as stream-of-consciousness and that's pretty accurate--is just not for me.
I'm delighted that The White Darkness and
The Invention of Hugo Cabret were given awards by the ALA today. I had figured Hugo Cabret for a Newbery but the Caldecott makes more sense, I suppose. A colleague sent me the link to
this cool interview with author Brian Selznick.
Now I'm reading Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. There's a glossary in the book to help translate British to American and I'm puzzled by the usage of the word "quite." The book says:
Quite: When Americans say something is "quite good / bad / etc.," you mean it is "very" good / bad / etc. When Brits say it, we sometimes mean it in just the same way -- but then sometimes we mean something is only "fairly," or "moderately," or "kind-of-but-not-extremely" good / bad / etc. It can be confusing."
My question: Who can explain this to me? Is it in the tone of voice, like sarcasm?
Oh, and I was "quite" tickled to find that China Mieville is a burly-looking guy.