📙 Part 2: Describe a story or novel you have read that you found interesting

This episode's vocabulary

Cover-up (noun) - an attempt to prevent the public from discovering information about a serious crime or mistake.

Conspiracy (noun) - the activity of secretly planning with other people to do something bad or illegal.

Thrilled (adj.) - extremely happy about something.

To fix up (phrasal verb) - to repair or change something in order to improve it.

To get through something (phrasal verb) - to finish something.

Plot (noun) - the story of a book, film, play, etc.

To give something away (phrasal verb) - to tell people something secret, often without intending to.

Twisted (adj.) - unusual and strange; perverse>

To descend into something (phrasal verb) - if a situation descends into a particular state, it becomes worse.

To get up to something (phrasal verb) - to do something, often something that other people would disapprove of.

Twist (noun) - an unexpected change.

(in) the middle of nowhere (idiom) - far away from any towns and cities and where few people live.

To depict (verb) - to represent or show something in a picture or story.

To catch someone's eye (idiom) - to get someone's attention.

To be up your street (idiom) - to be the type of thing that you are interested in or that you enjoy doing.

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Questions and Answers

M: Shoot.

R: Well, most recently I read a book by Ken MacLeod called "Descent", which is about an alien cover-up conspiracy. I quite like science fiction. So I picked it up. And now that I think about it, I finished it in a week actually, which is quite surprising for me, because usually, I don't have the time to do this. To be more exact about when I read it, it was just after I'd moved into my new flat in a very small Scottish village. Despite the size, I was thrilled to find that there was a library right across the road. And on my first visit, I noticed this one book in the science fiction section. I was still needing to get my internet fixed up. So without that particular distraction, I was able to get through it in a week, just before I started my new job. To cover the plot in greater depth without giving too much of it away. It's set in the near future and tells the story of one character's life when he was a teenager to his early 30s. After his close encounter with the UFO. Naturally, aliens and cover-ups are involved, but in a really twisted and unexpected way after the main character descends into madness, and gets up to some really weird things. On the subject of twists, there's one at the end, which leaves you wondering what on earth has been going on the whole time, but I won't give too much away. In more detail about the author, Ken MacLeod is from the west coast of Scotland, though he's moved about a bit since then. And since I live in a relatively isolated part of the country now, there was a sense of connection there to that particular author. Though I think he lives closer to one of the larger cities now, unlike me, I suppose he's done that since it would be easier to get published than by staying out in the middle of nowhere on the islands. When it comes to saying more about why I read it, initially, it was for a very silly reason. I liked the cover, which depicts a man being lifted into the air by a beam of light from an unknown source. It looked really interesting, and I was pleased to find out that the book actually was. I'm glad it caught my eye. And I'm glad I had the chance to read it.

M: And what about your friends? Did they enjoy this book?

R: I haven't asked them if they've read it, to be honest. I don't know if it would be up their street or not.

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Discussion

M: Thank you, Rory. So actually, you didn't talk about a story, Rory, Rory-story, but about a novel. Right? So it's a novel.

R: Yes. It was a novel answer. Ho-ho, wordplay.

M: A novel. Woo.

R: It's a pun.

M: Novel is a novel, like a detective story. But a novel - fiction. And novel could also be an adjective, right? So a novel approach - a new approach. And here we had this joke with words. So you talked about a book by Ken. By Ken.

R: By Ken. Ken MacLeod.

M: So a book by Ken MacLeod called "Descent". So I'm going to tell you about a book by blah, blah, blah called blah, blah, blah, which was about blah, blah, blah. Yeah? And this book was about an Alien Cover Up conspiracy. Yeah, you know, dear listener, Rory is into this science fiction. So he enjoys these crazy stories about zombies, I mean, aliens.

R: Aliens, zombies and robots.

M: And you said I picked it up and finished it in a week. So I picked it up, I just took this book and finished reading it in a week, so which was, well, quite fast. Or you can say like once I picked up a book by blah, blah, blah about blah, blah, blah, and...

R: Blah, blah, blah.

M: It turned out to be really good.

R: It did turn out to be really good.

M: When I read it? Well, I moved to my new flat in a very small Scottish village in the middle of nowhere. And yeah, dear listener, Rory is now lost in Scotland. Somewhere in the middle of the country. For some reason, he moved there.

R: I moved there for work. I explained why.

M: Yeah, Rory now is like, Tom Hanks in this film, "Castaway". He's somewhere on a desert island in the middle of Scotland.

R: No, I'm somewhere in an intellectual desert in the middle of Scotland. No, that's, that's sorry. That's really mean-spirited, actually. People up here are lovely. I'm just being silly.

M: And then Rory told us I was thrilled to find a library. Dear listener, a library, he found a library across the road. Like who goes to the library these days?

R: Who does go the library these days?

M: I don't know, Rory, in the middle of Scotland.

R: Well, there wasn't much else to do.

M: And Rory noticed this science fiction section. It's like a film, you know, like, oh, Rory moved into this Scottish village. He didn't have anything to do. And then the library, oh, and this like secluded special science fiction section. And Rory needed to get his internet fixed up. I needed to get my internet fixed up. Nice structure.

R: Well, usually people mean, when they say that, they mean to get it repaired. But what I meant was to have it installed, because the house I moved into did not even have an internet connection.

M: And then, dear listener, if you talk about a novel, you should talk about the plot. And the plot, kind of you should talk about the plot maybe like for 30 seconds. So the major idea, yeah? The plot.

R: The plot.

M: When you talk about the plot, so that's the main story of the book. Right? So it's set. Where is it set? It is set in the future, or it is set in Scotland. It's set in Asia, it's set in the past. So where does the action of the story take place.

R: So the setting is both the place and the time.

M: The place and the time. Yeah. It's set in the 20th century in Scotland. And the main character. Who the main character is, so the story about one character's life, he is a teenager, and what happens to the character. And then Rory says that there's the aliens. And it's a very twisted and unexpected story, for example, yeah?

R: It is.

M: So the main character and other characters, and there are twists in the story. So if a story has a twist, it kind of it turns unexpectedly, and then something happens. Like oh, wow. He was the murderer. And everybody goes, oh, what a surprise.

R: Plot twist, if you will.

M: A plot twist. Yeah. And you can say like this story has an unexpected twist, or I like the twist of the story. And then you can speak about the author, if you know anything about the author, but you are listening to this episode, so you should be prepared. So make sure that you research the novel, research the author, so you can say a few smart words and pieces of information about the author. So the author is obviously from Scotland, and Rory is from Scotland. What a coincidence. Oh, wow. It's a coincidence. Scottish Rory reads Scottish books.

R: It really shouldn't be though, because like, finding a Scottish book in a Scottish library is probably not as profound a coincidence as it could be.

M: Rory, I bet like, you go into the library, and then you go like, oh, what a coincidence. Scottish books.

R: No. If I ever said what a coincidence in real life, like, just shoot me. That's just a silly thing to say.

M: And then to wrap it up, why Rory read the book? It's kind of like for a very silly reason. Yeah, I liked the cover. So Rory just liked the cover.

R: Yes. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

M: Oh, a nice one. An idiom. Actually, a proverb, I think. Yeah. And I liked the cover, or I liked the title of the book. I've always wanted to read the book. I was told to read the book. Maybe somebody recommended reading this book. Yeah? I was pleased to find out that it's a good book. I'm glad it caught my eye. That's a nice one. I'm glad it caught my eye. So catch my eye. It catches my eye like I notice this. And I'm glad I had a chance to read this book. And one more thing, when I asked you about your friends, to finish the story, you said like, I'm not sure it's up their street. I'm not sure it's up the street. I'm not sure they like it. Yeah?

R: I'm not sure it's something they would enjoy. But I don't know. I haven't asked them. We don't really talk about books in my friendship group. I just realized.

M: They talk about whiskey. Which phrases helped you organize your story in a logical way?

R: Oh, many. So a lot of these are about delving into more detail. So I still organized it in the order presented in the task just to save time, but I did preface by saying... I didn't say, I would like to describe a story or a novel I have read that I found interesting. So instead, I started off with most recently, I read a book by and then explained what it was about, and the time it took me to finish it before going into more in detail. So, one of the things I had to talk about was when I read it, so I did say recently, and then I said exactly how recently it was just after I'd moved, and I why went to the particular place to pick it up. And then I was able to say, what the story or what the novel was about. So to cover the plot in greater detail, so to cover the plot, to go into more detail, or to show the plot in more detail. And then it talked about who wrote it, now, the who, the person that writes a book or a story is called an author, so in more detail about the author, to start off that section. And then I was asked to explain why I read it. And then I said, basically, when it comes to saying more about why. I got a bit lazy at that point, because I was running out of ways to paraphrase while I was speaking, but I did say, initially. So at first, it was for a very silly reason. So again, not saying I read it because, but just saying it was for this reason. And then I went into explaining what the reason was. And then I rounded off by saying I was very happy that I had read it.

M: Sweet. Yeah. So, dear listener, I think it's, it's up to you, which you're going to be talking about, a story, maybe something like a short story you read. Or a novel, like a book, or a very short story, right? So please make a choice. And if you don't remember anything about this novel, or a story, please google, take some notes, because this is a specific topic, yeah? Which requires specific words. So doesn't matter what the story or a novel is, you can still use some phrases and words we've just given you, like the plot twists. And the reason I liked the cover, it caught my eye. So things like this, but the specific details about the plot, make sure that you know what the story is about. And a couple of things about the author, perhaps, who wrote it, yeah? And if you want some books from Rory, Rory is an author. Rory, how many books have you written so far? Five?

R: Four. So some free advertising for me. Oh, and when this goes out, it'll be coming close to Christmas time. So if you have a special someone in your life that is having difficulty getting to sleep, then you could send them to sleep with one of the books I've written. You can find the links for those on my Instagram account. But if you send me a direct message on Instagram, then I can also send you some transcripts as well or some parts of the book that might be quite nice tasters before you go and spend all that money.

M: Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in speaking part three. Bye!

R: Bye!

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