It was, as is so often the case, the cover that caught my eye. I was in Unity Books, browsing the stacks for a bit of contemporary something or other. Something a little bit femme fatale suited my mood. … Continue reading »REVIEW: Pretty Dirty Things
I’m going to do an alphabet. Just every so often, when I have nothing more urgent to talk about. Sorry about no posts last week – I had an essay due Thursday, so Wednesday I couldn’t spare the time, and … Continue reading »A is for Angst
Bird by Bird is a book about writing, for writers. You will know if this is you. Anne Lamott isn’t telling you much you haven’t heard before. You’ve read it all in writer interviews and blog posts and pep talks, … Continue reading »Bird by Bird
March. A dissertation on Freedom. She browses through the library stacks for Freud’s “Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious.” Reading it at home that evening she finds a passage underlined that exemplifies what she seeks from the book: “Freedom … Continue reading »PROSE: Time
Decay is a favourite artistic theme of mine. The melancholy of nostalgia is another. A Visit from the Goon Squad, roaming back and forth across time, has both in spades. The question has been raised whether it is a novel … Continue reading »A Visit from the Goon Squad
We lost Richard Adams in the last week of 2016, so it seemed appropriate to talk about how one of his books, Watership Down, was a touchstone throughout my childhood. The opening scene is one of those “classic English countryside” … Continue reading »Favourite Books #2: Watership Down
This week involved the launch of Pokémon Go, and I do love me a good dose of fiction invading reality. I mentioned it back on the 25th of May, which really was more about characters, but shows how narratives dig … Continue reading »To extend our reach to the skies above
I was unsure whether I wanted to write about Nineteen Eighty-Four. I don’t feel like I’m really “qualified” for it. It’s one of those books that tends to be studied, and I read it… Well, I was going to say … Continue reading »Nineteen Eighty-Four
Once, I went into a Travelling Shop. It was a second-hand bookshop. The bookshelves were in different sizes. The place had an old sort of feel to it – it was in an older building, down a mysterious lane in … Continue reading »He owns a cat named Montague and eats afghans
