Latest Posts
Recovery by John Berryman
Long before James Frey was breaking Oprah Winfrey’s fragile heart by fictionalising his time in addiction therapy and the behaviourContinue Reading
on the beach from fat man on a beach
Visiting the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales.
Martin John by Anakana Schofield
I’ve accidentally grown a goatee and as a result of this I now look like a sex pervert*. This wasContinue Reading
The Ongoing Moment: A Book About Photographs by Geoff Dyer
Well, as some of you may be aware, I’m off having adventures. Yes, again. After an 18 month stint inContinue Reading
Save Me The Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
Once he had said, ‘If you want to choose, you must be a goddess.’ That was when she had wantedContinue Reading
Football by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Fitzcarraldo Editions is fast becoming my favourite publishing house. Simon Critchley’s Notes on Suicide was one of the best books IContinue Reading
Wytches by Scott Snyder and Jock
I haven’t read a comic book in a while, and after taking almost three weeks to read my last book, IContinue Reading
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
When I read the first volume of Elena Ferrante’s lauded Neapolitan Novels series, many of the conversations being had about itContinue Reading
So Sad Today: Personal Essays by Melissa Broder
I shouldn’t have read this. CONTEXT: I walk a tightrope, emotionally, one that has become longer and looser ever sinceContinue Reading
The Open Pen Anthology (edited by Sean Preston)
Open Pen is a free literary magazine that publishes new writing. It is distributed in various bookshops both within (andContinue Reading
Devotion by Ros Barber
Ros Barber was one of my lecturers when I did my Creative Writing MA, and Ros Barber is one ofContinue Reading
The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow
The Cold War is a period loved by fiction. The world at that time was cast into blurry, grey-stained, blackContinue Reading
Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine
What next? I thought I’d go with something a little different, a little rounder, wider, more fictional and less harrowing.Continue Reading
The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing
I’m an abyss filling up with regret and alcohol at equal measure, like a really wet martini.
Yesenin: The Selected by Sergei Yesenin
Recently, I’ve been trying to cut down the massive piles of unread books in my house. By reading them, notContinue Reading
A Cup of Rage by Raduan Nassar
A Cup of Rage is a Brazilian novella by Raduan Nassar first published in 1978 as Um Copo de Cólera. InContinue Reading
The Neva Star: A Story by C.D. Rose
One of the good things about a sober evening is the mental energy to read. This is the only way IContinue Reading
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
Where is Pittsburgh? At any point while I read this novel, I could’ve looked it up. I didn’t, and I’mContinue Reading
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept by Elizabeth Smart
I’m not at work, so I should be writing real prose, doing something creative, emailing pitches for articles through toContinue Reading
Jo the Witch Vet by Joanne Sadler
OK, so maybe I’m not the target demographic, but Jo the Witch Vet by Joanne Sadler is one of theContinue Reading
The Walking Dead Compendium Three by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard
I thought I’d take a break from all of those depressing real life books and consume something a little bitContinue Reading
Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book Five by Karl Ove Knausgaard
It’s taken me a few more days than I’d hoped, but I’ve just finished reading the fifth book of KarlContinue Reading
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Many people have told me that The Waves is Virginia Woolf’s best work. Many people have told me I should readContinue Reading
Shaking Hands with Death by Terry Pratchett
When I was young it was normal practice for supermarkets to fill the spaces around the tills – where peopleContinue Reading
Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale by Laura Engelstein
You are in a wooden hut in the depths of Siberia, thousands of miles from the lands of your ancestors.Continue Reading
You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] by Andrew Hankinson
My new puppy hasn’t been very well. I’ve spent the day taking him to the vets and watching him sleep,Continue Reading
What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy
The intellectual and emotional vigour with which I’ve approached What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy has left me bawling in the street,Continue Reading
Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007: The Quasimodo Gambit by Don McGregor and Gary Caldwell
By the time I came to read the copy of The Quasimodo Gambit I’d bought on eBay at far more than itsContinue Reading
Lurid & Cute by Adam Thirlwell
I’m on a bit of a time constraint with this post, as I have to leave the house in aboutContinue Reading
But You Did Not Come Back by Marceline Loridan-Ivens
I haven’t cried this much at a book in a while. I haven’t cried this much at a non-fiction bookContinue Reading
Zona by Geoff Dyer
I’m on a flight, heading eastwards for 36 hours in Bucharest[1]. Flying out of Luton at 10pm on a MondayContinue Reading
Passages by Ann Quin
Usually, by the end of January I’ve read a novel I expect to influence my reading habits for the restContinue Reading
The Devil in the Flesh by Raymond Radiguet
It is 1230am on a Friday night, I am (which is very rare for me) not at work, my girlfriendContinue Reading
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Over the last month, Don Quixote has travelled a huge amount with me. He was with me for the tailContinue Reading
BS: Automatic Prose
In 2014 I took part in an “initiative” by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra that sought to use classical music asContinue Reading
Book of Blues by Jack Kerouac
This is going to be short, because Book of Blues by Jack Kerouac is shit. I’m sat in Munich airport,Continue Reading
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Many months ago, back when I had a regular social life, a friend of mine who works in publishing gaveContinue Reading
James Bond: Never Send Flowers by John Gardner
Please, sir, don’t send any flowers So ends one of the strangest books I’ve ever has the misfortune to encounter.Continue Reading
Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
A few months ago I read Anne Carson’s recent, (rightfully) acclaimed Red Doc>, a narrative collection of poems about G,Continue Reading
Preacher: Book Three by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
I don’t know what to add to my previous comments on this series of comic books I’ve slowly been readingContinue Reading
Othello by William Shakespeare
About two months ago I spent a week in Finland, driving through the countryside from flea market to charity shopContinue Reading
The Art of War by Kelly Roman
This week, amidst the 21 hour shifts and the bottomless corporate bar tabs of a December in hospitality, I’ve foundContinue Reading
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
This is the 300th book review I have posted on this blog*, and it seems appropriate that its focus is aContinue Reading
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
fuck So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckContinue Reading
The Life of a Stupid Man by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
I read another one of those cute Penguin Little Black Classics, this one a collection of three short stories byContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 