Venus In Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
Given my love of sex novels, German novels, short novels and the Velvet Underground, it seems CRAZY that I’d neverContinue Reading
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Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace
Having managed to twist two of the last three reviews I posted on here into David Foster Wallace hagiographies, IContinue Reading
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
Someone told me about eighteen months ago that I should be careful. That when people pass the mid-point of theirContinue Reading
From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
I’d like to point out, before I begin this review, that I didn’t like graphic novels before they were cool.Continue Reading
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch is huge. It is a massive, time-consuming tome that, though it is fun and exciting and gripping,Continue Reading
Memoir: A History by Ben Yagoda
This will probably be my last blog for a while, as I have a couple of essays to write over theContinue Reading
Distracted Holiday Book Review: The Fields by Kevin Maher and Season One of Game of Thrones
Kevin Maher’s The Fields is a hilarious, moving and impressively broad coming of age novel set (mostly in Dublin) inContinue Reading
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
I really like Virginia Woolf, and more than that I like the IDEA of liking Virginia Woolf. Pro-writing, pro-women, literaryContinue Reading
23 Jokes About The Phrase “The Best Things In Life Are Free”
A hot new piece of anti-comedy.
Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was one of the first writers I ever truly loved. When I was an undergraduate, many years ago,Continue Reading
Vauxhall by Gabriel Gbadamosi
Just before Christmas an email was circulated round the students of my university pointing us in the direction of aContinue Reading
The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield
I am now in the second half of my seventeen day run working the equivalent of every day (that’s workingContinue Reading
A Dead Man In Deptford by Anthony Burgess
I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks and will continue to be horrendously so for the next few. I’ve beenContinue Reading
Violet by Selima Hill
More poetry. Shit! I’m getting versification. Selima Hill’s Violet is a poetry collection containing two sets of poems, both of which hadContinue Reading
Poems Two by B. S. Johnson
I love B. S. Johnson. He is one of my favourite writers. The Unfortunates I have read more than once andContinue Reading
Cycle of Violence by Grayson Perry
PHWOAR! Grayson Perry’s highly sexualised, highly violent, highly fucking weird graphic novella from 1992 was my breakfast read this morning.Continue Reading
Bullet Point Book Review: The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Stephen Mitchell
Need to leave for work in five minutes It’s a classic, v. famous book and for a reason exciting andContinue Reading
Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo
I have to leave the house in under ten minutes, so this’ll be a quick one. As another addition inContinue Reading
Dark As The Grave Wherein my Friend is Laid by Malcolm Lowry
Dark As The Grave Wherein my Friend is Laid is a strange book, and the first of the three (I believe)Continue Reading
On Re-Reading Henry James and Thinking About Forster
Henry James’ little novella Daisy Miller, as well as his more sizeable The Portrait of A Lady, were two of the keyContinue Reading
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas de Quincey
Thomas de Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is basically a mediocre 19th century Trainspotting, but without the funny, sad or exciting bitsContinue Reading
Giving Up The Ghost by Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel’s 2003 memoir, Giving Up The Ghost, far preceded her arrival as the “Best Writer in Britain”, but it isContinue Reading
Kapow! by Adam Thirlwell
I read Adam Thirlwell’s debut novel, Politics, a couple of months ago and quite enjoyed it, though didn’t feel itContinue Reading
The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald
W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn is one of the strangest books I have read it a while. It isContinue Reading
The Father by Sharon Olds
I read Sharon Olds’ lauded Stag’s Leap last Summer and though I loved the idea and the poetry of her verseContinue Reading
Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry by George Bowker
I took a week to read this harrowing, depressing, heart-wrenchingly awful* biography of one of the most troubled, confused andContinue Reading
A Long Weekend in Italy: Naples, Pompeii and Capri
Mount Vesuvius is big. It creaks over Naples from the southeast, with a threat made obvious by the fame ofContinue Reading
Pompeii: A Documentary
Please enjoy a lo-fi video I made during a day trip to Pompeii last weekend. I will write a fullContinue Reading
Take Me Home by Jonathan Taylor
So I’ve read another memoir by a British academic, but this one isn’t the “Books Conquers All” disappointment of LornaContinue Reading
Journalism by Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco’s Journalism collects several short pieces (ranging from two to fifty pages in length) drawn and written in the decadeContinue Reading
Stoner by John Williams
Not a book about reefer addicts written by a composer, John Williams’ Stoner is a long-winded novel detailing the whole lifeContinue Reading
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
I really really liked this. That’s what I’m going to open with, because everything of any wit or interest IContinue Reading
Quarantine by Jim Crace
(Wrote this on a train on Sunday, forgot to upload it:) As is perhaps clear, my recent reading has becomeContinue Reading
On Not Publishing A Naked Picture of Myself Yesterday
Yesterday I took a naked photograph of myself – from behind – to use as the accompanying picture for myContinue Reading
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
Today I read Colm Tóibín’s 2013 novella, The Testament of Mary. It’s very short, 104 pages in this edition, with pretty bigContinue Reading
Reality Hunger by David Shields
David Shields’ Reality Hunger is a non-fiction book about the fictional and the unreal being dead to contemporary creativity. ItContinue Reading
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
I was worried that Hilary Mantel’s 2012 Booker-winner Bring Up The Bodies would take me weeks to read. But there wasContinue Reading
This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff
This is the third memoir about “growing up” in the second half of the 20th-century I’ve read in a rowContinue Reading
Bad Blood by Lorna Sage
This is a set text for my MA twice over, so this has been touted as a book that isContinue Reading
Sectioned: A Life Interrupted by John O’Donoghue
Sectioned: A Life Interrupted is a recent memoir by John O’Donoghue, a man who spent his teens and twentiesContinue Reading
On Appreciating Graham Greene
I just reread Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair as it’s being discussed in a class I have this week.Continue Reading
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman’s Maus is famous. And serious. And acclaimed. And important. And canonical. And worthy. There is very little I canContinue Reading
Shall We Gather At The River by Peter Murphy
I picked this novel up from a massive pile of free books offered by my university a few weeks beforeContinue Reading
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The eighth book I’ve finished n 2014, and finally an absolute FUCKING BELTER. Ostrich by Matt Greene is a beautiful,Continue Reading
The Accidental by Ali Smith
I read and enjoyed Ali Smith’s There But For The whilst travelling last Summer, and was recently recommended this as aContinue Reading
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
This is a bloody strange book. I was initially led to this postmodern 1960s American mystery-thrillery-comedy due to my enjoymentContinue Reading
Lunar Caustic by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry’s books are all about depression and alcoholism. And most of them he was too drunk and sad toContinue Reading
Tampa by Alissa Nutting
Errr… Wow. I’m almost feeling vicariously post-coital after reading the cock-a-block sexed-up Tampa by Alissa Nutting. It’s got a vagina onContinue Reading
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
I haven’t changed my opinion halfway through a novel so drastically in ages. Which was a good thing, because theContinue Reading
Politics by Adam Thirlwell
I am having an absolute TRIUMPH of an evening. I have a negroni IN MY HAND, have just finished readingContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 