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
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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
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Midnight’s Children took me three weeks to read. Which is an extortionately long time for me: I read Ulysses inContinue Reading
On Going To The Football
Last Saturday I did something utterly unprecedented and attended a professional football match. It feels like it happened ages ago,Continue Reading
Review of 2013
A hip-hop review of the year now ending.
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
I’m exhausted. I’m tired. And the fucking Christmas party season still isn’t over yet. Accompanying my frantic essay work, rampantContinue Reading
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing
I may have mentioned this in a blog post before, but my mother has the morbid (though appreciated) habit of,Continue Reading
Junky (The Definitive Text of ‘Junk’) by William S. Burroughs
After the horrors I went through when I gave up my serious ibuprofen addiction last week (surprisingly messy), I thoughtContinue Reading
Well Done God! Selected Prose and Drama of B. S. Johnson
I’m in a pretty filthy mood as I begin this review, but I have the excellent Naked City by John ZornContinue Reading
Hip-Scott: Born To Rap
After reading an article during the day on Thursday that claimed that all middle class white boys rapping were beingContinue Reading
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
Without a shadow of a doubt, Big Sur is the best book by Jack Kerouac I have ever read. It wasContinue Reading
Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau
This is edited from a brief presentation I gave in a class. So it’s more literary than usual and doesn’tContinue Reading
Paula by Isabel Allende
In December 1991 Isabel Allende’s daughter Paula fell into a coma. With little knowledge of how long it would lastContinue Reading
Autobiography by Morrissey
It is a key belief of my that it is important to, occasionally, read bad books. Otherwise, how is oneContinue Reading
After The Fall by Arthur Miller
I have had one of the most boring days of my life. I dedicated OVER SEVEN HOURS to getting holdContinue Reading
Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It by Geoff Dyer
I have an odd relationship with the works of Geoff Dyer. There are books of his that I rate asContinue Reading
On The Stage
I had not been in front of an audience, on a stage, for several years until this week. Then, fromContinue Reading
The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist by Orhan Pamuk
This little book, collected from a series of lectures Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk gave in 2009, is an interesting textContinue Reading
Homage To Catalonia by George Orwell
I had been intending to read George Orwell’s Homage To Catalonia ever since I encountered Down And Out In Paris And London,Continue Reading
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is a fucking emotional rollercoaster of a book. It tells the story, in great detail,Continue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 