The Medium Is The Massage by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore
Look, I’m going to be honest with you. I’m no expert on what The Medium is the Massage is about. AContinue Reading
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Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves
I have never read I, Claudius. I have never read The White Goddess, my favourite writer’s* favourite book. I have also neverContinue Reading
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
I haven’t read a huge amount of Vladimir Nabokov’s novels, only the very obvious one and probably the second mostContinue Reading
Miss Herbert by Adam Thirlwell
Adam Thirwell is known as a writer of short, punchy, narrator-led novels. Of the two I’ve read, one, Kapow!, IContinue Reading
Candide by Voltaire
I’ve somehow gotten into a reading-in-translation rut. I’m going to snap out of, particularly after reading Voltaire’s tiresome and OLD Candide. IContinue Reading
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
A classic, yes, I should probably have read it by now… But nineteenth century, French, more than 300 pages –Continue Reading
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel García Marquez
Having read and being very disappointed by One Hundred Years of Solitude recently, I thought I should take another quick puntContinue Reading
Pig’s Foot by Carlos Acosta
Carlos Acosta is, apparently, a very successful and world-renowned Cuban ballet dancer. As in a ballet dancer who is Cuban,Continue Reading
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The following was written, but sadly not uploaded, late last night: The last book I read before this was (forContinue Reading
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez
Over the last week I have slowly and laboriously read One Hundred Years of Solitude, the book broadly touted as GabrielContinue Reading
Three Tragedies by Federico García Lorca
three gorgeous Spanish plays
Another Great Day At Sea by Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer is one of my favourite writers, despite two of the books of his I’ve read being pretty mediocre. TheContinue Reading
Boyhood Island: My Struggle Book Three by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Karl Ove Knausgaard is one of my favourite writers. It would probably be fair to say that he is one of (inContinue Reading
From Aberystwyth With Love by Malcolm Pryce
Even committed literary snobs like myself need a break from time to time, so in order to cleanse my paletteContinue Reading
The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch
Thomas Lynch is an acclaimed American poet. He is also an undertaker. This book is a collection of essays aboutContinue Reading
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman’s The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ tells the story of Jesus and of Christ, twin sons ofContinue Reading
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
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
Triumph Of The Now 