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
Tag: Book Review
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
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
The Penguin Book of New American Voices edited by Jay McInerney
I found this excellent 90s-scene short story collection in a charity shop, picking it up mainly because amongst its sixteenContinue Reading
The Walking Dead: Compendium Two by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard
Reading two comic books within two months makes me look like far less of the sleek, hip-hop player most peopleContinue Reading
The Passover Plot by Hugh J. Schonfield
I had intended to spend the day writing the “dopest”* literary rap of all time, but I have instead beenContinue Reading
Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert
I found myself a copy of Flaubert’s 1877 short story collection Three Tales in order to read ‘Herodias’, his piece aboutContinue Reading
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
I was recommended to read If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things in order to marvel at McGregor’s impressive ability to leapContinue Reading
The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard
This is the first book I have ever read by JG Ballard. I haven’t read any of his famous ones,Continue Reading
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
Wow. I just finished reading this long collection of themed poems, and found it pretty impressive. Birthday Letters, Ted Hughes’Continue Reading
Umbrella by Will Self
Will Self’s 2012 novel Umbrella, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize that went to Bring Up The Bodies, is a sexy, war-y, JoyceanContinue Reading
The Skating Rink by Roberto Bolaño
The Skating Rink, or La Pista Del Hielo, was Roberto Bolaño’s first novel. It was published in Spanish in 1993 andContinue Reading
Signifying Rappers by David Foster Wallace & Mark Costello
When I learnt about the recent republication of David Foster Wallace’s 1990 academic text about hip-hop only days after fallingContinue Reading
On The Dotted Line: Signatures, Sobriety*, Schoolbooks & Shearing
So, I’ve been back in the UK for three weeks. What have I been up to? Where has the streamContinue Reading
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
I saw the film version of Watchmen a couple of years ago and hated it. I saw it when my alcoholContinue Reading
Hear Us O Lord from heaven thy dwelling place by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry died in 1957, having published only two books (both novels) in his lifetime: the youthful Ultramarine (1934, myContinue Reading
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Wow. Fuck a diddle wank, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996) is a full blown literary compendium of joy. Deeply philosophical,Continue Reading
The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene
Right. My blog is back in business, back to books. (As I’m sure you can see, my hair is far,Continue Reading
Birthday Blog Post: You Ain’t Achieved Nothin’ Yet, OR Old Men, On The Road and Becoming an Old Man On The Road
Twenty five is not, in itself, a significant birthday. However, it does mean that one has distinctly reached an ageContinue Reading
Tunis To See You, To See You Ellipsis (Out of Service, Out of Africa: Returning To Europe, Reading an American Book)
My five day trip to Tunis was a colossal series of fuck ups. My baggage lost by the airline, myContinue Reading
An Outcast of the Islands by Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was notorious for being unable to write women. Actually, no, less that, he was more notorious for veryContinue Reading
We’ll Always Have Casablanca: Getting Out of Morocco and Racing Through Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos
Casablanca felt very different to the other Moroccan cities I visited. Very European, actually, in terms not just of architecture,Continue Reading
On Not Being Bowles-ed Over by Paul Bowles’ Let It Come Down
Spent two nights in Marrakech, ran into most of the people I’d met before, had a pleasant time, but I’mContinue Reading
Exploring Fes, Grappling With John Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
I’ve tried recreation, Reading until late at night, train rides And romance. from ‘Worsening Situation’ by John Ashbery As IContinue Reading
Hanging out alone in Seville, reading Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives
Well, I’ve been away four days and have already completed my first read of the trip. Roberto Bolaño’s HUGE TheContinue Reading
Travelling People by B. S. Johnson
Today I have returned to the British Library in order to read more out of print books by Bryan StanleyContinue Reading
The Plague by Albert Camus
Albert Camus was (according to the blurb of this 1960s Penguin edition) active in the French resistance during the NaziContinue Reading
Arrival and Departure by Arthur Koestler
This is the last of the lovely old books I bought whilst in Hay-on-Wye a few weeks ago, a charmingContinue Reading
Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry was a tragic figure. A hugely talented writer, yet an alcoholic of such self-destructive proportions that he diedContinue Reading
Speedboat by Renata Adler
Renata Adler’s Speedboat is an award-winning experimental novel from 1976, recently republished by New York Review Books. I, however, was readingContinue Reading
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
I’m a sentimental, emotional, man. I’m sensitive. I feel. I feel big. And Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 Extremely Loud & IncrediblyContinue Reading
The Sweet Smell of Psychosis by Will Self
I bought this for two pounds in a Walthamstow Oxfam. Definitely worth it. A tiny little picaresque novella, less thanContinue Reading
See The Old Lady Decently by B. S. Johnson
B. S. Johnson’s final novel, the first part of the never-completed Matrix Trilogy, has been out of print for decades.Continue Reading
Three Lives of Tomomi Ishikawa by Benjamin Constable
This is a brand spanking new book, given to me before its UK release by a friend with connections. Ooooh.Continue Reading
Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander
Hope: A Tragedy is a dark, funny novel. Hilarious, yet also quite serious, it is the narrative of the mentalContinue Reading
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
I’m going to be utterly uncharacteristic and not write a glowing review of a book. I found Rabbit, Run a bitContinue Reading
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
Life goes on. The worst thing that can happen in a life is not the end of the world.* This,Continue Reading
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson, and more specifically his volume of interconnected short stories, Winesburg, Ohio, has had an odd history. Once considered aContinue Reading
Antwerp by Roberto Bolaño
I made a mistake. Open. Frank. Honest. I made a mistake. Several people have told me to read Roberto Bolaño.Continue Reading
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
I will be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on poetry. That I don’t read enough poetry.Continue Reading
Ultramarine by Malcolm Lowry
This book took quite a bit of searching to find. I first read about it in Jonathan Coe’s Like A FieryContinue Reading
Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant
Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant is a fun romp through the bachelor pads, newspaper boardrooms, restaurants and theatres of glamorous,Continue Reading
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
This is a stunning, beautiful, deeply moving novel that had me in streams of tears, laughing from the pit ofContinue Reading
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
This is a beautifully crafted and elegantly written novel, a complex and intelligent exploration of ego, aging and self-fabrication. WrittenContinue Reading
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Tropic of Cancer, to use a colloquialism Miller might have approved of, is a cunt’s hair from being EXACTLY myContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 