Three Books About Books By Bookish Lads
on ian flemming, jackie kerouac, karlo knausgaard
Tag: Karl Ove Knausgaard
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
truly one of the greatest recent works of fiction
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
distracting the self with heady genre fiction
The End (My Struggle Book Six) by Karl Ove Knausgaard
endings are never easy
Being With Me Will Help You Learn by Thomas McColl
slowly, book by book, i realise what i like
Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
We need to talk about how you wouldn’t get a literary novelist called Kevin in England
A Death In The Family: My Struggle Book One by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Once I was young and unafraid.
Home and Away by Karl Ove Knausgaard and Fredrik Ekelund
A charming, quirky, book tainted by middle aged white male bullshit.
One of Us by Åsne Seierstad
A beautiful book about a horrible thing.
On the Value of Literature by Karl Ove Knausgaard
What is the point of literature? What is the point of life? Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of the hugely acclaimed MyContinue Reading
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 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
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
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Well, it is good. It’s good. It’s possibly great, but it’s definitely good. Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend is basicallyContinue Reading
My Day Trip with Knausgaard
A few weeks ago I went for a day trip, alone, with Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Dancing Is The Dark. Here’sContinue Reading
Dancing in the Dark: My Struggle Book Four by Karl Ove Knausgaard
For the past four years, the big literary release (for me) has been the continuing publication of Karl Ove Knausgaard’sContinue Reading
The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas
Obnoxiously (the manner in which I do most things), I read Tarjei Vesaas’ The Birds because Karl Ove Knausgaard refersContinue Reading
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Sticking with middle-brow Scottish literature, I followed Irvine Welsh’s Filth with another dark, scary, psychological story about a disturbed ScottishContinue Reading
Swann’s Way (À la recherche du temps perdu 1) by Marcel Proust
I’m writing this in the beautiful Spanish Pyrenees, having spent a day doing little more than reading Proust and lookingContinue Reading
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
It’s been a while since my last post, yes, that is true. I’ve been having a busy (and not particularlyContinue Reading
A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again by David Foster Wallace
As I’ve mentioned on here many, many, many, many, many times, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace* is one of theContinue 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
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
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
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
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
How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti
Sheila Heti’s brand new* How Should A Person Be? is a charming – and very contemporary – autobiographical novel detailing aContinue Reading
A Man In Love: My Struggle Book Two by Karl Ove Knausgaard
A Death In The Family revolutionised the way I thought about literature. The honesty, the transparency, in Knausgaard’s autobiographical proseContinue Reading
On Today’s Self-Indulgent Recreational Activity
I have decided, mostly as a way of procrastinating before a) sending off my first novel to agents or b)Continue Reading
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
I thoroughly enjoyed The Bell Jar. And I realise “enjoyed” might not sound like the appropriate word… I loved Plath’sContinue Reading
Catch-up Book Reviews Part Three
A Time To Every Purpose Under Heaven by Karl Ove Knausgaard Kanusgaard is my favourite contemporary writer, entirely because ofContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 