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
Tag: memoir
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Triumph Of The Now 