excerpts from The Imagination on Trial: BS Johnson interviewed by Alan Burns
excerpts from a BS Johnson interview
Tag: politics
Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire by Max Haiven
palm oil as microcosm of the mess that is capitalism
On Anarchism by Noam Chomsky
more anarchism on the blog thank you for reading
The End: Surviving the World Through Imagined Disasters by Katie Goh
great essay on the end of the world in film & lit
Tales from Earthsea by Ursula le Guin
reading more earthsea, hating everything else
Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes by Tariq Ali
read a great book about a very bad person and a very bad place
James Baldwin: Collected Essays (Library of America, 1998)
james baldwin is great; vaccines are also great
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
while we seek relief in schadenfreude over self-esteem, the world will never be fixed
On Decline by Andrew Potter
I spent time yawning at an out-of-touch Gen X screed
The End of Obscenity by Charles Rembar
interesting book of the legal history of removing literary censorship
WAR #1: Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy
read some great fiction for the first time in a while; still bored bored bored tho boohoo
Joan Didion: The 1980s & 90s (PART TWO)
if u see a dead racoon at the side of the road
As We Have Always Done by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
powerful academic text on the impossibility of decolonisation within capitalistic structures
Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire by Doris Lessing
the final book in Doris Lessing’s sci-fi quintet
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
very little on the book, lots of rage at the slow quietening of June’s global protest movement
the story of the lost child by elena ferrante
two and a half months ago i read an incredible novel
New Model Island by Alex Niven
england is dead and it owes u no living
Native Son by Richard Wright
surprisingly good protest novel; thoughts on UK election result
It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
powerful, tho rushed, 1930s novel about fascism in the USA
The End (My Struggle Book Six) by Karl Ove Knausgaard
endings are never easy
And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts
an essential non-fiction read and a new documentary on its legacy
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
when did a white man last write a GREAT novel?
So Far From God by Veronica Gonzalez Peña
phenomenal essay on Mexican corruption
Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole
Teju Cole Me By Your Name
Ossuaries by Dionne Brand
political poetry: what is it good for?
Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis
i shouldn’t have read this, but I did
Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
essential reading, especially if you’re a racist
The Tryst by Monique Roffey
another sexy sexy sex book
Notes From No Man’s Land by Eula Biss
great essay collection… from america
Enemies of the People by Sam Jordison
Who does the bad thing?
Triumph of the Now TV
home of the lo-fi magazine web series
The Road To Tahrir Square by Lloyd C. Gardner
US so vain, I bet you think Arab Spring is about you
The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
If Greer – who doesn’t believe in non-binary genders – is correct, then I am a woman.
Trump & Me by Mark Singer
Trump cannot and will not be ignored.
Hillary Clinton Haiku by Vera G. Shaw
This isn’t a real review of a real book, IT’S SCOTT ON SOCIAL ANXIETY!!!
Sodom and Gomorrah (À la recherche du temps perdu 4) by Marcel Proust
A La Recherche du Temps Perdu 4: This Time It’s Gay
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
because white men can’t / police their imagination / black men are dying
One of Us by Åsne Seierstad
A beautiful book about a horrible thing.
Consider the Lobster And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
David bloody Foster bloody Wallace…
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
I don’t know where this book came from. I know I bought it, I’m pretty certain I went out ofContinue Reading
The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow
The Cold War is a period loved by fiction. The world at that time was cast into blurry, grey-stained, blackContinue Reading
Lurid & Cute by Adam Thirlwell
I’m on a bit of a time constraint with this post, as I have to leave the house in aboutContinue Reading
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Iran. Who knows much about it? We’ve all seen Argo, we’ve all heard of nuclear weapons, we’re all aware thatContinue Reading
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a big, serious novel all about big, serious things. It is intelligent, articulate, humaneContinue Reading
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch is one of the handful of writers who I return to with regular irregularity. Like Graham Greene, VirginiaContinue Reading
The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin
I don’t really understand what is the fucking point of this dull novel. Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed is aContinue Reading
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Last night, as I wandered between bars and cafes in Taksim, North of the Golden Horn, I read most ofContinue Reading
Filth by Irvine Welsh
Recently I’ve been very much enjoying Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong*’s Channel 4 police drama, Babylon. This under-watched TV showContinue 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
Triumph Of The Now 