Today The Guardian published an article entitled "Donna Tartt: Is this the year of The Goldfinch?" Of course I read it. I first read Tartt over ten years ago and something in me still remembers how it made me feel – that discovery of an author who did something different to all the other authors… Continue reading True Love
Category: Comment
The Turf
I was commissioned to write this review of The Turf Tavern in central Oxford by Goodman's as part of a guide to the city. It will be part of a complete guide to Oxford's attractions, which I will link to when it is complete. * The Turf Tavern is one of Oxford's oldest pubs and dates back… Continue reading The Turf
Share this:
A Poem for Friday
Wuthering Heights by Sylvia Plath (1961) The horizons ring me like faggots, Tilted and disparate, and always unstable. Touched by a match, they might warm me, And their fine lines singe The air to orange Before the distances they pin evaporate, Weighting the pale sky with a soldier color. But they only dissolve and dissolve… Continue reading A Poem for Friday
Share this:
Re-reading Plans
Do you often re-read books? The only book I've read more than once (that I wasn't studying) is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. This was partly because I loved it so much but also because I missed lots of details and didn't quite ‘get’ everything that was going on (I was only 15 at… Continue reading Re-reading Plans
Share this:
What Do You Look For In A Book Blog?
As book bloggers and readers of book blogs, we all share a common interest and I’m sure we all look for pretty similar things when it comes to reading a blog - great content, an attractive site, and things that interest us on a personal level. Today I am thinking about that last thing in… Continue reading What Do You Look For In A Book Blog?
Share this:
Anais Nin on Printing Her Own Books
"The relation to handicraft is nourishing, beautiful. Related bodily to a solid block of lead letters, to the weight of the composition tray, to the adroitness of spacing, the tempo and temper of the machine - you acquire some of the weight of the lead, the strength and power of the machine, the bodily conquests… Continue reading Anais Nin on Printing Her Own Books
Share this:
Ireland 2014
Time off, and time away, is a good thing. We needed it, and we'd never been to Ireland, so why not? Given that we are prone to boredom we thought it'd be fun to rent a camper and drive around Ireland. Cool, huh? This is our camper van: As you can see, it's more of… Continue reading Ireland 2014
Share this:
On Happiness in Madame Bovary
Happiness is something that we all search for, something we need to stay sane and want to live. Sometimes it comes to us by chance, and sometimes we actively pursue it, striving for it. Equally it can completely disintegrate or indeed never seem to completely find us, and we roam the Earth looking for some… Continue reading On Happiness in Madame Bovary
Share this:
Reading Women… And Men
2014 is officially The Year of Reading Women, thanks to the ReadWomen campaign (you can follow on Twitter here), and the growing disgruntlement among the reading community at the ratio of men to women winning literary awards and being featured in publications like the LRB. Gender has been an ongoing issue in the literary world… Continue reading Reading Women… And Men
Share this:
Some Reasons Why Tintin Is Amazing
I didn't do much this weekend just gone. I went to the pub on Friday, slept late, ate pizza, and went with my boyfriend to his mum's house for Sunday lunch. But in between, I read The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Though I read a lot of Tintin as a child,… Continue reading Some Reasons Why Tintin Is Amazing
These Little Words 