Category: Books
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Browsing a charity shop in town today and found this weighty 500 page book on Greek food - Culinaria Greece: Greek Specialities by Marianthi Milona. Full of what look to be delicious recipes. Good find for just Β£1 πππ¬π·
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Currently reading: Tomorrow by Chris Beckett π
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Finished reading: Two-Way Mirror by Fiona Sampson π
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Outdoor sake and reading π
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Currently reading: Two-Way Mirror by Fiona Sampson π
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Pub reading πΊπ
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Location check in πΊ β Casa Fernando Pessoa π
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Finished reading: Absolutely On Music by Haruki Murakami & Seiji Ozawa π
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Finished reading: Meru by S. B. Divya π
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Finished reading: Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka π
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π Reading in the winter sun
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Finished reading: Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell π
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Finished reading: The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza edited by John Daido Loori π
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Finished reading: Ten Poems about Music: The Blue Album introduced by Cerys Matthews π Additional fact from the book ππ΅ : John Cage’s composition As Slow as Possible began being played in St Burchardi’s Church, Germany in 2001 and is scheduled to end in the year 2640.
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Finished reading: On Connection by Kae Tempest π
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Came up in my Readwise Daily Review today. Hadn’t realised that the phrase We live, as we dream β alone was Conrad’s. I did know it from the Gang of Four song π΅ π
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Cookery Books: Afro Vegan by Zoe Alakija π Used for our Christmas meal this year π
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Xmas Dinner 2022
I know Iβm composing this post a few days late, on the morning of New Yearβs Eve, 31st December 2022, but for my reference I do want a record of the food I cooked for this yearβs Christmas dinner. Most years I cook Christmas dinner around a specific theme (often a nationality) or from a particular (often new) cookery book. This year our meal was based on Afro Vegan: Family recipes from a British-Nigerian kitchen by Zoe Alakija.
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Linkblog π: The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem by Matthew Hollis review β a classic laid bare
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Currently reading: Orlam by PJ Harvey π
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Currently reading: Absolutely On Music by Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa π
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Finished reading: The Whistleblower by Robert Peston π
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π’ On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was published OnThisDay, 24th November 1859 π
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Linkblog π: Philologist Irene Vallejo: βAlexander the Greatβs library was the first step towards the internetβ
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Finished reading: Lessons by Ian McEwan π
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Linkblog π: Why DH Lawrence still gets under our skin
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Linkblog π: The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem by Matthew Hollis β genesis of a masterpiece
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Linkblog π: The vision of Ralph Vaughan Williams
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Linkblog π: Ian McEwanβs long look back British politics does not offer much more cause for optimism. Liz Truss becoming prime minister is βsuch a disasterβ, he says. βSheβs intellectually so vapid. I think her world-view is so tiny, so shrivelled, so ungenerous, so dryβ¦ Or maybe sheβs just a highly ambitious politician whoβs playing a very cynical game.β He sees an opportunity for Keir Starmerβs Labour β βI admire him in many waysβ β but for McEwan, an ardent Remainer who wrote a satirical β¦
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Linkblog π: Exposed by Caroline Vout review β the real Greek and Roman body
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Currently reading: Tales From The Loop by Simon StΓ₯lenhag π
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Currently reading: Endless Forms by Seirian Sumner π
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Finished reading: The Saints of Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton π
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Currently reading: The Saints of Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton π
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Currently reading: Salvation Lost by Peter F. Hamilton π Whizzing through and really enjoying The Salvation Sequence.
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Currently reading: Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton π
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Finished reading: Three Philosophies and One Reality & NHK Radio Talks by Gudo Wafu Nishijima π
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Currently reading: Donβt be a Jerk by Brad Warner π
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Currently reading: Z by Vassilis Vassilokos π
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Linkblog π: Portable Magic by Emma Smith review β a love letter to reading
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Linkblog π: βItβs dopamineβ: why we love to track our watching and reading habits
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Finished reading: Big Snake Little Snake: An Inquiry into Risk by DBC Pierre π
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Finished reading: Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan’s Food Culture by Matt Goulding π
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Home with the second-hand spoils of Hay-on-Wye π
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Hay-on-Wye π
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Finished reading: One Language by Anastasia Taylor-Lind π
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Currently reading: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman π
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Finished reading: Thomas Hardy: The Time-torn Man by Claire Tomalin π
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Finished reading: Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright π
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Finished reading: Homo Irrealis by AndrΓ© Aciman π
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The Paris Review - Cavafyβs Bed π
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Donβt Network: The Avant-Garde after Networks [2018] π
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Family owners put Blackwellβs bookshops up for sale π This is a shame. Blackwell’s is usually my first port of call when trying to avoid Amazon. Their online service has been extremely comprehensive and efficient for me for years.
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Currently reading: Hear Me Out by Armando Iannucci π
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Finished reading: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki π
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Finished reading: Pandemonium by Armando Iannucci π
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Finished reading: Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell π
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Quote used by Ruth Ozeki in A Tale for the Time Being π β In reality, every reader, while he is reading, is the reader of his own self. The writerβs work is merely a kind of optical instrument, which he offers to the reader to permit him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself. The readerβs recognition in his own self of what the book says is proof of its truth.
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Atlas maps Hogwarts, Jurassic Park & made-up places π So where actually is Batman’s Gotham City? Or The Simpsons' Springfield. Do you know where Jurassic Park is? Hogwarts even? One man thinks he does.
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Currently reading: The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust Volume 2) by Philip Pullman π
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Currently reading: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman π
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Currently reading: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro π
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Finished reading: Do Earth by Tamsin Omond π
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Currently reading: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu π
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Currently reading: The Snows of Kilimanjaro and other stories by Ernest Hemingway π
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Currently reading: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman π
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Currently reading: Introducing Buddha by Jane Hope & Borin Van Loon π
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Currently reading: How Did We Get into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature by George Monbiot π
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Currently reading: Sissy by Ben Borek π
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Distracted from distraction by distraction
I’ve just read this article in by Oliver Burkeman The Guardian: At best, weβre on Earth for around 4,000 weeks β so why do we lose so much time to online distraction? π It is an edited extract from his book Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It, published on 26th August 2021. I recognise and certainly experience a lot of the symptoms of being distracted that he is pointing out.
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You look around. A strong case could be made for it being heaven. A strong case could be made for it being hell. That is what IKEA is like. Jonathan Safran Foer, Here I Am π
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Currently reading: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam π
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Ancestors by Alice Roberts review β a story of movement and migration π π
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Currently reading: Ancestors by Alice Roberts π
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Currently reading: Jack Kerouac: King of The Beats by Barry Miles π
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Currently reading: Medical Grade Music by Steve Davis & Kavus Torabi π
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Medical Grade Music ππ΅
Received my signed copy of Medical Grade Music by Steve Davis and Kavus Torabi. Last week I joined a Rough Trade hosted Zoom meeting with Kavus and Steve where they read excerpts from and discussed the book and some of the stories from and behind it. They were both very enthusiastic! In addition to reading the book I’m particularly looking forward to investigating music I haven’t heard before. In the Appendices there are several musical lists, including recommendations for an album a β¦
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Sunny day βοΈ - trying to colour coordinate drinking and reading π
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Currently reading: The Beats: A Graphic History by Harvey Pekar, Ed Piskor et al π
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Interesting and informative podcast series from the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association and Keats-Shelley House. John Keatsβ Bright Star 1820: read by heart with analysis is one of the highlights for me. ππ
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Jazz audiences are always On the Road π π΅
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Michael Rosen blog post on Reading for Pleasure π π A child A book A read A chat. This is the way the mind grows. Not with a test but a tale. Heβs writing for teachers and children but I think a lot of his points are applicable to all readers.
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Currently reading: Jews Donβt Count by David Baddiel π
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Kazuo Ishiguro: ‘AI, gene-editing, big data … I worry we are not in control of these things any more’ π For the Ishiguro household, 5 October 2017 was a big day. After weeks of discussion, the authorβs wife, Lorna, had finally decided to change her hair colour.β¦
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Currently reading: Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline π
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Currently reading: The Ruins by Mat Osman π
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The piles of books I posted a photo of yesterday have been re-housed upstairs. According to Apple Health on my phone, in moving them I did 4752 steps, covered 2.8km and climbed 41 flights of stairs (I think this is an underestimate!). A literary workout. π
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Moving four large bookcases. Trying to prevent our books from descending into chaos. π π
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Mary Wollstonecraft finally honoured with statue after 200 years. π It shows a silvery naked everywoman figure emerging free and defiantly from a swirling mingle of female forms and, thanks to a 10-year slog of fundraising, is the worldβs only memorial sculpture to a woman known as the βmother of feminismβ
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Currently reading: The Fire of Joy by Clive James π
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Currently reading: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman π
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Clive James: ‘The poems I remember are the milestones marking the journey of my life’ π β Excerpt: What makes great poetry? An exclusive extract from the late criticβs final book The Fire of Joy celebrates the poems he loved most. π
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‘He returned to what he really was’: Clive James’s daughter on his poetic farewell π β Excerpt: Ten months before his death last year at the age of 80, Clive James underwent an eight-hour operation to remove a tumour on his face. Already very frail β he had been suffering from leukaemia for a decade β afterwards it took him almost a week to emerge fully into consciousness.
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Currently reading: Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present by Yanis Varoufakis π
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Currently reading: Talking to My Daughter: A Brief History of Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis π
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Currently reading: Bob Willis: A Cricketer and a Gentleman by Bob Willis and Mike Dickson π
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Finished reading: Matilda Infantry Tank 1938-45 by David Fletcher π
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Currently reading: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi π
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Chris Frantz: Remain in Love π β Excerpt: David Byrne overwhelms the image of Talking Heads. With his herky-jerky mannerisms, loopy persona and arch lyrics β not to mention his command of the songwriting credits through much of their catalogue β he eclipsed the efforts of every other member of the band. π΅π
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Currently reading: The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell π
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Currently reading: My Lord, What a Morning by Marian Anderson π
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Currently reading: The Book of Tokyo: A City In Short Fiction (Reading the City) edited by Jim Hinks, Masashi Matsuie & Michael Emmerich π
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Currently reading: Whatever by Michel Houellebecq π
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Currently reading: We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer π
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Radical Wordsworth by Jonathan Bate review β fleet-footed and inspiriting π β Excerpt: In 1798, William Wordsworth arrived from Bristol at the cottage of his friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in Nether Stowey in Somerset.
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Currently reading: Ascension by Gregory Dowling π
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Currently reading: The Feed by Nick Clark Windo π
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Just received Tim Andersonβs Vegan JapanEasy in todayβs post. Still awaiting delivery of some required ingredients though… π
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Currently reading: Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan π
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Currently reading: The Secret Purposes by David Baddiel π
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The (Quiet) Death of a Legendary Parisian Bookstore π β Excerpt: When it was announced that the legendary bookshop Le Pont TraversΓ© would definitely close down on the 31st of December in Paris, many French TV stations put in phone calls and tried to convince JosΓ©e Comte-BΓ©alu to do a filmed interview. She refused every single one of them.
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How to measure a year of reading π - this sums it up nicely Tom Gauld in The Guardian β link π
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Baudelaireβs unknown extra verse to erotic poem revealed β link π π
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Forward Arts Foundation in conversation with Fiona Benson β link π
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Currently reading: Vertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson π Purchased after reading this review in The Guardian.
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Currently reading: Baudelaire by Claude Pichois and Jean Ziegler π
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Finished reading: Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon π
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Top 10 books about Europe β link π
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Currently reading: Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey by Richard Ayoade π
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Currently reading: The Second Sleep by Robert Harris π
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Currently reading: Artemis by Andy Weir π
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A secondhand book is a glimpse into the lives of other readers ππ
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Currently reading: The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell π
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Currently reading: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage (trans.) π
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Currently reading: Ways of Seeing by John Berger π
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Currently reading: Cane by Jean Toomer π
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Finished reading Circe by Madeline Miller. Very readable and lively recounting of the Greek Odyssey tales (and more) from the unique perspective of goddess/witch Circe. Iβll be looking out for a copy of Millerβs first novel The Song of Achilles now. π // @johnjohnston
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Currently reading: Circe by Madeline Miller π
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Currently reading: Dr James Barry - A Woman Ahead of Her Time by Michael du Perez & Jeremy Dronfield π
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Currently reading: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris π
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Currently reading: A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes π
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π Less whaling in Moby Dick! - Tom Gauld on fan petitions β cartoon
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A crowdfunding appeal is bringing readers, authors and publishers together to help keep the copy of Lady Chatterleyβs Lover used by the judge in the landmark obscenity trial in the UK. π Donate via gofundme http://gf.me/u/szmpa8
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Currently reading: The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi π
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Currently reading: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman π
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Currently reading: Vengeance in Venice by Philip Gwynne Jones π
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Currently reading: The Black Book by Lawrence Durrell π
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Currently reading: The Greek Islands by Lawrence Durrell π
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Finished reading: Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman π
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Currently reading: Snap by Belinda Bauer π
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Currently reading: Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman π
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Finished reading: The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis π
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Currently reading: The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis π
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Currently reading: Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh π
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Currently reading: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton π
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Tom Gauld on how to deal with owning too many books β π cartoon π
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Currently reading: Travels with Epicurus: Meditations from a Greek Island on the Pleasures of Old Age by Daniel Klein π
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Currently reading: Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah π
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Thought this was an appropriate choice to start reading on Halloween π» π π
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Currently reading: Dark Matter by Michelle Paver π
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π Whoβs the Most Instagrammed Writer of All Time?
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Currently reading: Venice by Peter Ackroyd π
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Tom Gauld on buying a novel in the digital age β cartoon π
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Currently reading: Are you experienced? by William Sutcliffe π
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Pint of Titanic Cherry Dark πΊ in The Salutation β it was on these premises in 1846 that Charlotte BrontΓ« started writing Jane Eyre π
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Currently reading: The Snowman by Jo Nesbo π
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Currently reading: The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo π
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Currently reading: The Devilβs Star by Jo Nesbo π
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Currently reading: Percy Bysshe Shelley β Poet and Revolutionary by Jacqueline Mulhallen π
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Currently reading: An Endangered Species by David Gower π
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Currently reading: The Complete Short Stories of Raffles by E. W. Hornung π
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Currently reading: Terror and terroir β The winegrowers of the Languedoc and modern France by Andrew W. M. Smith π
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Just noticed that the book Iβm currently reading is published by Cambridge University Press but just inside the back cover it states βPrinted in Great Britain by Amazonβ. Didnβt realise that established publishers farmed out their printed copies like that.
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Currently reading: Monteverdiβs Unruly Women β The Power of Song in Early Italy by Bonnie Gordon π
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Finished reading: Adults In The Room: My Battle With Europeβs Deep Establishment by Yanis Varoufakis π
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Bats in libraries
Some impressive interiors in this collection of The world’s most beautiful libraries. This caption also intrigued me β one of only two libraries in the world that houses bats to protect the books against insects so I had to investigate further the bats, which are less than inch long, roost during the day behind βelaborate rococo bookcasesβ and come out at night to hunt insects which otherwise would feast on the librariesβ books.
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Currently reading: Opening Up by Mike Atherton π
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Emily BrontΓ«’s Wuthering Heights β in charts π
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Currently reading: Poetry Notebook: 2006β2014 by Clive James π
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Cartoon β Tom Gauld on The Odyssey
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Currently reading: Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson π
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Stig of the Dump β published the year I was born, a book I remember extremely well from my childhood! Stig of the Dump author Clive King dies aged 94 π
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Currently reading: Islam for the Politically Incorrect by Khaled Diab π
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I’ve heard of Cyberpunk and Steampunk before β and read books that fall into those categories β however, Solarpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that is new to me. π
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Now reading Introducing Sartre: A Graphic Guide by Philip Thody (Author) and Howard Read (Illustrator) π
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Now reading The Fall by Albert Camus π
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π DaΕ‘a DrndiΔ β ‘unflinching’ Croatian novelist, dies aged 71. π
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Now reading Instrumental by James Rhodes π
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An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle'
From Hyperallergic: An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’ Guy Debordβs (1931β1994) best-known work, La sociΓ©tΓ© du spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle) (1967), is a polemical and prescient indictment of our image-saturated consumer culture. The book examines the βSpectacle,β Debordβs term for the everyday manifestation of capitalist-driven phenomena; advertising, television, film, and celebrity.
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Now reading Red Gas by Edward Topol π
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Now reading The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison. π
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s remains rediscovered in wine cellar π
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Now Iβve just got to investigate Ursula K Le Guin’s electronica album and the associated book Always Coming Home ‘Deeply weird and enjoyable’ π΅π
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Now reading The Executor by Blake Morrison. π
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I finally got to watch Blade Runner 2049 last weekend. Very impressed with the film so have decided to re-read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to remind myself of where it all started. π¬π
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Interesting article by Blake Morrison - Up in smoke: should an author’s dying wishes be obeyed? π
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Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), the first book in English arguing for the equality of woman and men, must finally have her statue β more info at maryonthegreen.org
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Edna St Vincent Millay is one of my favourite poets - just noticed and appreciated this article, published on the anniversary of her birth, February 22nd 1892: Edna St Vincent Millay’s poetry has been eclipsed by her personal life β let’s change that π
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Now reading The Outrun by Amy Liptrot π
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Ursula K Le Guin, sci-fi and fantasy author, dies aged 88. The Dispossessed has always been one of my favourite utopian novels. π
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Quite ridiculous! - A new trend to βcoordinateβ the look of your library by turning the spines to face inward
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My kitchen bookcase is getting a little overcrowded. π
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Now reading a biography - D. H. Lawrence - The Life of Outsider by John Worthen. π
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I used to sporadically keep a record of the books I was reading on a Tumblr blog at imnowreading.tumblr.com - am going to try and resurrect this using the emoji tagging on Micro.blog.
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Interesting brief survey of the history, themes and current state of dystopian fiction in this BBC Books and Authors podcast π
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Sri Lankan cooking tonight
I recently bought this book ‘Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka’ by Bree Hutchins - from our local library (stock reduction). It’s an interesting and well photographed travel journal of a trip around Sri Lanka in addition to a multitude of recipes picked up along the way. Tonight I cooked from it for the first time - Boiled Egg Curry, Spinach with Dhal and Fried Cabbage - The results were superb; gently spiced but extremely tasty.
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… and I still base my nut roast on a recipe in my 30+ year old Cranks recipe book. Canβt be beaten!
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πBookmark β Mary Shelley review β sturdy literary biopic fails to resurrect spirit of author β but I do still want to see this.
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House of Alexandros Papadiamantis
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Just started reading the first of Peter F. Hamilton’s Chronicle of the Fallers Series - two massive volumes bought for holiday reading. I feel myself being dragged in …
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Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis review β one of the greatest political memoirs ever?
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Here I Am #books #reading #nowreading https://t.co/lJnYtCaZae
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I finished Ready Player One a couple of days ago, and now Dark Eden. If I was somewhere with computer and decent⦠https://t.co/SnmeSlziDA
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http://twitpic.com/1e0juk - Hay not all about pubs though!
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