Category
Books
-
01.03.08My Week In MediaChallenged by m'colleague Neil to reveal what I've been consuming, media-wise this week, I am delighted to flash my digital hem, as it were, particularly because it affords me the parallel opportunity to apologise for being AWOL since before Christmas. I've been away, you see, and as a result, my media consumption for the past week has been a bit different in many ways to what I might otherwise have consumed. What I read Despite not being in the office (or perhaps because of it), I've enjoyed reading the paper: The Guardian, of course and particularly enjoyed the NYE quiz special edition ...
-
10.02.07The Book Thief?I'm a big admirer of Douglas Coupland's work. I've read all his books, and am especially fond of Girlfriend in a Coma and Hey Nostradamus. So a couple of months ago, I went into a biggish branch of a high street book retailer to pick up a copy of GiaC to give to someone, because I'd been raving about it over lunch a few days before. I rifled through the various titles on the shelf, disappointed that they didn't have the one I wanted in stock, when my fingers alighted on...something unexpected. The Gum Thief is Coupland's keenly-awaited and newest novel, due ...
-
07.15.07Harry Potter and the Cult of ConformityI've just come back from seeing the latest HP outing, in which Harry and chums do, y'know, wizardy things in the face of evil. This is the fifth in the series (the 'difficult' fifth Harry Potter tome is apparently much like most recording artists' 'difficult' second album) and I don't think I'll be spoiling it for anyone if I tell you that the fact that there are two more books after this one both of which contain his name means that Harry scrapes through this one ok. This was the book I didn;t read - or rather, this was the one ...
-
04.02.07Too close for comfortWhen The Office appeared on our screens a few years ago, I barely watched it. This is because despite there being some very perceptive - and no doubt funny - writing, Ricky Gervais makes me want to grind my teeth into sand but also, and probably more significantly it was, in some ways, too close for comfort. The thing is, anyone having worked in an office environment, whether large or small, can identify with and recognise the reality in many of the situations it depicts - team bonding training days, bosses who want to be liked and feared at the same ...
-
03.16.07Funny-Ha-Ha, not Funny-PeculiarIn 1989, I made a birthday card for the second red nose day, and ran around collecting signatures and money for it, with visions of being able to present the card live on air - you know, like they do with those big charity cheques. (In this archive photo, above, you can see me aged 15 - I think Red Nose Day was actually on my birthday that year, which is why the birthday card seemed appropriate), my friend Melissa holding the card, and my sister Anna (who would have been 12), raising money by being sponsored to wear her ...
-
02.19.07Book recommendations neededWhen I travel, I like to read things which are set in the location I'm visiting. I enjoy travel guides, personal travelogues and social histories, too, but I also look for books which will suit the landscape and culture I'm going to be reading them in - even if only slightly. Given that we're off to the Bay Area and Northern California this weekend, I'm looking for recommendations of books set in or around (or loosely based on) San Francisco, wine country and the Northern California coast, extending as far as, well, basically any of the Pacific Northwest. Also, works by ...
-
01.23.07Serendipity-doo-daThe other day, sitting on the bus while it crawled towards home in a traffic jam, I was reading my book: Said and Done - Roger McGough I reached the end of a chapter and looked up from the page, through the window of the bus. We were sitting in traffic outside a pub, and in my seat, I was right next to the window of the bar, with a direct view inside. And who should I spy through the window, quietly supping his pint? The author of the book I was holding in my hand, Roger McGough. Odd when worlds collide and align ...
-
01.09.07Turning over a new leafI was having a conversation the other day with some friends about what you do with books once you've finished reading them. This is a pertinent and passionate subject for me, because I've got a lot of books - a LOT - and while I plan on keeping most of them, there's a whole subset which is relatively disposable - or rather, which don't need keeping for a long time, really. My books fall into three main categories: Books which I've read and enjoyed, but which I might re-read again, or otherwise want to keep (to lend to others, or because they were ...
-
08.07.06Buy this book. NOW.A very good friend of mine, Frank Wynne, has just had his first book published: I was Vermeer: The Legend of the Forger who Swindled the Nazis.It's the story of "a paranoid, drug-addicted, alcoholic, hypochondriac painter whose journey from zero to hero earned him $50 million, the acclamation of the world's press and the satisfaction of swindling the Nazis. Half a century after his death, his handiwork is still suspected in at least four Vermeers in major galleries, and the ugly daub sold last year at Sotheby's for $30 million had long been attributed to him. The book takes a ...
-
08.15.05Recommendations?I'm going to be away for most of next week on a business trip to the US. The trouble is, coming hot on the heels of last week's jaunt up to the Ross of Mull, I'm at a loss for what reading matter to take. What I'd really like is a site into which I could plug the names of various books I've read (and enjoyed), and which could then generate a list of books I might enjoy based on them. Amazon's system of recommendations based on purchase behaviour doesn't quite do it - because after all, what good is knowing that ...
recent posts
- Things I might write about at some point, but not now
- Back from over there
- A Life in Pictures
- The sound of silence
- Here it goes again
- As You Like It
- “Nighthawks” at the Chippy?
-
Looking for the Anti-Valentines?
