Author Archive
What Should I Read Next
Review: A Man of Parts by David Lodge
It’s a tribute to David Lodge’s writing skill that I found this novel absorbing and poignant even though I’ve never read anything by H.G. Wells and have no particular interest in him. As a biographical novel about a well-known ...
Book Lists
Summer Reading Special: Escapist Travel Books
The summer is winding down now and it may be time for some of you to head back to school or college, or to knuckle back down to work after exciting vacations. But it’s never too early to start planning your next big adventure. ...
Book Lists
Summer Reading Special: A Bibliophile’s Miscellany of Italy
Although I’ve lived in the United Kingdom for eight years now, I’ve never made the (relatively) short jaunt over to Italy. But, like many of you, I feel I know the country’s cities and countryside through the media of film and ...
Book Lists
A Bibliophile’s Miscellany: Titles That Promise Too Much
For some of my rules and preferences about book titles, see my related article this week, “What’s in a Name?” I’m wary of long and overcomplicated titles; all too often, I fear, they might be masking a book that actually has ve...
New Reads
What’s in a Name? Judging Books by their Titles
You’ve heard that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but what about judging books by their titles? Despite the perennial admonitions from good-natured and tolerant book-lovers, I daresay we all do it all the time: take on...
Book Lists
A Bibliophile’s Miscellany: Epistolary Novels
Last week I wrote about the complementary lost arts of letter writing and handwriting. Literary correspondence, once such a venerable genre, just hasn’t been the same since the advent of e-mail and text messages. And yet the ep...
What Should I Read Next
Review: The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock
I first came across Mary Delany’s intricate paper flowers at an exhibition held at one of London’s great treasure troves, the Sir John Soane’s Museum, in early 2010. Though at the time I recognized the flower mosaics as gorgeou...
Book Lists
A Bibliophile’s Miscellany: The Lost Art of Letter Writing
When’s the last time you put pen to paper and wrote a letter? Not an e-mail, not a quickly jotted memo, but an actual hand-written letter, with the date at the top, a more or less formal term of address (you can never go wrong ...
What Should I Read Next
Review: Under the Same Stars by Tim Lott
Somewhere between the high culture of the Cain and Abel story (via both Genesis and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden) and the low culture of a buddy road trip flick lies Under the Same Stars by Tim Lott. Despite the cheesy title a...
Awesome Books
Reading Paraphernalia
Last week I wrote about librarians’ pet peeves, and how devoted I am to my extensive bookmark collection. Now it’s time for a few more pieces of reading ‘equipment’ no bookworm should be without. First is a leather ...
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Review: A Man of Parts by David Lodge
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Review: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
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My Brother - Read a Kindle
