Tom Waits – one of music’s best-kept secrets… Republished into its original place in my blog’s timeline from the lost post archive. You may not know his name, but you’ll know his songs – Rod Stewart’s cover of Downtown Train or Springsteen’s Jersey Girl for instance. You may recall a distinctive looking actor in supporting Read More
Month: September 2008
Desert Island Books #1
This weekend has been totally hectic and I got virtually no reading done, so instead I’ll tell you about one of my desert island books – a book that’s made a big impression on me, and shaped my reading habits thereafter … The first on my list is The Shipping News by Annie Proulx who in those Read More
What makes a good choice for a book group?
I maintain that the best books for book groups are those that provoke discussion – titles that not everyone will like, or genres you don’t usually read for instance. Most important though is not to get stuck in a rut, by reading totally different types of books each month. The book group I belong to Read More
In praise of the Literary Quarterly
Slightly Foxed… …is a four a year magazine billed as ‘The Real Reader’s Quarterly’. It is beautifully produced on cream paper with lovely illustrations and usually comprises 15 or 16 articles – all championing books that are often out of print, but always an influential book for the essay’s author. As usual, No 19 was Read More
Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason
Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason Nick Mason has been with Pink Floyd right from the beginning – through all the band’s incarnations and troubles. He makes a genial host in his biography of the band, yet he proves too easygoing and unconfrontational to give us much analysis of the Read More
Guilty Secrets #1
This is the first in an occasional series where I am going to risk ridicule and tell you which books and authors I really ought to have read but haven’t. I am enjoying the new BBC adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles immensely. Its young star Gemma Arterton is just the part with her Pre-Raphaelite Read More
A Trio of Five Star Books
As this is a new blog and we’re still getting to know each other, I thought I’d briefly introduce you to a trio of the 5 star books I’ve read this year, so you can see some of the books I’ve really enjoyed reading. The Scheme for Full Employment by Magnus Mills This was a Read More
Rebus #2
Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin Ian Rankin’s second Rebus novel is not quite as good as the first, but is still very enjoyable. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, this time the doughty inspector investigates the death of a junkie with possible satanic overtones, while his super involves him in Read More
What’s your relationship to your reading?
Can you have more than one book at a time on the go? In other words are you a serial monogamist or a two-timer in your relationship to your reading materials? I’m always impressed by people who can manage to read several books at a go, swapping between them as the mood takes them and Read More
“Is there anybody out there?”
I finally decided to dip my toes into the blogosphere. But before I write anything else, I must go and listen to Echoes from Meddle. I only found out today that Rick Wright died earlier this week, there was a good obituary in the Telegraph. I’ll be back tomorrow when I hope to get started Read More
