Terry Eagleton is a filthy Marxist. Thing is, I actually quite like it. I’m pretty sad to have finished this book as I’ve been dipping in and out of it for ten years. Yep. When I first started it, literary theory was scary and thrilling knowledge. Now, it’s like an old friend. I actually laughed [...]
Tagged book review, literary theory, Literary Theory: An Introduction, Marxist critics, Terry EagletonFranz Kafka, The Trial aNobii seems to have stuffed up and it won’t show the pretty covers of the books I’ve read. It’s a crap service, yet I can’t seem to give it up. You can view a gorgeous cover here. I have an older version of this edition meaning the cover on my copy [...]
Tagged book review, Franz Kafka, reading, The TrialI’d never read Australian literary journal Southerly before and seeing an issue devoted entirely to the topic of animals, I decided to give it a shot. Phew. It makes for some very thought-provoking reading as it’s pretty heavy on essays though I do like that that there are as many poems as there are essays. [...]
Tagged animal ethics, animal rights, Australian literary journals, book review, essays, fiction, periodicals, poetry, reading, SoutherlyI was in the city the other day and was strolling past Polyester Records. There were a whole bunch of Pop Penguins strategically placed by the front window. Argh. Of course I was going to look. I saw one I’d never seen before but sounded fantastic – haiku about the classics. It looked like the [...]
Tagged book review, David Bader, haiku, One Hundred Great Books In Haiku, Popular Penguins, readingIt’s odd that given my fondness for Richard Brautigan’s poetry, I hadn’t read much else of his other work, so I set up to rectify that immediately. I even e-mailed a literary journal publisher (for the now defunct Torpedo), hoping to submit yet another Brautigan-inspired work to another literary journal. Sadly, the publisher seemed to [...]
Tagged book review, In Watermelon Sugar, Peter Boxall 1001 books to read before you die list, reading, Richard Brautigan, Torpedo magazineWe all have guilty reading pleasures. Well, except @alexlobov – Alex seems to be reading serious shit 24/7 (I mention him because like my friend Felix, I aspire to adopt Alex’s reading habits). Alas, I don’t quite have that stamina and after getting a second wind of that weird flu-like illness hitting up Melbourne-town, I [...]
Tagged book review, guilty pleasures, historical fiction, Philippa Gregory, reading, The Queen's FoolAs a kid growing up in England, I was fascinated by the serialisation on telly of Chocky. As can be predicted, what I remember didn’t quite match up to what was in the book though I’d love to see the series again. This is my first John Wyndham novel and I walloped it in one [...]
Tagged book review, Chocky, John Wyndham, Peter Boxall 1001 books to read before you die list, readingCandide is an orphan who unfortunately falls in love with his benefactor’s daughter and is unceremoniously turfed out from the castle in which he was brought up after stealing a kiss from her. Thus begins Candide’s journey around the world as he struggles to hold onto his beloved philosophy professor Pangloss’ tenet that everything is [...]
Tagged book review, Candide, Enlightenment philosophy, optimism, reading, VoltaireIt seemed logical to follow up a reading of Jane Eyre with Jean Rhys’ postcolonial prequel of sorts Wide Sargasso Sea, especially while the previous work was still fresh in my mind. It’s a surprisingly short read despite beginning with Antoinette Rochester née Cosway’s life as a child up till she marries Mr Rochester. So what [...]
Tagged book review, Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys, postcolonialism, reading, Wide Sargasso SeaThe classics are classics for a reason. Earlier this year, I thought I best tackle and finish Wuthering Heights as some friends on Twitter (hullo @juzzash and @carly_b) urged me to. It was the kind of book that really made me want to throw it at the wall, so angry did it make me – [...]
Tagged book review, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Jane Eyre, reading, Wuthering HeightsSigh. After reading the first chapter of this book, as an atheist, I had very high hopes. Sadly, I don’t feel Hitchens delivered. At my most critical, I felt he does for atheists what Michael Moore does for the left-wing cause. Oh, don’t get me wrong – I love a good rant. But if you’re [...]
Tagged atheism, book review, Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great, New Atheists, reading, religionI’d actually finished this novella a while back, but my copy has two essays – one on pornography by Susan Sontag and another by Roland Barthes. Neither of these essays are ‘easy’ reading. Then again, Georges Bataille’s erotic classic isn’t either. Story of the Eye was originally published under a pseudonym and follows the erotic [...]
Tagged book review, erotic literature, French literature, Georges Batailles, literary theory, pornography, reading, Roland Barthes, Story of the Eye, Susan SontagIt’s August. Seventy-five books this year is looking very unlikely. Good thing then that I’ve spent most of the last two and a half weeks in bed due to a sinus infection that got to my ears and chest. When not sleeping, it gave me time to catch up on my reading. Historical fiction is [...]
Tagged book review, Hilary Mantel, historical fiction, reading, Thomas Cromwell, Tudor history, Wolf HallI finished this novel quite a while ago but have been stalling on my review because it was such a deeply affecting book. Sensual, ripe description and captures the ennui of leaving an old world and an old regime for a brave new one. The so-called ‘Leopard’, the nobleman Don Fabrizio watches these changes but [...]
Tagged book review, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italian literature, The LeopardWhat the hell took me so long to read this novel? Got it as a present years ago and because it was from an ex, sort of ignored I owned it – what a fool. I gobbled it up in three days. Its plot is indescribable but I’ll try to isolate some key themes of [...]
Tagged 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, book review, contemporary Japanese literature, Haruki Murakami, Kafka On the Shore