Yesterday, I went to a poetry reading – Lorraine McGuigan is the Cafe Poet of a neat little place in Eltham called The Lane. Eltham’s always had an active artistic community as well as loads of trees. I remember in high school being quite jealous of the (artistic-hippie) folks who lived out that way, though [...]
Also tagged books, Cafe Poet, Eltham, fantasy, fantasy novel series, Lorraine McGuigan, love, outer Melbourne, The Lane…perhaps. I don’t spend a lot of time on Twitter these days (for others’ benefit more than my own) but yesterday was A Very Good Twitter Day. My Scottish-born friend recited Robert Burns’ Address to a Haggis. Then there was Radiohead demonstrating the purpose of reading books (via @rageabc). Gush.
Also tagged poetry recitation, Radiohead, Robert Burns(in case you were wondering about the title…) I made it to fifty-three books. So damn close. I’m too damn lazy to review all of them, so here’s the list. It wasn’t as good a year as 2010 (despite my also failing to reach my goal then too) where I finished fifty-nine books, started fifty-four [...]
Also tagged books, French languageMy bad. For the two of you that actually pay attention to my book-reading habits, you can be forgiven for thinking I haven’t been reading at all. I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like because I’ve spent the last three or so months a. really, really unwell and b. apparently making up for [...]
Also tagged A A Milne, Allen Ginsberg, Blood and Guts In High School, book review, Burnings, DailyLit, E H Shepard, Emily Dickinson, G, Gardens of the Moon, Just So Stories, Kathy Acker, Margaret Atwood, Moral Disorder, Ocean Vuong, poetry, R L Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, short story, Steven Erikson, Treasure Island, Winnie the PoohHere’s another gem that’s been on my bookcase for a few years that I decided to read. I like to read plays and poetry when commuting as normally the books aren’t thick and therefore they’re very transportable. My partner said the title sounded familiar, did the playwright pinch it off Oasis’ song? Nooooo, quite the [...]
Also tagged John Osborne, Look Back In Anger, play, reviewIt’s absolutely criminal that I picked this up for ten bucks at a big bookstore in the city. Criminal, I tell you! Don’t you people know who she is?! Dorothy Porter is definitely one of Australia’s most well-known poets, female or not. Sadly, she passed away a couple of years ago. She is particularly famous [...]
Also tagged book review, Dorothy Porter, El Dorado, poetry, verse novelFrom my friend Claire: Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. I’ll put the books I’ve read in bold. Fellow booksluts, feel free to copy and paste your list into the comments. I was actually surprised I’d [...]
Also tagged BBC booklist, books, literary classicsSome notes of some of the highlights from a batch of old New Yorker issues I’ve read. This magazine is ruining my life. I don’t read anywhere near as much fiction or poetry as I used to. Dec 7, 2009 This was a pretty lacklustre issue, as far as the New Yorker goes. Can’t half [...]
Also tagged New YorkerJennifer Michael Hecht’s poetry volume came from Tupelo Press in the same shipment as Sarah Hannah’s brilliant Inflorescence, which was one of my reading highlights this year so I had high hopes for it. The gold badges brandishing the cover also meant my expectations were high. I do like that Hecht’s lines are quite long, [...]
Also tagged book review, contemporary American poetry, Jennifer Michael Hecht, The Next Ancient World, Tupelo PressIf by now you haven’t cottoned onto the fact that I’m smashing poetry volumes in order to reach my 75 books goal by the end of the year, you’re a bit dim. This one I picked up directly through the publisher Tupelo Press which does this cool thing where they choose one or two titles [...]
Also tagged book review, Inflorescence, poetry, Sarah HannahIt hit me that it was probably about time I read some of Billy Collins’ poetry given he was a former American Poet Laureate. Despite promising my friend Luke that I wouldn’t start another book till I’d finished reading the one he lent me (No Logo by Naomi Klein), I did because I didn’t want [...]
Also tagged Billy Collins, book review, poetry, Questions About AngelsI’ve read all of last year’s issues of Going Down Swinging one of this year’s and haven’t been disappointed yet. There’s always such a fun mix of short fiction, graphics and stacks of yummy, juicy poetry that actually makes me feel something instead of boring me to death with its forced cleverness (hey, that’s probably [...]
Also tagged book review, Craig Billingham, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Going Down Swinging, Melbourne poets, periodicalFranz 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 [...]
Also tagged book review, Franz Kafka, 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. [...]
Also tagged animal ethics, animal rights, Australian literary journals, book review, essays, fiction, periodicals, poetry, 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 [...]
Also tagged book review, David Bader, haiku, One Hundred Great Books In Haiku, Popular Penguins