I turned 19 last week, although the bloke in M & S initially didn’t ID me because I apparently look over 25. I don’t know if this is a compliment or not. But anyway, birthdays inevitably mean books, and here is my brag because I don’t have any other content to post bar complaints about Tristram… Read More birthday books
I haven’t experienced so much simultaneous joy and frustration whilst reading. Although certain books drive me mad (Middlemarch, Into the Wild, etc. etc.), most often this is in an emotional, please-don’t-rend-my-heart kind of way. Fadiman’s Ex Libris is another book for book lovers which inspires the need for defacing in a very loving way. Except that I couldn’t… Read More Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
I finished The Old Ways earlier this morning, and was unsure if I wanted to wait to sort out my mangled thoughts (which weren’t really thoughts at all, but a little moan and a shiver down my spine) or if I should attempt to write regardless. The next thing I did was clean my glasses. After The Gifts… Read More The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane
I’ve been lusting after The Sparsholt Affair since it was published last year. Art? Secret liaisons in oak-panelled rooms? Count me, because even though the first section is set in The Other Place (Oxford, if you’re not engaged in the same level of ‘petty’ rivalry as I), it looked to be precisely my sort of… Read More The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
£50 can buy quite a lot of things. It is 3% of my college bill for next term, is more than the equivalent of my food for a week, and is the price of a train ticket home. Alternatively, I spent that money on this limited run, first edition (!) of Ness, which is objectively the most handsome… Read More Ness by Robert Macfarlane (words) & Stanley Donwood (art)
A book review? The type of top-quality content one would expect to find on a book blog? Never! The Gifts of Reading (almost) made me cry, and is a tiny (though size doesn’t matter, kids) testament to the joys of gifting books. It’s a slim, sharp read, an essay about books and book lovers, that’s heart-warming and… Read More The Gifts of Reading by Robert Macfarlane
The Miniaturist was the most emotionally exhausting book I’ve read since I binged on The Complete Works of Philip Larkin. Nevertheless, I didn’t mind having my heart ripped out, because at least it shows I’ve got one. As with most popular contemporary books, I’m years behind the bandwagon. The Miniaturist was first published in 2014 to a publishing war… Read More The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
