September.

I’ve had a great month on the reading front. Below are impressionistic, highly opinionated, reviews and/or responses to what I’ve read.  White Nights (1848) in The Best Short Stories of Fydor Dostoevsky (2001), translated by David Magarshack “It was a lovely night, one of those nights, dear reader, which can only happen when you are

Before I Read: ‘As I Lay Dying’… Again.

Last weekend I published a post before reading William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and then, over that weekend, I read it. I reached the punchline of the novel late on Sunday, with Monday morning fast approaching. I was, like a trampoline on a stormy night, blown away.  Without reservation, I can say As I

Before I Read: ‘As I Lay Dying’

As I Lay Dying    William Faulkner  “The death and burial of Addie Bundren is told by members of her family, as they cart the coffin to Jefferson, Mississippi, to bury her among her people. And as the intense desires, fears and rivalries of the family are revealed in the vernacular of the Deep South, Faulkner

Romantic Geometry

So, after reading Dostoevsky’s White Nights (see here) I felt fairly certain my desire to read would last sometime. But to really motivate myself – and because I was already in the area, on Friday – I picked a few more books up from a charity shop. Six books, in fact. Two by Dickens, Nicholas

Indictment and Indecision

It’s been, in my estimation, a while since I posted anything here and, therefore, anywhere.  At first, I didn’t post because I was working. Later, I lost the job and became too low, too distracted, to write or even to read – I have, however, been playing guitar a lot of late. Post-employment reading was

Yesterday #11 (May 19, 2022)

Contents: The Return of the King (Book 5, Chapters 1–3) – when being hated is a good thing – my favourite word – My Heart is a Chainsaw (Chapters 7–8) – two nations separated by a common language – a major minor complaint.  The Return of the King (Book 5, Chapters 1–3)  Six days after

Yesterday #9 (May 16 & 17, 2022)

CONTENTS: Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw (Chapters 1–6) – memories of Halloween 1978 – horror and history – free indirect speech – a proposed title change for Jane Austen’s Persuasion My Heart is a Chainsaw is not my usual read, so why did I start reading it? Well, I’ve seen the book

The Book Adaptations Tag

Of late all I’ve posted have been entries in my “Best Pictures” and “Yesterday” series. But I don’t want to risk, with all those yesterdays, lighting any fools’ ways to dusty death. So here, then, is a tag about film adaptations of books. I found this tag on the AceReader blog, so you can see

Yesterday #7 (May 13, 2022)

The Two Towers (Book 4, Chapters 8–10)  On this day, Friday the 13th – ten days ago as I write – I finished the second part of Lord of the Rings. On May 17, I was congratulated during a job interview for getting that far: the interviewer had studied literature at university but had never

Yesterday #6 (May 12, 2022)

Contents: Tolkien’s The Two Towers (Book 4, Chapters 4–7) – Coca-Cola vs. Dentists? The Two Towers In these chapters the hobbits, Sam and Frodo, continue seeking an entrance to Mordor with Gollum’s “help”; they meet and befriend Men of Gondor, including Faramir, brother of Richard Sharpe; lastly, they come to a crossroads which, since literal,