When it comes to reviews of books there are only two people I trust: anton and Nick Lezard. Don't think I've actually read anything that the latter has recommended but he always writes with such gentleness and with a small-scale, unpretentious love of books that you feel that he just has to be right. So, maybe I should try and get a copy of 'The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls'.
What is it about the short story that appeals to you? The precision, the puritanical idea that no word is superfluous, no image is allowed to grow (he says, putting on his Jewish hat)? The loose bagginess of the novel, in which one can lose oneself, can find some comfort as words wash over you.
The Dougal, of course. Still half in love with Capote's Cold Blood. Not so sure of her reading of Light Years, though Salter's other work does seem horridly false, contrived. Denis Johnson's Train Dreams isn't living up to Jesus's Son. So far, that is. Not sure why I was expecting some visionary prose.
Books to read, on my shelf:
M.D. Foot: Debts of Honour
R. Hass: Collected Poems
J. Burnside: Black Cat & Selected Poems
P. Linebraugh: Magna Carta
A. Carson: Nox.
L. Moore: Collected Short Stories (dougal's choice).
Transtromer: Poems
Hutton's book on Keynes
K. Jamie: Sightlines (N. Lezard's choice)
Infinity: the story of a moment (anton's choice)
~~~
There's something funny about religious people making fun of religion; not so funny when it's by non-religious people with their own axe to grind. If there are religious people out there to convince you that there's beauty, meaning, sense in the chaotic world, then there are non-religious people out there to convince you that all we are is raw flesh, and then, eventually, dust. What both share, and what I dislike in both, is this desire to convince or bring you over to 'their side'.
~~~
Scuton's Green Philosophy is a huge disappointment. Why is it so hard to find a right-winger who writes beautifully? There's one chapter on 'home', settlement, that has some nice thoughts, but apart from that he's a one trick pony, harping on about 'big' government.
Eagerly awaiting John Broome's book on the climate. At least he's a proper philosopher, a very clear thinker, even if one doesn't always agree with his views.
~~~
Some dickhead recommended two novels written by desis. I don't think I can read any of that artificial shit. And one on 'Islamic civilisation'. I think I want to throw up.
What is it about the short story that appeals to you? The precision, the puritanical idea that no word is superfluous, no image is allowed to grow (he says, putting on his Jewish hat)? The loose bagginess of the novel, in which one can lose oneself, can find some comfort as words wash over you.
The Dougal, of course. Still half in love with Capote's Cold Blood. Not so sure of her reading of Light Years, though Salter's other work does seem horridly false, contrived. Denis Johnson's Train Dreams isn't living up to Jesus's Son. So far, that is. Not sure why I was expecting some visionary prose.
Books to read, on my shelf:
M.D. Foot: Debts of Honour
R. Hass: Collected Poems
J. Burnside: Black Cat & Selected Poems
P. Linebraugh: Magna Carta
A. Carson: Nox.
L. Moore: Collected Short Stories (dougal's choice).
Transtromer: Poems
Hutton's book on Keynes
K. Jamie: Sightlines (N. Lezard's choice)
Infinity: the story of a moment (anton's choice)
~~~
There's something funny about religious people making fun of religion; not so funny when it's by non-religious people with their own axe to grind. If there are religious people out there to convince you that there's beauty, meaning, sense in the chaotic world, then there are non-religious people out there to convince you that all we are is raw flesh, and then, eventually, dust. What both share, and what I dislike in both, is this desire to convince or bring you over to 'their side'.
~~~
Scuton's Green Philosophy is a huge disappointment. Why is it so hard to find a right-winger who writes beautifully? There's one chapter on 'home', settlement, that has some nice thoughts, but apart from that he's a one trick pony, harping on about 'big' government.
Eagerly awaiting John Broome's book on the climate. At least he's a proper philosopher, a very clear thinker, even if one doesn't always agree with his views.
~~~
Some dickhead recommended two novels written by desis. I don't think I can read any of that artificial shit. And one on 'Islamic civilisation'. I think I want to throw up.
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