“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay
Archive | September, 2009
Good review
On the Holloway Road got a nice review from a fellow writer and blogger, Helen J Beal. I found it particularly encouraging because she hates travelogues and Kerouac, so could have been expected to hate my book! Anyway, the site is worth checking out for more than just the review. It’s a good mix of [...]
Miscellaneous facts about bees
Sorry, this has nothing to do with reading, or writing, or anything else this blog is supposed to be about. I just read an amazing piece about bees in the latest issue of the New Internationalist, and before I throw the magazine I wanted to record some amazing facts. To make a pound of honey, [...]
Monday morning inspiration
“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.” Barbara Kingsolver (thanks to Amberdine)
“The Gentle Spirit” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky is one of my favourite writers. I discovered him in my teenage years, read as many of his books as I could get my hands on, and to be honest haven’t read anything else by him in a long time. I still count him as one of my favourite writers, though, more on memory [...]
Monday morning inspiration
“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” – William Faulkner (seen in The New Writer magazine)
American vs. British readers
Some interesting analysis of US and UK reading habits, courtesy of the summer edition of The Author magazine: American readers prefer romance; British ones prefer literary fiction Men make 35% of book purchases in the US; 42% in the UK In both countries, two-thirds of books are bought by people over the age of 42 [...]
“The Lazarus Project” by Aleksandar Hemon
There are three separate stories in this book: one is the killing of Russian Jewish immigrant Lazarus Averbuch by the Chicago Chief of Police in 1908; another is the struggle of the narrator, Bosnian immigrant Brik, to adapt to life in contemporary Chicago; a third is the 1990s war in the former Yugoslavia, as told [...]
Monday morning inspiration
“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” – Orson Scott Card (seen in The New Writer magazine)
“Thoughts” by Giacomo Leopardi
The book was unfinished in Leopardi’s lifetime, and perhaps the finished version would have been brilliant. This sequence of half-formed thoughts and bon mots, however, was just a quick and not particularly satisfying read.
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“The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes
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Introducing “A Virtual Love”, coming to a bookshop near you in Spring 2013
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The Sense of an Ending, explained
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Finding some inspiration
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Beauty is a sleeping cat
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Earl Lovelace at Bim Literary Festival
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Austin Clarke at Bim Literary Festival
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Learning from Derek Walcott: Bim Literary Festival, day one
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Great opportunity for unpublished UK writers
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How to write a book review
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Vishy: Interesting 5-step process, Andrew! I agree with t...
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