Bookshelf
If your interest in the Oulipo goes beyond simply trying out their techniques, and you wish to learn about the context in which it was conceived and the developments in went through, you will find this book very useful.
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A very timely publication. The first section is replete with anecdotes about trigger warnings and similar. Some of these are, in my opinion, ill-informed (such as the charges levelled against Jane Austen) while others are ridiculous (like the rewriting of parts of the Noddy books).
Read MoreThe Book at War is a fascinating study of how books and other reading matter have variously influenced politics, propaganda and history over time.
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Elborough’s central premise is that artists’ travels have always influenced their art – albeit more obviously in some cases than others.
Read MoreThe shelves in libraries or bookshops labelled Science Fiction and Fantasy interest me only for the former, not the latter. Games like Dungeons and Dragons have never appealed to me, and much as I like maps and strange lands, the works of Tolkien leave me cold.
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Who would have thought that a material as commonplace as paper could have such a rich history and profound effect on our lives?
Read MoreAs someone who had little in the way of mathematical prowess at school, I initially opened Prime with some trepidation.
Read MoreOn the surface, this would seem to be nothing more or less than an example of performance art presented as literature. However, there is much more to it than that because Johnson has introduced elements of randomisation…
Read MoreJust about every sentence contains a gem of advice. For example, Stein writes…
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Here are a couple of suggestions for your reading pleasure. They are not Christmas books, but big hefty tomes that need a bit of time to wade into.
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Back in April 2023 I reviewed The Writer’s Journey, and this is a companion volume by the same author.
Read MoreThis title charts what we might call the journey of a book, from the earliest shape of a story, through to cover design and blurb writing
Read MoreA broad sweep like this will inevitably overlook some aspects, and the lightness of tone might not appeal to academics – but…
Read MoreI love the subtitle: A history of thinking on paper (my emphasis). I do think there’s much to be said for writing on paper, and there is no paucity of research showing the benefits of analogue over the digital approach.
Read MorePerhaps I’m judging by my own standards here, but I think a big mistake you could make with this book is to try to ‘get into it’. You can’t, because it hasn’t really been designed to be readable as such. It’s more of a source of reference material and ideas.
Read MoreThis book arrived recently, and I’m very much enjoying reading it. It’s a kind of guided tour or survey of the types of fiction that have appeared in the last fifty years (mainly).
Read MoreMost books on creative writing tend to be less technical, at least in appearance, than ‘Sentence models’.
Read MoreSome of the essay topics may be a little dated – the failure of the Italian novel being one – but such is the clarity and variety of his work that the actual subject matter starts to feel immaterial.
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Three reviews in one article, plus a couple of news announcements.
Read MoreWhy I can’t read Lolita, but am reading Nabokov’s short stories.
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