When I was 20, my girlfriend’s brother bought me Bleak House for my birthday saying “I love buying books for people who will get pleasure from them.” I’ve flirted with Bleak House more times than I can remember but there is always … Continue reading
The Road is about a man and a boy. And nothing happens.
They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it … Continue reading
[It's that time again. That time when I rummage through my unfinished posts folder and decide which one's would be better out than in and which belong in the digital toilet bowl. This one from March 2012 (barely) made the … Continue reading
Orwell’s Diaries have been serialized daily online for the last few years as though Orwell were a contemporary blogger. His diary started with Word War II and each entry is posted on the day it was written but time-shifted 70 years … Continue reading
Four years ago, I drove up to Portland, Oregon to make a new life and I fell entirely in love with every detail of the city. I loved exploring Portland and I found something new each time I looked. I have … Continue reading
Why is that these two statement evoke such different reactions? I hear they are making a movie of The Lord of the Rings. I hear they are making a movie of The Lorax. Those of us who are fans of … Continue reading
Tom lent me the Game of Thrones to read recently. I enjoyed it thoroughly but I couldn’t help but think that – if you take away the thin veneer of magic and fantasy – it reads a lot like the … Continue reading
It used to be hard to find well-thought-out justifications for atheism. Most people I knew were atheists but didn’t like to talk about it much (probably because they didn’t know that most people they knew were atheists too). The only … Continue reading
One of the many books I am reading at the moment is The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. It’s a bird-watching diary written by a man who (according to the intro) is in the last year of his life and decides … Continue reading