December 2010
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Best Books from 2010
I’m not very apt at making best of lists. I’m especially crap at trying to keep it as a top 10, or anything neat and orderly. So I decided to split it into sub-sections, and even then I found it difficult. I realised, though, that this is a great thing. It means I read lots of wonderful things, which I did. It’s been a great reading year, and I want to thank you all for keeping...
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“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said....”
– Cormac McCarthy, The Road
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“Lying there in the dark with the uncanny taste of a peach from some phantom...”
– Cormac McCarthy, The Road
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Best Books from 2010
I’m not very apt at making best of lists. I’m especially crap at trying to keep it as a top 10, or anything neat and orderly. So I decided to split it into sub-sections, and even then I found it difficult. I realised, though, that this is a great thing. It means I read lots of wonderful things this year, which I did. It’s been a great reading year, and I want to thank you all for...
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Song of the Day: La Vie En Rose by Louis...
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“It struck me that perhaps a lot of the people you see walking about are dead. We...”
– George Orwell, Coming Up For Air
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Top 5 Albums of 2010
I don’t tend to like doing lists such as these because normally I find it hard to chose. This year, though, I think there are five stand-out albums that are going to be my favourites for years to come, so I thought I’d share.
In no particular order:
Laura Marling, I Speak Because I Can
I speak because I can, to anyone I trust enough to listen You speak because you can, to anyone...
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Book Review: The Women Who Got Away
Book #87
“You used what you had here. People had so little material goods they had to take pleasure just in being alive.” — John Updike, Licks of Love in the Heart of the Cold War
I wish I’d made notes when I read this book, but I read it out in the garden, leaving my phone and my notebook behind. It’s a short read — five short stories — and it was a...
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Top 5 Albums of 2010
I don’t tend to like doing lists such as these because normally I find it hard to chose. This year, though, I think there are five stand-out albums that are going to be my favourites for years to come, so I thought I’d share.
In no particular order:
Laura Marling, I Speak Because I Can
I speak because I can, to anyone I trust enough to listen You speak because you can, to anyone...
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Book Review: Half Broke Horses
Book #86
“Sometimes it didn’t matter how much gumption you had. What mattered were the cards you’d been dealt.” — Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses
Like most people who bought this book, I had read and loved The Glass Castle, and had eagerly waited for Half Broke Horses to come out. I was checking bookstores constantly, asking if it had finally been stocked, and...
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“And I like that author best who shows me my own world, conditions such as I live...”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)
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Book Review: The Other Hand (aka Little Bee)
Book #91 of 2010
“Learning the Queen’s English is like scrubbing off the bright red varnish from your toenails in the morning after a dance. It takes a long time and there is always a little bit left at the end, a stain of red along the growing edges to remind you of the good time you had. So, you can see that learning came slowly to me.” — Chris Cleave, The Other Hand
...
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Book Review: Cathedral
Book #90 (of 2010)
“My eyes were still closed. I was inside my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything.” — Raymond Carver, Cathedral
I’ve heard people say that Carver is boring, or too monotonous. I don’t agree. His writing is beautiful, realistic and sparse. I’ve put off writing this review for so long because I didn’t...
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Book Reviews: First Love / Pythagoras & His...
Combining two because I don’t have much to say about either.
Book #88 of 2010
This was my introduction to Turgenev. I was looking forward to the book, because he was Russian author I hadn’t read before, because it was about love, because it was novella and I needed something short at the time. I did enjoy the story, and I felt for Vladimir, but it didn’t engage me completely....
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Book Review: The Women Who Got Away
Book #87
“You used what you had here. People had so little material goods they had to take pleasure just in being alive.” — John Updike, Licks of Love in the Heart of the Cold War
I wish I’d made notes when I read this book, but I read it out in the garden, leaving my phone and my notebook behind. It’s a short read — five short stories — and it was a...
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“My happiness and sadness was all out of proportion to anything that was...”
– Mark Vonnegut, The Eden Express
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Book Review: The Naked Civil Servant
Book #85
“A pessimist is someone who, if he is in the bath, will not get out to answer the telephone.” — Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant
The Naked Civil Servant is the memoir of Quentin Crisp, a man who became notorious for his sexuality in early twentieth century England because he refused to hide it. At the time, gay sex was illegal — but Crisp still wore...
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Book Review: Love Letters of Great Men
Book #84
“I would never see anything but Pleasure in your eyes, love on your lips, and Happiness in your steps.” — John Keats in Love Letters of Great Men
There’s not really much to say about this book beyond the quotes I’ve posted. When I bought it, it was because I’d been curious, and for £2.99 was willing to satisfy my curiosity. I thought it might be a...
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Questions Answered.
I’ve got quite a lot of questions waiting to be answered, so I’ll do this big post, and there’s probably going to be another soonish.
ohsocolourful asked: What are your favourite places in London? :)
So very many. I just love the city as a whole. Some places include, but are not limited to: The Albert Memorial, Piccadilly Circus/Leicester Square/Soho area (because the huge...
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“And being a student will always involve self-indulgence and silliness and...”
– A L Kennedy on Writing, Tuesday 30 November 2010 (via stillrandom)