December 2011
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“What you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have...”
– Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
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2011 in Books
To say I was lax with reviewing this year is an understatement. I shall try to do better next year, but I make no promises. Nonetheless, here is the list of books I read this year. For my favourites, go here.
(*) denotes reread.
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Fragments by Marilyn Monroe
Erotic Poems by Goethe (translated by David Luke)
And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks...
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Best Books from 2011
I constantly get asked for recommendations. These are the books that I’ve read this year that I’d like to champion. They are absolutely wonderful, and if you get the chance, you should read them. Click here for last year’s favourites.
Classics
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (do yourself a favour and read the...
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“I don’t admit that my failure proved my view to be a wrong one, or that my...”
– Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
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“What’s the use of keeping her chained on to me if she doesn’t belong...”
– Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
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2011 in Concerts
Adele
I was absurdly lucky to be able to see Adele. I love her to bits, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be in London the day of this concert, so I didn’t buy a ticket in advance. It turned out that I was — so, ticketless, I went to the venue. It was a tiny little place in Notting Hill, the night of the release of 21. My friends told me I was nuts. I went straight up to the...
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“Relationships are physics. Time transforms things — it has to, because the...”
– Darin Strauss, Half a Life
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“Surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one...”
– Plato, Socrates in Apology
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“I am in a chaos of principles—groping in the dark—acting by instinct...”
– Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
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2011 in Movies
* denotes rewatch.
I watched fewer movies this year than in the past, which is brilliant. It’s definitely something I wanted to do, and I’m happy I carried it out. However, I did rewatch too many movies (most of which had no substance, as an “in the background” type of thing, or with mates) and I didn’t watch very many amazing ones. Also, I’m not even half as...
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“But from there on, the pen lay dead in his cramped fingers. It was as if all the...”
– Richard Yates, Out With the Old in Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
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2011 in Theatre
I definitely saw fewer plays this year than in previous years (I normally average at least four, sometimes up to seven or eight), but it’s been a pretty busy year and I’ve spent a lot less time in London than I usually do. No matter! I saw a couple of great ones.
The Children’s Hour is written by Lillian Hellman and the production I saw starred Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss....
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“They thought it over, or postponed thinking. Certainly they postponed action,...”
– Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
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“The dreamer—if you want an exact definition—is not a human being,...”
– Dostoyevsky, White Nights
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“There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if...”
– Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
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“Medicine, I have had reason since to notice more than once, remains an imperfect...”
– Joan Didion, Blue Nights
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“In theory these mementos serve to bring back the moment.
In fact they serve...”
– Joan Didion, Blue Nights
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“Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that in some way, you are justified.”
– Albert Camus, The Rebel
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“Reader, do you know, as I do, what terror those cold people can put into the ice...”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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“Reason, and not feeling, is my guide; my ambition is unlimited: my desire to...”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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“Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and...”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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“Alas! the readers of our era are less favoured. But courage! I will not pause...”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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“Thought fitted thought; opinion met opinion: we coincided, in short, perfectly.”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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“You know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which I am...”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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Me: I had a dream that I owned a capo.
My friend, after a long silence: I had a dream that I ate some fruit.
Me: Really?
Him: No. I just wanted to emphasis how utterly boring your dreams are.
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“I feared my hopes were too bright to be realised; and I had enjoyed so much...”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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“I like you more than I can say; but I’ll not sink into a bathos of sentiment.”
– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
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Last night, with a mate
Him: Women. Honestly. Fucking women!
Me: Oh, please. Can we talk about men for a second?
Him: Women are so confusing! And annoying!
Me: Men are idiots.
Him: Women can be such bitches.
Me: Men can be assholes.
Him: Maybe I pick the wrong women.
Me: You definitely pick the wrong women.
Him: Maybe you pick the wrong men.
Me: No, proportionately, there are more nice women than there are decent men.
Him: Oh, please.
Me: Well, you know.
Him: Why are women never pleased? Why do they have to do everything through signals? What's wrong with just saying what you want?
Me: Like you ever listen.
Him: I listen!
Me: Pfft, only when you want to. And when you don't, that same conversation is called a whinge or a moan.
Him: Ugh. Women.
Me: Men.
Him: Want to watch a movie?
Me: Yeah, all right then.