Author Archives: Alex

Added to the wishlist: The Age of Absurdity

Reviewed in The Guardian: “Foley is not one for the “fatuous breeziness” of bullet-pointed self-help manuals or the nostrums of the new science of wellbeing… Here are Christ and Buddha, Marx and Freud, Spinoza and Nietzsche, Joyce and Proust, mixing it with brain experts Pinker and Rose. It’s not so much a trawl of greatContinue reading “Added to the wishlist: The Age of Absurdity”

Added to the wishlist: The Lost Books of the Odyssey

Previewed in the New York Times: “The Lost Books of the Odyssey purports to be a compilation of 44 alternate versions of Homer’s epic… In some of the alternate histories Odysseus returns to Ithaca only to find the island abandoned, or Penelope a ghost or married to a man who is “soft, grey and heavy.”Continue reading “Added to the wishlist: The Lost Books of the Odyssey”

On Grief, and the Year of Her Magical Thinking

And so, the second book of the year becomes a DNF. When I closed The Year of Magical Thinking – perhaps the 21st century’s most highly praised book on death – this evening, around page 120, I knew I wasn’t going to re-open it. Highly praised, but I just didn’t get it; indeed, I found itContinue reading “On Grief, and the Year of Her Magical Thinking”

Two cool Japanese iPhone apps

Via App.itize.us, a new iPhone apps blog, comes 51 Japanese Characters. Simple but fun, it features 51 Japanese “characters” – otaku, samurai, gyaru etc; give it a shake and it’ll mix and match their body parts. Secondly, from the Japan Graphic Designers Association (JAGDA) and Heidelberg Japan K. K.,  “(^_^)365(O_O)” (Hello 365) tear-off calendar forContinue reading “Two cool Japanese iPhone apps”

More people visit the Blackpool Tower each year than the Pyramids

This is and other excellent factoids in a strange little piece on the Guardian website: “Inspired by Mayor John Bickerstaffe’s visit to the Eiffel Tower in 1889, it survived a fire at the top eight years later and was largely rebuilt in 1921-4 because cheapskate owners had failed to use rust-proof paint. Mistaken for aContinue reading “More people visit the Blackpool Tower each year than the Pyramids”

What is David Cameron an expression of?

“You know, when they forced Khruschev out, he sat down and wrote two letters to his successor. He said – ‘When you get yourself into a situation you can’t get out of, open the first letter, and you’ll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can’t get out of, open the secondContinue reading “What is David Cameron an expression of?”

Books I’ve Read, 2010

Previously: 2005 and 2006 2007 2008 2009 Starting the reading for 2010 a little late; it took me a while to finish Richard Holmes’ Age of Wonder, which is both excellent and substantial. As per usual, this post will be updated throughout the year with brief impressions of the books and a slightly less thanContinue reading “Books I’ve Read, 2010”

My Year in Books, 2009

Previously: 2006 – 25 books, 28% non-fiction, and my book of the year was Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. 2007 – 24 books, 33% non-fiction, far fewer contemporary novels, and my pick of the year was Crime and Punishment. 2008 – 22 books, 54% non-fiction, all but one of the novels were contemporary. BestContinue reading “My Year in Books, 2009”

Added to the wishlist: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

[Book] How could it not be? The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is the new one from David Mitchell, my favourite living author. It sees Mitchell’s fiction returning to Japan – site of the many of the stories in his first book, Ghostwritten, and a place that helped shape him as a writer: “InContinue reading “Added to the wishlist: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet”