Diary Archive

I've been working with books, and blogging about them, for a few years now, and reading them for a little longer. There's something that I'm finding increasingly troubling: the majority of the books I purchase to read, or receive for review, shouldn't have been published. At least, not in their current state... >>

Remembering Rebel Inc. Classics, an imprint that specialised in resurrecting a broad range of counter-culture literature, from Richard Brautigan to John Fante, from Knut Hamsun to Alexander Trocchi. >>

A group of hotels in Italy have got together to offer free books to their guests. >>

Earlier this year, round about the time when everybody else was getting into Roberto Bolaño's 2666, I decided to investigate Brothers, by Chinese author Yu Hua... and I've been "investigating" it ever since... >>

The discovery of some Armed Services Editions (paperbacks given to American troops serving in World War II) in Porta Portese market, Rome, Italy. >>

Books are books and television is television, and never the twain shall meet... but here's a look at some of the TV series that have been most enjoyed by book lovers over the years. >>

The new Magnum Collection from Penguin is a good-looking little set of classics, including titles by Truman Capote and Norman Mailer, repackaged using images from the Magnum Photo Agency. >>

Forget Rick Steves' travel guides... With the economy the way it is, the travel industry must be holding its breath to find out which destinations are featured in The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's upcoming follow-up to The Da Vinci Code. >>

I've been revisiting the Atlantic Crime Classics range lately, taking a look at their March title, a new edition of Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin stories, collected under the title of the first and most famous tale, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. >>

The "Monster of the Week" is a well known trope in television storytelling, but Arthur Conan Doyle credited much of the success of Sherlock Holmes to his early identificaton of the device. >>

Often seen as the "genre it's okay to like", crime fiction has a lot to offer both readers and writers. Crime Classics, a new series from Atlantic Books, is a great introduction to some of the older works that helped to form the modern concept of the genre, and have had their influence on literature as a whole. >>

While everybody else lists their best reads of 2008, The Fiction Desk presents a list of some of the titles that I'm sure would have been good... if only I'd actually got around to reading them. >>

George Orwell's original manuscript for 1984, which was published as a facsimile edition in the 1980s, is a comforting reminder of how much editing even the best writers have needed to do, and how important the editing process is as a whole. >>

ELS Editions in Canada have republished Lawrence Durrell's first two novels, Pied Piper of Lovers and Panic Spring, for the first time in almost seventy years. >>

Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet is a terrific book, especially for writers. One thing Durrell does well is the way he handles the people in his stories; there are some great examples for other writers about how not to waste their minor characters. >>

How do book bloggers select the titles they want to review? Other than issues like genre, what makes a good book to blog about? Are shorter books better than longer books? Are debut novels better than the latest work from an established author? >>

People claiming to be literary agents are conning wannabe writers out of increasingly large sums of money, by selling them unnecessary or poor-quality editing services. Read on for information about how the scam works, and how to avoid it. >>

In the weeks since the Booker Prize longlist was announced, book bloggers have been throwing their other challenges aside and getting to work reviewing the nominees. Here's the Booker longlist, with links to some of the reviews that have already appeared on the Blogosphere. >>