tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39887912009-02-21T13:19:19.780Z"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." Logan Pearsall Smith.Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1158314277916238192006-09-15T09:48:00.000Z2006-09-15T09:57:57.926Z

The 2006 Man Booker shortlist is out. My money in on Edward St Aubyn. The Today programme is running a competition to become become part of a panel to read and judge the shortlist. You have to outline in 50 words why you'd be particularly suitable for the job.

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1156762204826978992006-08-28T10:47:00.001Z2006-08-28T10:54:56.583Z

What would it be like to live with a writer?This, from Shelagh Stephenson's entry in Art, Not Chance: nine artist's diaries, gives some indication: "Have reached a strange place in the creative process, which may be akin to mental illness. Someone described to me once the manic phase of manic depression: thinking Silk Cut posters were charged with resonance and meaning, and were speaking

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1156762426609511252006-08-28T10:47:00.000Z2006-08-28T10:53:46.610Z

What would it be like to live with a writer?This, from Shelagh Stephenson's entry in Art, Not Chance: nine artist's diaries, gives some indication: "Have reached a strange place in the creative process, which may be akin to mental illness. Someone described to me once the manic phase of manic depression: thinking Silk Cut posters were charged with resonance and meaning, and were speaking

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1155808053649385242006-08-17T09:26:00.000Z2006-08-17T09:48:41.306Z

The Accidental by Ali Smith is a lovely read. As in Hotel World, Smith is so great at capturing the individual's perspective. In The Accidental, though, she does it in the third person. This has an interesting effect: it distances the point of view from the person whose view it is whilst somehow maintaining the intimacy of that point of view. It's ultimately chilling but very beautiful. It's also

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1155806775323715192006-08-17T09:23:00.000Z2006-08-17T09:26:15.333Z

Small Wonder, the Lewes Short Story Festival, is on in September. Naomi Alderman & Matthew Kneale are reading on September 14th. Here's the rest of the programme.

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1155208065999302822006-08-10T11:06:00.000Z2006-08-10T11:07:46.010Z

Check this out. BookMooch is a 'free book trade and exchange' and seems to work on a very democractic, friendly basis. I'm in.

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1150629695251642142006-06-18T11:20:00.000Z2006-06-18T11:23:22.903Z

Identi-kit by Veronica Forrest-Thomson, 1967Love is the oldest camera.Snap me with your eyes.Wearied with myself I wanta picture that simplifies.Likeness is not important provided the traits cohere.Dissolve doubts and contradictionsto leave the exposure clear.Erase shadows and negativethat confuse the tired sight. Develop as conclusive definitiona pattern of black and

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1147261736272310642006-05-10T11:46:00.000Z2006-05-10T11:48:56.283Z

Words by Thom Gunn The shadow of a pine-branch quiveredOn a sunlit bank of pale unflowering weed. I watched, more solid by the pine,The dark exactitude that light delivered, And, from obsession, or from greed, Laboured to make it mine. In looking for the words, I foundBright tendrils, round which that sharp outline faltered: Limber detail, no bloom disclosed.I was still separate on the

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1146649765815808952006-05-03T09:46:00.000Z2006-05-03T09:49:25.823Z

Michael Hall offers some 'ways into' the work of Beckett. It's worth it I think.

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1146517384013098732006-05-01T21:01:00.000Z2006-05-01T21:03:04.013Z

I'm going to Book Street in Mumbai in November. "Some people like to go shopping, others like to see movies. I like to come here to buy books..."

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1146516752918561602006-05-01T20:42:00.000Z2006-05-01T20:55:44.916Z

Reading WomenReading with someone else who's also reading is a special agreement, you could call it an erotic pact. It's a permitted space right at the centre of togetherness, a separate but still shared silence and concentration......You know when you can read with someone like this that you're truly at home, truly permitted to be yourself, with her or him. I love to read with someone else

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1146516054572457852006-05-01T20:33:00.000Z2006-05-01T20:40:54.583Z

There is no one story and one story only by Adrienne RichThe engineer's story of hauling coalto Davenport for the cement factory, sitting on the bluffsbetween runs looking for whales, hauling concreteback to Gilroy, he and his wife renewing vowsin the glass chapel in Arkansas after 25 yearsThe flight attendant's story murmuredto the flight steward in the dark galleyof her fifth-month loss of

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1145731759511358712006-04-22T18:41:00.000Z2006-04-22T18:49:19.520Z

Book-buying excuse number four thousand eight hundred and twoTomorrow, 23rd April, is International Book & Copyright Day according to Unesco. The copyright bit seems like a dubious add-on to me, but I like the book bit so I'll focus on that. St George is the patron saint of Catalunya as well as England and there is a Catalan tradition of exchanging red roses and books to mark the date. Which also

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1144328584013104282006-04-06T12:57:00.000Z2006-04-06T13:03:04.023Z

It's not just because she's called Naomi...Turns out that Naomi Alderman is a friend of a friend of Flambingo's who pointed out to me that she, Naomi, has a blog. Which is very witty. And as readable as her novel. Insights into the writer's life, religion, and her book-buying habits (or, rather, not buying in order to ensure her Amazon rating maintains itself). Oh, and the great Goddess Jenni

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1143793631043824102006-03-31T08:26:00.000Z2006-03-31T08:27:11.053Z

Channel Link By Richard Price Even stations move. Can I meet you fifteen years agoby the sprung chainlink? We could watch together those ever-afterswaiting for a platform. The go-aheadand they're polite about it. Sandstone dust, or not now the long settled past -construction grit in a suspension of air. I could meet you fifteen minutes agoat the same co-ordinates.I'm watch-wiping on the interim

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1143792686369164562006-03-31T08:08:00.000Z2006-03-31T08:11:26.380Z

The price tag on Shakespeare's Folio makes my book-buying habit look like chump change. A cool 3.5 million quid. Just think how many paperbacks that would buy.

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1143714902189704412006-03-30T10:30:00.000Z2006-03-30T10:35:02.200Z

February Eveningsby Andrew CrozierI begin with a name. It isn't youprofiled against an orange skyline.Nor the light that dazzled me when I opened a doorand realised after, I don't know how longI stood there holding on to the doorknob, I faceddue west. It is early morning in Marchwhich is the name of nothing I might hold tosince I can speak only from my temporary placein the solar system. It is a

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1143631955845203512006-03-29T11:19:00.000Z2006-03-29T11:32:35.856Z

Call me shallow, but I do find it very satisfying when a great book has a great cover:Naomi Alderman's Disobedience is a moving insight into the Orthodox Jewish community of Hendon, North London. But it's also apt and funny on what it's like to be a Brit living in New York. Each chapter starts with a reading and explanation of some part of the Torah. And the rest of the chapter illuminates that

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1143549338771787932006-03-28T12:31:00.000Z2006-03-28T12:48:44.913Z

Ian Hamilton Finlay, poet, artist, gardener, and proponent of concrete poetry died yesterday. Prudence Carrison, whom I think is his publisher, describes the common theme of his work thus:Common to all of Finlay's diverse production is the inscription of language - words, invented or borrowed phrases and other semiotic devices - onto real objects and thus into the world. That language inhabits,

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1143206171862552132006-03-24T13:14:00.000Z2006-03-24T13:16:11.873Z

How to become a writerAccording to Enquire Within, a Victorian self-help guide, you need to start off with crosswords:46. Evening Pastimes.Among the innocent recreations of the fireside, there are few more commendable and practicable than those afforded by what are severally termed Anagrams, Arithmorems, Single and Double Acrostics, Buried Cities, &c., Charades, Conundrums, Cryptographs, Enigmas,

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1141752989512633922006-03-07T17:27:00.000Z2006-03-07T19:14:04.276Z

This comes from Tove Jansson's The Summer Book:Grandmother walked up over the bare granite and thought about birds in general. It seemed to her no other creature had the same dramatic capacity to underline and perfect events - the shifts in the seasons and the weather, the changes that run through people themselves. It reminded me of this, a poem by Wallace Stevens:Thirteen Ways of Looking at a

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1140704477861332712006-02-23T14:19:00.000Z2006-02-26T14:48:28.200Z

Will people ever really prefer to read a novel on a digital device rather than in hard copy? Why? Personally speaking, I can’t ever imagine using the Google Library service for anything other than research purposes. In that sense, it’s genius. But I’m an old-fashioned gal who likes books made of paper not zeros and ones.That doesn’t mean to say I’m not keenly following Google’s progress, however.

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1140473682824583992006-02-20T22:11:00.000Z2006-02-20T22:14:42.833Z

"An old Russian folk-song is like water in a weir. It looks as if it were still and were no longer flowing but in its depths it is ceaselessly rushing through the sluice-gates and its stillness is an illusion. By every possible means - by repetitions and similes - it attempts to stop or to slow down the gradual unfolding of its theme, until it reaches some mysterious point, then it suddenly

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1139922789064501412006-02-14T13:10:00.000Z2006-02-14T13:13:09.073Z

So, obviously, reading is the best hobby in the world. However, I will concede that pigeon fancying - as described by a chap in a New Yorker article this week - sounds rather lovely too:"You hang out in the yard by yourself, waiting...You put on some music...have a cocktail, and just watch the friendly skies."

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3988791.post-1138456623005654842006-01-28T13:51:00.000Z2006-01-28T13:57:03.020Z

A friend and I went to see an adaptation of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus at the Lyric Hammersmith on Thursday. It's as bawdy, joyful and lyrical as the book. I wanted to run off and join the circus myself. Well, certainly learn how to trapeze anyway. Kneehigh, the theatre company behind the production are worth keeping any eye on, I think.

Naomihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14800123594656975686noreply@blogger.com2