The Booker Prize Long List.
Includes a book which has not been published yet (by Zadie Smith), a few entries from previous winners and this years token folk act: Marina Lewycka – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
Marina must be pleased […]

In 1978, Ed Ruscha moved from single words or images to phrases. There has been much written about the koan clairty of the phrases, how much of America and Hollywood they compile in a few cryptic words. (I would recommend this elegant examanation by […]

Just finished reading Love And Peace With Melody Paradise by Martin Millar and wondered if he had written anything else worth reading recently. Millar is one of those writers I occasionally stumble across, whose ability to turn a deceptively simple s[…]

We went to see Fantastic Four yesterday and…it was pretty good! Really! It was fine. Underrated even! I’ll leave Pete or one of those, you know, film people to talk about it as a movie, and I’m going to talk a bit about its relation[…]

This should not be a BBC News story. Does this Canadian bloke, Baba Brinkman, really think that he is the first person to think of turning Chaucer into a rap?
HAS HE NEVER MET AN A-LEVEL ENGLISH TEACHER.
This is COURSEWORK, not ART.[…]

(I had the idea a while ago of using blogs to talk about my expectations of something before I read/heard/etceteraed it. This would, I thought, be an interesting reference point once I had, uh, consummated my whatevers with it. It might also be awful[…]

The I Love Comics bestest characters ever poll is underway, and from the votes so far it’s looking pretty interesting. There’s still the best part of a month to vote so if you love comics, give it a go.[…]

You have until midnight tonight to nominate characters in the I Love Comics BEST EVER CHARACTERS POLL!
Here’s a big list of who’s been picked so far. You get four choices.[…]

There is a bad habit, one which unfortunately I share, of considering things which have only the most tenuous of links as plays on words or puns. Call them parapuns if you will (I will), as they are half-baked and rubbish. An example: well an example[…]

The Fall of Yquatine by Nick Walters. Eighth Doctor (if you stick with this for long enough you will learn that 8th Dr = ALARM BELLS), Fitz and Compassion.
8th Dr books are the ones you need to look out for. As far as I gather they pretty much fall i[…]