July 2009
10 posts
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Sometimes things are just not quite pornographic...
Books that have never been officially published in Great Britain are an absolute fucker to get hold of at a decent price.
I know this, because I have spent several months scoping out second-hand copies of Licks Of Love by John Updike, the collection of short stories that also contains his mini-sequel to the Rabbit novels, Rabbit Remembered. I have pined away for Rabbit Angstrom late at...
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When simply wearing a flower in one's hair just...
I am a lucky bastard. It’s true. Unlike most of my previous summers, instead of a few weekends under canvas listening to students singing Gay Bar by Electric Six at 4am, I am going on a real life aeroplane to Burning Man in Nevada, where I plan to frolic naked in midnight dust-storms and take part in a spiritual bonding ceremony with a dude called Firefly.
You think I’m...
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Today's life lesson: there is always somebody...
It’s inevitable that we occasionally make bad choices in life. Sometimes these involve calorie intake, sometimes they are to do with credit cards, or tattoos; other times you wish you hadn’t decided to have sex on a futon without adequate cushioning for the lower vertebrae. Every so often, you might make a bad choice when browsing in a bookshop and buy something featuring dragons...
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The only way is Updike, baby, for you and me...
(I’m entering a competition to think of the best literary pun based on a one hit wonder from the 1980s.)
When I was in London last week, one of the bookshops on Charing Cross Road had excerpts from this article taped up in the window. What was once a thriving district of expert booksellers (such as Marks & Co from Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road), is slowly being eaten...
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Giveth, and thou shalt receive a general feeling...
As well as mourning the conversion of 84 Charing Cross Road into a chain eatery and trying not to go the wrong way around the Circle Line while I was in London this week, I spent a bit of time cultivating the sickening sense of self-righteousness that accompanies giving up anything, whether it be cigarettes, heroin or new books.
When I set this blog up recently, a dude named Kevin...
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