Orwell & Van Gogh
“I want this one to be a work of art, & that can’t be done without much bloody sweat.” […]
Review #GeorgeOrwellOnScreen
My positive disposition towards George Orwell On Screen (Adaptations, Documentaries and Docudramas on Film and Television) – before ever getting to read it – was due to David Ryan‘s generous assistance. The author provided sage advice on where I could view Orwellian material for free while living in London. Many pleasant hours…um…days were spent at BFI Southbank in their […]
Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich #review and my #reading in April
“The breakthrough that all archaeologists have been waiting for; a truly exciting account of the way in which ancient DNA is making us rethink prehistory. Essential reading for everyone interested in the past.” Barry Cunliffe “In just five years the study of ancient DNA has transformed our understanding of world prehistory. The geneticist David Reich, […]
The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton #review and my #reading in March
“You’re a kid, you don’t know anything.” “Mum said school mighta been different for me if I only give a damn. Maybe it was wasted on me like the teachers said. I didn’t have any philosophy in me then, so I didn’t know what to listen for. Most of it was pointless crap. Don’t reckon […]
#Essays #TheRubofTime #FeelFree #review and my #reading in February
The day-to-day business of compiling a novel often seems to consist of nothing but decisions – decisions, decisions, decisions. Should this paragraph go here? Or should it go there? Can that chunk of exposition be diversified by dialogue? At what point does this information need to be revealed? Ought I to use a different adjective […]
Lost Connections by Johann Hari #review and my #reading in January
“We have been systematically misinformed about what depression and anxiety are.” […]
#MyHouseofSky #JABaker #review and my #reading in December
“There is no mysterious essence we can call a ‘place’. Place is change. It is motion killed by the mind, and preserved in the amber of memory.” JA Baker “There is an animal mystery in the light that sets upon the fields like a frozen muscle that will flex and wake at sunrise.” JA Baker Some […]
A Baker’s Dozen: Most Enjoyable Reads of 2017
Reviewing the books read or re-read in 2017, I chose the thirteen (sic) most satisfying reading experiences for the year. In other words, I reflected on how much stimulation and pleasure was felt sitting with the book – and why. If you have the patience, the following slideshow will countdown for this year. The rest […]
Dæmon Voices #review and my #reading in November
Philip Pullman’s Dæmon Voices – Essays on Storytelling is pleasurable reading for English teachers, students, writers and anyone who loves stories. Best known for the trilogy, His Dark Materials, Pullman has a deep, highly practical understanding of what it takes to craft a story to delight both novice and experienced teachers of writing. His obvious […]
La Belle Sauvage #BookofDust #review and my #reading in October
“But the meaning of a book is never just what the author thinks it is. It’s a great mistake to rely on the author to tell you what the meaning is. We don’t know. The meaning is only what emerges when the book and the reader meet.” Philip Pullman Philip Pullman‘s new novel is exactly the […]
#TheirBrilliantCareers #review and my #reading in September
“Actually, most of my previous publications listed in ‘Their Brilliant Careers’ are made up! It’s all part of the joke. The only real one is ‘The Weight of a Human Heart.’” “…as much as I love Australian literature and hope my fondness…comes thru in the book, it does tend to take itself a bit seriously […]
#Autumn #TropicofCancer #review and my #reading in August
I want to show you our world as it is now: the door, the floor, the water tap and the sink, the garden chair close to the wall beneath the kitchen window, the sun, the water, the trees. You will come to see it in your own way, you will experience things for yourself and […]
#STC1984 #Orwell A New Adaptation by Icke & MacMillan #review and my #reading in July
“I think we’ve ended up being incredibly faithful to the book.” Duncan MacMillan George Orwell’s last novel, published in 1949, was not expected to have much of a shelf life post-1984 but the book has assumed an unexpected importance in contemporary times as citizens struggle to understand the machinations of politics, especially mass surveillance, ceaseless […]
#Churchill and #Orwell: The Fight for Freedom #review and my #reading in June
“The Struggle to see things as they are is perhaps the fundamental driver of Western civilisation. There is a long direct line from Aristotle and Archimedes to Locke, Hume, Mill, and Darwin, and there through Orwell and Churchill…It is the agreement that objective reality exists, that people of goodwill can perceive it, and other people […]
#UtopiaforRealists #review and my #reading in May
Consider this: The word utopia means both “good place” and “no place.” What we need are alternative horizons that spark the imagination. And I do mean horizons in the plural; conflicting utopias are the lifeblood of democracy, after all. …in the revolutionary year of 1968, when young demonstrators the world over were taking to the […]
The Handmaid’s Tale #review and my #reading in April
“Our big mistake was teaching them to read. We won’t do that again.” The Handmaid’s Tale p. 307 I suspected re-reading The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood prior to viewing the Tribeca film festival premiere of the new tv series was potentially risky. It is such a great book that this latest adaption – and there have been many – could […]
#Bookstores in New York City #NYC #bookshops
“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.” Neil Gaiman “You’re the only person I’ve ever met who can stand a bookstore as long as I can. A smarty-pants, the kind you […]
The Green Bell #review and my #reading in March
This is my madness, and I can’t tell it as it is. Madness is anti-story, anti-chronology, anti-plot, anti-character. It breaks language. It throws mud in the face. It makes story impossible. The minds within the mind won’t let me be. I know Michael in my soul while at the same time I don’t know him […]
The End of Eddy #review and my #reading in February
…the village, far from the city with its movement and activity, was also sheltered from the passage of time… From my childhood I have no happy memories. I don’t mean to say that I never, in all of those years, felt any happiness or joy. But suffering is all-consuming: it somehow gets rid of anything […]
Nine Lives #review and my #reading in January
“Along with poetry, travel writing is one of the oldest literary forms in the world.” […]
My #reading December 2016
Why shouldn’t we separate children as young as seven or eight into two groups: those few children who are “gifted and talented” and the many, many more who aren’t? What harm is there, really, in a talent show being named a “talent show”? In my view, the biggest reason a preoccupation with talent can be […]
A Baker’s Dozen: Most Enjoyable Reads of 2016
Reviewing the books read or re-read in 2016, I chose the thirteen most satisfying. In other words, I reflected on how much stimulation and pleasure was felt sitting with the book – and why. If you have the patience, the following slideshow will countdown for this year. The rest of the post details why I […]
My #reading November 2016
When the Europeans arrived in the Sydney region, writes Aboriginal activist and elder Burnum Burnum, ‘they landed in the middle of a huge art gallery’. On the shorelines today, in the national parks and reserves, and even silently underlying suburbia, are more than 10 000 artworks, carved or painted on stone. Sydney is the world’s […]
My #reading October 2016
The upgrading of humans into gods may follow any of three paths: biological engineering, cyborg engineering and the engineering of non-organic beings. …in an upgraded world you will feel like a Neanderthal hunter in Wall Street. You won’t belong. I read Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari on my kindle and highlighted […]