Search Results for: ann quin

Blog about the audiobook of Claire-Louise Bennett’s Checkout 19

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I finished the audiobook of Claire-Louise Bennett’s second book Checkout 19 a few minutes ago, or really, a few minutes before I started writing this blog. Bennett reads the book herself. Sometimes listening to an author read their own writing is revelatory; the author imposes a performance that the prose alone, particularly the syntax, couldn’t conjure… Continue reading Blog about the audiobook of Claire-Louise Bennett’s Checkout 19

A (probably incomplete) list of books I read or reread in 2021

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☉ indicates a reread. ☆ indicates an outstanding read. The Real Cool Killers, Chester Himes ☆ The Bachelors, Muriel Spark Bina, Anakana Schofield Moby-Dick, Herman Melville ☉☆ Margaret the First, Danielle Dutton ☆ The Florida Keys, Joy Williams Passages, Ann Quin☆ V., Thomas Pynchon ☉☆ Notes from Childhood, Norah Lange (trans. by Charlotte Whittle) Albert… Continue reading A (probably incomplete) list of books I read or reread in 2021

Four novels by the sixties avant-garde novelist B.S. Johnson (Books acquired the first week of May, 2021)

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I think the first time I heard of the British experimental novelist B.S. Johnson was some time around 2008 or so, when New Directions republished his “book in a box,” The Unfortunates (1969). I thought it sounded like a cool but maybe gimmicky idea at the time, and then Johnson dropped off my radar until more recently.… Continue reading Four novels by the sixties avant-garde novelist B.S. Johnson (Books acquired the first week of May, 2021)

Mario Levrero’s The Luminous Novel (Book acquired, 30 March 2021)

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Mario Levrero’s The Luminous Novel is forthcoming in English translation by Annie McDermott from the good folks at And Other Stories. It’s a big ole book! Here is And Other Stories’ blurb: A writer attempts to complete the novel for which he has been awarded a big fat Guggenheim grant, though for a long time… Continue reading Mario Levrero’s The Luminous Novel (Book acquired, 30 March 2021)

Things I have been reading that are not Moby-Dick

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I have been rereading Moby-Dick. I have also been reading things that are not Moby-Dick.  I have been reading emails. I have been reading and very much enjoying Anakana Schofield’s novel Bina. I should have finished it by now—there’s just one remaining section—but I’ve been reading it exclusively in the bathtub. And I only take baths on Sunday. But… Continue reading Things I have been reading that are not Moby-Dick

Two Books (Books acquired, 7 and 14 Feb. 2020)

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Robinson by Muriel Spark. Penguin Books, 1964. Cover drawing by Terence Greer. I have not yet read Muriel Spark, but I’ve noted she’s been compared to Ann Quin and Anna Kavan. Robinson looked more interesting to me (and shorter) than her more famous novels The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Memento Mori, and I love this cover. Alchemy by Titus Burckhardt.… Continue reading Two Books (Books acquired, 7 and 14 Feb. 2020)

Three Books (that were my favorite books published by indie presses in 2019)

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Berg by Ann Quin. 2019 trade paperback (advanced reader proof) from And Other Stories. No designer credited on the advanced reader proof, but the cover photograph (of Ann Quin) is by Oswald Jones. The designer credited with the final version of the cover is Edward Bettison. Berg might have been my favorite reading experience of 2019.… Continue reading Three Books (that were my favorite books published by indie presses in 2019)

Three Books (that were my favorite books I read in 2019 that were published in 2019)

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I read very few contemporary books, especially contemporary novels. This reluctance to read contemporary literature isn’t a rule as much as it is a necessity born from the human limitations of my time and the fact that I am a slow reader. (I’ll also admit to a certain wariness towards trends coupled with an antipathy… Continue reading Three Books (that were my favorite books I read in 2019 that were published in 2019)

Reviews, riffs, anti-reviews, and interviews of April 2019-July 2019 (and an unrelated horned sheep)

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I haven’t done one of these roundups in a while (let alone updated Biblioklept’s main review page (argh!)) but here goes: I didn’t really write any reviews in April, it turns out. That was a pretty busy month for me, in retrospect, although I did read, and I did write about what I was reading,… Continue reading Reviews, riffs, anti-reviews, and interviews of April 2019-July 2019 (and an unrelated horned sheep)

JG Ballard on on Psychoactive Drugs and William Burroughs

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From JG Ballard’s interview with The Paris Review; the Martin Bax novel he mentions, The Hospital Ship, is worth your time if you can find it: INTERVIEWER Speaking of stimulation, did any of the psychoactive drugs of the sixties give you any clues for your writing? BALLARD I suppose I’m a medium-to-heavy drinker, but I haven’t… Continue reading JG Ballard on on Psychoactive Drugs and William Burroughs

“Goblin Market” — Christina Rossetti

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“Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti Morning and evening Maids heard the goblins cry: “Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy: Apples and quinces, Lemons and oranges, Plump unpeck’d cherries, Melons and raspberries, Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches, Swart-headed mulberries, Wild free-born cranberries, Crab-apples, dewberries, Pine-apples, blackberries, Apricots, strawberries;— All ripe together In summer weather,— Morns that… Continue reading “Goblin Market” — Christina Rossetti

Read Edna St. Vincent Millay’s one-act play, Two Slatterns and a King

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Two Slatterns and a King A Moral Interlude by Edna St. Vincent Millay PERSONS The King Chance the Vice Tidy the false Slattern Slut the true Slattern The Prologue and the Epilogue Spoken by Chance Two Slatterns and a King PROLOGUE I am that cunning infidel By men called CHANCE,—you know me well. It is through me you met your wives;… Continue reading Read Edna St. Vincent Millay’s one-act play, Two Slatterns and a King