Is there a book that you wish you could “unread”? One that you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it? Oh, there are many! Here is a partial list, drawn from books I’ve reviewed here: Runaway, by Steve Simpson. This is the actually the worst book I’ve ever [...]
Posts from ‘May, 2009’
Review: What’s Bred in the Bone, by Robertson Davies
I’ve been on a minor Robertson Davies kick lately, and What’s Bred in the Bone has once again proved itself to be an example of Davies at the very top of his game. It seems to me that everytime I try to explain why he’s so great I end up dissolving into incoherency — blaasrhghghahrarhagh [...]
Review: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., by Judy Blume
I would have loved this book as a twelve-year-old, if I had been allowed to read it, which I wasn’t. I’m not sure why that is — well, I haven’t asked — but being a decade past the targeted reader age I figured that it was probably safe for me to finally take a look [...]
BTT: A Second First Time
What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time? I would love to read any number of my childhood favourites as for the first time again, but I think that this is especially true for Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree series. I had — still have, actually — The Folk [...]
Don’t Support Authors
Back in February, I wrote a post about why I love second-hand books — something that I didn’t see as particularly controversial, but which did generate some oppositional comments. One commenter wrote the following: Worthy points, however i have in the last 5 years begun buying new books in order to support the authors, they [...]
April Search Terms Bring May Snark
Every month or so I like to take a look at the search terms that are bringing people to my blog, because it amuses me greatly. where do fishes come from Well, when some male fishes and some female fishes love each other very much… javascript cookie apostrophe Yankee Oscar uniform Mike India November echo [...]
Review: Vanishing Acts, by Jodi Picoult
I know that Jodi Picoult has legions of fans who will disagree with me on this, mayhap violently, but I’m going to say it anyway: I really don’t see what’s supposed to be so great about her books. Vanishing Acts was just kind of spectacularly okay. Is particular novel an outlier? Are other books fantastic? [...]
Pimp my High School Library
I chanced to reconnect, the other day, with the excellent head librarian from my high school days. She’s still there, but she’s retiring at the end of this year — and looking forward to it very much, I might add. During the conversation, it chanced to come up that she still has a fair amount [...]