Anonymous asked: Why did you hate The Slap so much? Any specific reasons? Just wondering as I am thoroughly enjoying it at the moment although I am only halfway through the book.
Well, I didn’t hate it SO much — I did get about 3/4ths of way through.
My main complaint is that it is overwritten. The central conflict was quite interesting but the author developed so many other plotlines that I found it really quite tedious. His technique of devoting discrete chapters to different characters’ perspectives is one that only works if each character is equally interesting — and to me, in this case, they’re not.
But tell me what you like about it! I always like to hear different views.
12:35 am |
November 30 2011
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But happily, as I am at my parents’ home with access to my childhood library, I am currently reading this, one of the all-time favourites of my youth.
8:47 pm |
November 23 2011
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No longer currently reading. I tried, I really did, but 2/3rds of the way through I must sadly declare that this book is a dud.
8:44 pm |
November 23 2011
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On loving a thing, in an unsent letter
Tonight I read a piece at an excellent literary event called Letters You Never Sent. In it, writers write fictional letters that they…er, have never sent. Each night has a theme. This one was ‘Letters to Corporations’. Here’s mine.
Dear Conde Nast International Limited,
I am writing to you with regards to my subscription to the New Yorker.
You see, it’s because I enjoyed the New Yorker for so many years that I fell in love at first sight with Frank. He was sitting on a bench outside Tate Modern reading an issue, and of course I just thought a match made in heaven! For I, too, turned the pages of my copies of the New Yorker with the kind of special smart flick of the wrist that Frank was using to slide one page of the New Yorker against the next page of the New Yorker, to produce the quiet but distinctive whoosh that informs people who matter that you are reading the New Yorker. Who are, of course, other people who read the New Yorker.
You’d be justified in thinking that I was really bold if I just spotted Frank on the bench and picked him up then and there, sidled up and said I see that you are enjoying the latest issue of the New Yorker. But the truth is that I knew that he was going to be waiting for me on a bench outside Tate Modern and he knew that I was going to sidle up to him. We were on a blind date, you see, arranged by a mutual friend who thought we might be a match made in heaven. So I approached Frank and said, You must be Frank. I see you are enjoying the latest issue of the New Yorker. And Frank said, It’s great to meet you. And I said, I have a subscription, and Frank said, me too! And that seemed like the beginning of something beautiful.
Read More
11:27 pm |
November 17 2011
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great-expectations asked: I remember a few years ago you were wondering what football team to support and someone suggested Arsenal - How did that go? did you go to any games?
I totally failed! My theory that football was boring was, alas, borne out by the fact that I continued to find it boring. Maybe my friend Judo was right when he said that I couldn’t just pick a football team to support (I picked West Ham) because that was like just picking a religion. No matter how hard I tried to find it interesting, I never did, and after a couple of months I gave up. But you know what? That’s cool. I am very interested in writing and I am sure that many football fans aren’t. I don’t think either of our interests are better; they’re just different.
By coincidence, however, I lived very close to the Emirates stadium, where Arsenal plays, for three months this year. So close that on game days and nights there was a hamburger stand directly across from my front door. It was always nice to know that I could get a fresh, greasy, stadium hamburger if I wanted one (I never did eat one, but I loved that it was an option).
Anyway, this was a good opportunity to learn some other things about football. In particular, I learned that certain groups of fans from opposing sides actually make APPOINTMENTS with each other to have fights after games. Perhaps this is something that everyone else knows, but I did not.
One Saturday afternoon my boyfriend and I were leaving the flat around the time the game got out and I commented on how I never saw non-Arsenal fans leaving the game. ‘That’s because they have to leave during a different exit, to prevent fights,’ he said. ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘That’s nice.’ ‘They arrange to meet elsewhere to have fights, though,’ he said. ‘Really?’ I said. I was sceptical.
And five minutes later, walking down a quiet residential street in Highbury, we nearly walked into the middle of one and had to run away.
What an education!
10:58 am |
November 17 2011
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Anonymous asked: What are the most exciting children's books out at the moment?
True, self-aggrandising story: when I was in 4th grade, my school librarian spotted me reading Les Miserables and gave me a list of more age-appropriate children’s books that she thought I should be reading, because she was concerned that I was missing out on my childhood.
Obviously this made me even more determined to read age-inappropriate books. So I haven’t really read any children’s books since then and thus have a lack of awareness of any that have been recently published. I’m sorry!
I do, however, recommend the impeccable taste of my friends Jodie Marsh and Stephanie Thwaites, who are both literary agents specialising in children’s books.
1:31 pm |
November 15 2011
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“PARLEZ-VOUS LE MÂLE ? LE guide pour comprendre l’autre sexe ! Pourquoi a-t-on toujours l’impression, au XXIe siècle, qu’hommes et femmes ne se comprendront jamais ?
Parce que les uns parlent le mâle (entendez par là un langage essentiellement constitué d’onomatopées), et les autres le féminin (entendez par là de longues tirades ayant pour but de vous faire oublier quelle était la question).
La cause est perdue d’avance, pensez-vous ? Avec un brin de sociologie et une bonne dose d’autodérision, Jean Hannah Edelstein vous permet enfin de déchiffrer les réels sentiments de votre partenaire. Du premier rendez-vous à la question fatidique de l’engagement, du bureau à la chambre à coucher, ce petit traité décrypte les malentendus les plus drôles du quotidien, les signaux mal interprétés, les sous-entendus manqués.
À tous ceux qui veulent devenir bilingues, un seul conseil : suivez le guide…”
—
Récits Humour PARLEZ-VOUS LE MÂLE ? - Jean Hannah EDELSTEIN
‘Autodérision’! New favourite word.
7:50 am |
November 11 2011
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lifedeathtoptips:
“This IS my happy face.”
So basically this is the best Tumblr ever, especially if you want an insight into what it’s like to live in Britain in 2011.
12:37 pm |
November 8 2011
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When you get an Amazon order you’d forgotten about.
2:49 pm |
November 7 2011
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veronicalovesarchie:
not into the shoes, but love the rest.
This is very similar to how I dressed when I was eight, which is to say: bulky jumpers, sweatpants, matching the colour of my footwear to my bulky jumpers.
I guess I was an influencer.
(Source: to-young)
11:26 am |
November 7 2011
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