Category: Books
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Blockbusters and Sleepless In Hollywood
If it feels to you, as it does to me, that there are an ever greater number of superhero and other franchise films clogging up cinemas, then you’d be right. And these two books explain pretty well between them what’s happening in Hollywood and beyond. Indeed, it’s the “beyond” that is really driving this. Blockbusters…
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The Wasp Factory
I bought this book, aged 15, on the basis of the cover. I remember seeing it in WH Smiths and being intrigued. A week later, I went back in and bought it. I haven’t looked back.
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Radio Books
In the back flap of Danny Baker’s new autobiography, Going to Sea in a Sieve, the simple text beneath Baker’s photo says: Danny Baker is a comedy writer, journalist and radio DJ. He currently presents six shows a week for the BBC and is a regular face on TV. He still lives in south-east London.…
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January Books
Here’s a vaguely accurate summary of the books I’ve read this month. An attempt, to some extent, to get me to read more. I can’t tell you how many books I have “backed up”… A Card From Angela Carter is an unusual thing. For starters, it’s due to be Radio 4’s Book of the Week…
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From Gutenberg to Zuckerbeg
In 2012, I’m going to try to write a little more about books. I say this every year, but I am going to try! First up is John Naughton’s From Gutenberg to Zuckerbeg: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet. This is a follow-up, of sorts, to A Brief History of the Future,…
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The Booker Prize 2011
Yesterday, Julian Barnes won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sense of an Ending. In the past, I’ve read some, but by no means all, Booker Prize winners. And of course I’ve read a fair number of the nominees. But this year, I made a concerted effort to read every novel on…
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WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy
Here’s a timely book. I received my copy of this book on Friday – 4th February. The introduction, penned by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, is dated 1st February! I know publishing speeds have moved on quite a lot, but it’s still pretty remarkable. The Guardian was serialising parts of this book last week. Whoever is…
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True Grit
In 1985, I won two tickets in a local newspaper comeptition to see the new Clint Eastwood western, Pale Rider, at the ABC Enfield (now Tesco). It was the first time I’d been in a cinema to see a western. That was partly because westerns didn’t appeal to a 15 year old boy, and partly…
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The War For Late Night
Occassionally, when you delve into the non-Sky branded movie channels with names like True Movies or Movies 4 Men, you might have come across a TV movie called The Late Shift. It was a dramatisation of a book by New York Times television writer Bill Carter’s account of the hostilities surrounding the succession of hosts…
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Star Island
It’s been too long. Much too long. Carl Hiaasen has finally published a new novel, four years after his last adult novel (yes, I realise that fans of Donna Tartt or readers awaiting the next in the A Song of Fire and Ice saga have had to wait longer). In the intervening years, Hiaasen has…
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Eleven and Good Morning Nantwich
I’ve read two books by comedians in the last couple of weeks – which is pretty unusual for me. I tend to stray away from anything written by anyone even approaching “celebrity” status. But for various reasons I made an effort to read these books both pretty much on their respective publication dates. Eleven is…
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The Eerie Silence
Given where I work, there really is no excuse for me not to go to more of the Royal Society’s public lectures. So back in January I attended an interesting sounding lecture entitled “The eerie silence: are we alone in the universe?” The room where they hold the lectures was absolutely packed, and I was…