Litlove

LATEST ARTICLES ( 399 )

• How Easy Am I To Please?

  

  On my last post, the lovely Ruthiella left a comment wondering whether it was easier to buy presents for book lovers, because there would always be, after all,... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Reading Plans 2013

  

  For several years now, my reading plans have been minimal. I’ve wanted to be able to follow my instinct, without being weighed down by lists that tell me what... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• What Sanity Looks Like

  My blogging friend, the wonderful Pete from Couch Trip, is a trained psychotherapist, and given the soft spot I have for a bit of psychobabble, I read his... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2013 BOOKS, CULTURE

• 2012 in Retrospect

  What a messy year 2012 has been! I am glad to see the back of it. Chaos and change and unexpected events have been its top notes, struggling through the mud of... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• What To Look For In Winter

  

  This is Candia McWilliam in the late 1980s when she was at the height of her success as a literary novelist.This is Candia McWilliam today, after years of... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Rook

  

  For all of us in the Northern hemisphere, plunged into the bleak midwinter, what happens if you try to imagine summer? In my mind’s eye, I find a series of... Read more

  Posted on 14 December 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Wednesday Mishmash

  

  I should really be writing a proper review of Rook by Jane Rusbridge, which is a beautiful novel, slowly and delicately unfolding like a paper flower in water. Read more

  Posted on 12 December 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Best Books of 2012

  Yes! It’s that time of year again. I used to write my Best Books list right before New Year’s, but I enjoy other people’s so much as guides for possible... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Back with Bullets

  1. Well, I did it. I managed to write the essay despite starting it so very close to the deadline. I know a lot of people find a deadline energising, but I... Read more

  Posted on 05 December 2012 CREATIVITY, SELF EXPRESSION

• The Power of Stories

  

  ‘Writers sit down,’ Ali Smith said, in her talk on the weekend. ‘But books make books. This is one of the freedoms I have inherited. Read more

  Posted on 27 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Norwegian Proust

  

  Saturday was a day of filthy weather here, and by the time I had battled my way through the endless rain from sepia skies and the Christmas traffic to the town... Read more

  Posted on 25 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Dream Story

  

  Years ago I saw the film Eyes Wide Shut directed by Stanley Kubrick. It was a dreadful film, publicised on the fact that Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise were... Read more

  Posted on 22 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Loving Colette

  

  I came across Colette quite by accident. I was sixteen, on a family holiday in France, and my aunt bought a copy of Chéri. It was a fantastically ugly copy, too. Read more

  Posted on 20 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Misfit

  

  I seem to be determined to read books from 1926 lately. First there was Lolly Willowes, then I’ve just finished Arthur Schnitzler’s Dream Story, and at the... Read more

  Posted on 18 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• In Which I Am Annoyed With Mr Litlove

  

  When loved ones suffer unexpected delays, I have to admit I am the kind of person who imagines they are dead in a ditch, rather than simply late. Of course,... Read more

  Posted on 16 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Loving Rilke

  

  A little while back, I reviewed the book by Pico Iyer in which he explored his obsession with Graham Greene, a man whose novels gave him uncanny insight into... Read more

  Posted on 14 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Lolly Willowes

  

  I would in any case have loved Sylvia Townsend Warner’s decidedly subversive first novel of dawning feminist consciousness and witchcraft, Lolly Willowes. Read more

  Posted on 12 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Liebster Award

  

  The charming and hugely talented Andrew Blackman tagged me for this meme: 1. What’s your favourite memory? It was early one morning and I was lying reading in... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• In Good Company

  

  ‘There is always a moment in the life of young people,’ Colette wrote, ‘when dying is just as normal and seductive to them as living, and I hesitated. Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE