Anna Karenina. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I always got the plot of this book mixed up with the life of one Anna Karina.
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books
These are not Roma, rather, a tribe of English vagabonds, known as ‘horse-drawns’ that traverse the country living an anarchistic life. English photographer Iain McKell spent a decade, on and off, photographing a group of vagabonds that have thrown off the shackles of ‘normal’ society. His book, The New Gypsies, is the the fruit of his labour.
McKell’s images are stunning, in particular the caravan shots. I have to say though, while my tendency is to wildly over romanticize nomadic lifestyles, this lifestyle looks like a hard graft. And cold… so very cold.
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I’m a sucker for vintage book covers, and these hand embroidered clutches by Olympia Le-Tan make my heart go boom-a-boom-a-boom. They’re not cheap, but her miniaudieres and malettes (briefcases) from the collection You can’t judge a book by its cover are simply charming.
Her tumblr is full of bookish treats too!
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Currently cracking into Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. It’s the next read at Book Club For Drunks, and I look forward to gleefully yakking about it with my tipsy comrades.
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Do Top 100 Books polls and charts agree on a set of classics? Information is Beautiful’s David McCandless scraped the results of over 15 notable book polls, readers surveys and top 100′s, from Oprah to some high-faulting lists. The cloud shows the consensus on what we must read. I always find it interesting how War and Peace still persists in these lists, despite the fact I am yet to meet anyone who’s read the thing. Get access to the full analysis here.
While the data is pretty cool in a cloud, I would love to see someone make a more vibrant graphic with the information. A book spine bar chart? Something to do with issues & rubber stamps? It could be a nice wee project.
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My friend Leon recommended A Confederacy of Dunces to me. Which amuses me no end – the main character has a very similar hat to his. It was written by John Kennedy Toole and published in 1980, 11 years after the author’s suicide. It’s a chewy sort of book, full of awful characters and unpleasant medical upsets – valve strains and the like. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s good, but not pleasant. Will persevere.
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Summer lets me zip through books at the speed of light. Post-festivities and pre-work, all you’ve got is a lot of time to sink back into the beanbag, sip ginger beer and flip through the pages.
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Photo by Tomáš Petrů
It is difficult to establish any relationship between the price of books and the value one gets out of them. “Books” includes novels, poetry, text books, works of reference, sociological treatises and much else, and length and price do not correspond to one another, especially if one habitually buys books second-hand. You may spend ten shillings on a poem of 500 lines, and you may spend sixpence on a dictionary which you consult at odd moments over a period of twenty years. There are books that one reads over and over again, books that become part of the furniture of one’s mind and alter one’s whole attitude to life, books that one dips into but never reads through, books that one reads at a single sitting and forgets a week later: and the cost, in terms of money, may be the same in each case.
From George Orwell’s rather grand Books v. Cigarettes essay. (This will come as a surprise to you all but…) I think the value lies in books. I love dipping in and out of favourite passages, and turning to people far more knowledgeable than I for advice. Books are definitely my vice. If only there were enough hours in the day to read all the ones I buy. Read the entire text here.
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The posters for the four books we’ve read so far at Book Club For Drunks! This is a mostly-monthly book club I host for people who enjoy the fine combination of reading and drinking. As this combination sometimes impairs memories, we provide notes for each meeting detailing the author’s life, cocktail recipes, how the book starts and key liquor infused quotes. (If you’re interested in reading a PDF of these notes please email me.)
Up next is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age novel, The Great Gatsby:
F. S. F.’s a bit of a babe, don’t you think?
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That’s a portrait of Charlotte Bronte – isn’t she a nineteenth century doll? Inspired by my recent visit to the Peaks District – where Char and her esteemed siblings grew up – I have just finished reading her 1847 novel Jane Eyre
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A few things of late that have been making me happy/curious/excited:
1. Actual boats. If you’re in Auckland, you can go sailing quite cheaply for a few hours on the beautiful Waitemata Harbour. Voyager, the Maritime Museum of New Zealand, has a fleet of heritage vessels that you can go to sea on. Once the weather is better, I’m out there.
2. Narcotic Venus by Nasamotto. An intoxicating scent based on tuberose blossoms, a gift to myself. I feel womanly when I wear it, as opposed to Miss Dior Cherie, which makes me feel girlish and light. Read a full fragrance review for a better idea of how amazing Narcotic Venus is.
3. Book Club For Drunks – the 4th Edition. This time we are reading and toasting to Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s. It’s a stellar novella, dripping with scandal, I can’t believe I never got round top reading it before. New York, flighty girls, drinking and a cat.
4. Army surplus. I bought a binocular case at my local the other day, as an alternative to a saddle shaped leather satchels (having broke a few of late). While it’s eons old, it’s well made and can withstand wars so it might be able withstand me. I’m also quite keen on buying a green M65 style field jacket. I will promise not to wear them together though.
5. Penguin classics. I feel like I only read orange books now days. My room is awash with well thumbed copies. Anyway, I just finished reading Timothy Conigrave’s Holding The Man. Are you in need of an epic sob? Read this. Heartbreaking.
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The title, One Room Mansion, is a Japanese term: ワンルームマンション. At 100sqf, often they don’t have bathrooms attached and residents have to visit a public bathhouse. One of my favourite books, Tokyo: A Certain Style
With dozens and dozens of domiciles in the book, it is hard to describe them all. One of my favorites is the apartment of a music reviewer: CDs and vinyls are stacked floor to ceiling. There’s barely any room for the reviewer, though the two cats that share the apartment seem to find it manageable. Another remarkable spread is the house of a newly married young woman who loved cartoon characters so much that she works for a character goods company. Nearly everything in the house, including the husband’s lunch box, has some character on it. Huge Kerropi dolls share space with a veritable pack of Snoopys. A young interior designer had extra shelves put into her room so she could show off the covers of her manga volumes. A Shinjuku DJ, living with his Dutch girlfriend, uses his bathroom as a darkroom and spends weekends practicing on his windowsill turntable.
I’m not quite ready for the close up on my pad yet! However, here’s a nerdy budget update:
Furniture budget: I am indulging my inner scavenger and calling in favours.
- wooden trestle table: free
- persian rug: rescued
- leather & chrome chair: borrowed
- stools/sidetables x 2: 78.00
- mini white bookshelf: 12.50
TOTAL: $90.50
REMAINING: $9.50
Accessories budget: Now this is where I am falling down! I have had to buy heaps of things because I ‘forgot’ or at some stage gave my old one away. Oh can opener, where did you go?
- scorpio mug: 1.00
- vanilla candle: 3.99
- chopping board: 14.99
- fan heater: 19.95
- bath mat: 14.99
TOTAL: $54.92
REMAINING: $45.08
Still need to buy: that dang can opener, a coffee plunger, hooks to hang up my art collection. Boiling water in a pot is working out well so far. Meanwhile when it comes to the big stuff, I still want to buy: a manrobe or a clothes rack or perhaps even a ladder to hack up. I’ve been living out of my suitcase for 8+ weeks now. Hanging my dresses up seems like a distant novelty. Failing that? Nails + hangers on the wall…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_room_mansion#One_room_mansion
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“I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.”
Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood is finally going to grace cinema screens world wide. The Norwegian Wood film (IMDB) is directed by Anh Hung Tran, stars Babel’s Rinko Kiuchi as Naoko and Ken’ichi Matsuyama as Wanatabe. Can’t lie, nor breathe, I am super excited for this. Murakami is my favourite author (yes, ever), and NW one of my favourite books.
Short trailer huh? It’s such a tease but from such a tiny glimpse, and the film stills, I think justice will be done.
Alongside the eponymous Beatles song (a licensing coup!), the soundtrack will also feature original music written by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood based on a composition called “Dogwood” which he recently wrote for the BBC Concert Orchestra.
I think the use of the word SWOON is totally legitimate on this occasion.
Visit the official movie site: norway-mori.com
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Recent uncomfortably good reading. If I was to loosely group them, they all have a theme of ‘mild eroticism’ – just like pudding wobbling in a bowl…
1. The Bird Room: A Novel
2. No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
3. Unlimited Dream Company by J.G. Ballard. Blake, a young man who has failed at being a medical student, Jesuit novice and pornographic writer, becomes obsessed with the idea of flying. He steals a plane and crashes into suburban London, which is transformed into a lush paradise. The exotic triumphs over the every day, inhibitions are shed, and dreams take over. Unlimited Dream Company is another fantastic novel from Ballard’s extensive dystopian back catalog.
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