May 2012
55 posts
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As mentioned in the previous post, the first line of Taka-chan and I is
Call me Runcible.
Which got us wondering: What are some other first lines that play off of Moby-Dick?
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"Call me Runcible."
Call me Runcible. That is what my master calls me—and that is what Taka-chan called me from the time we first met.
I want to tell you about Taka-chan, how I found her on the other side of the earth. It is a strange story, almost like a dream, but who is to say what is a dream and what is real?
This might come as a surprise, but Taka-chan and I is was the first book we’ve published that...
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"The imagery is lush and psychedelic, sex drips... →
Ambient artist Laurel Halo has a serious reading list, including Dino Buzzati’s Poem Strip.
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Elizabeth Taylor Centenary →
Over at LibraryThing, the Virago group have been celebrating the 100th anniversary of Elizabeth Taylor’s birth (the English novelist, not the actress) by reading one of her books each month. This month they are reading A Game of Hide and Seek, lead by the blog Buried in Print, who put up this introductory post for the discussion.
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A Feast Fit For a Bog
But more interesting was what they learned about his eating habits. For starters, no trace of animal flesh could be found amongst the bogman’s stomach contents—his last meal was entirely vegetarian. Even more peculiar, there were no green vegetables to be found—everything in his gut was either seed or grain.
Curious about what the Bog People described in P.V. Glob’s classic book...
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One-Straw Revolution inspires organic success in...
After reading the poetic One Straw Revolution by the master Japanese farmer, Masanobu Fukuoka, Ahmed went one step beyond organic and tried to do low-intervention farming. The tea garden functions on minimal irrigation. They installed a plethora of plants next to the tea plants to feed and aerate the soil. What now exists is a breathtaking vision. The barren area has been transformed into an...
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Memoirs of a Revolutionary reviewed
It doesn’t happen very often, but I love it when I pick up a book simply planning to scan the first few pages and find myself still reading an hour later. It’s wonderful to get completely swept away, and I must say it was completely unexpected when I picked up anarchist Victor Serge’s Memoirs of a Revolutionary (Mémoires d’un révolutionnaire, 1951; tr. from the French by Peter Sedgwick with...
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Not long ago I was given a book by Stefan Zweig, an Austrian, called Beware of Pity which is absolutely magnificent.
— Roy Hodsgon, new head coach of England’s football/soccer team currently in preparation for Euro Cup 2012 starting next month in Ukraine and Poland. In the United States, ex-Bulls and Lakers coach Phil Jackson was famous for giving his players books. But as far...
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More from Nancy Mitford's The Sun King
In his youth, Monsieur was partial to battles. He would arrive rather late on the field, having got himself up to kill; painted, powdered, all his eyelashes stuck together; covered with ribbons and diamonds – hatless. He never wore a hat for fear of flattening his wig. Once in action he was as brave as a lion; only afraid of what the sun and dust might do to his complexion.
- some more from...
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Publication Day for Nancy Mitford's The Sun King
When Mme de Montespan and Louis XIV were known to be together behind these windows, the couriers would do anything sooner than pass underneath them—they called it going before the firing squad. Both she and the King frightened people; she was a tease, a mockingbird, noted for her wonderful imitations and said to be hard-hearted… . She received a message to say that her children’s...
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Amsterdam ——> San Francisco
The Nesciobrug (Nescio Bridge) in Amsterdam is a pedestrian/cyclist bridge named for the author. It connects the suburb of IJburg to the city. Photo by Edgar Vonk, used under a Creative Commons license.
Damion Searls will be introducing the Dutch cult author Nescio to the West Coast this week.
Read Joseph O’Neill on Nescio at Slate
Tuesday, May 8th at 7:00 pm City Lights Bookstore,...
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redneckzilla asked: I've spent my last few paychecks on NYRB Classics copies that I rooted out in used bookstores. I can't eat paper. Don't you understand? I CAN'T EAT PAPER.
