Magnificent Octopus

My adolescence as a reader became, without a break, a long and unhappy apprenticeship as an author. The geese have returned. They've bro...

"Why is this your life? Why are you not a truck driver in Norway? Why?" I have recovered from the sickness. I continue to feel tir...

Neath the sea the land sinketh, the sun dimmeth, From the heavens fall the fair, bright stars; Gusheth forth steam and gutting fire To ve...

This is why tyrants of all stripes, infernal servants, have such deep-seated hatred for the nomads — this is why they persecute the Gypsies ...

A feature film based on Tom McCarthy's mindfuckingly awesome novel . A couple showings this week at Phi Centre . I think I need to see...

An excerpt from All This Can Happen produced by Siobhan Davies Dance , based on Robert Walser's 1917 novella The Walk . (Discovered via...

If my library were peopled with creatures rather than books, it would house polar bear memoirists, insurgent dogs, poetry-spurting robots,...

I love wine. I love drinking wine almost as much as I love reading books. Sometimes more. Of course, I often do both at the same time. One...

I'd been copyediting for a few years when I landed a dream job, at a very hip ad agency. Designers and copywriters were clamoring to wor...

The Library at Night A virtual exploration of the great libraries of the world, inspired by Alberto Manguel's essay. Step into a recr...

When I was 17, I would ride the bus up to the university. For art and culture. By myself. I'm not sure why I thought that would be a coo...

David Cronenberg's short film The Nest documents a medical consultation with a woman who wants her left breast removed because she belie...

Back in November I read Satantango , by László Krasznahorkai, and I'll even write about it someday. My challenge these days is to find a...

We took the girl out this weekend to celebrate her 12th birthday with a few friends: a movie matinee and then wood-fired pizza. Hunger games...

I'm mildly obsessed with Consumed , a new novel by David Cronenberg. I haven't actually read it yet — I'm still hoping someone w...

I just started reading Hard to Be a God , by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, freshly available in a new English translation. Written in 1964,...

We are living in 1937 and our universities, I suggest, are not half-way out of the fifteenth century. We have made hardly any changes in our...

I've only ever read Stefan Zweig's Chess Story , but there is so much more. Wes Anderson "It’s more like me trying to do a ...

Last week I went to Interzone. David Cronenberg: Evolution , an exhibition exploring the filmmaker's oeuvre, is on at TIFF until January...

Based on Robert Sheckley's short story "Seventh Victim." ( via ) See also Movies and Books Like The Hunger Games (full t...