Magnificent Octopus

Reading Eternal Enemies , a collection of poems by Adam Zagajewski.

In all domestic arguments — as in all fistfights and armed conflicts, for that matter — there comes a moment when both, or one, of the parti...

Sweet Tooth is my favourite of Ian McEwan's novels that I've read to date. (For the record, I hated Solar , loved Saturday , though...

In the Kitchen by Monica Ali was not what I expected. I expected something about a kitchen that confirmed everything I'd ever learned a...

So I have a little free time* these days, as I'm basically on stress leave** from work, and I'm indulging in a little armchair shopp...

I thoroughly enjoyed Slade House by David Mitchell. I turn round to tell Jonah to stop the game something's wrong, we need a grown-up....

A novel, for me, is an excuse to pin down, collect, and put together all the little things about daily life that I like writing about. A nov...

Mrs. Todds my English teacher gives an automatic "F" if anyone ever writes "I woke up and it was all a dream" at the end...

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

La Science au service de la Fiction: Premier prototype d'écriture automatique avec images, typographies et pourcentages. Carte postale...

Local street art, on the wall of a used book shop.

For one and half school years, between sixth and seventh grade, Mevlut worried constantly about where to sit in the classroom. The inner tur...

When she sat back down at her table she found that a group of men dresses as condoms were staggering across St Helen's Square. They w...

Here the pavements were swarming with feet wearing shoes, boots, high boots, shoes with heels and shoes without, and some in sandals, which,...

Libraries sometimes happen in unexpected places, right when you need them. Last week I spent a night with my mother and my sister at Mark...

You may well doubt words themselves, but there is often no mistaking the tone of voice in which they are uttered. I had occasion recently to...

Remember your first kiss? Since then I have given and received many kisses, and God knows I have given and received them without participat...

It was with unreasonable joy that I discovered the latest IKEA catalogue in my mailbox the other week. My daughter and I made an event of it...

Great Canadian novelist, environmental activist, inventor, poet. Margaret Atwood is also a brewmaster. A colleague stumbled across some No...

I read Thomas Mann's Death in Venice in Venice recently, and it was a remarkably intense experience. I began reading en route from Fl...