October Readings

September Readings

Just Kids | Patti Smith

Some 23,000 feet over New South Wales, I cried as I finished "Just Kids". Years ago I came across a book of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe in a dusty old bookshop across from Flinders Street station (this shop, I'm sorry to say, no longer exists). I didn't know that I was looking at Robert Mapplethorpe's work.

I had no idea who he was. All I knew is that the work was too confronting. Even for me. I just couldn't see the point. I ended up buying another photography book with a Bill Henson print in it. I don't know why I remembered that, but the moment Patti started to describe Robert's work, I made the connection. Now, years later,
I feel that I need to find that book again.

"I was asleep when he died."

It's strange when a story set in a time and a place so completely alien to you manages to touch you this much. "Just Kids" is a love story and a eulogy. Perhaps the book is so powerful because Patti's love for Robert shines through every page.

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Tiny Beautiful Things | Cheryl Strayed

"Tiny Beautiful Things" appeared on several "best of" lists on Brain Pickings (which is where I found out about the book in the first place), and with good reason. Cheryl Strayed, or Dear Sugar, as she is known on her column on The Rumpus has the kind of no-bullshit, kick-in-the-ass approach to advice on life, love and all things in between that we all so desperately need every now and then. I would highly recommend this book to absolutely everyone.

"Write like a motherfucker."

"Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.

When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kisses you while explaining that this kiss doesn’t ‘mean anything’ because, much as he likes you, he is not interested in having a relationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back. Your daughter will have his sense of humor. Your son will have his eyes.

The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.

One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, don’t look at her skeptically after she tells you she thought the coat was perfect for you. Don’t hold it up and say it’s longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly even too warm. Your mother will be dead by spring. That coat will be the last gift she gave you. You will regret the small thing you didn’t say for the rest of your life.

Say thank you."

August Reading

July Readings

June Reading

March Readings

As one of the pillars on which the Gothic genre stands (the other being Anne Radcliffe's work). The Monk (1796) has been on my radar for some time. I didn't know what I expected but I didn't expect a page turner.

The American Psycho of its day, The Monk created an uproar because of its graphic (by the standard of those times) sex scenes and violence. Though I found the latter harder to read, I still think it's inferior to Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). There is a clear parallel between Melmoth and Monk - the monastic theme, particularly the chase through the subterranean passages under a monastery.

Though I read many disparaging reviews, I see The Monk for what it is - a huge leap forward for the whole Genre, and Lewis - a trailblazer. Albeit a deranged and sadistic one. No wonder De Sade praised him to the stars.


I guess I've been desensitised by Huysmans, David Madsen and such, but I found The Nun a bit underwhelming. I was, however, shocked to find that whole scenes in Melmoth were pretty much copied from this book. Well, Melmoth laid foundation for The Picture of Dorian Gray, so I guess this fact can be overlooked.


This book popped up during a lunchtime conversation at work one day. Actually, it was the movie that was mentioned first. I looked it up, watched the trailer than read a few extracts from the book. The next day I went ti the library and got the book. I put all other reading on hold and smashed through it in two sittings. Loved every moment of it. Little gems like that just brighten up my day.

I've never lived in sharehouses, but I crashed on a few brown couches all along the Southern shore so I can at least recognise most of the situations even if I can't directly relate to them.

Library Time!

On Friday after work I was very excited because I finally had time to visit my favourite library. I was strolling down the street, telling all the friends I met that I was super excited about going to the library this Friday evening.

They were all giving me the most pitying looks.

Ovid's Metamorphoses

I'm reading Ovid's Metamorphoses at the moment. I resolved to read a poem a day from it, so I can pursue other books at the same time.


Stories from Greek mythology that Ovid incorporated into his Metamorphoses have inspired painters through the ages.



The basic theme of the Metamorphoses is that everything changes. Some of these mythological stories show creatures changing species or gender. There are great tragic love affairs and horrible betrayals of the closest and most innocent family members. In the beginning, the world was created from an immense formless mass, the first metamorphosis. Gradually, the changes Ovid describes move from the world of the gods to the world of humans, although the gods are still there, around the edges, and the human Julius Caesar is deified. In the final book, the philosopher Pythagoras gives some non-mythic explanations for metamorphoses.


Melvyn Bragg explores the enduring appeal of the Roman poet Ovid's work Metamorphoses. With A.S. Byatt and A. Catherine Bates.

The Hobbit Art

I finished The Hobbit and I absolutely loved it. My only regret is that I didn't read it as a kid, it would've been my favourite book.

Hobbit Covers






The Hobbit Illustrations by Tolkien

February Readings

Just finished reading Andrew Crumey's "Pfitz". It's my kind of book. I really loved the premise, but I felt there could have been more to the story.

I'm only just about to start reading The Hobbit, and I already know what happens to Thorin.

Screw you, internet.

Also, fangirls make me sick. It's LOTR madness all over again, only now I'm older and more bitter.

2012 in Books

In no particular order. The best book I read in 2012 was, without a doubt, "Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf" by David Madsen.

January Readings

Still reading it, actually. This is not a children's book...

December Reading