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Reading Week #68

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kitties

This picture of cats sunning themselves outside my back window is pretty representative of how I’ve spent my week.

Hope yours has been more eventful. This weekend I’m away back to the Edinburgh Book Festival for another grand day out.

Til then, here are some links to spend as you please!

 

–– ON ROBOTNIC.CO ––

This week in videos, I shared some Mexican and Scottish books and events I’ve been enjoying recently.

ICYMI, last week’s Bookish Blether is about our favourite longreads resources.

 
 

–– ARTS & CULTURE ––

I was a little torn about the new Gerwig-Baumbach film, Mistress America. I’d like to see it again. Meanwhile, Richard Brody adored the film, calling it a masterwork of literary cinema (in more ways than one!). Brody is excellent as ever, by the way.

“Picture-perfect groups of friends on Instagram make me wonder whether Bridget Jones’s idea of “smug marrieds” could also apply to “squads” and why “The Stepford Wives” hasn’t been re-envisioned with a friendship plot.”
– Female BFFs: The New Power Couples. Girlfriends are in, you guys.

Well worth a look: This Instagrammer shares pictures of life in North Korea. One of my favourite Instagram follows, National Geographic photographer David Guttenfelder, is also there frequently.

Should cinemas have switched to digital? Good question; Den of Geek strives to answer.

Stephen Colbert Shares Why He Thinks Women Should Be in Charge of Everything, in Glamour. And who are we to argue?

 
 

–– DIGITAL ––

This nostalgia project is keeping GeoCities alive. Yass! I remember having one, but not what it was about. It was probably just one of those wee animated construction dudes, endlessly chipping away at dead pixels until Yahoo pulled the plug on his server.

Estonia has a sweet e-Residency offer for those registering small businesses.

Facebook claims to be taking a stand on freebooted (stolen) video on the site. They want to keep their publishers sweet, but they only stand to gain from their fuzzy numbers.

Meanwhile, on YouTube…
So this guy called Cory Neistat hit a million subscribers and made a video about how YouTube is a democratic, egalitarian meritocracy (compared with the old days of filmmaking as an elite art form). Then Jazza John and Rosianna totally eviscerated his argument and brought up a great discussion on barriers to entry and the site’s limitations on making marginalised voices heard. Rosianna’s in particular is a video worth watching and reading the comments on.

 
 

–– ON PAPER ––

pinball

It’s been a good reading week. I’ve been revisiting Haruki Murakami through the new English translations of his 1979 debut Hear the Wind Sing and follow-up Pinball, 1979. The first is the diary of a delectably pretentious 21 year-old writer. The second didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

I also finished The Trick is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway – a fantastic novel which reads like an experimental mental health memoir.

This weekend I’ll be continuing with Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos, as mentioned in the video linked above.

Which books are on your nightstand?
 
 

–– &c. ––

Revealed: the hidden lives of the UK’s 6.5 million carers. Important work reported by the excellent Tom Seymour.

Still hungry for links? There’s lots more to read in the Longform Guide to Road Trips.

 

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Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me about it, won’t you?

​Have a lovely weekend!

 

Reading Week #67

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eibf-mexico

Happy Friday, friends. How’s life treating you this week?

I’ve barely been at my desk. With two days Edinburgh Festivals it’s been a busy out-and-about kind of week.

I attended three great events at the book festival, including one on Mexican writers and one with the fantastic Mexican novelist Yuri Herrera. I also saw the gut-punch of a stage adaptation A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing at the Traverse. It’s been intense, you guys.

Now I’m waiting for back-to-school mode to hit. Til then, let’s read some links, shall we?

 

–– ON ROBOTNIC.CO ––

Appropriately, the latest episode of my podcast, Bookish Blether, is on our love of longreads. Stand by for a million recommendations from Holly and me.

Also in books, I’m currently participating in Bout of Books 14 – reading from this pile – and I finally finally uploaded my July Reads.

Last week I forgot to mention my business blog post on How to Make Time for Personal Projects. This week I followed that up with a post on How I Use Evernote, with some pointers.

 
 

–– ARTS & CULTURE ––

I saw Mistress America this week – and this interview with Greta Gerwig from Little White Lies is a great complement. We need more (prominent) filmmakers like her. Can’t wait for the new Mike Mills now!

This Lit Hub chat about with writers on their favourite tools (as in stationery) gave me heart-eyes.

Out of Bethlehem – an interesting piece on “the radicalization of Joan Didion”. Reads rather like Joan Didion. I guess it can’t be helped.

See also:

*scrunched up face emoji*

 
 

–– DIGITAL ––

At last! A refreshingly non-judgmental piece about The Rise of Phone Reading! Includes some surprising stats.

Caitlin Dewey wrote this much-needed explainer for over-30s about why social media stars really, truly matter.

From way back in the archives, I enjoyed this Longform interview with reporter Starlee Kine – host of Mystery Show and long-time contributor to This American Life.

 
 

–– ON PAPER ––

Bout of Books 14 is going well – I finished the okay Territorial Rights by Muriel Spark on Sunday before it even began; the dark and slightly dissatisfying The Dinner by Herman Koch on Monday; and the masterful The Driver’s Seat, also by Spark, on Tuesday.

I also made some new purchases at the Edinburgh Book Festival book shop – an annual favourite – which I’ll get to just as soon as I finish The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway and Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami. Hopefully.

Which books are on your nightstand?
 
 

–– &c. ––

From Melanie Pinola: How Being Non-Confrontational Has Held Me Back in Life. I identified.

Two great pieces on the first-generation experience:
1. What It’s Like Speaking A Different Language From Your Parents by Zakia Uddin for Buzzfeed
2. Tan Lines by Durga Chew-Bose, published on Medium.

 

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Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me about it, won’t you?

​Have a lovely weekend!

 

Reading Week #66

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Glasgow Sky

I’ve been reading more offline than on this week, so let’s simplify things to reflect that, shall we?

Here are some links and the latest from my book-reading life. Hope you enjoy!

 

–– BITS & PIECES ––

“When a genre starts saying enough already about itself — and when it says that on the eve of five more years of movies — I wouldn’t say it’s time to worry, but perhaps it’s time to wonder.”

I really enjoyed this piece by Mark Harris on The ‘Fantastic Four’ Fallout: The Future of Comic-Book Franchises. Are we nearing the end? I really hope we’re nearing the end.

Two great pieces with Ta-Nehisi Coates this week, whose book Between the World and Me I’ve just finished on audibook and wow.

The latest from the fantastic Fariha Roisin is trending: Living with My Mother’s Mental Illness.

A nice reminder about Why You Should Carry a Notebook with You Everywhere.

In audio, I loved CBC’s Wiretap episode about standing out: Against the Grain.

  • I found this one via The Podcast Broadcast – a great wee newsletter much like this one but with podcasts recommendations.

 

–– ON PAPER ––

pinball

This week has been filled with pretty books. On Saturday I met up with Vanessa and Holly and went for some lunch and book shopping. I picked up the new-old Murakami, Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1979 in a double bind-up (yes, those two images are the same book!), and – after fawning over her last week – a new edition of The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway (amazing title, right?).

Last night I attended a book launch for The Bind by William Goldsmith. It’s gorgeous, and really funny, and I’m savouring it.

I also finished Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson, which was brilliant, and am a good chunk of the way through the Murakami and through Around the World in 72 Days & Other Writings by Nellie Bly. It’s been a great reading week.

Your turn – what’s on your nightstand?

 

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Read anything good this week? Hit reply or tweet me with a link.

​Have a lovely weekend!