Category: Book of the Week

Another poetry collection this week, with Patti Smith’s slim and semi-autobiographical assortment of poems featured in her 1992 compilation Woolgathering. And when I say ‘slim’, I truly mean it, as this collection only features eleven prose poems. Despite this making it rather poor value for money, I think the fact that Smith composed these pieces…

A novel with a tacky, uniquely garish cover, Days & Days & Days explores the souring life of a thirty-nine-year-old reality television star called Bibbs. If you are confused about the odd name, the story is set in Sweden. Out of nowhere, Bibbs’ boyfriend dumps her, removing a pillar of stability and support in her…

To mark the one-year anniversary of Book of the Week, I wanted to feature a work that covers one of my favourite literary figures: Philip Larkin. Written by Andrew Motion, a younger man who befriended Larkin during their tenure the University of Hull, Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life is a memoir-style biography that seeks to…

My interest in computers and technology is more so rooted in the pre-2010s, so generative AI, ray-tracing graphics, and other mainstream elements of late-2010s and post-2020 technology are pretty unremarkable to my neo-luddite self. One thing that has not changed too much in the last few decades is the CPU, other than becoming more powerful,…

Architecture is something I have always had a fondness for since childhood, even if my younger self barely understood anything about it. Still, it never stopped eight-year-old me from proclaiming that I would become an architect one day… Handlin’s American Architecture provides an interesting overview of America’s most notable architecture, alongside a history of designs…

My interest in this book should not really come as a surprise: I’m European and I quite enjoy a relaxing, scenic train ride. Out of all the methods of transportation, the train is hard to beat, especially across European nations who often boast some of the best train infrastructure in the West. There’s a romanticism…

Just like last week, I’m giving attention to another Japanese novel. However, this one may be even more gruesome and depressing, which is not what I was expecting from its rather serene cover art that led me to believe it would be touching and perhaps even about romance. Instead, Lion Cross Point follows ten-year-old Takeru…

Having watched the rather cheesy, but still entertaining, 2000 film adaptation of Battle Royale, I figured it may be time I read the 1999 novel to see how it differs in terms of tone and execution. This Japanese dystopian-horror hybrid focuses on a peculiar concept where, under a fascists and totalitarian government, a select group…

Like many people (possibly including yourself), I have a lifelong ambition to see around our wondrous planet and marvel at the diverse cultures, architecture, and scenery each locale offers. So, naturally, I would possess an interest in reading about travel. Having read some of Lonely Planet‘s publications before, I figured putting their informative and ranked…

I’m quite the fan of comedian Paul Whitehouse, and Bob Mortimer is fairly tolerable (if a bit more hit and miss with his jokes). However, the two of them make quite an amusing pair on their long-running show Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. Naturally, I’d like to see what the two write about following their…