(Translated by https://www.hiragana.jp/)
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Friday 21.12.07

Looking back at the Booker: VS Naipaul

Sam Jordison 12:29pm VS Naipaul deserves plenty of laurels, but whether In a Free State should be the prizewinner is harder to say

Comments (12) · Technorati logo

Guardian book club podcast: Philip Pullman

Guardian Unlimited Books 09:57am Philip Pullman talks to John Mullan about plot, morality, language and Milton in His Dark Materials

Comments (5) · Technorati logo

Booze by Boz

Eloise Millar 07:35am Without doubt the most Christmassy classic author, Dickens is also literature's best source of winter cocktails

Comments (11) · Technorati logo

Thursday 20.12.07

Minimalising Raymond Carver

Richard Lea 03:28pm This week's New Yorker gives a close-up view of the way Gordon Lish's editing radically altered the writer's work

Comments (7) · Technorati logo

Podcast: John Hegley

Lindesay Irvine 12:16pm The author of Glad to Wear Glasses talks about spectacles, dogs, current affairs and Christmas Creatures

Comments (5) · Technorati logo

Readings to put you off books

Nigel Beale 10:48am Too many academics have abandoned clarity and enthusiasm for cliquey obscurity

Comments (59) · Technorati logo

Wednesday 19.12.07

Lyrics poetry?

Rob Woodard 12:20pm Songs and poems began life as inseparable twins, but they are now - for the most part - thoroughly estranged

Comments (80) · Technorati logo

When did you last read a central Asian writer?

Daniel Kalder 07:00am There's no shortage of great literature from this region. Good luck finding it in translation, though

Comments (13) · Technorati logo

Tuesday 18.12.07

Books are a vital human right

Joseph O'Reilly 01:30pm There's no proper literacy without them, and no proper freedom without literacy. Yet they are widely considered a luxury that Africans can afford to go without

Comments (34) · Technorati logo

Pornography as high art

Maxim Jakubowski 10:50am Alain Robbe-Grillet's latest novel is obscene and disturbing, the more so because of its evident artfulness

Comments (26) · Technorati logo



Editors' picks


Guardian book club podcast: Philip Pullman

Guardian Unlimited Books Friday 21.12.07, 09:57am

Philip Pullman talks to John Mullan about plot, morality, language and Milton in His Dark Materials

Comments (5) · Technorati logo

Booze by Boz

Eloise Millar Friday 21.12.07, 07:35am

Without doubt the most Christmassy classic author, Dickens is also literature's best source of winter cocktails

Comments (11) · Technorati logo
Looking back at the Booker: VS Naipaul

Sam Jordison Friday 21.12.07, 12:29pm

VS Naipaul deserves plenty of laurels, but whether In a Free State should be the prizewinner is harder to say

Comments (12) · Technorati logo

Podcast: John Hegley

Lindesay Irvine Thursday 20.12.07, 12:16pm

The author of Glad to Wear Glasses talks about spectacles, dogs, current affairs and Christmas Creatures

Comments (5) · Technorati logo
Minimalising Raymond Carver

Richard Lea Thursday 20.12.07, 03:28pm

This week's New Yorker gives a close-up view of the way Gordon Lish's editing radically altered the writer's work

Comments (7) · Technorati logo

Readings to put you off books

Nigel Beale Thursday 20.12.07, 10:48am

Too many academics have abandoned clarity and enthusiasm for cliquey obscurity

Comments (59) · Technorati logo
When did you last read a central Asian writer?

Daniel Kalder Wednesday 19.12.07, 07:00am

There's no shortage of great literature from this region. Good luck finding it in translation, though

Comments (13) · Technorati logo
Lyrics poetry?

Rob Woodard Wednesday 19.12.07, 12:20pm

Songs and poems began life as inseparable twins, but they are now - for the most part - thoroughly estranged

Comments (80) · Technorati logo

More books

His quiz materials

Philip PullmanAt the Guardian book club event with Philip Pullman, the audience was set 20 questions by professor John Mullan on Pullman and children's literature. How well would you fare?

'It's graphomania - I can't explain it'

Maggie O'FarrellWhy I write: Maggie O'Farrell struggles to explain the source of her 'graphomania', but she can't imagine life without it

Your photographs


Mark CavendishMark Cavendish: Even water mains can be beautiful ... This one is over the River Ely, in Cardiff

Got a picture that would be perfect for the arts blog? Email us with images and the best will be posted here and in our gallery

Song of the day

Song Of The DayIt's got bells, it mentions snow, gifts, and smiling - it is to Christmas songs what too much food is to the day itself. It's Norwegian trio Remington Super 60 with Here Comes Christmas

The poll

Question Of The WeekShould Rhydian have won the X factor? Vote now

View poll archive

What I’m up to… Andrew Haydon

Andrew HaydonI’m hoping to catch up with the RSC’s Noughts and Crosses in Stratford and the Lyric Hammersmith’s Beauty and the Beast. Early next year I'm looking forward to How it Ended at the Camden People's Theatre. I’m also very much looking forward to seeing The Kite Runner starring Khalid Abdalla - not only one of his generation’s finest actors, but also a phenomenally talented theatre director and all round great guy.

Outside theatre, I still haven’t got round to reading Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs or Nick Cohen’s What’s Left? And there’s a daunting critical biography of Fassbinder to get through. Not to mention the fact I have still never read Great Expectations, Vanity Fair or Being and Nothingness. I’ll probably just end up re-reading London Fields or Money again and cheering myself up afterwards by dipping into Luke Kennard’s brilliantly funny collection of poems The Harbour Beyond the Movie.

Mostly I’ll be listening to Radio 4, interspersed with Jeffrey Lewis’s incredible album 12 Crass Songs - alt.folk covers of songs by the anarchist punk band Crass, to cover those annoying scheduling gaps created by You and Yours and Moneybox Live.

My tip of the week: I’m going to go and see Katie Mitchell’s incredible new production of Women of Troy at the NT for a second time. It has divided opinion, but for my money it’s the most exciting play in London by a country mile. Everyone should put their preconceptions on hold and see it at least once.

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