July 31 2026, 19:02
The Hotel
In the opening chapter, a narrator lays out everything that is known about a haunted hotel. From there, we hear voices speak of their experiences, from a woman labelled a witch and drowned in a pond, to a builder who hears voices at night... [more...]
May 30 2026, 18:18
Free play
I’ve been reading a lot of books about the psychological aspects of making art. There’s a tremendous amount of practical wisdom distilled into all these books. [more...]
May 24 2026, 21:43
Authority
A new director of the Southern Reach, calling himself Control, arrives at the border of Area X tasked with investigating what happened to the twelfth expedition. The staff are wary, bordering on hostile... [more...]
May 09 2026, 13:28
She Who Remains
It starts confusingly with word definitions, quotes, and a rush of thoughts about the death of a father. Bekija is the daughter of Murash who has been shot in the head. They live in the “Accursed Mountains” somewhere in Albania with... [more...]
April 30 2026, 20:30
The Palm House
Laura Miller has been friends with Edmund Putnam since university, and Putnam has worked for the same magazine, Sequence, most of his working life. A new editor arrives and upsets the established dynamics. [more...]
April 25 2026, 10:25
A Start in Life
I first heard about Anita Brookner as a literary personality through Andy Miller's love of her on the Backlisted podcast, even though I had read Hotel du Lac many years before. Until then, she was a name, but no more than that. [more...]
April 13 2026, 14:37
Diary of an Oxygen Thief
The question of whether it is fiction, autofiction, or autobiography colours the experience of reading this book from the start. The opening line is, 'I liked hurting girls'. The author is anonymous. And for the next fifteen pages... [more...]
April 05 2026, 15:13
Annihilation
I don’t reread books in general, just as I don’t rewatch films. It’s not an impulse I have. I'm not a comfort reader. There are far too many things in the world that I’m yet to read or watch, and the older I get the more I feel that time is speeding up... [more...]
March 15 2026, 18:04
The King in Yellow
Five short stories. A book in the Penguin Weird Fiction collection. The original has ten stories, so I’m guessing an editor at Penguin chose the “most weird”. The King in Yellow is also the name of a book referenced... [more...]
February 26 2026, 21:08
Scanners
I’m learning acoustic versions of pop songs on guitar. I asked my teacher to help me get better at picking out chords and keys and rhythmic patterns. Music has my attention. [more...]
February 21 2026, 17:26
HORRORSTÖR
Sucked into a purchase by the ingenious cover design and the way it’s laid out like an IKEA catalogue, even though I’ve tried two other Grady Hendrix novels and not liked either of them, I was hopeful this one would be different. [more...]
February 13 2026, 21:47
Carmilla
The book has a beautiful, striking cover with a red fore-edge, so in the bookshop I was already intrigued, but then I read the blurb claiming this vampire story pre-dated Dracula by twenty-six years, and I was sold. [more...]
February 09 2026, 20:17
Drive
A short novel, around 45,000 words. We follow the literally-named Driver, a stuntman starting a career in Hollywood who instead chose a life as the getaway driver for armed robbers. The story jumps artfully around Driver’s whole life... [more...]
January 31 2026, 20:17
Winter refresh
I’m juggling projects and I’m enjoying myself. Over the Christmas break I decided to give in to my nature and do what I want when I want (creatively speaking). I can only do this when I’m relaxed. In the past, trying to live this way, the snake of anxiety always reared its head. [more...]
January 27 2026, 22:30
The Expansion Project
There are pleasures in work, but also drudgery, especially in larger organisations where there’s a tremendous amount of bullshit to navigate. Tom Crowley is a workaholic who struggles to connect with his children and feels overwhelmed by guilt at... [more...]
January 13 2026, 21:01
Wuthering Heights
I didn’t finish Wuthering Heights. I got about a third of the way through before I became stuck in the sludgy swamp of the prose and subject matter. I picked it because I saw a trailer... [more...]
December 31 2025, 19:10
2025: Best films, books and music
I have never pretended to be cool, or to try and keep up with the latest this or that. But, astonishingly, I saw sixty-one films in the cinema in 2025, by far the most ever in my life. [more...]