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“If not quite a platform, a play is certainly a plinth, a small eminence from which to address the world, hold forth about one’s concerns or the concerns of one’s characters. But not to preach. Writing a play I have never tried to hide the sound of my own voice. It hasn’t always been where an audience or a critic has thought to find it, and certainly not always in the mouth of the leading character. It’s often a divided voice or a dissenting one; two things (at lest) are being said and I am not always sure which one I agree with. But that is one reason I write plays: one can speak with a divided voice.” –Alan Bennett, excerpt from 2 October 2018 Diary entry, LRB 3 January 2019
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My last 5 posts
- In Welsh hills March 10, 2019
- Super-Tramp! March 7, 2019
- I want to go to there March 6, 2019
- Dewithon 2019 February 28, 2019
- Tolkienerdity* February 27, 2019
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Category Archives: Travel book
Super-Tramp!
No, not the 1970s prog-rock group (although their song, “Take the Long Way Home” may be apt for what will become obvious reasons). For this month’s Wales Readathon, Book Jotter has selected William H Davies’ Autobiography of a Super-Tramp as … Continue reading
Posted in Am reading, Dewithon, History, Travel book, Wales Readathon
Tagged William H Davies
4 Comments
“The chosen of All-Muggleton”
Packing for a lengthy trip that includes a great deal of moving on and off trains, buses, boats and trams (not to mention walking) presents a particular challenge for a reader who hopes to travel light: How many books should … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Classic, Fiction, Humorous, Travel, Travel book
Tagged Charles Dickens
8 Comments
Bigamous reading
When I haven’t the energy to read Proust, I read something else. In that respect, I’m no different from anyone else. But the other day my daughter commented on how strange it was that I was sitting on the couch reading … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, Graphic Novel, History, Humorous, Little Free Library, Mystery, reading, Travel book
Tagged Allie Brosh, Donald Culross Peattie, PG Wodehouse, RA Dick, Robin Sloan, Wilbur Bassett
3 Comments
You have to give it time
The Wells Bequest (2013), Polly Shulman. In an unplanned tag-team review, I’m following up on a book Calmgrove reviewed last fall, Polly Shulman’s The Grimm Legacy (the review of which you can read here). That novel introduced us to the New-York Circulating Material … Continue reading
Henry Pulling’s Middle Age Crisis
Graham Greene, Travels with My Aunt (1969) Nestled in a playground near my apartment is a Little Free Library, to which I frequently contribute, and from which I frequently borrow, although I’ve yet to return any of the borrowed books. The other … Continue reading
Mark Twain in Europe
Yesterday I referenced Mark Twain, and so today’s post: The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain (1869), Grosset & Dunlap, 472 pp. In the first paragraph of Chapter V, Twain notes a lunar rarity. We had the phenomenon of a full moon … Continue reading
Ocean (Dostoyevski) or Cellophane (Vonnegut)?
Breakfast of Champions (1973), Kurt Vonnegut, 303 pp. I have to start with 2 quotes: A sacred picture of Saint Anthony alone is one vertical, unwavering band of light. If a cockroach were near him, or a cocktail waitress, the picture … Continue reading
