In other news, this was one of the best articles I've read for some time. It's a piece by the novelist John Lanchester about whether money can set you free. Recommended.

On the strength of that piece I bought and am reading his latest book 'Whoops!,' which is all about the recent global financial fuck-up. Very lucid, very amusing, very much also recommended. There are a few paragraphs on post-Wire Baltimore - and for that matter a great chapter on the history of sub-prime lending - that Mr K may find passingly relevant to his own work. (It's a very short book so you'll be able to skim it in your local bookshop.)

Well yeah, I mean it's his command of language isn't it. The confidence in his own writing shines through even after all this editing that's had to be done over the years. The confidence, and of course natural talent, enabled him to have written those lines. I find myself constantly coming across sentences where you can instinctively tell that he means so much more, but as well as what he's literally got down. and that's the job of the poet isn't it?

I heard someone say of Francis Bacon that he was "a thinker of soaring ambition and vast range". This is a major part of Shakespeare to my mind. You constantly pick up hints that the whole Universe has, at one point or another, passed through the writer's mind. Y'know, you've got right back to the Greeks/Romans, right up to near his present day. And of course the Bible, which (mostly) goes back even further - Shakespeare evidently drew exceedingly on that. I think that's probably the greatest the artist can strive for, the taking in of whole human history, passing over everything, taking all into account, and simply getting your pen or paintbrush out and getting to work!

The Road, The Lovely Bones, The Men Who Stare At Goats for £5.40 delivered - http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/611756/t ... -the-men-w

Just picked up a copy of this:



and it's a thing of FUCKING BEAUTY. Like a Sunday broadsheet, with magazines, comics, sports section...the lot. All written by very talented, established authors. Stunning stuff.

Re-reading Catch-22.

It is the latest McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Issue #33. You can pick it up from Amazon for less than a tenner at the moment. The last few issues have been standard books, but every once in a while they push the boat out and make an effort in both the output and the design. A few issues ago it was a mailshot of flyers and circulars. This time it's a fucking massive Sunday newspaper with glossy magazines, comic supplement, the lot. Apparently it was on sale in SanFrancisco newsstands on day of release for $5, instead of the usual $16. Would have been amazing to see it in the stores then.

I honestly thought I'd not get a chance to pick one up. All of a sudden however there appears to be more available on the market. Which is a GOOD thing.

Just finished The Case for God by Karen Armstrong. Very thoughtful and rational account of the history of spirituality and an altogether excellent tonic to the 'four legs good, two legs bad' atheist critique of religion by Dawkins et al.

I do like her. I've read A History Of God, which struck exactly the right balance between constructing a narrative that I, as a theological layman, could follow, and the depth of a something more academic than a mere bit of popular philosophy. Bought The Bible now, too, which is a specific look at the historiography of the holy book.

Books purchased in the last 72 hours...









And all that for less than £85. Not bad at all!

I own three of those books.

Is the Gilbert Hernandez stuff for you?

Yeah. They were stuck in our store's clearance bin, so I had them straight out of it again! The both of them cost me £6 combined. I know they're in the middle of the series, but beggars can't be choosers!

Is the other one you own the Chris Ware book?

You got it!

There's a bunch of Gilbert Hernandez stuff I still need to pick up according to the Fantagraphics website. He is "da bomb."

Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

Jane says "I hope you have enough red pens and gold stars".

I, on the other hand, say "serves you right for wanting to be a teacher".

Either he's reading "fucking GRcade", or there is some link to GRcade in that picture I just posted. In any case, he's an angry man.