Other Stories

Link Love du Jour

You'll have to forgive me. I am the sleepiest Kirsty in all the land. Last night was one of those nights wher I was really tired but I just couldn't sleep... until about an hour before my alarm went off. Urgh. I am incoherent, and I didn't brush my hair this morning. Typically, this is the day where I have a full day of usual work topped off by a journey into London for a launch party and won't get back home to bed until god knows when.

*sigh*

Anyway. Here are some lovely links that have been entertaining me, cyber-wise:

• First up, my latest addition to the OUPblog: Science and Religion in American Politics
• Say hello to the Two Ravens Press blog and their new literary web-mag
• Speaking of online periodicals, Five Dials is a new literary periodical from Hamish Hamilton, and anyone can just download and print it for nada. Me likee.
• Andy Gill hates Coldplay. Yeah, me too.
• Boyfriend and I are going to the Cornbury Festival in a couple of weeks. V excited. And it's in Oxfordshire so we don't have to do the whole manky camping bit.
• I don't care how juvenile it is, FailBlog makes me laugh.
• The Daily Mail thinks women should "step back and shut up". Er, no thanks.
• A Chinese policewoman breastfed nine orphans she found after the China earthquake, and was rightly promoted for good deeds. Some people have been complaining. These people are idiots.

Facts and Links

Fictional reading is still taking somewhat of a battering, and at times like this, poetry is a god-send. Recently I have been reveling in Emily Bronte's poetry, especially "No coward soul is mine", which in itself is very high up in my list of favourite lines from poetry.

I'm still ploughing on with The Victorians by AN Wilson, which is proving to be one of the very best history books I have ever read. The scope is incredibly far-reaching without the reader feeling short-changed on any particular topic: it really is an incredibly well-written book - and much funnier in places than you might expect. If you've any interest in the Victorian period, then I implore you to look past its bulk and settle in.

Did you know that during the Irish famine, many adults starved because potatoes were the only crop they were able to grow, and even then they could only grow enough for personal use? Many people ate literally nothing but potatoes - up to 13 or so POUNDS per day - so no potatoes = no food. Meanwhile, the UK government were still having Irish corn exported. Tragic stuff.

My other fact of the day - and this is nothing to do with Victorianism - is that today in the UK there are more members of the National Trust than of any political party. How awfully British.

In other news, here are some links I have loved recently:

• Literary tattoos!
• Bookmooch rocks. Free book swaps mean new books without the environmental impact of making more paper. Have picked up some excellent Virago Modern Classics in original green livery.
• Really interesting F Word discussion on having children late in life.
• This is a BRILLIANT piece from The Observer about Fern Britton and her gastric band.
• Freelance Mum is one of my new favourite blogs.
• Lorrie Moore: A Life in Books.

Right, I'm off back to the 19th century.

Link Love, or What Kirsty Has Read This Week

You will have to excuse me as I sit and blearily rub my eyes. I don't seem to be able to sleep enough at the moment, and my concentration is sadly lacking. Needless to say, Proust has taken somewhat of a back seat recently (sorry Lauren), and I have been doing a great deal of staring out the window. Also, sales of strong coffee have recently rocketed in the work canteen, and all of those extra large cups have been reported as being clutched by a slightly shambolic-looking publicist who may or may not have brushed her hair this morning. I must say I have been willing my phone not to ring, after I had a vaguely confused conversation with someone at Radio 3, and ended up having to put him on hold and sit for a few seconds till I figured out what I was trying to say. Oh dear. I'm not at my best today.

So, since the chances of me putting together an even vaguely coherent blogpost are slim-to-none, here is some lovely linky love:

• Man, I love literary bitchfights! Jonathan Franzen recently said that "the stupidest person in New York City" was the lead fiction reviewer for the New York Times. The lady in question, Michiko Kakutani, is famously barbed, which is probably why she has a few enemies. The Guardian Book Blog takes a look at some of her spikier criticisms.
• Johnny Vegas is a prick. Boycott! Boycott!
• This is a very interesting, and I think very good, perspective on the Elisabeth Friztel case, once again from the lovely ladies of  The F Word.
• We Brits do love a bit of healthy innuendo, not least by the late Chairman Humph. Here's a nice BBC article on innuendo through history.
• LadyFest Oxford is coming! Who's with me?
• I *heart* Word Magazine. Here is their Very, Very Hard Rock Quiz. The eyes have it, etc, etc.
• I only found out the other day that the BBC website has an archive of poets reading their work. Sylvia Plath reading 'Lady Lazarus' is particularly moving, given that she wrote it - and therefore read it - so close to her death.
• An oldie but a goodie. The Smoking Gun's archive of what various music artistes demand on their riders. Hilarious.

That's all folks. Hopefully I'll be on better form tomorrow, but I wouldn't bet the house on it. Must. Sleep. More. Zzzzzzzzzz...

Charity Shop Haul and Mini Link Love

I have been trying really hard not to buy anymore books. For one, I bought the iPhone of Joy recently, and therefore should really not be spending anymore money, and for two, I've so behind in my reading at the moment that it's quite painful. Uni work + extremely busy time at work + family stress = not a lot of Kirsty Reading Time.

However, all of these things are done and dusted for the time being, and the weekend just gone saw me creeping back to form with a book and a half devoured over two days. *sigh* That's better. Thus I feel utterly justified in having had a bit of a second-hand splurge on Saturday morning. Boyfriend and I had taken a leisurely breakfast at a local cafe and were wandering home when through the window of the Mind shop I spied some shelves of books. That was it, I was through the door with Boyfriend trailing after me. "I just want to look," I lied, as I suspiciously fingered my purse in my pocket.

Ten minutes later, I emerged into the fresh air £26 poorer but 17 books richer. What a haul! I picked up:

• Four Dreamers and Emily - Stevie Davies (I've never read anything by her, but she's   been highly recommended to me several times over the years, and it was a Women's Press book. And it was 80p.)
• Alberta and Jacob - Cora Sandel (Another Women's Press edition, and translated from Norwegian, so falls into both my "women's fiction" and "translated fiction" quotas.)
• The Remarkable Journey of Miss Tranby Quirke - Elizabeth Ridley (It's VMC. It was 80p. Of course I was going to buy it.)
• Sexual Politics - Kate Millett (Feminist table-thumping ensues.)
• The Brontes Went to Woolworths - Rachel Ferguson (Talked about over at Justine Picardie's blog, and found in delicious old green VMC livery.)
• Zoology - Ben Dolnick (Recently released in B format paperback, it caught my attention in Borders some weeks ago. Finding it in A format paperback for just over a quid was obviously fate.)
• I, Claudius / Claudius the God - Robert Graves (An omnibus edition from 1976, complete with TV tie-ie photo on the front.)

And then, the piece de resistance. For 20 of your British Pounds, a Virago Modern Classics box set, in perfect condition, box still shiny and new, nary a spine broken featuring the following:

• Precious Bane - Mary Webb
• Liza's England - Pat Barker
• The Land of Spices - Kate O'Brien
• The Edwardians - Vita Sackville-West
• Fireworks - Angela Carter
• Good Behaviour - Molly Keane
• Provincial Daugher - R M Dashwood
• Our Spoons Came From Woolworths - Barbara Comyns
• Now in November - Josephine Johnson

I was massively excited. I can't even begin to tell you. Another entirely-free weekend awaits me, so I can't wait to get properly stuck in.

And now, some mini-link love. Knitter Friend has just started her own Etsy Shop, and her creations are quite beautiful. Go see (and buy). Also, her blog can be found here.

Also, all this week on OUPblog, I am posting questions concerning Oxford World's Classics. No prizes, just for fun. But do go and have a shot. Answers on Friday.

Blogging the Classics: The Aftermath

You do an event about blogging, and whaddya know, the blogs go wild. And rightly so. You can catch up with all the various accounts at the following places:

• The Times Online
• The Guardian Blog
• OUPblog (yes, I did write that post)
• ReadySteadyBook
• Dovegrey Reader Scribbles (particularly the story about dgr and Academic Friend attempting to force their way into Merton College)
• Torque Control
• Eve's Alexandria
• Stuck in a Book

Blogging is (part of) the future people. As Mark Thwaite said on the night, while we have academic critics like Christopher Ricks now, perhaps the next Christopher Ricks will be found online.

Don't think it's me though. Just a head's up.

Link Love

What ho, I have nothing interesting for you today, so here's what has been being interesting in places other than my blog:

• This is a photo of my hand, modelling for FilmKnitter.
• OUPblog rules. Hell yes, we do.
• Favourite news story of today: over 55's cause holiday havoc.
• The F Word responds to criticism of The Orange Prize.
• Sir Terry of Pratchett talks to the Guardian about being diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
• I did this for OUPblog. I also did this.
• A whole blog, just about bookshelves. Bestill my beating heart.
• For the atheist Radio 4 fan in your life, Platitude of the Day.

That is all. Away you go, and have a fine Easter weekend. I know I will (mmmm.... chocolate....).

See you on Tuesday!

Places to go, people to see...

Today, I am a little behind. Being stuck in bed for a week meant that I whizzed through a few books because frankly I was incapable of doing anything other than reading, sleeping, coughing, and drinking litres of orange squash. In the space of a week, I (finally) finished Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which I'm not planning to review here largely because I can't think of anything intelligent to say about it other than it took me a few chapters to get into it, it's a gory, rollicking, good fun book, the story is really nothing like the film, and if you're into a bit of Victorian weirdness then you could do far worse than to pick this one up. I'm not just saying that because I work for the publisher. Y'all know that I keep my work life and Other Stories life separate unless they genuinely overlap.

I also read the third Inspector Morse novel, The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn. Decent whodunnit. Buckets of sexism, which annoyed me. The other two books read were The Ice Palace by Terjei Varsaas, and Watch Me Disappear by Jill Dawson. Enjoyed both, and proper reviews are forthcoming, once I have time to down and formulate my thoughts and pencilled notes into something approximating a book review.

Meanwhile, I am in full-tilt MA mode, and have also been completely sucked into Vanity Fair when it comes to recreational reading. It's a big ole book is Vanity Fair, and given that I'm only getting time to get through 50 pages a day at the moment with everything else going on, then progress is not particularly speedy. However, Thursday is uni day, so at least I have an hour each way on the train to London to have a bit of read.

Talking of having a bit of a read, off you lot pop and take a gander and what's been floating my cyber-boat this week:

• I'm doing more posts on the good old OUPblog at the moment. Two this week - one on Captain Scott, the other on Prozac - with another one to come tomorrow.
• 1-15 March is the Oxford International Women's Festival. Hooray!
• 2007's Oddest Book Titles are...
• Scottish Friend and I went to see Juno last night - and it was fantastic. Knitter Friend reviewed it over on her blog too.
• The curious case of the forged biography.
• Following on from the stories I linked to yesterday, there's another good piece in The Independent today about violence against women.

A couple of these links will pop up on tomorrow's OUPblog link love post from me, so these will give you a head start. But do stop by tomorrow OUPblog post for bunnies and staircases and other stuff too.

I am a social butterfly

I'm being a bit slow with my reading at the moment. I'm in the middle of my second term at university, and the reading list is taking up a good deal of my time at the moment, unfortunately. Also, this week I've had a bit of a mad social life, oddly enough. Honestly, it never rains but it pours. Some weeks are a barren wasteland, the only people I speak to being people at work, Boyfriend, and perhaps a phonecall to mum in Glasgow or dad in Norway. Other weeks I have to juggle like mad.

Take this week for example. Monday night saw Boyfriend and I grimacing at an American guitar player at a concert in Oxford. The drummer was apparently very fine, however, and Boyfriend was in conversation with him for some time. The music in the background was loud so I couldn't hear what they were saying, but there was lots of simulated drumming in the air and frenzied nodding, so I suppose it went well. Tuesday night saw us tripping the light fantastic at a London blues jam. This may be girlfriendly pride, but Boyfriend was devastating, and may or may not have pissed off a Greek man who had previously thought he was the star of the show. At any rate, Boyfriend was invited back up for a second tour of duty with the house band, so I can't have been the only one impressed. Wednesday night was food and drinks with The Girls to celebrate Scottish Friend's promotion to the heady heights of Marketing Manager, followed by board games in the pub. Northern Friend kicked our arses at Trivial Pursuit. Tonight is university, so that's a write-off for reading, other than on the train to and from London.

Roll on tomorrow night, when I refuse to leave the house. Boyfriend is away back up to Glasgow for the weekend, so I have a quiet weekend of much, much reading planned. I will surface only for lunch with Academic Friend on Saturday, and wine-fuelled tomfoolery with many friends on Saturday night. The rest of the time, the doors will be locked, the phone will be ignored, and I shall be ensconsed in duvet with only books, cats, and biscuits for company. Bliss.

So, to amuse you while I am off being social, here are some of the links that have pleased me recently:

• My latest offering for OUPblog went live this morning.
• Another OUPblog post I know, but this piece on blogging is excellent.
• A book that's been firmly on my wishlist for months before it's even published is Mad, Bad, and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present. It sadly publishes two days after my birthday, otherwise I was going to be dropping mega-hints for it. Anyway,  here's a review of it from The Observer.
• Animal story of the day: Jumpers for chickens. Oh yes.
• Over at Kirsty Towers we have been becoming steadily more obsessed with Planet Rock Radio.
• Stuff + Cats = Awesome. Welcome to the world of Stuff On My Cat.

Right ho chaps. Hopefully I'll have something bookier to say tomorrow.

Random Acts of Feminism

We all remember the Random Acts of Kindness fad a few years ago, but here are some Random Acts of Feminism to brighten up your day and show a little solidarity. My favourite?

I leave you with news of a famous toyshop, where a women's page reader (who shall remain nameless) spent a busy afternoon with her best friend and their daughters. Seeing a large pink plastic castle, she took pity on the blonde in the highest turret. Taking a card from her handbag and inscribing it neatly in black ink, she slid her small sign next to the princess's head. "Please let me out," it read, "I gotta get to work!"

Original article in The Guardian. Follow up over on the glorious F Word blog. The idea of sticky Post Its on lads' mags saying "Real Men Buy Books" also appeals.

Scottish Literature... Officially Still Scottish!

Mark over at The Book Depository flags up this story that appeals to me as a Scottish Bookworm and Geek.

Apparently the Library of Congress, Stateside, randomly recategorised all Scottish Literature as, er, English. The Scots were Not Amused.

This week, I have been mostly reading...

For your readling delight, here are some interesting articles from around the interweb:

• Here's the latest post from OUPBlog: one of my colleagues got to go to the European premiere of Sweeney Todd last night in London. I am uber jealous.
• Apparently 25% of British adults haven't read a book in the last year. The Guardian Books Blog ponders what you might suggest to someone looking to get back in the reading habit.
• Dovegrey has been reading a Grace Paley short story every day. Not only has this made me want to read some of Paley's work, but it's also made me want to read more short stories. All suggestions of good ones gratefully received.
• Apparently it's the National Year of Reading. The BBC wonders whether you need to read books to be clever.
• The Reader Online has 'Frost at Midnight' by Coleridge as its featured poem. It's been a personal favourite of mine since I first studied it at high school, so I'm happy. Oh, those opening lines: "The Frost performs its secret ministry/ Unhelped by any wind..."
• The lovely Sara over at A Salted blogs on why she writes.
• Are these the most beautiful bookshops in the world? Borders in my old stomping ground of Glasgow is on the list... which surprises me to be honest. The original building is good, but I can't help wondering whether it might look even better without all that strip-lit glass frontage? Oh, I'm an old/young cynic. Ignore me. They sell books, I'm not complaining. Much. (Also, the photo of it on the Borders site is a bit misleading. That's not the angle most customers come at it from).
• If you're still at a loose end, then this is infuriatingly addictive.

That's your lot for today. I'm intending on getting in some serious reading time this weekend, so I should hopefully have more to say next week. Have a good weekend, blog readers!

Christmas Records

Woo! Another post from me already.

This is just to say that over at OUPBlog I've just posted a fantastic piece by the editor of Oxford's Encyc. of Popular Music about Christmas Records.

It's a cracker (ho ho!), and I am fully expecting Boyfriend to treat us to his opinions in the comments section. Go see.

Cop Out Link Post

A bit of a cop-out post today, I know, but I am busier than is truly decent. Sorry chaps. So, in the absence of me having anything remotely interesting to say, here is some link love from me to those who have entertained me via the internet this week.

• I really, really want this poster.
• This is (a) a fantastic name for a cat, and (b) a very amusing story. I'm a sucker for a cute cat story. From the BBC News Website.
• DoveGrey Reader sticks up for those of us not averse to a little pencilling in our book margins.
• The Victorian Web. I can lose whole hours just browsing about this site.
• Amazon in the States has launched their e-reader, the Kindle. Personally I hate the idea of any kind of e-reader, and I think this contraption looks not unlike the telephone we had at home in about 1989 (except without the screen, obviously). And why is it called The Kindle? I realise I am a crusty book purist. But I'm happy with that.
• Meanwhile, the OUPblog has a different view on the Kindle from the VP of Rights.
• Alasdair Gray's wonderful novel Lanark is the Guardian Book Club choice at the moment. Here's John Mullan on text as illustration.
• Will it soon be harder to have an abortion in Scotland than it is in England? The F Word investigates.
• Only 10 days till the Haggis Hunt starts again!
• The Reader Online features a poem by Anne Stevenson, called Poem for a Daughter.
• Excellent little book-related comic strip: Cat and Girl

Hero War Cat

Just a tiny post to say:

Look at the hero war cat!

Awwww.....

Mini-Post

The debate about bestsellers now and then continues over at The Reader blog, where Chris has picked up on what I was saying yesterday and made some good points about the type of people who would have been buying books in the early 60s. Pop over and have a look, and join in the discussion.

More link love from me to The Guardian, where there was an excellent profile of Alasdair Gray a couple of weeks ago. It's a wonderful piece on the man they are calling the Clydeside Michaelangelo.

Meanwhile, I have finished reading Gents by Warwick Collins. A full review to follow later, but I shall say now that I really enjoyed it very much. It's a subtle little book that contains a lot more than it looks on first glance. Once I've ordered my thoughts on it a little more, I shall expand upon it.

Read this poem, and the glory of Brahms

I've had a good start to my day. I was perusing The Reader Online, and came across a rather wonderful poem. I assume I can't post it here due to copyright shenanigans, so please do pop over to The Reader and read it here. The poem is by Grace Ingoldby, and is called Morning be salve to you. It was a salve for my morning at any rate.

In other news, the work choir concert draws ever closer. Rehearsal last night went very well, though, and we were working especially on the second movement, which is my favourite of the seven. There's this wonderful passage where all four vocal lines are in unison, and it's ff, and it's all minor, and it's just wonderful. It made my spine tingle. I'm even getting the hang of the German pronunciation.

Of course you'll all be coming to the concert, won't you?

* * An Update * *

Just spotted this blog over at the Guardian, which is rather interesting. It is recommending the blogs of writers, published and unpublished. A few here I'm not familiar with, so I shall certainly be checking them out.

Gay wizards, short stories, and getting high on Optrex

So, Dumbledore is gay. I can hear Middle America and Little England shrieking in outrage as I type. Gay teachers? Gay teachers who are also wizards?! Be still our little conservative hearts, all the kids will be at it next.

Or not. It's a fictional character. Do we have to analyse it all quite so much?

In other news, a short story by Anne Enright, Booker Winner, has appeared over at the Guardian Online. I have no idea what it's like because I haven't read it yet. I will though, when I have time. Currently, though, I am swimming in feminist critiques of Jane Eyre. I could quite happily read essays on that novel, and well as the novel itself, until the cows come home. I love Jane Eyre SO MUCH. *sigh* I want to go back and re-read Villette, and read Shirley for the first time. But I don't have time at the moment. I barely have time to think of anything other than university reading.

I'm not complaining, mind. I'm loving the course so much I'm constantly wondering why I didn't do this in the first place.

My eyes hurt. I am going through Optrex like it is going out of fashion. Can you overdose on Optrex? I once knew someone who (accidentally) overdosed on a Vicks inhaler thingy, and he was high for several hours, and sick for about a week. I can't afford to be high this afternoon, I have choir rehearsal at 5.15pm and the concert is less than a month away.

What Kind of Reader are you?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

The Reader

I like my magazines. I subscribe to a varied bunch: The New Yorker; Vanity Fair; Private Eye; Mslexia; The Week; Heat Magazine (and I do so without shame). Well, another publication has recently joined this mixed bag, and it is my new very favourite thing: The Reader.

I only found out about The Reader very recently, though then by two channels at once. Firstly, the new editor is an author publishing with us, and secondly lovely Dovegrey Reader posted about it a couple of weeks ago. I tracked down a copy somewhere in the office and had a sneaky read. It was marvellous. I immediately signed up for a year's subscription.

The Reader is a quarterly magazine published by a not-for-profit organization within the University of Liverpool, and by all accounts has been around for around 10 years. The blurb on the front cover says "New Writing, Book Talk, News and Reviews", and it does exactly what it does on the tin. For example, in this issue we have poetry from new names and established writers like Tom Paulin. There are essays, reviews sent in by readers, short stories, and people writing about their 'reading lives'. And it's all really good quality stuff.

Most importantly, it's really good quality stuff without being completely up its own arse. Completely pretention-free. Beautiful.

So, give yourselves a treat. You won't regret it. They even have a blog.

Signpost...

Thought it would be overkill to stick another update at the end of my last post. So, here is a link to my latest post over at the OUP blog: Double Whammy for British Farmers.