'Bollocks'

On why the Aussie accent's the result of heavy drinking.

Or not.

Yeats - in context

I went out to the hazel wood, / Because a fire was in my head, / And I had not had my Health & Safety briefing.

(Audio)Books I've actually (re-)finished lately: 90

Zaftig vs Sidebottom

Extraordinary interview with Erica Jong in last Saturday`s Times. According to Jong a lot of the 'bad boy' writers who gave her books bad reviews had more than literary criteria on their minds. "I was too zaftig [curvy] to get a good review. Look at all the women who are praised. They`re either very, very skinny or very, very fat. Some of them are hunchback, and some of them enormously fat" - offensive remark about Hilary Mantel omitted [LOLZ] - "Not one of them is a woman you would want to f***." 

Some years ago I gave Jong`s Sappho`s Leap a very bad review in the TLS. At the time I thought I did this because it was a very bad book. Now I know differently. 

Glad she cleared all that up.

- Harry Sidebottom, on Facebook

In other news, I've just looked up a boozy interview I did with Dr Sidebottom. 1) I note Ms Jong was referenced; and 2) I can vouch his books have since also made it to Afghanistan.

Books I've actually finished lately: 89b

Because - ridiculously! - Blogger will only let you use 200 characters when it comes to labels...

Books I've actually finished lately: 89a

(Audio)Books I've actually finished lately: 88

Featuring far too many instances of the word 'sensuous' (and variants) - which ought seriously to've been reconsidered and/or edited when Derek Jacobi was booked to do the audio.

(Audio)Books I've actually finished lately: 87

Although I do have to say it doesn't sound a lot like Dan Stevens...

(Audio)Books I've actually finished lately: 86b

Do audiobooks count, for 'reading' purposes?

I've decided they do - so long as they're unabridged. And doubly so if I've actually read them before.

(Audio)Books I've actually finished lately: 86a

That's right, motherfuckerrr. Cassettes. Putting the 'old' back into the Old Testament*.

--
* The tape snapped halfway through St Matt's gospel. Seemed like a sign.

Thoreau - in context

Our reading, our conversation and thinking, are all on a very low level, worthy only of pygmies and mankinis.

Books I've actually finished lately: 85

Herodotus

Several pit players use the long stretch between 'Getting to Know You' and the end of Act I to pull out books or magazines. Primis said, "When I played South Pacific, I read Herodotus."

- Henry Alford, in The New Yorker