Category archives: books

 

 

Generation X is still relevant

Douglas Coupland has been one of my favourite writers for the entirety of my “adult” life. I can safely say that I like all his books and I’ve re-read most of them. Until last year Generation X, his most popular work, was perhaps my least favourite one. Thankfully, I re-read it when I was writing my thesis and I a-d-o-r-e-d it. It was one of those rare occassions when you prefer a book the second time round. I don’t blame this on the book itself, but on me. The first time I read it I was 18 or 19, I’d never had a job and I lived a sheltered life with very few worries, I just didn’t get it. Fast forward nearly 10 years and I find it all terribly relevant. If you haven’t read this I honestly have no idea what you’re waiting for. Buy it on amazon.

generation x quote

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

 

generation x quote

generation x quote

generation x quote

 

2011: What I read

Like every year, here is the list of every book I finished last year. I didn’t make it to 50, but that’s okay, I’m pleased with my list. The ones I liked best are bolded, and two of those are re-reads. Can you guess which ones?

 

Auster, Paul – Invisible
Beecher Stowe, Harriet – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Boyne, John – The House of the Special Purpose
Capote, Truman – In Cold Blood
Chang, Jung – Wild Swans
Clarke, Jamie – Don’t You Forget About Me. Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes
Collins, Wilkie – The Woman in White
Coupland, Douglas – Generation X
Coupland, Douglas – Generation A
Cummings e. e. – Selected Poems
Dickens, Charles – A Tale of Two Cities
Doherthy, Thomas – Teenagers and Teenpics. The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s
Foster Wallace, David – A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
Garland, Alex – The Beach
Gilmour, David – The Film Club
Giordano, Paolo – The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Golden, Arthur – Memoirs of a Geisha
Gora, Susannah – You Couldn’t Ignore Me if You Tried: The Brat Pack, Their Films and Their Impact on a Generation
Gordinier, Jeff – X Saves the World
Hornby, Nick – High Fidelity
Ishiguro, Kazuo – When We Were Orphans
James, Henry – Portrait of a Lady
Johnson, Steven – Everything Bad Is Good for You
Kafka, Franz – America. The Man Who Disappeared
Karbo, Karen – How to Hepburn. Lessons on Living from Kate the Great
Kundera, Milan – The Farewell Party
Kureishi, Hanif – The Body
Mann, Thomas – The Magic Mountain
McEwan, Ian – Amsterdam
McNeil, Legs – Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Moran, Caitlin – How to Be a Woman
Morató, Cristina – Divas Rebeldes
Murakami, Haruki – 1Q84
N+1 – What Was the Hipster? A Sociological Investigation
Oates, Joyce Carol – The Gravedigger’s Daughter
Roth, Philip – American Pastoral
Severgnini, Beppe – La Bella Figura.
Shary, Timothy – Generation Multiples. The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema
Steinbeck, John – The Grapes of Wrath
Stockett, Kathryn – The Help
Thackeray, William – Vanity Fair
Tropiano, Stephen – Rebels and Chicks. A History of the Hollywood Teen Movie
Vargas Llosa, Mario – Pantaleón y las Visitadoras
Vizzini, Ned – It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Winterson, Jeanette – The Stone Gods

 

If you feel that way inclined, you can see what I read in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Spui Square (Amsterdam)

 

If you ever find yourself in Amsterdam and, upon your arrival, discover that, much to your dismay, you forgot to pack a good book, your best bet for a quick literary fix is to head to Spui Square. Here you will find several places to satisfy your book hunger.
The American Book Center is a labyrinthine bookstore where you will surely find whatever it is you’re looking for. Even though slightly overwhelming and overpriced, they have an incredible variety.
If The American Book Center is too American for you there’s no need to panic, as the English chain bookstore Waterstones is pretty much in front of it. Having been inside too many Waterstones shops as it is, I didn’t even step in it, but I’m sure it’s a good choice if you’re looking for something specific, recent releases or want a wide variety to choose from.

If big book stores are not your thing and you’re more of a browsing type or you just enjoy the smell of old paper, you might find something of interest in the book marketthat takes place right in Spui Square every Friday. It won’t be easy to find the right book there, but it is a great place if you have some time to spare or an uncontrollable love for old books and prints.

Spui Book Market

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Lire & Chiner (Colmar)

Lire & Chiner (Colmar, France)

36, Rue des Marchands
F68000 Colmar

Colmar is a little village located in the East of France that looks like it didn’t really get past Medieval times. The perfect location to stumble upon a bookshop like Lire & Chiner.

Colmar Alsacia
Photo credit: Francisco Antunes
In Lire & Chiner you can find both old and new books, but it’s speciality is in old books. There are so many books that there is no room to sit down. Most of the books were old, old, old. Such treasures there, like a whole shelf (A WHOLE SHELF!) of old chemistry books.
They specialise in books from the Alsace region, but you can also find a lot of French classics. There is a lot of Victor Hugo and Jules Verne and other French writers I haven’t heard of. It has a lot of old, valuable books and a whole section of kids books and school books! You can find their entire catalogue on their website.

Post and bookshop photos by Fiona

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Rude Shipyard (Sheffield)

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Freaks (Barcelona)

 

Amazing bookshops around the world: Shakespeare Asynové (Prague)

Shakespeare Asynové (Prague)
U lužického semináře 10
110 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic
257 531 894
http://www.shakes.cz/

When I went to Prague last November there was an unassuming little book shop near my hotel that caught my eye every time I went past, but each time it was either shut or we were rushing off somewhere. I finally got my chance to go in as we were leaving for the airport. When I entered I was a little disappointed: it was just like a book shop in England. There were lots of new English books, they were pretty pricey, and there were two rather surly-looking book sellers at the till. My boyfriend picked up an old National Geographic to read on the plane for €3. I’m glad I decided to go downstairs, however, flight times be damned, as it was on the stairs that I first got an inkling that this place was something special. I loved the presentation of the books on the wall, not to mention the stone steps themselves.
Downstairs was where the second hand books were, and best of all, comfy chairs. I wish I had had time to stop and read a little, especially if I could have read one of the Penguin books from the display in the corner.
Sadly the shop was a little bit pricey (or maybe I was poor), and I really did have a plane to catch, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a visit to Shakespeare Asynové.
I stumbled upon this bookshop when I went to Prague last year too. It’s located right next to the Kafka museum but, like Nicola, I didn’t have much time to browse through its shelves. In fact, I wasn’t even aware of the existence of a downstairs section at all.  It was nearly night time, I wanted to make it to the Lennon wall before nightfall and  running on the icy roads would have made me break a leg or three. Good place to visit if you’re ever stuck in Prague without something to read, though.

 

Alyssa's little bookstore

 

2010: What I Read

I hardly ever post book reviews, you know why? Because I am too busy reading them.

Reading Sartre in a Parisian Café. Oh dear. 
Ackroyd, Peter – The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde
Ackroyd, Peter – Venice. Pure City
Alexander, Paul – James Dean. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Appignanesi, Lisa – Mad, Bad and Sad. A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800
Atwood, Margaret – The Handmaid’s Tale
Auster, Paul – The New York Triology
Ballard, J. G. – Empire of the Sun
Barbery, Muriel – The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Bentley, Peter – The PhD Application Handbook
Brampton, Sally – Shoot the Damn Dog
Buten, Howard – When I was Five I Killed Myself
Doyle, Roddy – Chicago Blues
Ellis, Bret Easton – The Informers
Fante, John – Wait Until Spring, Bandini
Freeman, Daniel – Use Your Head: The Inside Track on the Way We Think
García Márquez, Gabriel – 100 Años de Soledad
Gayle, Mike – The to-do List
Goodman, Susan – Children of War
Gottfried, Martin – Arthur Miller. A Life.
Heller, Zoë – Notes on a Scandal
Hornby, Nick – Juliet, Naked
Ishiguro, Kazuo – Never Let Me Go
Ishiguro, Kazuo – Nocturnes
J. Sender, Ramón – La Tesis de Nancy

Kafka, Franz – The Trial
Kafka, Franz – Metamorphosis
Kureishi, Hanif – Something to Tell You
Lessing, Doris – The Good Terrorist
Leroux, Gaston – The Phantom of the Opera
Pendakur, Manjunath – Indian Popular Cinema
Loe, Erlend – Naive. Super
Manegat, Julio – Spanish Show
Mercer, Jeremy – Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs. The Left Bank World of Shakespeare & Co.
Murakami, Haruki – Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Murakami, Haruki – A Wild Sheep Chase
Nemirovsky, Irene – Suite Française
Nicholls, David – One Day
Parsons, Tony – Starting Over
Paxman, Jeremy – The English
Plath, Sylvia – The Bell Jar
Richardson, Nigel – Dog Days in Soho
Robb, Graham – The Discovery of France
Robinson, Jane – Bluestockings. The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education
Rutherfurd, Edward – New York
Sagan, Françoise – Hello Sadness
Sartre, Jean-Paul – The Age of Reason 
Shakespeare, William – The Merchant of Venice
Smith, Betty – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie – On Beauty
Spencer, Amy – DIY. The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture
Spoto, Donald – Spellbound by Beauty. Alfred Hitchcock and his Leading Ladies
Tearne, Roma – Brixton Beach
Torrente Ballester, Gonzalo – El Señor Llega
Torrente Ballester, Gonzalo – Donde Da la Vuelta el Aire
Torrente Ballester, Gonzalo – La Pascua Triste
Townsend, Sue – The Queen and I

Turner, Graeme – British Cultural Studies. An Introduction
Vonnegut, Kurt – Slaughterhouse Five
Waters, Sarah – Fingersmith
Waters, Sarah – Tipping the Velvet
Williams, Tennessee – A Streetcar Named Desire
Wolpert, Lewis – Malignant Sadness. The Anatomy of Depression
Woodruff, William – Shadows of Glory
Wurtzel, Elizabeth – Prozac Nation
So these are the books I finished in 2010. There are others I started and left because I couldn’t handle them, like Kafka’s castle, and others that I’m still reading, like Portrait of a Lady. Then there are the books that I’ve been reading for years, like Sylvia Plath’s diaries. I read half a book in German and half a book in Italian, which I consider to be a massive achievement.
I read Sartre in Paris, Kafka in Prague and The Merchant of Venice in Venice. Yes, I am that pretentious.
The list contains pieces of crap and amazing works. Things that I had meant to read for years and airport impulse buys. I wonder what a psychologist would say about my reading patterns. I don’t want to review each book, so the ones I particularly enjoyed & recommend are marked in grey.

 

Amazing Bookshops Around the World: Books of Wonder (New York)

 

Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs

 

I read this book in a rather compulsive manner. I’m all up for quitting everything, selling my possessions and moving to Paris to live it rough and get inspired. I really am. I probably won’t do it, mainly because I would find it too hard to part with my record collection, but that’s what Jeremy Mercer did. And he wrote a book about it.
After getting into a bit of trouble with his job, Mercer left Canada and moved to Paris as an excuse to learn the language. After some time there, seeing how his money was dangerously close to disappearing, he happened to visit Shakespeare & Co. A few days later he moved in.
It’s really interesting to get an insight in the daily routine of the bookshop; how work is organised, what the owner is like, how they get by in such an expensive city with little money. Mix that with the history of such a fascinating place (despite this not being the original Shakespeare & Co.), the romantic idea of the poor writer in the city of lights and a story of personal development and finding yourself in unexpected places. What you get is some sort of “Down and Out in Paris and London” minus the London part made for book lovers. I loved it.

 

New York, New York

I was a teenager when I first came across Richard Rutherfurd. I had visited London two years before and felt in love with the city straight away, deciding that one day I would live there, so I was obviously thrilled to have found a novel about the its history. And not any novel, but a massive one. My mum and I spent a short holiday by the coast fighting over whose turn it was to read it and it instantly reached a high place on my top reads
So when, while struggling to find a third book to buy on a Waterstone’s 3×2 deal, I came across an equally massive volume titled New York with a familiar name on the cover, I was more than happy to take it home with me and start reading it straight away. I don’t know if it’s because I’m now a decade older or because New York doesn’t fascinate me in the same way London does, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. But don’t let my over-critical side put you off. New York is a highly entertaining and informative read. It is the sort of book that you wish could be longer. Engaging from the first chapter, it mixes fictional characters with an accurate historical background to illustrate the changes that the great apple has undergone throughout the centuries; from the days of New Amsterdam to 9/11.
Something I love about both books is how they centre around a number of families and their descendants, allowing us to see their evolution along with the city’s. I’ve always wished I had an interesting genealogical background, but as far as I know the 6 generations before me come from the same area of Spain, so reading about people who flee their country and end up having descendants who are Dutch, Native American, English and Irish, all rolled up into one satisfies this frustrated side of me. There are some parts of the book that didn’t convince me, though. The main one being the fact that I enjoyed reading about the lives of the less fortunate than of the rich, and the main family, the Masters, are wealthy Merchants and bankers. I wish more attention had been given to secondary characters. This is still the perfect holiday reading; at 1,000 pages, it is thick enough to last a while (even if I was done with it in 2 days), entertaining enough to disconnect and fact-packed enough to give you the illusion that your precious time has not been wasted.