stuff – toby wallis

Penguin’s Great Ideas and the Eradication of the Foreword

I’m usually late to the party when it comes to exciting new things. By the time I discover the author, or hear the band, or whatever, there will already be a large body of work behind them and a fanatical group of followers will have already formed. I’m used to it now, being one stepContinue reading “Penguin’s Great Ideas and the Eradication of the Foreword”

Nanowrimo fail

This years Nanowrimo (the annual event in which writers attempt to write a novel (or 50,000 words of one) in the month of November, hence NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth) was my best attempt yet. I managed 6000 words or, to put it another way, 12%. Neither way of expressing it sounds particularly good. In binaryContinue reading “Nanowrimo fail”

The last month or so

A few weeks ago I started a post about how I was nearly finished reading Moby Dick and that, since it was one of the two things on a bucket list I had been asked to write as part of an evening course I had been taking, my life was almost complete. Then, that afternoon,Continue reading “The last month or so”

A Break From Fiction

I finished reading the third volume of 1Q84. I tried to drag it out for as long as I could but it had to happen eventually. There is a lovely quote (that I am probably going to mis-remember and I can’t even look up because I don’t remember who said it. I only just aboutContinue reading “A Break From Fiction”

Re-reading old favourites; The Virgin Suicides

I don’t tend to re-read books very often. Sometimes I dip back in and read little bits, but not the whole book. Whenever I pick an old favourite off the shelf I end up feeling like I ought to stop and read something new. As though time is so precious and finite that there isn’tContinue reading “Re-reading old favourites; The Virgin Suicides”