What I’m reading

Robert McCrum lists “Fifty things I’ve learned about the literary life”. It’s good. Three sample entries:

20. Literary fiction is like sci-fi. It’s a genre.

23. Two writers, alone in a room, will talk about royalties not art.

47. Any new book longer than 500 pages is a stupefying act of self-importance.

Poegles are a new concept to me, a mash-up of Google search results on a specific term as as a poem:

Whatever you think of Google as a tool, constructing a poegle re-imagines the search engine as a digital Ouija board, offering chance, surprises, and maybe even a little mysticism.

This grass sledge is the perfect present for a child whose parents have too much money. When I was a kid sliding down Mount Maunganui, cardboard worked. This costs £349. Luxury!

The English poet Christopher Logue died recently. He is most famous for his rendering of Homer’s Iliad which he did despite knowing no Greek. Interesting choice for a pacifist. He was a frequent contributor to Private Eye, too. Here is his poem “London Airport”:

 Last night in London Airport

 I saw a wooden bin

 labelled UNWANTED LITERATURE

 IS TO BE PLACED HEREIN.

 So I wrote a poem

 and popped it in.

More pasta people here.

Happy Hanukkah!

Monitors: Helen Heath, Phil Parker, David Thompson.