Funfare for the Common Man

I’m back to wrap up my 2019 reading project. For a brief reminder about this year’s reading theme, you can go back and revisit part 1 here .  There was a sort of plan to branch out and cover a wide range of geography and themes in my reading, but I don’t know how successful it turned out. I barely ventured pre-1950 and geographically I ended up limiting myself to North America, Europe and Africa,  a smidgeon of Australia thrown in unexpectedly. It was Gary Younge’s article which originally inspired me to look at African writers, and his recommendations were all absolutely superb (I’ve been meaning to send him an email to thank him for the inspiration). But I only attempted one book from the Middle East – unsuccessfully – and otherwise skipped out entirely on South America and Asia. Shame on me. I kept my eyes and ears open for a broader range of diverse voices, but circumstances, opportunity and want kept me focused elsewhere. As an avid reader, I just love ...

This is not a euphemism. (Unfortunately? For those thirsting after some of my adventures of yesteryear, anyway, perhaps. If it’s something saucy you desire, then delve back into this episode from Uzbekistan in 2009 ; if you’re after something rather more literary and staid by comparison, then please do stick around.) It’s been a while, but some loyal readers may recall my series of ‘reflections on reading’ from last year. As referenced in my last post, I think I’ve moved on from that series, in an official way, but old habits die hard and I feel compelled to share my latest reading project.  I love themed reading phases. What I mean is, as much as I adore reading, it’s always nice to break up the usual routine and take on a theme to my reading, and to get outside my comfort zone and do something different. I’ve often asked myself, ‘what should I read next?’ and there are two schools to questions like this. There are the – arrogant/snob alert! – the non-readers w...

‘A Pang is more conspicuous in Spring. In contrast with the things that sing.’ (Emily Dickinson) If you’re one of my loyal, devoted readers who has been with us since the beginning, then you’ll know how much I love a good rant . If you’ve only read me a little, then be warned: I really love a good rant. Typically, most of my grumbling falls into one of these categories: * people and the idiotic things they do: I’m a misanthrope * technology and what a pain in the ass it is: I’m a Luddite * bad customer service and being wronged in restaurants: I love boycotting places (a recurring theme in these pages: I hold grudges) I don’t have statistics for this and I don’t even think there’s a way of checking, but if I were to do a text analysis of all my posts over the years, one of the most common phrases would have to be ‘one of my biggest pet hates/pet peeves/bugbears is…’ followed by a threat to one day put together an entire post comprising all of my pet hates. The p...

It just hit me the other day – I’m a sucker for waxing nostalgic and maudlin reminiscing – when I was trying to remember the last time I wrote a post (nearly 5 months ago), it dawned on me that the 10 year anniversary of me starting my blogging ‘career’ ( editor’s note : we can’t come up with a better word) was fast approaching. It was actually 4 February 2009 that the Layman’s Guide to International Relations was launched , to minor fanfare, and it ran for some 2 years before being reincarnated right here as Funfare for the Common Man. ( editor’s update : this was post was mainly written late January 2019 – it’s now no longer ‘fast approaching’ but has instead come and gone.) It’s about quality over quantity, however. Those 2 years were pretty fun and epic, at least for me. (I’ve mentioned this before – why the blog name change? Why the switch to a new title and format? It’s all there in the archive, but I will only say this – my original choice of title, The Thoughtful ...