Funfare for the Common Man

Notes from my notebook, circa early 21st century Thoughts pop into your head at the most unlikely times: in the middle of the night (not so unlikely, actually), while working out, in the shower, on the toilet, walking down the road, playing with your child, right after your cat has settled in comfortably on your lap and your notebook is out of reach. Whatever the time, no matter, you’re all-too-often not in a position to get your thoughts down somewhere. And then when it comes time to sitting and writing… …your mind goes blank. The thoughts get lost. From an otherwise unremarkable article, this opening sentence: ‘A bleak fact of writing is that honing sentences is often far easier than honing the thoughts they convey. A corollary fact is that polished, elegant prose serves as a useful, if not always intentional, hiding place for half-baked ideas.’ (The Literature of the Pandemic Is Already Here, The Atlantic ) The more I write, the more I want to write, the mor...

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 ...