It's been forever and a day since I did anything even approaching a normal update. That is, not including a quote from somewhere or other, or vaguely mentioning something that's not really relevant beyond noting it for posterity.

So. What have I been up to?

( Blah blah essays blah )

Here follows my favourite reads of 2008. In no particular order:

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst.
Trash by Dorothy Allison.
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.
Atonement and Enduring Love by Ian McEwan.
Regeneration by Pat Barker.

I got back from the US almost two weeks ago and it was great fun. Edinburgh was also busy and enjoyable. For some reason it cost me less than last year, which was a very welcome surprise. It was very rainy as has been the rest of the UK this summer. Florida was very humid, which actually was quite handy for preventing my contact lenses from drying ( Read more... )

I'm embarking upon a five hour train journey up to Edinburgh tomorrow, and I am still bereft of my mp3 player due to My First Mugging (tm). Last year I spent most of the journey unconscious, aside from talking to the middle aged man sharing a table with me in the breakfast car about my A-level results for the best part of an hour. Heavy celebratory ( Read more... )

Since getting home to London I've been having a mixed time. The first week was marked by my restlessness and struggle to adjust back into family living. I locked myself away for most of the week, sustained by episodes of House and lots of books. This week I've been out and about a lot more; a gig, picnics in the sunshine, cocktails by the river, ( Read more... )

"Owen sat down, got out the letter of introduction, but didn't immediately open it. The ticking of the clock was very loud in the empty room. He lay back in the chair and closed his eyes. He was afraid to measure his sense of loss."

--Regeneration, by Pat Barker.

"Someday you'll be gone, you'll be dust, and then even less than dust. Nothing. There's no other place to be. This world is good enough for you because it has to be. Go ahead and love it."

From 'A Complicated Kindness' by Miriam Toews.

I'm back off to university tomorrow, after exactly a month back at home in London. I've had a frantically busy Easter that has involved travelling to such exotic locations as Ireland, Nottingham and Hemel Hempstead. As always, I failed to meet-up with everyone I intended to, both through my fault and their own, but there shall be time enough in the ( Read more... )

I am in Ireland once again. I remain convinced that it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It's good to see all my family again. I'm returning to London tomorrow evening ( Read more... )

Always something more pressing and urgent to be attended to rather than an LJ update. I apologise. These past two weeks have seen lectures and seminars suspended to make way for exams and revision. For some reason the School of English spoiled us and declined from setting us any exams whatsoever. On the other hand, there was a somewhat horrific ( Read more... )