“I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.” This first line of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novel The Shadow of the Wind still echoes in my mind, haunting my dreams while also reminding me of my own humble beginnings; just as the protagonist’s, Daniel Sempere’s … More Shadowing Carlos Ruiz Zafón And His Own, Everlasting Shadow
It is impossible to pass through life in a university without hearing someone complain about aging. Almost every time someone announces their birthday it comes with a sigh and a disenchanted remark about the passage of time. Judging by the students’ expressions and words, you would think they had just been at a syndicated American … More The Dreaded 30
When hearing the phrase “once upon a time…” most of us already know that we are about to be told a fairytale. I don’t have any statistical facts on this, but I can say with a fair amount of confidence that most children love fairytales. Maybe it’s because of the desire that humans have … More The grimm side of fairytales
I get a variety of reactions when I tell people that the series I read throughout my childhood and early teens was one about cats. What’s so great about cats? How can you read book after book, thousands of pages about cats? What can the writer possibly still write about? I too wondered that … More Warriors: Coming of age through cats
In 2012, review aggregator website The Omnivore launched the Hatchet Job of the Year award, given to the “the writer of the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review” of the last year in Britain. The prize was a year’s worth of potted shrimp donated by The Fish Society. By now defunct, the award was only … More The Disappearance of the Hatchet Job
Jack London, who died exactly 100 years ago, was an American author mostly remembered for “dog stories”, as London himself termed them laconically. The Call of the Wild and White Fang are novels about dogs in the Canadian wilderness, bestsellers in their time that continue to be taught in schools and adapted into film and … More One Hundred Years without Jack London
I love Shakespeare and is there anything more amazing than combining his legendary poetic style with the narcissistic, pompous, and contemporary enigma that is Kanye West? Methinks not. Watch the clip here.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every article written on Pride and Prejudice starts in the same way. Being a huge fan of the book myself, I have looked forward to sharing some of my views on the story for quite a while. Perhaps contrary to expectations, this will not be an article concentrating … More The Wide-Stretched Realms of Pride and Prejudice
Room, written by the Irish author Emma Donoghue, was published in 2010. It was around that same time that I read her novel and now, 6 years later, a film adaptation of the novel has been released, directed by the Irish film director Leonard Abrahamson. Room is about Jack, a 5 year old boy, … More Room
The summer holidays are upon us. For a few weeks, you actually have time to read! Deciding which books to dedicate your precious spare time to is a big commitment. We get that. WB presents four suggestions to help you tie the knot.1) Something old – Orlando (1928)
