“Tall ships and tall kings/Three times three./What brought they from the foundered land/Over the flowing sea?/Seven stars and seven stones and one white tree.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
- Blogging 101: Some Introductory Incoherent Mumblings. This post, written for WordPress’ Blogging 101 about a year ago, is as close to a blog manifesto as I’ve ever written. I’m still proud of this post, which is something I only say about a very few of my past creations.
- Sleeping Beauty, a Gothic Romance. This review post outlines my working theory of the Gothic, which as a genre is central to my reviewerly preoccupations. It’s not a perfect post, but it gives, I think, a fairly good idea of my project here.
- Top Ten Reasons I Love Blogging. Self-explanatory, really; this is undoubtedly one of my most personal posts.
- Top Ten Favourite Book Quotes. Several of these are things I actually say to myself in real life when I’m having a bad day. They give you an idea of what I value and what I believe.
- Days on the Disc and the end of an era. A sort-of eulogy written on the death of Sir Terry Pratchett just over a year ago. I mean, few things are more personal to a bookworm than Favourite Authors (with a capital F and a capital A).
- The Eternal Flame. I like this review. It feels like it gives a good overview of the whole book without, necessarily, compromising on my critical assessment of it; a lot of the time I feel that my reviews focus too tightly on interpretation rather than judgement. It’s a difficult balance to strike, and I’m still feeling my way to it.
- My Ten Most Obsessive Bookish Habits. To be honest, it was hard just to pick ten. I am Very Obsessive when it comes to books.
- Top Ten Characters I Relate To. Fairly obviously, knowing who I relate to should give you some idea at least of my self-image.
- Oxford Literary Festival: Philip Pullman. This one has an undertone of annoyance which gives you a clue to one of my pet peeves: genre authors pretending that they’re not writing genre. And I think this post has a flavour of me more generally.
- Ulysses. This is just me ranting about the general incoherency of James Joyce’s notorious behemoth. I actually think quite a few “classic” novels are stupid, and I tend to say so.
(The theme for this post was suggested by the Broke and the Bookish’s weekly meme Top Ten Tuesday.)
The English Student 