Category: Books
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Capital in the 21st Century, according to Thomas Piketty
I was surprised I couldn’t find Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century when I searched the Singapore National Library catalogue online. An Amazon bestseller, it is the most talked-about economics book today. Piketty, a French economist, writes about the growing inequality between the rich and the poor. Inequality is…
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Wordsworth’s finest
Which is Wordsworth’s finest poem? How can one even ask such a question? He has written so many memorable poems, it seems impossible to single out any one as the very best. Yet the question has been on my mind these past two days since the birthday of Wordsworth (April…
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John Updike: Middle-aged love in Rabbit Redux
Today is the birthday of one of my favourite writers, John Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009). Like PG Wodehouse, he is irreplaceable. No one can take his place. Lawrence Durrell and Jan Morris are the only writers I know with prose as lush and sensuous as his.…
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Updike: Music from Rabbit at Rest
Today is the birthday of one of my favourite writers, John Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009). Few have written so sensuously of love and sex – or anything else under the sun. Here is Updike writing about one of my greatest loves – pop music from the…
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Jan Morris: Both sides now
“It is not usually given to a man that after nearly a quarter of a century of marriage he should end up as sister-in-law to his own wife and aunt to his own children.” Thus begins a profile of one of my favourite writers: Jan Morris, formerly James Morris. The…
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On the Road, on Kerouac’s birthday
Today Is the birthday of Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), whom I started reading again last night. I hit On the Road again, which is a joy to read. Especially the early chapters, where the narrator Sal Paradise meets Dean Moriarty and embarks on his travels,…
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Fowler’s English
Today is the birthday of Henry Watson Fowler (March 10, 1858 – December 26, 1933). Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style may be the most popular English writing style guide in America, but when it comes to British English, Fowler’s A Dictionary of Modern English Usage remains the favourite.…
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Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland: The lowdown on Bengal
I just finished reading The Lowland in Kolkata, where I visited some of the places mentioned by the author, Jhumpa Lahiri. Recently I attended two weddings at the Tolly Club, which is described in the novel. Kolkata, formerly called Calcutta, features prominently in some recent novels such as Paul Theroux’s…
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Typewriter poems
Pressrun.net has a new look today. The typeface is different. It reminds me of typewriters. I love smartphones, tablets, laptops, but typewriters were my first love. Not smooth, electric typewriters but the manual variety. Such as the one George Orwell is working on in this photo. With a cigarette in…
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Raymond Chandler: I live for syntax
I love Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse. Both attended Dulwich College in London. Both are great writers. Like Wodehouse, Chandler is famous for his similes. I mentioned in my previous post how the writer Michael Connelly loves chapter 13 of Chandler’s 1949 novel, The Little Sister. Here is a passage…
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