After my note earlier this week about Text Publishing re-issuing a number of Australian classics, I came across news of one person's attempt to rekindle interest in Joseph Furphy's classic Such is Life by making a short film of an excerpt of the book. Might work if it wins a short film contest but I can only see it getting lost on YouTube somewhere. I applaud the thought however.
There's a mildly amusing joke somewhere about a young Irish literature student starting work on a construction site and being asked if he knew the difference between a girder and a joist. I don't think J. M. Coetzee had that in mind when he wrote this piece about the young Goethe for The New York Review of Books.
Penguin Books in Australia has started to release a series of short literary works called, reasonably enough, Penguin Shorts. They follow the same format and coloring as their re-issued classics but have been released as ebooks, and James Bradley has details of his novellette, Beauty's Sister, which is part of the series.
Clive James has been in the news for a number reasons lately - his on-going ill-health and some extra-curricular activities being among them - but this essay from an issue of Poetry magazine returns him to his literary youth when he encountered William Empson, one of his poetry heroes. I don't have that luxury as all mine are dead.
Commentary magazine has released its list of books for summer reading - Northern hemisphere of course. They've included Peter Carey's novel The Chemistry of Tears and describe the author as a "perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize," and Kate Grenville's novel Sarah Thornhill.
There's a mildly amusing joke somewhere about a young Irish literature student starting work on a construction site and being asked if he knew the difference between a girder and a joist. I don't think J. M. Coetzee had that in mind when he wrote this piece about the young Goethe for The New York Review of Books.
Penguin Books in Australia has started to release a series of short literary works called, reasonably enough, Penguin Shorts. They follow the same format and coloring as their re-issued classics but have been released as ebooks, and James Bradley has details of his novellette, Beauty's Sister, which is part of the series.
Clive James has been in the news for a number reasons lately - his on-going ill-health and some extra-curricular activities being among them - but this essay from an issue of Poetry magazine returns him to his literary youth when he encountered William Empson, one of his poetry heroes. I don't have that luxury as all mine are dead.
Commentary magazine has released its list of books for summer reading - Northern hemisphere of course. They've included Peter Carey's novel The Chemistry of Tears and describe the author as a "perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize," and Kate Grenville's novel Sarah Thornhill.
