“For once the disease of reading has laid upon the system it weakens so that it falls an easy prey to that other scourge which dwells in the ink pot and festers in the quill. The wretch takes to writing.”-Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Tag Archives: Novels
A Christmas Carol #1: The Cover

Cover of the first edition of A Christmas Carol, 1843.
[Book Nerd Links] Another Bookish Map and Some Literary Ladies
- What Do Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, and Eudora Welty All Have in Common? [HISTORY BUFF]
- A beautiful Great American Novel map [SHORTLIST]
What Are You Reading in November?
What is on your reading list this month?
Have you given yourself permission to take it easy, as the year comes to a close?
Or, as we race the clock to 2016, are you trying to stuff as many books into your brain as possible?
I am doing the latter.
Very much the latter.
Since 1 November, I’ve finished:
- Holding on Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell
- Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes
- Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music by Neil Powell
- All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays by George Orwell
- Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell
- Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star by Stephen Michael Shearer
- Vintage Reading: From Plato to Bradbury: A Personal Tour of Some of the World’s Best Books by Robert Kanigel
- A Woman of Temperament by Lucile Duff Gordon (in progress)
To Be Read by 30 November:
- Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (the only novel on the list!)
- Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee
- Madcap May: Mistress of Myth, Men & Hope by Richard Kurin
- White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple
- The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr Eccentric Genius by Jan Greenberg & Sandra Jordan
- Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker by Patrick McGilligan
And, if I finish all of these…I have Michel de Montaigne’s essays waiting in the wings.
What is your favourite book this month?
Which book on your list are you most looking forward to reading?
Please share with me in the comments!
Happy reading.
Quote
“Don’t you ever mind,” she asked suddenly, “not being rich enough to buy all the books you want?”-Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth
Daily Diversion #284: The Moon and Sixpence

The Moon and Sixpence
The Splendiferously Bearded Writers Social Club: Wilkie Collins
- Name: Wilkie Collins
- D/O/B: 8 January 1824
- Member Since: 1871
- Status: Charter Member
- Important Role: Director and star of the club’s amateur theatricals
- Hobbies: Socializing with Charles Dickens; acting; painting

Wilkie Collins by Frederick Waddy, 1872.
Upton Sinclair: 20 September 1878
Pulitzer Prize winning author Upton Sinclair was born on 20 September 1878. As many of you know, I love this photo of him as a young man:

Upton Sinclair
You can download a copy of his most important work, The Jungle, at Project Gutenberg.

Cover of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, 1906.
Three Chapters: Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie as a Child

Agatha Christie, 1925

Agatha Christie, 1970s
Agatha Christie: 15 September 1890-12 January 1976
Nero Wolfe in Too Many Cooks
Two Nero Wolfe illustrations from the March 1938 issue of The American Magazine. The artwork, from top to bottom, is by: Vladimir Bobri and Rico Tomaso.

Too Many Cooks

Nero Wolfe in Too Many Cooks, March 1938