It is always a fascinating experience when personal interests collide. Fortunately, my two principal passions - literature and human rights - are constantly intersecting. This said, with the majority of my day typically given over to human rights-based research, I do tend to steer clear of giving my personal reading time over to the subject. … Continue reading Review: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
For those of you following The Book Habit on Facebook, you may recall that a couple of weeks ago I put out a call for Cormac McCarthy recommendations. His is a name that I have come across consistently for a number of years now, leaving me with a mental note-to-self that this was an author for … Continue reading Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
This review begins with a confession. After committing to working my way through my most recent book acquisitions before making further purchases, I caved. One bookshop trip later, a number of ongoing reads have been cast aside, usurped by new books of demanding presence. This is, I think, both the peril and pleasure of the … Continue reading Review: A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé
Hi pals! Over the past couple of weeks, I have received a number of emails asking for summer reading recommendations. Optimistic for those of us in the UK perhaps (and particularly inappropriate given that it has rained all day), but these emails did get me thinking. As you may have noticed from my reviews, I … Continue reading My Summer Reading Recommendations: Challenge Accepted
Charles Dickens and I have only become recently acquainted. Having avoided him like the plague for a number of years, I finally gave in two summers ago - largely the result of his connections with Knebworth House and my inability to talk with any kind of authority about his life and work. A close friend … Continue reading Review: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Refer back to this week's What I'm Reading Wednesday post and you will remember my simultaneous feelings of fear and excitement at the prospect of this review. I have little reluctance in stating that Strange Bodies is one of the most astonishing books of its literary generation - a fact that, when combined with its multiplicity … Continue reading Review: Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux
For the perceptive among you, I am sure you have noticed a slight discrepancy between my What I'm Reading Wednesday lists, and the latest batch of reviews. Much of this has to do with my exam-induced reduction of 'reading for happiness' hours, making two reviews of new-to-me reads per week super ambitious. However, it was … Continue reading Review: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
" 'This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, … Continue reading Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
This is a difficult review to write. Diving into Suite Francaise with tremendous anticipation last week, mostly due to my love of fiction set during the events of the First and Second World Wars, I did not give much thought to the resulting review. Ordinarily, I will find myself jotting down the odd note as I … Continue reading Review: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Hello and happy Sunday to you lovely people! This post is coming to you in anticipation of World Book Night on 23rd April. I'll be writing more about the event itself on Tuesday but, after seeing that one of my favourite reads - The Eyre Affair - was on the World Book Night list, it seemed … Continue reading Review: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
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