Welcome to this week’s blog, and our roundup of your comments and photos from last week.

Let’s start with a charming image from Ongley:

On my flight back from Milan while I was retrieving my hand luggage from the overhead locker, I spotted a girl in her 20s who was adjusting a typewriter in her rucksack. I don’t know how her bag didn’t exceed weight limits, but I wanted to hug her!

And another from ruskiny, quoting Dorothy Wordsworth’s diary from 27 March 1802, a Saturday:

A divine morning. At breakfast William wrote part of an ode. Mr Olliff sent the dung and Wm. went to work in the garden. We sate all day in the orchard.

Okay, back to the future. bluefairy recommends The Circle by Dave Eggers:

This was a very interesting book which was about a company (The Circle) which was written as a Facebook, Google, Apple hybrid with a strap line of “SECRETS ARE LIES, SHARING IS CARING, PRIVACY IS THEFT”. This company has basically taken over the world and controls a lot of people’s interactions. The Circle as a company started with the idea that if you wanted to comment online you had to register for something called ‘TruYou’, which verified you were a real person (through social security numbers, credit cards) and overnight the nastiness on the internet disappears... The story follows Mae Holland who is offered a dream job with The Circle and the book gets very disturbing with the direction that the ‘social media’ takes... Some of the best parts of the book are little monologues from her ex-boyfriend who makes the observation that social media has brought about a needy paranoia and how people don’t interact with each other any more they interact through a screen... The worrying thing for me though was how a lot of the totalitarian moves made by this company could be justified for one reason or another and the main character convincing herself it was for the greater good.

Talking of the future, thesecretorganist has been reading Julian Barnes thoughts on ultimate destiny in Nothing To Be Frightened Of:

Barnes does a great line in mordant humour, but here he surpasses himself. Every few pages I would have to put the book down as I was laughing uncontrollably. That being said, I also found this book profoundly terrifying, despite what its title may imply. Barnes faces death in the most unflinchingly honest and intelligent way possible. He has an ability to articulate his thoughts in ways that make you completely rethink your previous assumptions, as all the best writers surely do. The certainties of the more arrogant breeds of both religion and atheism come in for quite a pasting here. I think this review by Nicholas Lezard sums it up best.

I ended this book feeling utterly depressed and completely euphoric – in fact I think I may need a lie down.

Elsewhere, a blast from the past for conedison:

A long time ago now, my father read every book written (for and against) about his hero, Harry Truman. A couple of generations removed, I read every book written (for and against) about the hero of my youth, Robert Kennedy. I voted for poor George McGovern in 1972 and have since done my level best to keep my distance from politics both as a voter and as a reader. However, there’s a new biography about Richard Nixon out - by John Farrell - that intrigues me. From my childhood on, Nixon’s name was synonymous with the Devil in my house. My dad hated Nixon from the first time he ran for Congress. Tricky Dicky’s transgressions were scattered like grenades with the pins pulled all over my young life. I think I’m going to have to read this book.

Finally, it seems apt to end on a debut novel and lljones’ thoughts on Idra Novey and her first book, Ways To Disappear:

I finished Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey last night. Novey is a poet and translator, and this is her first novel. It tells the story of Emma, an American translator who heads to Brazil when one of her authors goes missing.

Part love story, part mystery/suspense, with a dash of magical realism thrown in, this book is fast-paced, witty and intriguing. Novey mixes up a feijoada of clever sentence structure, word play, meditations on translation, stark imagery, and some beautifully lyrical prose. It’s not a perfect novel, but it’s a commendably good debut.

Sounds like a promise for the future.

Interesting links about books and reading

• Watercolours by Henry Miller.
• Roxane Gay, Aspen Matis and more on assault in the literary world.
• Enjoy some Raymond Chandler covers.
• Why writers should forgive themselves for not writing so many emails.

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