Category Archives: Literature

Wonderful fanmail

Posted on October 2, 2008 by acb

I think this is the best response I could possibly have had to the Worm book: Hi Andrew We read of your book in the FT about Sweden being great Swedophiles – it was a great book capturing lots of … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Science without worms | 4 Comments

Good Rowan

Posted on September 17, 2008 by acb

I have finished my review, and am sitting on it for a night to decide whether it could not be softened or improved; in any case, here is a passage where Rowan is actually doing what he sets out to … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Journalism, Literature | Comments Off on Good Rowan

Rowan on God (I think)

Posted on September 12, 2008 by acb

what I understand him to be saying is this: (I have blockquoted it, for as much clarity as possible, but the paraphrase is mine. Subsequent quotes are his.) God is neither a fact amongst other facts, nor an explanation of … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature | 3 Comments

Reading and sleeping

Posted on September 11, 2008 by acb

I have made it almost to the end of the Dostoevsky book by getting up early and allowing myself to fall asleep while I read it, waking refreshed for another ten pages or so. Is this a sign of a … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Journalism, Literature | Comments Off on Reading and sleeping

Longer Rowan Williams

Posted on September 9, 2008 by acb

(run through a scanner, darkly: particularly horribly phrases highlighted. Page references lost in translation. ) Dialogue goes on because of a trust that recognition will be possible. And acknowledging that misrecognition happens is part of the fuel of continuing the … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature | 3 Comments

Spectator Review

Posted on August 30, 2008 by acb

An amusing review in this week’s Spectator, with one quote that’s going straight onto the paperback cover: “as perceptive as Bill Bryson—and, often, just as funny” I will make a page of reviews tomorrow.

Posted in Journalism, Literature, Sweden | 3 Comments

Freud vs God: round 1

Posted on August 22, 2008 by acb

I have been reading Freud, for the first time in decades: Civilisation and its Discontents, which I have in a nice Dover paperback. Some of it is thought-provoking, and some is self-parody: “Psychoanalysis unfortunately has hardly anything to say about … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature | Comments Off on Freud vs God: round 1

Back: fantastic reviews

Posted on August 7, 2008 by acb

I was watching the girls’ under 50kg arm-wrestling competition when my daughter texted me with the news of the Paxman review in the Guardian. A beguiling account of one man’s absorption in and by a country. … He writes a … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Sweden | 2 Comments

FT review of Fishing in Utopia

Posted on July 14, 2008 by acb

Another gratifying review, from the Financial Times, where Hugh Carnegy, the executive editor, likes Fishing in Utopia,a lot, though he thinks, god knows why, that I am “a melancholy soul”. It is the window on Sweden that gives this book … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Literature, Science without worms, Sweden, Travel notes | 3 Comments

Another really good review

Posted on July 6, 2008 by acb

John Carey reviews Fishing in Utopia,in the Sunday Times: thoughtful and illuminating, with a kindly quote towards the end: Fishing in Utopia is a lament for a lost Eden. But it is more than that. Essentially it is a story … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Literature, Sweden | 5 Comments