Many apologies for the air silence around here of late – things have been sort of hectic. But I haven’t been entirely neglecting the blog as you can see if you have a look at my new menu bar (courtesy of Mister Litlove, thank you). I now have some of my academic writing and more general writing accessible from here, and this is part of an ongoing project to make this blog to some extent a proper website for me. There are an awful lot more academic pieces I could upload here, or in the case of my old lectures which exist only as one paper copy, type out again. And yes, I know there are such things as scanners, but believe you me, I type a great deal faster than I learn how to use technology… I will be adding to both academic and general pages gradually over the coming weeks.
So in the unlikely event that you are missing my writing, there is now far more here than you would probably ever want to read! But it’s nice for me to start getting it collected in one place.
Hopefully things will return a bit more to normal this week and I’ll be around more. What’s everyone been reading lately – anything really good?
Tales from the Reading Room 
Very nice!
🙂 Thank you!
It all looks very smart and professional. Well done Mr L (and you for writing it all).
Thank you, Harriet! So happy you like it!
I do like the new format, Litlove, and I’m looking forward to dipping into your other writing when time permits.
I’ve too many books on the go at the minute – ‘North and South’ by Gaskell, Jeanette Winterson’s new novella and a novel by screenwriter Nora Ephron. Definitely a case of too many books, and too little time!
I feel exactly the same way as you at the moment – too much to read and yet masses going on to distract me at present! Will be interested to hear what you think of the Winterson. And thank you for checking out the new pages!
I would tell you what I’ve been reading but as the last week is something of a blank I can’t remember:). I hope I’m not insulting anything that’s supposed to be memorable.
I imagine you’d remember! But I’m so sorry you’ve had a taxing week. I’m hoping you’re deep in some wonderful books now, with much more peace of mind.
Getting organized to one’s liking is a wonderful thing. I find your blog beautifully easy to navigate already, but I look forward to reading more of your ‘papers’. I also look forward to your thoughts on Gone Girl! We’ll have to compare notes.
Oh thank you! I tend to like simpler blogs myself (mostly because I am an idiot when it comes to new technology!). And yes, really looking forward to reading Gone Girl and discussing it with you.
Reading? What’s that? I think I’ve only read a couple of books in the last six weeks. That must be a record low for me. But I have been buying them at the usual rate and came back from a long holiday with five carrier bags full. Mostly second-hand from charity shops but I also allowed myself a quick browse eround a new bookshop and came across ‘Forgotten Bookmarks’ by Michael Popek which I’m hoping to start tonight.
I am salivating at the thought of five carrier bags full of books! Sounds wonderful. Have you begun the Popek? Any good? I hope you’ve discovered all sorts of treasures on your travels.
Great menu bar. I will definitely look into the diff. categories of writing, yes, esp. that piece of academic writing on French film and… This is getting better and better, litlove. 😉
Aw bless you, Arti! You are very kind indeed. 🙂
It looks great and I am eager to read about Sylvie Germain and also your introduction to twentieth-century French literature.
I’ve been reading poetry! Rilke and Christina Rossetti and Edward Lear and some seventeenth-century nonsense poets who required a bit more attention than I was willing to give them at that (tired) moment. Also Francine Prose’s Lives of the Muses, which isn’t quite what I expected it to be.
Sylvie Germain is wonderful, I love her! Do you like magical realism? I can’t remember now, but if you do, you’d definitely find her interesting. And yay! for the poetry. I’d like to read Christina Rossetti myself, now you mention her. I’ve also read that Francine Prose book and am now longing to know what you think of it! Do tell, won’t you?
I like the way you have organized your writing and included helpful intros to each of the pieces. It looks great!
Oh thank you, that’s so kind! Particularly with the academic pieces, I really felt I could not let poor readers wander in blind! 🙂
I love the new look! I can understand how great it must feel to have everything neat and tidy under one roof (I’m not really tidy when it comes to writing). Recently I started Siri Hustvedt’s A Summer without Men and it makes me laugh quite a lot! I suspect you might like it.
It’s scary how much I could still upload – I was prolific in the university years…. You certainly know my tastes well, I own the Siri Hustvedt and am looking forward very much to reading it. Looking forward also to your review!
I’m loking forward to read some of your academic writing. I’ll certainly read the piece on Colette.
That’s really nice of you, and I’d love to know what you think of the Colette piece. I find biography quite hard and am keen to improve. So any thoughts would be very welcome.
Thanks for exposing your academic identity with your blogging friends. I begin to see why your words resonate so strongly with me.
MD, bless you. I’ve been wanting to drop you a proper line but life seems to have gone crazy lately and I’m snatching every spare minute to rest. But I will write to you – thank you so much for this comment and the one on the Assia Djebar.
Thank you for including the links to some of your other work. It is nice to have a place to “store” and share it all!