I was told that Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be (2010) was a bit like Chris Kraus’s 1997 book I Love Dick. This isn’t an inappropriate comparison. Both books are about defining one’s sense of self through one’s relationship to others. Kraus uses a semi-fictionalised account of her relationship with the hot shot cultural… Continue reading Sheila Heti’s ‘How Should a Person Be’
Tag: Book Reviews
Rosemary Sutcliff’s ‘Sword at Sunset’
For Christmas, I got a shoeshine kit and Rosemary Sutcliff’s sprawling rendition of the King Arthur’s myth, Sword at Sunset (1963). The latter is unique in that Sutcliff takes out Camelot and the Round Table, and presents Arthur as a stress riddled, impotent king trying to rally argumentative Celts and fend of Saxon barbarians. The… Continue reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s ‘Sword at Sunset’
By Bread Alone by Ernie Old
I had a wonderful time at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival last week with Emma Ayres, Tom Doig and Greg Foyster, notably all long distance touring aficionados. Coincidentally, so is the MWF’s director, Lisa Dempster, who rode across the Nullarbor on her Surly. Whilst I’ve done long rides, I’ve never done so without ending back at… Continue reading By Bread Alone by Ernie Old
A Quick Note on ‘Moron to Moron’.
I’ll be in Melbourne next week for the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, where I’m sitting on a panel on cycling at Footscray Community Arts Centre, along with Greg Foyster, Emma Ayres and Tom Doig. We’ll be riding from the Henry Turner Memorial Reserve near Victoria University’s Footscray Park Campus (leaving about 1:30) to Footscray Community Arts… Continue reading A Quick Note on ‘Moron to Moron’.
Wonder Wheels by Eileen Sheridan
Eileen Sheridan’s Wonder Wheels is one of my favourite books on cycling, originally published in 1956 when she was thirty-two. She’d turned professional a three years earlier with sponsorship from Hercules. In that time, she’d broken all of the twenty-one records kept by the Women’s Road Records Association. She still holds five of them. Now… Continue reading Wonder Wheels by Eileen Sheridan
Personal Best by Beryl Burton
When I was in London I picked up a copy of The Independent with this article on the ‘unknown’ cycling legend Beryl Burton. Unknown is probably the wrong word. Within a particular subculture of British club cycling, Burton’s legend is on par with Eddy Merckx. The two are certainly quite comparable in that both won… Continue reading Personal Best by Beryl Burton
A Book Review: Gorgias, by Plato, Penguin Classics, 2004.
Travelling by airliner is deeply emblematic of the modern age. All that steel and heat inexplicably hurtling through the atmosphere would be unthinkable in any age other than our own. Naturally, I find it a pretty gruelling affair. For the first few hours, I’m thrilled at the idea. Then I realise I’m stuck in a… Continue reading A Book Review: Gorgias, by Plato, Penguin Classics, 2004.