Today I received the latest catalogue from Peter Riley Books, a mail order seller of poetry books, new and second-hand. He is based in Cambridge, England. I’ve been getting his catalogue for a couple of years or more now. He has an incredibly diverse choice of poetry from a wide range of presses. It’s a … Read more
“Leonardo da Vinci” by Sigmund Freud was a book which I bought at the local library in a sale. Every few months they clear books and sell them on at ridiculouly low prices. Amongst the stack of trashy novels and last year’s annual books there are usually some real treats. It took me a while … Read more
According to John Kao in his book “Jamming: the art and discipline of business creativity” Jimmy Carter used the word malaise to describe the state of Americans post-Watergate and Vietnam. In Kao’s view this use of language backfired, because vague psychological language does not get to the mind-set of Americans. Well, being British I guess … Read more
Margaret J Wheatley I’m reading “Leadership and the New Science” by Margaret Wheatley at the moment. It’s a fascinating read, taking in the breadth of new sciences from quantum physics to chaos theory. I like the way she begins and ends each chapter with a vivid image, and piece of descriptive writing. I’ve given a … Read more
Books arrived from Peter Riley this morning. They included a copy of ‘M: writings 67-72’ by John Cage. I’m really excited about getting this book. I’ve been trying to get hold of some written material by Cage for a while now (maybe 2 years!) and have had no success until now. I’m particularly keen to … Read more
Last night I did some more work on the booklet ‘edge of water’. Then I sat around for half an hour, listening to the ‘panthalassa’ remix album, whilst reading poetry. I browsed through ‘The Book of Demons & Pearl’ by Barry MacSweeney. This is powerful, ranting poetry with vivid use of imagery. One to spend … Read more
Yesterday I received a copy of ‘Finality’. This beautifully produced book of poems by Douglas Clark contains some marvellous poems. I haven’t had time to look at it in depth yet, but it includes ‘Snapshots’ which Douglas posted to the Poetry etc mailing list a while ago. I thought this was a wonderful poem, a … Read more
Having returned recently from a holiday in France, I find myself struggling to make good use of time. If I was as wasteful with other areas of my life, it would be a criminal offence! Last weekend I went on a spending spree, and bought some of the Led Zeppelin back-catalogue which is missing from … Read more
I promised a review of ‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s a magnificent book – one of those books that you find yourself quoting bits from to people through the course of the day. It describes the phenomenon whereby things can grow from nothing to a craze in an unbelievably short space of time. … Read more
I am relaxing, listening to an album of chants called ‘Om Sai Ram’ which creates a gentle state of tranquility. This is interrupted only by the occasional click of computer keypad, and the sighing of the cat. Sometimes peace is the right state of mind. I have nearly finished reading ‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm … Read more