Brutalism is a style of architecture you either love or hate. It either symbolizes the collapse of ornament and detail, or the rise of a simple, plain aesthetic. To some, it is evidence of architects losing their way, and to…
I want to talk about the number of cats on book covers, and in particular, the number of cats on book covers by Japanese authors in Western bookshops. It’s gotten to the point where every time I walk into a…
I’ve been thinking a lot about authorial voice and style lately, the thing that makes each person’s writing unique. Growing up, I was a voracious reader, in part because my parents had a rule that we could only stay up…
Many articles are now discussing the decline in reading among the younger generation. Half of adults in the UK rarely pick up a book for pleasure. Reading is in decline in the US even in literature programs. Talking to professors…
The husband’s favourite section of the Tao Te Ching is about the space between things. A bowl is only useful because of the space within it, same with a doorway, or an open path. Sometimes he thinks that the space…
When my granddad died many years ago, I spent a long time thinking about the world he grew up in. A place where nature was abundant, where humans hadn’t caused so much damage yet, where insects flourished and where physical…
Hi all, My new novel Eloquent Graffiti is coming out this month, and is only a dollar in the first few weeks! Here’s the blurb: When Calloway arrives in Berlin, he’s hoping for a fresh start. A talented but guarded…
In 2023, Byung-Chul Han published Absence, a book that challenged the foundations of Western philosophy. He argues that while the West is obsessed with essence and being, Far Eastern thought is about absence and nothingness. In its pursuit of being…
Nostalgic comments about the early internet often praise its random, chaotic aesthetic [...]
What makes art truly great? What gives it the power to move us, to linger in our minds long after we’ve seen it? There’s something universal in the way we respond to beauty, to grand vistas, and mystery. Something that…