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Continue reading →: Book Review: An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington by Karl Pilkington
An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington by Karl Pilkington My rating: 1 of 5 stars Easily in the bottom five books I’ve ever read. This is a truly appalling book, not just because of the sentiments uttered within but because of the more dangerous aspect that so…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Part of the current A level English Literature syllabus, this classic novel from Farrell is part of his triptych of books looking at, and criticising, the British Empire. This one is based loosely on the real events…
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Continue reading →: Book Reivew: Life is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera
Life is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera My rating: 2 of 5 stars This is the third – and definitely final – novel by Milan Kundera that I shall be reading. Given that he is so famous and his writings so admired, I really felt I shouldn’t write him off after…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Literary Theory – A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler My rating: 3 of 5 stars Despite best intentions to take last year off exclusively for writing books, I found that the small amount of private tutoring work I took on to help ‘make ends meet’ while I wasn’t earning commercially…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman My rating: 4 of 5 stars I have always wanted to read some Neil Gaiman by himself after reading the brilliantly funny ‘Good Omens’ he wrote with Terry Pratchett eleven years before ‘American Gods’. Prior that this I’d only associated Gaiman with comic books (‘Sandman’…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
Quite honestly, despite looking forward to reading a book I’d heard so much about and thought of as a brilliant idea, I found Ensler’s ‘Vagina Monologues’ awful in the extreme. The principle idea was a superb one – giving voice to women who have had to suppress sexuality and honesty…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling: The Complete Jungle Books [The Jungle Book & The Second Jungle Book] by Rudyard Kipling My rating: 4 of 5 stars Bias Alert: Any book which deals in any way with India or the Indian subcontinent automatically makes me sad – both while reading it and especially when…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
I’ll be blunt and say ‘Tales of the City’ is not the kind of book I would normally bother to read; and having now read it, it’s not a classic, I should warn you. I got hold of it because it is a favourite book of a very special friend…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Butterfly Effect by Jon Ronson
The Butterfly Effect by Jon Ronson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I often find myself championing strange, even unpopular, causes. Prostitution, for instance, is something I’d like to see un-demonized. Not because of some perverse predilection of mine (I’ve simply never found the idea of ‘stranger sex’ appealing) but…
Hello, I’m Ken.
Welcome to Write Out Loud, my blog dedicated to all sorts of things to do with writing.
This page will be updated constantly every week with book reviews and writing-related stuff.
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Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing) 