Mark Charan Newton

The Guardian reports on the rise of the virtual bookshelf on social networking sites.
For anyone with even a moderate interest in books, snooping at other people’s bookshelves is one of life’s great pleasures. Like music collections, personal libraries offer tantalising encapsulations of character; a quick glance at an acquaintance’s bookshelves or a scroll through their [...]

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She is rather nice, isn’t she?

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Just a few thoughts on symbolism. I’m currently re-reading Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun series, and I’m really fascinated by the use of symbolism. I won’t go into detail here, but there are good essays here and here if you’re interested. Now, is it me, or are symbols totally out of vogue [...]

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In keeping with treating this blog more like a writer’s notebook, here’s some interesting things from last weekend in Cumbria. A fantastically industrial coastline, with the odd shipwreck to explore.

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I think that the new Bond novel launch is certainly the way to go, and I will be putting in a request to the folks at Macmillan for such razzmatazz for my tome early next year. Although to save money, I’ll let them lose the boat for a second cat-suited supermodel book carrier, oh yes, [...]

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According to this source, Nasa’s probe to Mars that was launched nine months ago was stocked with our literary visions of the red planet.
The compilation contains work by such giants of science fiction as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Paul Anderson and Arthur C Clarke. But it also includes early classics such as H G Wells’s [...]

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Last post I take from my old blog, I promise. Just that there’s more people reading this one, so hey, I want certain things to be noticed. Like this one, of what I suspect is my favourite book. Or one of them.

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So this weekend I finished reading Underworld by Don DeLillo. A monster of a [...]

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A slightly new direction. A more upbeat feel. Same slightly ambient alternative melancholy.
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Some of you might know I’ve an active interest in Buddhism. I’m really not someone to get involved in political view on this blog, but it’s worth knowing a few things such as commented here. I’ll quote big chunks, because he’s more eloquent than me on this subject! I feel the need to put this [...]

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In case you wanted to know where any kind of disaster is in the world. All sorts of hazards for the morbidly curious. Actually quite interesting, after you get over the paranoia of how fragile things are. And if you are that type of person you might find yourself the lead character in this.
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