Reading Journal: Monday 10th May 2010

Monday may be one of the most depressing days of the week for a lot of people but for me it means Maupassant and I couldn’t be happier. Today it was the turn of a couple of tales which are, in a tenuous way, linked by the theme of babies. The first Mademoiselle Pearl [...]

Reading Journal: Thursday 6th May 2010

Before I go on to give you a rundown on my reading for Thursday 6th May, I should declare that I’m writing this on Saturday 8th, a full day later than when I should be writing it up, and indeed posting it. I’m sure you know what it like though fellow reader, all the [...]

Reading Journal: Wednesday 5th May 2010

Would it shock you to know that it’s been almost eight months since I last read an Edgar Allan Poe story for my iPoe reading challenge? Well, desperate to make amends for this shortfall, I set about reserving Wednesday as my Poe day, when I tick off at least one story from the master [...]

Reading Journal: Tuesday 4th May 2010

Today I may have wallowed in the place I love to be – totally immersed in a world of words – but it ended being a very busy day of reading. That’s not a complaint of course because I’m never happier than when I’m drowning in books. And if anything it’s all going to [...]

Reading Journal: Monday 3rd May 2010

And so with great pleasure fellow reader, I return once more to scribing the virtual pages of my online reading journal. Adamant that I would not return to posting journal entries until I was completely happy with the format I was using for this feature, I realised the futility in having such a mindset; [...]

Forethoughts: Fists by Pietro Grossi

And so my reading journey through this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist brings me to smallest of the offerings in the final six, Fists by Pietro Grossi (Pushkin Press). And if my expectations were soaring ahead of the last shortlist title that I read (Brodeck’s Report by Philippe Claudel (MacLehose Press)) , then [...]

Forethoughts: Brodeck’s Report by Philippe Claudel

Exciting times ahead then as I set off on my reading journey through this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist. And my excitement couldn’t be higher as I begin with the novel that in my mind holds the most expectation – Brodeck’s Report by Philippe Claudel (MacLehose Press). Since its publication in February 2009 [...]

Daily Bookshot: The Foreign Fiction Prize Six

Foreign Fiction Prize Six, originally uploaded by Robert Burdock.

This if a shot (if you didn’t know already), of the six novels shortlisted for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. I’ve set myself the task of reading all of them before the overall winner is announced on Thursday May 13th, and I thought I [...]

Rob’s tackling the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 shortlist

You may remember a few days ago that I posted the shortlist for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and remarked that the greatest source of the excitement for me was discovering that all but one of the titles on the shortlist was the product of a smaller ‘indy’ [...]

Shortlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 revealed

It was an exciting start to a dreary morning, as the shortlist for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced earlier today. Taken from the original longlist of 15, which included big ‘hitter’s such as Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Chatto & Windus) and Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper [...]

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