Discussing the Irish Short Story – A Mirror in the Dark
When Mario Vargas Llosa wrote about Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s gem One Hundred Years of Solitude, he pointed out that Macondo is a world itself, just like Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, a…
Paul Auster’s Museum of Ordinary
Sunday is a perfect day to pay a visit to Auster’s museum of ordinary where magic lies in the subtlety of one’s observations. It would be good to point out…
Writing Hacks: Strange Habits of English and American Authors
Mark Twain once said: "Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words." But is it always so? Tireless perfectionists like James Joyce and Dorothy…
20+ English Sayings whose Origins you Didn’t Know
Idioms and sayings are first-class tools for ornamenting your everyday language. However, most of us simply learn them by heart, not thinking too much about the actual meaning and its…
From the Platform 9 3/4 in an Entirely New Direction: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
On July 31, 2016, the latest escapade into the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling, entitled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, saw the light of day. This two-part West End stage play written by John Thorne stems from his collaboration with J.K. Rowling, the author of the original franchise and John Tiffany, the director of the play.
The Chaos of Being Alive in Ali Smith’s The Accidental
Reading The Accidental resembles the way raindrops are traced on a windowpane. Firstly, you notice they move independently, without any rules. They make their way slowly, curving as they please…
About a Boy, Nick Hornby: The book or the film – is that the question?
Discussions about books and film adaptations always seem to divide people. Book-lovers vs. film-lovers. You feel obligated, as if by some social norm, to choose a side and argue in…