Shane Richmond

With half the year gone, I’m five books ahead of where I need to be to reach 26. I’ve added reviews of Georges Perec’s A Void and The End of Harry Potter by David Langford over at 26books.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to Wood Green in north London. I know, however, that my credit card has. It was there last month spending more than £400 in a High Street store.
I have become a victim of “identity theft”. I do, of course, still have my identity so it’s more accurate to say [...]

I’ve been watching this year’s festival in the now traditional fashion: at home and, thanks to Sky+, mostly on fast forward. A few observations:
1. The BBC presenting team are perhaps the most irritating people in the world. Jo Whiley, Zane Lowe, Lauren Laverne, Colin Murray, that git with the beard, blimey that’s a world class [...]

Not much changes on Doctor Who: alien planets mostly resemble quarries, aliens look like humans with a couple of cheap make-up additions, such as false teeth, and the sonic screwdriver, that portable deus ex machina, remains the lazy writer’s best friend.
Still, I was surprised to notice that the Doctor has discovered blogging. In last Saturday’s [...]

Book sixteen is complete. My thoughts on The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez can be read, as usual, at 26books.

America has never had a black president or a female one. But race and gender aren’t the biggest obstacles to the White House. Data360 has survey data on the percentage of Americans who said they would vote for the following:
A Catholic candidate: 95%
A black candidate: 94%
A Jewish candidate: 92%
A female candidate: 88%
A gay candidate: 55%
An [...]

I’ve just finished Kafka’s The Trial. You can read my thoughts on it over at 26books.