"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
~ Douglas Adams
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
~ Anton Chekhov
"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
~ Dr. Suess
Like My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece, this title surprised me with the depths of its wisdom considering its guise as a book for pre-teens. I’m thinking of categorising these ‘Sneaky Adult Favourites’. August Pullman, or Auggie as he is called by his loved ones, was born with a facial deformity that causes kids to […]
Anyone working or staying in or around the city is likely to be subjected to at least a small amount of traffic on a daily basis, and that’s if you’re lucky. Probably one of the worst things about traffic is that it can significantly increase the time it takes you to reach your destination. From […]
One dark night, an aspiring Afrikaans superster rapper was chilling at home with one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies running in the background. “Screw Jack Sparrow”, he thought to himself mindfully before uttering the words “I am Jack Parow, pirate of the caravan park.” Jack Parow, best known for his single “Cooler as […]
2011 saw the release of several new Sherlock Holmes titles, all sanctioned by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Estate, and culminating in the superb Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I have discussed nearly all of these releases here, and continuing in that vein, let’s look at the newest Sherlock Holmes contribution. On New Year’s Day, BBC released the first […]
As an improvement to Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix has released a follow-up called Final Fantasy XIII-2. Anyone serious about gaming might call Final Fantasy the ultimate JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game). Critics of Final Fantasy XIII complained that the storyline was too linear and that it lacked mini-games and side quests associated with some […]
This month, Die Antwoord released their latest album Ten$ion featuring their brand new single “I Fink U Freeky.” The music video that was done in collaboration with South African photographer, Roger Ballen, has been a huge viral success as with their previous work – boasting nearly 1.5 million views. This rap-rave crew performed on the […]
2011 was a great year for new authors, and to that list of wonderful new voices I’d like to add Rebecca Makkai. I read The Borrower in one day, it keeping me company while tonsillitis kept me in bed and solitary confinement. It is the story of a librarian who kidnaps the most loyal reader […]
Kelly Ansara over at It’s a Book Thing got her hands on the first ever Flemming-family endorsed sequel to Ian Flemming’s iconic ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang‘ titled ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Flies Again’ by Frank Cottrell Boyce. A book like this one stands out, not only because of its predecessor (Ian Fleming) but because it […]
This title was billed to me as the thinking person’s zombie novel, released in time for Halloween to match the zeitgeist. Now I usually don’t pick up zombie novels and I’m less than thrilled by zombie games (though Left for Dead is a superb game) but I think that billing Zone One as a zombie novel is a bit […]
‘There can never be enough said of the virtues, dangers, the power of a shared laugh’, said Françoise Sagan. If it weren’t for the great comedic minds of our cultural landscape, we might have imploded a while ago. South Africa enjoys a remarkably robust cast of comedians and satirists in all mediums. Whether it is the […]
