It’s April so it must be Angela Carter

This is basically a roundup of things I’ve been reading on other blogs, so apologies if that seems lazy, but after my final and resounding victory over the sink (okay so my mum came and helped, but still it’s washing up free, and looks like it means to stay that way) I can take it.

Paperback Reader is having an Angela Carter month, and as a bit of a Carter fan I thought this would be a good opportunity to read some of the titles I’ve found a little bit less than tempting in the past (I feel vaguely sacrilegious saying that but there you have it).

My love affair with Carter started with ‘Nights at the Circus’ continued with ‘Wise Children’ and the ‘Bloody Chamber’, took in ‘The Magic Toyshop’ and more collected short stories then sort of stalled with ‘Several Perceptions’ which I found less appealing. After hunting high and low for ‘The Passions of New Eve’ I never read it, I also have ‘The Sadeian Woman’ (destined to remain unread for a while longer) and ‘The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman’ which I am currently struggling through. I do wish that I’d started reading her a good bit earlier in my life, and that I hadn’t started with ‘Nights at the Circus’ – it’s by far my favourite, and I think by far her best book; nothing after has ever quite lived up to it for me – but that’s only a reflection on how good I think ‘Nights at the Circus’ is. Anyway if you like all things Carter and you haven’t had a look yet do check out Paperback Reader...

Who is also hosting a Persephone reading week with Verity from Virago Ventures and the The B Files in May. I’m looking forward to this too, I have a couple of Persephone titles that have been hanging around unread for a while so this is just the encouragement I need, hopefully there will be a good deal of Persephone based conversation going on with insights aplenty to take advantage of.

Finally Simon Savidge has followed up a really interesting post about blogging ethics (okay really, really, interesting to bloggers and perhaps mildly interesting to non bloggers) with questions about what sort of reviews people want to read – contemporary v classic. Both have raised some really interesting debates in the comments and assuming anyone who reads this hasn’t already looked at and commented upon Simons thoughts...