Niek Male. Delft, Netherlands

Kazuo Ishiguro, best-known for the brilliantly written The Remains of the Day, is the only author whose entire oeuvre I've read. The fact that he publishes about one book every five years makes the task easier, but this is not the main reason. Time and again, I fall for the elegant, contemplative and somewhat detached tone of his novels, and the oceans of emotions that stir beneath the surface of his prose.

In this collection of five short stories, the protagonists are all musicians, but the music is not what's at the centre of these stories. They serve mainly as a setting for the exploration of relationship issues. Most couples in the stories are breaking up, about to break up, or wondering whether they should.

None of these stories become melodramatic, partly due to the casual and sometimes witty tone of the narrator, and partly because most of time, the characters do not reveal their true feelings. They can be read between the lines - which to me is the best place for literary emotions to reside.

For a few years, Nick Hornby kept a diary of the books he bought and read: lots of lesser-known contemporary novels/biographies/non)fiction and the occasional (modern) classic. In these columns, Hornby mainly shows himself to be a lover of books and less of a critic. Readability is a good thing in his opinion, and his down-to-earth and sceptic approach to what is called literature is refreshing and honest. Add to that delightful sense of humour, and you have a nice, intersting and most of all readable account of a person who just loves book - and as a consequence always buys more than he can read.

Factotum is the 2nd book by Bukowski I've read (after Post Office), and so far, they have been very much the same: Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski is a lazy alcoholic bastard without any ambitions but to drink, screw and bet on horses. Chinaski has as many jobs as the book has chapters - which is a lot. Bukowski's style seems as off-hand and nonchalant as the man himself, and that is its brilliance. He writes more directly than any other writer I've read, and is funnier than most without seeming to even try.

If you have two or three hours to spare and don't mind reading about the life of an unambitious drunkard, this book is highly recommended.

The Copywriter's Handbook is pretty much what is pretends to be: a good guide for starting copywriters. Bly's message: copywriting is not an art, but a craft of finding the most effective way of writing all kinds of different copy (brochures, flyers, mailings, ads). And he can help you to become better at it.

The first edition appeared in 1985, and although Bly has updated some content in 2005 (he added a chapter about writing for the web), some parts still are a bit outdated; when explaining how to write direct mail, he suggests using phrases that we have to come associate with badly written spam, e.g. starting letters with "YOU MAY HAVE WON..." or "Dear friend".

That said, the book contains plenty of useful information on copywriting - a craft of which the basics have not changed much in the past 25 years. The book is well-written, clear and to the point, and covers many different aspects of copywriting: what words to use, who to address, what research to do, the average length of sentences, and many many more.

As a starting copywriter, I expect I'll be consulting this book quite a lot in the coming months. Or even years.

It's a 2700 year old blockbuster: lots of action, heroes, pride, fighting and gore. Awesomely described action, extensive and brilliant metaphors, hundreds of personae vividly introduced in only a few phrases, and the occasional dull part about horseriding and descriptions of wealth. But above all, lots of verbs. Homers poetry never stands still, it is continuously in motion.

The Iliad is poetry in action. And it rocks.

A longer review, in Dutch, can be foud here: http://nieksteenhuis.blogspot.com/2008/03/homeros-ilias…