Read Me Something You Love
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RMSYL 50: Tooth by Michael Burkard (read by Ryan Van...
What the hell the tooth is doing there, I dont know, but I love it. Ryan Van Winkle DISCUSSED:Unfolding Poems; Illogical Teeth; The Lost Son; Coming Open To Closed Poems; She is Fucking/Human (Divergent Synapses Firing); The Misery That Continue reading
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RMSYL 49: The Wonderful Focus of You by Joanne Kyger...
The poetry Im interested in most of the time is open-ended: inviting the reader to participate in the process of questioning, meaning, and everything really. Marcus Slease DISCUSSED:Writing Personally To Get Out Of The Straitjacket Of Self; Big Things, Little Continue reading
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RMSYL 45: The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst (read by...
Im always very pleased when I start going out with somebody and I find they have a habit that annoys me, yet I I still like them. Thats a minor triumph for me, thatsromantic. Charles Adrian Gillot Continue reading
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RMSYL 44: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak...
Theres all this action going on, this rumpusing, but the bit that sticks in the head, well for me at least, is the him-and-his-Mum aspect of it. And the food still being hot. DISCUSSED: Text-based Monsters versus iPad Monsters; Playing Continue reading
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RMSYL 43: What the Living Do by Marie Howe (recited by...
Ive felt like Ive needed to learn poetry this year. By heart. You might have had this feeling too? You may have thought, or perhaps even said these words aloud to someone sitting across the way from you on the Continue reading
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RMSYL 42: The Strange Hours Travelers Keep by August...
Imagine a small tribe living on the edge of thesavannah. A tribe with its requisite, antler festooned Poet-Philosopher-Shaman doing her shape shifting, neologising, bewilderment making best to entertain us. What he or she presents to the tribe on a daily Continue reading
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RMSYL 41: What The Doctor Said by Raymond Carver (read...
Nick Pole is good for your soul. Well, hes good for my soul. Nick and I ran a Mindfulness Based Practitioners group together for a while, once upon a time. I remember our third or fourth session where Nick offered Continue reading
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RMSYL 40: Gemma Seltzer reads Tom-Rock Through the Eels...
Gemma Seltzer is cool. I am probably not the first person to arrive at this estimation of her, and I shall no doubt be one of a very orderly queue lining up to say so now and in the future. Continue reading
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RMSYL 39: Le Pont Mirabeau by Guillaume Apollinaire...
The machine, the industry that is culture works predominantly with and in the now. The official ethos is a warm, mindfully glowing Be Here Now. But what that really translates into is BUY THIS NOW!. Fair enough. Literature is a Continue reading
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RMSYL 38: Mount Appetite by Bill Gaston (read by DW...
It seems kind of fitting that I first heard DW Wilsons prize-winning[1] short story The Dead Roads about this time last September, midway through a ten-mile hikethrough the Chilterns. Even more fitting would have been to listen or read it Continue reading
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RMSYL 37: Queen Victoria by Leonard Cohen (read by H.J....
I so enjoyed Heather Hampson reading from the International Treasure that is Leonard Cohen that I thought it might be worth commiting to memory some of his favourite songs for my By Heart quest. You would think, having listened to Continue reading
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RMSYL 36: A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka (read by Kevin...
The covenant of RMSYL has always been that of Mo going to the Mountain. Mo to the Mou, if you like. If you get in touch, and invite me round for a cuppa, as long as you dont live in Continue reading
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RMSYL 35: Meditation XVII by John Donne (read by Rogan...
I sometimes wonder what it must have been like during The Depression trundling around with the Lomaxes, father and son, through Memphis and the deep South, making field recordings out of their car window of those bards of the barrelhouse Continue reading
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The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (read by Alom Shaha)
My parents were probably not hip enough to read me Shel Silversteins The Giving Tree. You cant really get more hip, as a writer of childrens books (and A Boy Named Sue), than have Johnny Cash introduce you thus: Sometimes Continue reading
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Bones of the Inner Ear by Kiana Davenport (Read by Jared...
I love this photo of Jarred McGinnis reading Kiana Davenports incredible Bones of the Inner Ear. Firstly because it captures something of JM-himself (dude + lovely[1] bloke). But also because it makes me feel like Chazz Kujan Palminteri at the Continue reading
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Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas (read by Kit Spahr)
You might notice one or two differences about episode #32 of Read Me Something You Love. For starters, its the first one Ive done via Skype, and it went so well, Im planning to do a whole bunch more like Continue reading
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The Spur of the Moment Stroll and Passers-by by Franz...
Happy birthday, Franz. I’m not sure if it’s a birthday present you would have ever wanted, but did you know that you’re all set to be included in the update of the Bible of Psychological Pathologies (the Diagnostic and Statistical Continue reading
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Believe Me by Ali Smith (read by Tania Hershman)
I love the fact that International Short Story Day, June 20th, is celebrated on a solstice.Thats to say: the day the sun (sol) stands still (sistere). Apart from the rather pleasing philological connection with short days/nights/stories, there might be other Continue reading
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In the Waiting Room by Elizabeth Bishop (read by...
In the last few days, two events have played themselves out. To be more precise: an almost infinite number of events have occured if youre willing tosquish down to the atomic and subatomic (which I am). Yesterday, for example, a Continue reading
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How To Keep Your Day Job by Rebecca Rosenblum (read by...
O Canada. Ive been spending a lot of time in Canada recently. Entirely in my head of course. Which is possibly the best place to explore a country, or a city as Calvino showed us in his invisiblemindscapes. Ive arrived Continue reading
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Tender Is The Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald (read by Wayne...
I’m always impressed by Big Readers. Not as in girth, though that’s impressive too. No, I’m talking about those people who devour books the ways you and I fritter away time on social media sites for example [insert semi-ironic winking Continue reading
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‘Winter Wood’ and ‘Intellectual Gathering’ by Kenneth...
You dont need another self-help book (apart from this one, perhaps?). Its good to know though that you, me, Sarah Salway and David Foster Wallace still buy them. (I only include DFW as a sanctioning-device. If DFW digs something, doesnt Continue reading
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Tim The Terrible Tiger by Tessa Potter (Read by Jane)
Unless your hypnotherapist records your sessions, its unlikely you will ever hear yourself in a regressed state. Of course were regressing, progressing, digressing at any given moment of the day, and thats OK if youre OK with it. Regression is Continue reading
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Story Water by Rumi (read by Edward Espe Brown)
Heres a jug of story water to put into your morning kettle. When I was living in Milan in the early 90s, with all the potential and fear that being a young adult entails, the floorboards of our flat would Continue reading
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The Gun by Mark Haddon (read by Ted Hodgkinson)
Im hoping I might get a few complaints about this podcast. Firstly, as this is a nominal tie-in with the new Granta 119: Britain issue, nothing really says Britain like a good old whinge. But also because the internet (as Continue reading
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The History of England by Jane Austen (read by Janina...
You can learn everything and nothing about a person by the virtual breadcrumbs they scatter across the internet that lead you and the Google bot towards them. Before meeting Janina Matthewson I already knew that she was damn funny and Continue reading
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Netsuke [excerpt] by Rikki Ducornet (read by Saskia...
The great thing, for me, about RMSYL is the sheer diversity of readers transmitting their love of reading to me, and the texts they choose to do this with. This afternoon I was in Brompton Library listening and then later Continue reading
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The Day The Saucers Came by Neil Gaiman (Read By Rohit...
One day (I know this is hard to believe) Woody Allen will be no more. Even worse, you and I will be no more (which still at times feels like news to me). Of course we hope for Woody (and Continue reading
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I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olson (Read by Jean Kwok)
If you havent read Jean Kwoks short story Where The Gods Fly, you should do so right away. Three reasons (actually five, but I am culturally nudged into saying three): a) Its an extremely fine short story, and was recognised Continue reading
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An African in Greenland by Tt-Michel Kpomassie (read by...
Before the internet, if you wanted to commit yourself to a transcendental pursuit, you would need to go and stand on a pillar in a desert for a clearly circumscribed period of time, or wall yourself into an anchorage, built Continue reading
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‘Incarnations of Burned Children’ by David Foster...
Whenever I meet flesh-encased authors, I need to be careful not to refer to them by the book-embedded appelations I hold of them in my head. Alex Preston is of course Alex ‘TBC’ Preston. Not because he is forever awaiting Continue reading
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On The Nutritional Value of Dreams by Etgar Keret (read...
I love the idea of chain-readings. Say: Nicholson Baker reads me some John Updike. Updike then reads Nabokov. Nabokov does his RMSYL with a few exquisitely-chosen passages from Dickens, and Dickens closes the circle by reading from Nicholson Baker (Im Continue reading
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The Woman in White (excerpt) by Wilkie Collins (read by...
Education. Behind those four ceremonious syllables, a whole welter of thoughts and feelings about value, memory, interpersonal depth, and reading materials churn. I can remember to this day with a kind of wincing shame privy only to those who have Continue reading
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‘Waitress’ and ‘Visiting Shandong’ by Han Dong (read by...
A few weeks ago you heard Nicky Harman reading a poem from my Chinese doppelganger, Han Dong, whose short story Deer Park can also be heard on this site. One or two emails from newfound Chinese fans have suggested I Continue reading
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‘The Ledge’ by Lawrence Sargent Hall (read by Vanessa...
This photo shows the intensity of reading the part of this story where it all starts to go horribly wrong. So horribly wrong does it go, you might want to take a few deep breaths, and maybe hold onto something Continue reading
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‘The Ledge’ by Lawrence Sargent Hall (read by Vanessa...
As teeth-gnashing the editing of these readings can sometimes be (how to compress down an hour or more of fine chat into just 40 minutes of podcastery?) one of the things I really love about doing this, is being reminded Continue reading
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‘No! I Don’t Want To Join A Bookclub’ by Virginia...
Mothers. And fathers. Two people it is almost impossible for us to be neutral about. Particularly if theyre our own. I was running a reading group last week in a Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre. We were reading Of Continue reading
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‘The Samosa Whisperer’ by Nikesh Shukla (Read by Dave...
Last Friday, Nikesh Shukla read a short story by Dave Eggers, so it seems only fair in the quid pro quo ways of the world that Eggers returns the favour for Shukla. He was up for it and suggested Continue reading
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‘You know how to spell Elijah’ by Dave Eggers (Read by...
Whilst preparing this podcast for your tympanic membranes, Ive found myself again and again drawn to YouTube in order to get an eyeful of pants. And because these pants are American, I of course mean trousers. You might know Continue reading
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‘The Company of Wolves’ by Angela Carter (Read by...
Sometime in my 20s, I wrote a novel called Grim inspired by Angela Carters Wise Children. I dimly recall my tomebeing plotted aroundtwins, a fictitious rock group, a deeply neurotic mother, and some Kurt Cobain inspired suicide pact. I Continue reading
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‘Voices Lost In Snow’ by Mavis Gallant (Read by Rosalind...
Mavis Gallant was our Short Story Book Club read for February. I chose Mavis after hearing Antonya Nelson read and discuss her story When We Were Nearly Young as a New Yorker fiction podcast. I was tramping up Chinnor Hill Continue reading
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‘The Amen Stone’ by Yehuda Amichai (read by Etgar Keret)
Knock, knock! Whos there? Etgar. Etgar who?
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‘A Loud Noise’ by Han Dong (read by Nicky Harman)
In a recent self-google through the trillion images that float around us in the ether, I noticed that I have a doppelgngerand his name is Han Dong . Spot the difference: Now the logicians Continue reading
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‘The Nightingale and The Rose’ by Oscar Wilde (read by...
Out of the blue (is there really such a thing?), an email from Davide Maione, a photographer who last contacted me in 2005 after reading my review of Pavements Slanted and Enchanted. The review mentions in passing his friend Claudio Continue reading
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‘Light Lifting’ by Alexander MacLeod
Sons and fathers. Fathers and sons. Before I say anything of note, let me tell you this: a) I only got vaguely interested in Tim Buckley after falling for the grunge-folk-choral charms of Jeff. I am still only vaguely interested Continue reading
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‘Star-Gazer’ by Louis MacNeice (read by Claire Shanahan)
Reading a poem with someone is not that dissimilar to a spot of star-gazing. A good poem always has that moment (two or three if youre lucky) where you feel the emotional-cognitive equivalent of hinging the head back, ciliary muscles Continue reading
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‘The Universal Story’ by Ali Smith (read by Rachel...
Before I started this RMSYL malarkey, I didnt know my condenser mics from my dynamics; my omnidirectionals, from my unidirectionals; my male XLRs from my 1/4 inch jack plugs. Just point-it-at-someones-face directional is what Id initially planned to do. I Continue reading
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‘Deer Park’ by Han Dong
A few months ago, I wrote about a wonderfully disturbing short story I was keen on podcasting by a Chinese writer called Han Dong. The story is calledThis Moron is Dead. I also explained how the recording hadntcome about because Continue reading
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Last Evenings On Earth by Roberto Bolao
Ive tried to loveRoberto Bolao the way a lot of people purport to love him. And in some ways I do. He speaks to a self which is devotional, completely saturated-by-literature, smitten by writers and writing; a self that I Continue reading
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National Short Story Week: Plunder by Edna O’Brien
Im sure this is not a particularly new notion, but the way I see it, great short story collections are like great albums, not just in the sense of having stand-out tracks which dont dwarf their companion songs, but also Continue reading
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National Short Story Week: Storytellers, Liars, and...
National Short Story Week, begins today. Though why it should be 7 - 13 November, is anyones guess. In honour of having a whole week devoted to the form (though apart from me, Im not sure who exactly is doing Continue reading
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The Ugliest Woman in the World by Olga Tokarczuk
This story by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd- Jones, broke my heart. So I had to read it for you. Ive been reading a lot of modern short stories in translation recently. Mainly for a piece Ive been writing Continue reading
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Read Me Something You Love is an online project. But it is also, hopefully, an offline experience.There is perhaps nothing as moving and transcendent as having someone read to you something that they truly and utterly love. The atavistic thrill of this activity may (as many atavistic thrills) stem from childhood where a parent, grandparent, or favourite aunt or uncle read to us something that they probably adored when they were young.
