The Japanese language is very distinct from English, most notably in its grammar. To give an example, a sentence like “I eat rice without chopsticks” would be ordered grammatically in Japanese like “chopsticks without I rice eat”. However, this difference doesn’t make travelling across Japan impossible without being fluent. A few common Japanese phrases can …
Willow Heath
In that vast, open sea of genre fiction, detective stories exist on an island that I’ve never really visited. Not because this island is full of traps and dark alleyways, and the murder rate is alarmingly high, but simply because we all have genres that we gravitate towards and detective stories were never mine. And …
It’s that time of year again: the time when everyone obsesses over lists and gets deeply frustrated if someone else’s list is different from their own. And in keeping with that delightful spirit, prepare to get frustrated by our list of best translated novels of 2019! In all seriousness, though, I love a good list. …
While Covent Garden is known for its mesmerising architecture, the history attached to the place, and the market shopping that can be done there, the area also has some fantastic food options. From Japanese bakeries to traditional Italian restaurants, as well as a huge host of choices for traditional British food, there are some truly …
When looking for gifts for someone going travelling, it’s easy enough to trawl through Amazon to find something good enough. But if you’re looking for unique travel gifts, that’s not going to cut it. You want to find something that is genuinely thrilling and exciting: something they’ll want to wear, take travelling, or mount on …
At the beginning of 2019, Red Circle launched three short stories, all of which we dearly loved. They were fresh and original Japanese short stories with enlightened themes and page-turning plots. Now, as 2019 feeds into 2020, we have two new Red Circle Minis in translation from two astonishingly talented translators. Each book is wholly …
When I was a child playing video games, I always wanted some t-shirts, collectibles, and jewelry themed around games. Now, as a voracious book lover I have a wealth of inspirational jewelry and literary jewelry at my fingertips to wear and proudly show off my adoration for books and literature. These top Etsy sellers have …
We all love to wear our loves, our hobbies, and our passions on our sleeves. We book lovers are proud of the way that reading has captured our imaginations, shaped our lives, and made us who we are today. Some of us have bookish tattoos, others wear literary t-shirts and scarves, and some wear book …
All around the world, tattoo art is becoming more popular, more commonplace, and more accepted. And those of us with geeky hobbies that have helped make us who we are – literature, video games, movies – often get excited by the prospect of branding that love on our skin forever. I myself have two video …
In Argentine tradition and literature, the gaucho – ranchers and horsemen – were, and still are, romanticised in much the same that the cowboys are in modern US folklore and stories. This was most flagrantly epitomised by José Hernández in his great Argentine epic poem El Gaucho Martín Fierro, which told the tale of a …