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Reading several things at once
We may think of reading as our solitary immersement in a single book, but that’s not really what happens.
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Adam Smyth
5
Diaries: 1922-1959
From an auction house in Nottingham, I buy a series of 18 diaries running across the early to mid-20th century, kept by a man called Samuel who lived in…
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Adam Smyth
18
5.35pm
There are many ways to track experience in writing, and I’m a fan of the various forms that diaries, or proto-diaries, or sort-of-diaries, can take…
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Adam Smyth
11
Novel!
With my friend Chloë Houston, I’ve written a novel and it’s about to be published.
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Adam Smyth
15
The Book-Makers!
I have a book coming out next month!
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Adam Smyth
5
Unoriginal Writing
I’ve been enjoying reading Vast (1994) by Doug Huston.
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Adam Smyth
4
Boxes!
Boxes! I’ve been opening lots of boxes recently, and finding surprising things inside.
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Adam Smyth
1
Categories (filing cabinets; book shelves)
On my way to the reading room in the National Archives in Kew, I see a set of filing cabinets that carry headings of implausible exactness.
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Adam Smyth
6
Please select ...
My favourite textual form may well be the list of hyper-specific categories organised alphabetically.
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Adam Smyth
3
Coincidence
In about 2004, I moved from London to Houston, Texas.
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Adam Smyth
4
Repeating Names
A little while ago I was reading about the late 18th-century English clergyman, biographer and antiquary, Mark Noble (1754-1827), author of several…
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Adam Smyth
4
The Irony Shed
Open up a modern edition of Shakespeare’s Pericles to the chorus at the start of act 3, and you’ll find the narrator Gower alone on stage, standing (as…
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Adam Smyth
4
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