Thursday 3rd July 2025

Books

Running on treadmills: Milan Kundera’s meditations on Slowness

Sometimes it takes a new word to express an old feeling. Until the age of around fourteen I spent many of my evenings brokering complex agreements with a God...
Books Lloyd Doré-Green -

What the book you’re reading says about you

In an institution as prestigious as Oxford, every book you pull out in public...
Books Aayah Aslam -

Why romance books should be your post-exam read

With finals in full swing, and prelims just around the corner, Oxford’s libraries are...
Books Charlotte Renahan -

Review – The Wykehamist: ‘A Saltburn for the other place’

In the underbelly of Hong Kong, a Goldsmith-Sachs Vice President invites a woman back...
Books Maya Heuer-Evans -
Latest

Breathing in stanzas: The Slam poetry of Women of Colour

Poetry as a digital experience is how I first came to know verse. I pored through the endless bank of videos on Button Poetry’s...

How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie: A review

I read How to Kill Your Family while at home during the vacation and given my own parent’s unnerved curiosity as they scanned the book’s title, I can understand the necessity of the dedication to Mackie’s parents: “I promise never to kill either of you.” 

Dune: Adventures in miseducation

"Of all the books that explore the question of how and why we learn, I find that Frank Herbert’s Dune offers an unsettling, prescient answer to this question."

‘I’ve read the secret, I know the meaning’: When rap and classical literature meet

"What do Charles Dickens, Alice in Wonderland and Kilburn-bred rapper M Huncho have in common? Quite a lot, as it happens."

Review: ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’: The Good, The Bad And The Amateur

"Perhaps Tarantino will become a better novelist as time goes on, but there's a charm to how this book is a behind-the-scenes look at a story still in construction, full of blind alleys and experiments."

I went to every library in Oxford (so you don’t have to)

You don’t need to go to every library on this list. But if you’re lucky enough to carry a Bod Card, you should make a point to visit at least a few. These are special places, each with its own history and personality. Make the most of them.

“Rotterdam is anywhere, anywhere alone…”: A Literary Pilgrimage

'If I do go to these places, I won’t need to be transported to a fictional world for them to be magic. They’ll be wonderful because I went there, and had fun, and lived a life that is far less exciting than those of the characters, but was good all the same.'

‘[I]n spring the soil swells’: Poetry’s favourite season through the ages

Spring has been extolled in poetry perhaps more than any other season. Since antiquity, poets have associated spring with growth and celebration making their poems are a joy to read this time of year.

Five Book that Shaped My Life: A Biblio-Biography

'Upon sitting down to write this article, the immense prospect of narrowing down my entire life's reading experience to five books suddenly seemed to stare at me, chasm-like. Life does not always present itself to us in such neat sequences.'

What Makes A Great Writer: A Biblio-Biography

'What makes a great writer? Practice, of course, and undoubtedly that unique spark called talent or inspiration. But as every writer, great or otherwise, knows, the whole business of writing is built on reading.'

The #OwnVoices Movement: Whose Voices Are Being Heard?

From abandoning the acronym BAME to placing diversity and inclusion at the forefront of their values, representation has never been so important in the...

Bookshops are Back: The Joys of In-Person Book Buying

'There’s something magical about running your fingers across a shelf, gazing over each stack and meandering through a cavern full of works of literature.'

Judging books by their covers?

When browsing the shelves of a bookshop, what I am most drawn to is art. I hunt for the brightest colour, the most striking typography, a good-looking image with which to decorate my bedside table. Book covers can use their beauty to their advantage, or even as a form of rebellion.

Review: Catullus: Shibari Carmina by Isobel Williams

The poetry of the late Roman Republic does not immediately move the mind to think of shibari – a Japanese rope bondage art –...

Fantasy: medieval European influences and alternatives

Faeries, elves, centaurs, wizards, dragons. In its purest form, fantasy is one of the most ancient literary genres, and fantastical elements can be found...

Interview: Alexandra Andrews, author of Who is Maud Dixon?

Alexandra Andrews’s psychological thriller, Who is Maud Dixon?, tests the limits of fiction. Literally. The novel begins in media res: Florence Darrow wakes up...

Books I’m Reading this Ramadan

'Ramadan is a highlight of the Islamic calendar and involves a month of self-reflection and improvement as well as abstinence from food and water. Gaining knowledge is hugely celebrated within Islam, and with more time on my hands not eating or drinking, this spiritual month is the perfect opportunity to learn something new.'

In and Out of Love: A Biblio-Biography

It feels weird to be writing about books again. I used to consider myself a huge bookworm, often getting through multiple books in a...

Cherwell Recommends: University Reads

Trinity 2021 will see at least a significant portion of the student body return to ‘normal Oxford’, a loose collection of memories, activities, and...

The Last Bookshop: Giving old books a new life

Jill Cushen talks to Last Bookshop owner Jake Pumphrey about his unconventional approach to the book business.
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