I was minded to edit your Wikipedia page myself. But in looking around, I couldn't help noticing that the Grokipedia entry (https://grokipedia.com/page/Sam_Leith) is much more thorough and much nicer about The Coincidence Engine.
Oh, that’s weird and kinda gratifying; though it very strongly and ingeniously claims Sod’s Law as a philosophical work about probability when it’s essentially a silly bog book in the mould of the Book of Heroic Failures. Thanks for letting me know about it
Great to see you here Sam. Our paths crossed once or twice back in my ‘writing book-thoughts’ days ( you might remember DGR) and you affirm my principle then of only writing about books I’d enjoyed rather than waste time on those I hadn’t…it’s what all of you were there for after all and did so much better than me.
And if I was still doing it now, rather than reading for pleasure, I’d be singing the praises of The Haunted Wood, which I definitely enjoyed.
"To be a published author was a condition so far above my station, so Olympian, that the idea the opinion of some 23-year-old showing off in a newspaper could hurt them seemed absurd." This is exactly how I felt. I once gave someone a good review and they messaged me to say how thrilled they were. I felt a bit like ... steady on I'm 24 years old i don't know anything your book could still be terrible (I didn't say this)
I was minded to edit your Wikipedia page myself. But in looking around, I couldn't help noticing that the Grokipedia entry (https://grokipedia.com/page/Sam_Leith) is much more thorough and much nicer about The Coincidence Engine.
Oh, that’s weird and kinda gratifying; though it very strongly and ingeniously claims Sod’s Law as a philosophical work about probability when it’s essentially a silly bog book in the mould of the Book of Heroic Failures. Thanks for letting me know about it
Great to see you here Sam. Our paths crossed once or twice back in my ‘writing book-thoughts’ days ( you might remember DGR) and you affirm my principle then of only writing about books I’d enjoyed rather than waste time on those I hadn’t…it’s what all of you were there for after all and did so much better than me.
And if I was still doing it now, rather than reading for pleasure, I’d be singing the praises of The Haunted Wood, which I definitely enjoyed.
My word, you’re a charmer. (And I so wish I could attend the library event with you and PP and say hi, which I certainly would!)
😘
"To be a published author was a condition so far above my station, so Olympian, that the idea the opinion of some 23-year-old showing off in a newspaper could hurt them seemed absurd." This is exactly how I felt. I once gave someone a good review and they messaged me to say how thrilled they were. I felt a bit like ... steady on I'm 24 years old i don't know anything your book could still be terrible (I didn't say this)
Yes: gratitude can be if anything even more ominous.
In the words of he who it's probably politic not to name, my policy is pro dishing it out and pro not taking it. A sort of literary cakeism.