These days my stories always begin with girls: one of the perils of writing novels about love is that in learning to understand it, it takes on an inflated significance in one’s own life. But then, as Morrissey sang, “if it’s not love, then it’s the bomb that will bring us together.” I believe that [...]
I turned thirty this September, and I’d never read The Catcher in the Rye. Even though it’s my friend Sasha’s favorite book. Even though it’s one of the most famous novels of the twentieth century. Even though it’s short and I love short novels a lot better than long ones that are padded out with bullshit [...]
Today, my first book, Kiss Me, Genius Boy, is out on Amazon. It’s still waiting on its official cover, coming from the wonderful Rebecca Cochrane, art director. Thanks to my impatience (and the promise I made to a girl I met in a bar that I’d gift her a free copy), it’s up with a [...]
I posted this on my social media feeds today: Just discovered how hand-coding #epub is far easier than using InDesign, once you know how. #ebooks My mind is still boggling from earlier #epub epiphany. InDesign does it so WRONG! One of my friends in publishing asked me for more information. “Do tell!” she said. Well, [...]
In 2010, in response to a print publisher’s request for help in getting their back catalog online, I founded hourigan.co, an ebook-only publisher that sells backlist and original titles worldwide. Currently we’ve got four titles online: an original thriller, The Versailles Memorandum, John Birmingham’s first novel, He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, which [...]
Today, Borders launched the Kobo eReader in Australia, paired with an online store and apps for PC, Mac, and iPhone (more platforms coming soon). I’ve had the chance to try the Mac app already, and looks like it’s a decent interface for interacting with your library and your books on the desktop—an area where Amazon’s [...]
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (London: Bloomsbury, 2005). 7/10 I’d hotly anticipated this latest in the Harry Potter series. Even though Rowling is a poor prose stylist, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban showed that, possibly with the aid of a good editor, she can be a great storyteller. As [...]
Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept: A novel of obsession (1992; repr. Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin, 1993). It’s sometimes argued that Friedrich Nietzsche‘s philosophical work demonstrates an interest in psychology, introspection, and relations of power and desire, that in some way prefigures the development of psychoanalysis. As a Nietzsche fan who’s also read a moderate amount [...]
Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass (2000; repr. London: Point, 2001), 549pp. 8/10 This is the last in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, notable because its characters’ main quest is to destroy the god of Abraham. It’s a splendid thing for a book aimed at children to include, and I hope it convinces thousands of [...]
Any fool can tell that I haven’t been posting much, so today I again resort to keeping the blog active with relative nonsense. You know you’re clutching at straws when your last post was a link to an online quiz, and the one you’re writing is a meme iteration. Thanks to Myst for this, anyway. [...]
About
Ben Hourigan is an indie novelist, the author of Kiss Me, Genius Boy (2011). He is also the manager of digital operations at a Melbourne design publisher, a freelance writer and editor, and the founder of ebook label hourigan.co.
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- â@lilithia: @benhourigan You're cool.â Just saw this. Can't remember if this was our spoiler discussion? <3
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