Elif Shafak - trang moi

Ali Smith, Books, Children and teenagers, Christmas, Colm Tóibín, Culture, Diana Evans, Elif Shafak, Fiction, Jeanette Winterson, Jonathan Coe, Kamila Shamsie, Katherine Rundell, Max Porter, Michael Rosen, Nikesh Shukla, Nina Stibbe, Poetry, Robert Macfarlane, Sách & Tri thức, Sarah Moss, Science and nature books, Tessa Hadley, William Boyd

‘This extraordinary story never goes out of fashion’: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone

Colm Tóibín, Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak, Michael Rosen and more share the novels, poetry and memoirs that make the perfect gift

I love giving books as presents. I rarely give anything else. I strongly approve of the Icelandic tradition of the Jólabókaflóðið (Yule book flood), whereby books are given (and, crucially, read) on Christmas Eve. Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain is the one I’ve given more often than any other; so much so that I keep a stack of four or five to hand, ready to give at Christmas or any other time of the year. It’s a slender masterpiece – a meditation on Shepherd’s lifelong relationship with the Cairngorm mountains, which was written in the 1940s but not published until 1977. It’s “about the Cairngorms” in the sense that Mrs Dalloway is “about London”; which is to say, it is both intensely engaged with its specific setting, and gyring outwards to vaster questions of knowledge, existence and – a word Shepherd uses sparingly but tellingly – love.

thanhtoong0
December 13, 2025

Blogging, Books, Chuck Palahniuk, Digital media, Elif Shafak, Fiction, George Saunders, Hanif Kureishi, Howard Jacobson, Margaret Atwood, Mary Gaitskill, Miranda July, Publishing, Roxane Gay, Sách & Tri thức, Salman Rushdie, Substack

Where authors gossip, geek out and let off steam: 15 of the best literary Substacks

More and more writers are publishing newsletters – but which are worth your time? From Margaret Atwood to Hanif Kureishi, George Saunders to Miranda July, here’s our guide to the best

A peculiar aspect of the dawning of the digital age is that it has, in some respects, returned literary life to the 18th century. A hullabaloo of pamphleteers, the effective abolition of copyright – and a return to patronage networks and serial publication. In this context, then, the way in which literary writers are now turning to Substack – a platform that allows authors to send emails to a list of subscribers, and allows those subscribers to interact in comment forums – seems entirely natural.

Literary Substacks don’t follow a single pattern. For some, it’s a way of getting new work into the world, whether publishing a novel in serial form or hot-off-the-keyboard short stories; for others, it’s a way of interacting directly with readers (while building a handy marketing list); for still others, it’s a home for criticism, journalism, personal blowing off of steam, self-promotion, or a more direct version of the traditional writerly side hustle, teaching creative writing to aspiring authors.

thanhtoong0
July 12, 2025