About Me

One of my favourite book reviewers, Nick Hornby, wrote, “There comes a point in life, it seems to me, where you have to decide whether you’re a Person of Letters or merely someone who loves books, and I’m beginning to see that the book lovers have more fun. Persons of Letters have to read things like Candide or they’re a few letters short of the whole alphabet; book lovers, meanwhile, can read whatever they fancy.” [1]

I am a book lover. I am also a person of a fair few letters, including an M.Phil. in Women’s Studies from Trinity College Dublin and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Toronto. I taught Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto part-time on and off for five years. They do not comprise the whole alphabet, but my letters are effectively gathering dust these days while my three sons are still playing with their alphabet blocks.

There is a link to LibraryThing where you can see my library of books about books. My zeal for collecting books about books rather outweighs the time in which I have to read them, so this project is also a way to structure my reading and, it is to be hoped, slow down my spending.

[1] Yes, it’s a footnote in a blog. What can I say? Old habits die hard. Nick Hornby, Housekeeping vs. The Dirt (San Francisco: Believer Books, 2006) 88.

20 Comments »

20 Responses

on September 4, 2010 at 9:48 AM | Reply carolwallace

Oh, Nathalie, I’m so glad you found my blog so I could find yours! I look forward to reading more about your reading….

In art historical circles there is a term, “mise en abyme,” which refers to the kind of self-referential writing you enjoy — the picture of the picture within the picture. Is this term used in literary studies?
- on September 4, 2010 at 10:41 AM | Reply Nathalie Foy
  
  Yes, and I’ve used the term writing about several books (Heart of Darkness, for example). Metafiction, though, is the term for literature, strictly speaking. Mise en abyme captures the idea of the multiple layers of regress and reflection so nicely though. Glad you found me too!
on October 31, 2010 at 6:01 PM | Reply James Sloan Allen

Natalie Foy:

You do wonderful work serving books and reading! Huzzahs!

Please take a look at Worldly Wisdom: Great Books and the Meanings of Life. It is not just another “Great Books book” but gives engagingly lucid, intellectuallly substantive, and unusually pertinent interpretations of some fifty classics of world thought and literature pointed to the understanding and conduct of life. It has already changed lives. The web site above gives details and examples.
- on October 31, 2010 at 8:52 PM | Reply Nathalie Foy
  
  Thanks, James.
on December 25, 2010 at 4:14 AM | Reply Pauline

I wished it were possible to ‘like’ this page merely for the Robertson Davies quote. Glad I stumbled on your blog! 🙂 Oh, and I found the quote here: http://www.criticalimprov.com/index.php/irss/article/viewFile/591/1022 😛
- on December 25, 2010 at 10:29 AM | Reply Nathalie Foy
  
  Thanks, Pauline!
on January 20, 2011 at 4:02 PM | Reply Meliors

Hi Nathalie,
You said you were interested in participating in the journal project, Respond. Can you email me your postal address and I will send it on to you, if there are any blanks left after its current sojourn in Australia. meliors6(at)gmail(dot) com
Cheers
Meliors
on April 16, 2011 at 1:24 PM | Reply Manana

Hi Nathalie
Nice to meet you:)
on May 11, 2011 at 12:52 PM | Reply Natalie

Do your children like pop-up books? Anthropologie has a new one which I would like to buy for me. . .”The Little Prince.” It’s charming and brings back the book in 3D.
on August 13, 2011 at 10:17 AM | Reply Served (@ChristinGeall)

HI Natalie, I saw your comment on a ‘memoir’ blog and thought I’d touch base as I so admire Rachel Cusk’s work. Did you read her latest essay in Granta’s feminism issue? A ringer.
I teach nonfiction in Victoria, BC. Tweet women and nonfiction.
http://www.christingeall.com
Best,
CG
- on August 13, 2011 at 1:38 PM | Reply Nathalie
  
  Hi, Christin. Was that at 4mothers that you saw my comment? I am also one of the 4 mothers. I DID read the Granta essay. I had just finished her memoir of her time in Italy with her daughters and husband, The Last Supper, when I heard that the divorce piece was coming out. I could not wait to get my hands on it, which felt all wrong because, of course I was sad to hear about the divorce, but if anyone can write it, she can. A ringer indeed. She is ever so adept at articulating contradiction.
  
  So glad to have found your blog, too.
on September 2, 2011 at 9:49 AM | Reply daisy harrison

+
Hi Nathalie,

I am a middle school reading teacher in the U.S., and I want to do a project on the ‘Journey of Books.’ It would be sort of a cool wall exhit showcasing the first forms of writing, cuneiform on clay tablets, to where we are today. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,

D. H.
- on September 2, 2011 at 1:54 PM | Reply Nathalie Foy
  
  Hi, Daisy. I love A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel. It’s got lots of illustrations and he has an engaging prose style. (There is another A History of Reading by S. R. Fischer, which I do not recommend, especially if this is for grade school students–dry.) Of course, it was published in 1996, so there’s nothing on e-readers. I am not an e-reader enthusiast myself, but for children’s books, there are so many interesting ways to make a picture book interactive in an electronic format. I’d say that that’s where the real innovations will come, in children’s e-books. Good luck with the exhibit. Make sure to add a quill and parchment for the Harry Potter fans!
- on September 15, 2011 at 10:42 AM | Reply Nathalie
  
  I also just found this:
  http://www.masteroflibraryscience.com/the-20-oldest-books-of-all-time.html
on October 29, 2011 at 2:24 PM | Reply carolwallace

Nathalie, I just cited you as a “Versatile Blogger” in my blog — which is almost paradoxical. But books about books are pretty darn various, too!

See it here: http://carolwallace.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/versatile/

Always a pleasure to see what you’re up to!
on August 19, 2012 at 9:06 AM | Reply Liam

Hi Natalie,

How are you? I’ve been following your blog for a while now and set my own book review site up a couple of months ago.

I was wondering if I could be one of your celebrated bookish blog links? My site is http://www.thebookboy.co.uk 🙂

If I could, that would be great, I’d return the favour on my blog list!!!

Hope you are well,

Happy reading

Liam, the Book Boy x
on September 18, 2012 at 10:33 AM | Reply nzumel

I, too, have been known to footnote my blog posts. PhDs are a disease …
on October 18, 2014 at 12:06 AM | Reply kategladstone

Since I read this blog-entry of yours very soon after reading your entry on Kitty Florey’s SCRIPT AND SCRIBBLE, I thought it might amuse you to know that Robertson Davies, too, was an italic handwriter. (I do not know whether he was brought up with that form of handwriting, or whether — like Ms. Florey and me — he came over to it as an adult.)
on January 8, 2016 at 11:51 PM | Reply Megan

Hi Nat, please send me a note, I lost your email address (again). thanks, xo, Megs
on January 18, 2016 at 11:45 AM | Reply Everett Wells

Hello Prof. Foy, sorry to post here but I did not see a way to email you directly – I am an old student of yours at U of T in search of an old syllabus from a class in Fall 2006 (for exemption purposes in my current schooling). If there is any assistance you could provide me, I hope you could email me directly?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Everett