The Happy Reader - Issue 14

The Happy Reader #14

by Penguin Classics

GRACE WALES BONNER is a 28 year old fashion designer from south-east London. She has been feted by the worlds of both serious culture and high glamour, but here’s the unusual part: her clothes come with reading lists. Interviewed by Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri for this Happy Reader cover story, Grace explains how she sees herself on some level as a researcher. She visits libraries, digests acres of complex ideas about politics and identity, and expresses them, among other things, via the realm of clothes.

The Book of the Season this winter is Joris-Karl Huysmans’ AGAINST NATURE (1884), perhaps the most decadent novel ever written. Its relentless inventory-keeping thrills and inspires some readers and baffles others, and is highly relevant to this season of non-stop accumulation. Contributors include Jarvis Cocker, Lydia Davis, Rob Doyle and Jeanette Winterson.

66 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2019

About the author

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, providing readers with a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. We focus on bringing together the best of the past and the future, using cutting-edge design and production as well as embracing the digital age to create unforgettable editions of treasured literature. Penguin Classics is timeless and trend setting. Whether you love our familiar black-spine series, our Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions, or our Penguin Enriched eBook Classics, we bring the writer to the reader in every format available.

Reviews

[Jeff Howells · Rating 2 out of 5]

The literary magazine is 14 issues and 5 years old and I’ve been reading since the start. Usually the two sections (front half bookish interview, back half articles that use a book as their jumping off point) are very entertaining. Sadly this issue is the first one that has left me unsatisfied. The interview with Grace Wales Bonner just wasn’t interesting. Whilst none of the articles (on the theme of Against Nature by Joris - Karl Huysman) grabbed me - well except the one about boy emperor Elagabalus. The Happy Reader had already shrunk from a quarterly publication to a biannual one, the coronavirus has delayed the latest issue and if I was a betting man I don’t expect to see it any time soon, if at all. If this is its final issue it ends with a whimper not a bang. Which is a shame.

[Claire (find me on Storygraph) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as superbly-enjoyable as usual, but still the best magazine out there.

[Zainab Abdul Aziz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the book review by Tara Isabela Burton and really interested to read her book.

[Maria Lianou · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best issues of The Happy Reader. I enjoyed reading it immensely.

[Miranti Ratna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Happy Reader. A book club printed on paper.

The most aesthetically pleasing magazine I’ve read so far. It even smells good.

[cumrade · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a poser.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only issue of this otherwise lovely magazine that I really did not like. The interview was absolutely unbearable; I have never seen so much self-congratulating and pomposity in one place.