Benjamin McEvoy

Essays on writing, reading, and life

How To Rate Books (My Fine Wine Inspired 100-Point System)

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Life’s too short to drink bad wine, have bad sex, and read bad books. I’ve always hated the 5-star ranking system. The 10-point ranking scale, like IMDB use, isn’t much better.  I’m also suspicious of rave book reviews. I stopped watching Booktube videos because every single book review was clearly paid for. The reviewer would […]

The Colour of Time by Dan Jones & Marina Amaral (Book Review)

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I learnt more about history in one evening spent with The Colour of Time than years of history class at school. THIS is how you teach history. Every history classroom in every school, and every home library, should have a copy of this gorgeous, luxurious new history of the world.  Marina Amaral and Dan Jones […]

Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Review & Analysis)

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This Romeo and Juliet review and analysis contains spoilers. 3…2…1… They both die at the end.  Actually, that’s not a spoiler. You’re told from the very beginning of the play that the two main characters are destined to die: A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life. With that, Shakespeare throws down a challenge. “I’m […]

Why I Love Vigilante Stories (Kill Or Be Killed Comic Review)

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I’ve been racking my brain, trying to discover why I love vigilante stories so much. When it comes to comics and movies, I’m biased heavily in favour of revenge as a subject matter. B-movies can thrill me if the plot is revenge. But Kill Or Be Killed (Amazon) by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Elizabeth Breitweiser […]

Where to Start with Jeff Lemire? (Comic Book Creator Deep Dive)

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Jeff Lemire is my favourite comic book creator. I’ve binge-read almost everything Lemire has produced and have yet to find a work I didn’t completely fall in love with. And that is some feat as Lemire, dubbed the “hardest working man in comics” by Vulture Magazine, is prolific as heck. One year Lemire wrote eight […]

The Ultimate Audible Review (2020) – Is Audible Worth It?

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Audible made me fall in love with reading all over again. I’ve always been a voracious reader. I have 3-4 physical books on the go at any one time. Reading is the first thing I do in the morning and how I relax after work. I also have a Kindle crammed with hundreds of books […]

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (Book Review)

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The Prophet is one of the most translated books in history. Translated into over 100 languages and never out of print. As such, the chance is high you’ve already read it. But if you haven’t, I implore you to make The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran one of the books you read this year. It’s a […]