Friday procrastination: link love – Easter poems, classic novels, and why writers write

Link Love comes to you once again from British shores this week. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter break. I certainly did, though I ate far, far too much chocolate. Anyway, without further ado, the links!

I loved this article in the New York Times, about the seven deadly words in book reviewing.

Author Allan Massie on why writers write.

I was very sorry to hear about the death of Anthony Minghella at the age of just 54. Here is a very nice piece about him from the New Statesman.

The annual Orange Broadband Prize longlist has just been announced. Shamefully, I have only read one of them: Charlotte Mendelson’s When We Were Bad (I recommend it, it’s excellent).

Better slightly late than never, here is a fine selection of Easter poems, posted by The Reader Online.

Apparently, one in ten Britons admit to “cheating” with classic novels by watching the film instead.

Here is the website of an Italian artist who specialises in painting hands. I can’t stop looking at them.