print & publish, readers & reading
Virginia Woolf’s comment on second hand books is for all those of you who love the look and feel of them, the randomness and surprise of finding them in old boxes, or lined up in a charming bookshop. I hope that, like me, you also enjoy second guessing the...
judging by the cover, print & publish
With a nod to the British Library which introduced me to the idea of the ‘shelfie’, a photo featuring a shelf’s worth of books, here is one to celebrate the 5th anniversary of WritingRedux. It features most of the books I’ve celebrated on...
podcasts, print & publish, writing & writers
Listening time: under 3 minutes. I loved this drawn out account of Thoreau’s dealings with a publisher wanting to clear out his cellar of Thoreau’s unsold books, which Thoreau had in any case had to pay for. So he gets them sent to his house, schleps them...
print & publish, readers & reading
Steinbeck and Robert Capa spent a month in the Soviet Union. It took some time for Steinbeck to cotton on to the fact that his travelling companion was a closet biblioklept. I love the blithe insistence of innocence in Capa, even when caught book-handed, with that...
print & publish, readers & reading
An idea so intrinsic to reading books, particularly those you love and remember, that I had never consciously thought of it. Here, Michael Rosen describes his first encounter with a children’s classic, and it made me recall early encounters with some beloved...
places & spaces, print & publish
This vast languishing resource was first brought home to me in Erik Reinert’s How Rich Countries Got Rich … and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, which highlighted a lemming-level of group-think compounded by ignorance of an entire ‘other canon’ of...
judging by the cover, print & publish
This book cover and related illustrations are from a wonderful old French series of tales and stories from around the world. I keep finding them at the flea market and second-hand bookshops.  Each country or region represented has a stunning set of illustrations and...
print & publish, put in a good word
This lovely word is Icelandic for ‘Christmas book flood’. As you may know, Iceland is home to the world’s most committed readers and it has long been a tradition to give books at Christmas.  This leads to a flood of new publications in the...
judging by the cover, print & publish
I grew up with Marcel. That is the French author Pagnol (1895-1974) was a part of our domestic library and vocabulary, and I remember a series of plays set in Marseille, together with his childhood memoirs, La Gloire de Mon Père and Le Chateau de Ma Mère. Redolent...
