Thoughts and experiences of those tactile, lasting, beautiful, timeless objects called ‘books’, including their ownership, production, sale, theft and loss. See also our sister page on book design and illustration, here.
Now we are six
As we approach the 6th birthday of WritingRedux, I've cast my mind back to the year I turned six and the books I was given and reading at that time. We had several Christopher Robin books at home and so Now We Are Six was a permanent presence. In addition, in 1970,...
The Magic Ink-Pot
Always on the hunt for treasures among forgotten children's books, I came across this one by chance when I was rather looking at glorious buildings and libraries stashed around the National Trust. It seems The Magic Ink-Pot was born out of a mother writing...
Second hand books
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 history of...
Shelebrate with a shelfie
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 WritingRedux over the last...
‘Do you prefer reading to cards?’ said he; ‘that is rather singular’.
Jane Austen –Â Pride & Prejudice
How to speak to an editor
Clearly, authors are simply too humble in approaching editors. This is how it should be done, straight to the point and don’t forget to pay me. In this story, the...
On the culling of books
I have long put off writing this post because I have an aversion to it. Â A while back I bought a second hand book by Italo Calvino, Six Memos for...
Stash it in the safe
The business model of publishing doesn't seem to have been very attractive then, whatever you think of it now. Thoreau makes several comments about dealing with publishers. Imagine a stack...
Second hand books
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...
Hoovering up ideas
There's such a zest to this account of the Armenian approach to dealing with invaders: translate everything you can get your hands on, regardless of your relationship with other nations...
A wilderness of books
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...
Now we are six
As we approach the 6th birthday of WritingRedux, I've cast my mind back to the year I turned six and the books I was given and reading at that time. ...
The delusional business of book selling
This lovely, zestful, imaginative novel has one of the protagonists finding a job in a bookshop. He tentatively shares with his boss the fact that he seems to be seeing...
Fuel for the body or mind?
Book burning, or bibliocide, is usually something we associate with ideologues, political or religious, fearful of the free flow of ideas. Here it is a bibliophile scholar who burns them...
Worse than cocaine
If you were traversing the Soviet Union it was better to be caught with a kilo of cocaine than a book. Let alone a book in English.
‘Worst of all...
Happy San Jordi’s Day!
It was for a good reason, three in fact, that I chose 23 April to launch WritingRedux last year. San Jordi's festival in Spain is a celebration of books, which...
My publisher, falsely so called…
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...
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