In any 24 hours there might be sleeping, eating, kids, parents, friends, lovers, work, school, travel, deadlines, emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, the news, the TV, Playstation, music, movies, sport, responsibilities, passions, desires, and dreams. Why should you stop what you're doing and read a book? But people have always needed stories. We need literature - novels, poetry - because we need to make sense of our lives, test our depths, understand our joys, and discover what humans are capable of. Great books can provid... read more
There they sit, the great tomes of classical literature, taunting you with their length and difficulty, as you ask: which books are the most important and why - and what's actually any good? Why does most writing about the classics have words like 'seminal' or 'oeuvre' in it? What does postmodernism mean? Can I get away with just reading the introduction? Now you can enjoy the classics without fear. This survival kit will guide you painlessly through the Western literary canon, century by century: from Ancient Greek drama to the mo... read more
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While travelling in Calgary, Alberto Manguel was struck by how the novel he was reading seemed to reflect the world he was living in. An article in the daily paper would be suddenly illuminated by a passage in the novel; a long reflection would be prompted by a single word. He decided to keep a record of these moments, rereading a book a month, and formed "A Reading Diary": a volume of notes, impressions of travel, of friends, of public and private events, all elicited by his reading. First published 2004.
Meet Stevie Duveen: striking, brilliant, gifted in seven languages and all kinds of combat - and strategic analyst for Hazard Ltd, an international trouble-shooting outfit specialising in discreet and very dangerous missions. Surprise is her most effective weapon, apart from her fierce intellect, unflagging determination and razor-sharp intuition. And something even the most battle-scarred operative lacks: she cares, sometimes too much. Which is why she is nursing a broken heart and telling herself she will never fall in love again... read more
'Literary criticism, as I attempt to practice it', writes Harold Bloom in "The Anatomy of Influence", 'is in the first place literary, that is to say, personal and passionate'. For more than half a century, Bloom has shared his profound knowledge of the written word with students and readers. In this, his most comprehensive and accessible study of influence, Bloom leads us through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years. The result is 'a critical self-portrait',... read more
Why does language move some of us to anxiety or even rage? For centuries, sticklers have donned the cloak of authority to control how people use words. In this sensational new book, Robert Lane Greene strikes back to defend the fascinating, real-life diversity of this most basic human faculty. Along the way, he corrects Bill Bryson's 'facts' about words, challenges the rhetoric of Lynne Truss's bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, and explains why speech is a lot like jazz. Travel with Greene on a rollicking world tour that shows t... read more
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The Journalist and the Murderer (out of print)
Janet Malcolm
In this major collection of his essays, Alberto Manguel, whom George Steiner has called 'the Casanova of reading', argues that the activity of reading, in its broadest sense, defines our species. "We come into the world intent on finding narrative in everything", writes Manguel, "landscape, the skies, the faces of others, the images and words that our species create". Reading our own lives and those of others, reading the societies we live in and those that lie beyond our borders, reading the worlds that lie between the covers of a... read more
Plato's "Republic", Hobbes' "Leviathan", and Marx's "Communist Manifesto" are universally acknowledged classics of Western political thought. But how strong are the core arguments on which they base their visions of the good society that they want to bring into being? In this lively and provocative book, W.G. Runciman shows where and why they fail, even after due allowance has been made for the different historical contexts in which they wrote. Plato, Hobbes, and Marx were all passionately convinced that justice, peace, and order c... read more
"Why Translation Matters" argues for the cultural importance of translation, and for a more encompassing and nuanced appreciation of the translator's role. As the acclaimed translator Edith Grossman writes in her introduction, 'My intention is to stimulate a new consideration of an area of literature that is too often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented'. For Grossman, translation has a transcendent importance: 'Translation not only plays its important traditional role as the means that allows us access to literature original... read more
This title includes unexpected tales from the master of short fiction.
The Shielding of Mrs Forbes - Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. And her own husband would be better if she were mourning him than living with him. But this is Alan Bennett, so no matter the importance of keeping up appearances, what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately much more honest to ... read more
The time is 1995, but everybody has a past. Brilliant Australian Caroline can command everyone except her own ghoulish mother, which means that things aren't easy for Josh and Zoe, her husband with Stravinsky-glasses and twelve-year-old daughter. Zoe reads girls' ballet books and longs for lessons; a thing denied her until a chance encounter on a school French exchange. Meanwhile, on the east coast of Africa, Hattie, Josh's first love, now writes girls' ballet books - that's when she can carve out the space between her husband and ... read more
In Kinshasa, Zaire, 1974, Muhammad Ali met George Foreman in the ring. Foreman's famous tactical use of silence, serenity and raw cunning made him the undefeated reigning World Heavyweight Champion. For Ali, the challenger, the contest had to begin in the mind. This legendary fight was to make boxing history with an explosive meeting of indomitable wills, unwavering nerves, and monumental egos.
For so many of us a Jane Austen novel is much more than the epitome of a great read. It is a delight and a solace, a challenge and a reward, and perhaps even an obsession. For two centuries Austen has enthralled readers. Few other authors can claim as many fans or as much devotion. So why are we so fascinated with her novels? What is it about her prose that has made Jane Austen so universally beloved? In essays culled from the last one hundred years of criticism juxtaposed with new pieces by some of today's most popular novelists a... read more
Bruno Littlemore; linguist, artist, philosopher. A life defined by a soaring mind, yet bound by a restrictive body. Born in down-town Chicago, Bruno's precocity pulls him from an unremarkable childhood, and under the tuition of Lydia, his intellect dazzles a watching world. But when falls in love with his mentor, the world turns on them with outrage: Bruno is striving to be something he is not, and denying everything that he is. For despite his all too human complexities, dreams and frailties, Bruno's hairy body, flattened nose and... read more
"The way you speak is who you are and the tones of your voice and the tricks of your emailing and tweeting and letter-writing, can be recognised unmistakably in the minds of those who know and love you". (Stephen Fry). From feral children to fairy-tale princesses, secrets codes, invented languages - even a language that was eaten - "Planet Word" uncovers everything you didn't know you needed to know about how language evolves. Learn the tricks to political propaganda, why we can talk but animals can't, discover 3,000-year-old clay ... read more
The ever popular and thoroughly entertaining, 'Aussie Slang Dictionary', is back to help you decipher and speak the true local language. Full of dazzling definitions from true-blue Aussies, you'll never be lost for words with this collection of colourful sayings. From 'aerial ping-pong' (AFL) to 'on the wrong tram' (to be following the wrong train of thought) and finishing up with some verbal diarrhoea (never-ending blather), your mind will be brimming with useful sayings for your next run-in with a true Aussie character.
