Monthly Archives: February 2011

Molesworth – Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle

(Penguin Modern Classics 2000) Down With Skool! (1953) / How to be Topp (1954) / Whizz for Atomms (1956) / Back in the Jug Agane (1959) The four Molesworth books have been much imitated and often quoted, mainly because the … Continue reading

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If on a winter’s night a traveller – Italo Calvino

(Vintage e-book, originally published 1980, translated by William Weaver) This is a strange, unusual book about books and reading, where the author(s) – whoever he may be – constantly addresses the reader, and where one is always aware of the … Continue reading

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Please Ignore Vera Dietz – A. S. King

(Random House e-book 2010) I wouldn’t have got this book were it not for Erin’s recommendation at Aelia Reads: I pass on my own recommendation, because King’s novel is excellent. Vera Dietz is eighteen, a high school senior living in … Continue reading

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The Shaping of Middle-Earth – J. R. R. Tolkien

(HarperCollins 2002, originally published 1986) The History of Middle-Earth – Vol. 4 (edited by Christopher Tolkien) The only works of Tolkien’s legendarium to have been published in a completed form during his lifetime were The Hobbit and The Lord of … Continue reading

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A chance to read more

I won’t be posting for a while, since I’m off to Eritrea tomorrow. The horrendously long flight and travelling time will, however, let me read several of the books I have on my Kindle. If on a winter’s night a … Continue reading

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The Silmarillion – J. R. R. Tolkien

(HarperCollins audiobook 2001, read by Martin Shaw) Let me say right now that I don’t much like audiobooks. The read word tends to distract me from other things, and I prefer to listen to music while doing chores or repetitive … Continue reading

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Office of Fair Trading to investigate Agency model pricing for e-books

My sister, who works in publishing, sent me a link to this article from The Bookseller, a UK trade magazine, about pricing of electronic books. An extract from the article is below: The Office of Fair Trading has launched an … Continue reading

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