World Book Day today -- free books!

March 05, 2020 in Bookshelf, News & views, Useful websites

Free books!

Review: Oulipo and Modern Thought

March 03, 2020 in Bookshelf, Creative Writing, Oulipo, Reviews, Reference, Audio, Oulipo book

If your interest in the Oulipo goes beyond simply trying out their techniques, and you wish to learn about the context in which it was conceived and the developments in went through, you will find this book very useful.

Review: Alastair Humphreys' Great Adventurers

February 23, 2020 in Bookshelf, Reviews

The stories in Great Adventurers are designed to help the reader believe that they can do it too, backed up by much more substantial evidence than vague and vacuous pronouncements like "You're wonderful, you can do anything."

Click the cover to see the book on Amazon (Amazon associate link)

Review: The Art of Mindful Reading

February 17, 2020 in Bookshelf, Reviews

Can reading help you achieve mindfulness? And can mindfulness enhance your reading pleasure?

Book Review: The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Victorian Age

February 06, 2020 in Bookshelf, Reviews, Writer Resource

This book not only contains a huge sampling of both prose and poetry, but places them into an historical context.

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Review of the Oulipo Compendium

January 06, 2020 in Bookshelf, Creative Writing, Language, Oulipo, Reviews, Oulipo book

The Oulipo Compendium, compiled by Harry Matthews and Alastair Brotchie, is in effect a dictionary/encyclopaedia of Oulipo. As such it is both comprehensive and easy to navigate.

Review of The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem

December 17, 2019 in Bookshelf, Creative Writing, Oulipo, Reviews

If you are a teacher of English or creative writing, you will find this book to be a rich source of material to discuss and analyse with your students. And if you are a writer, this book will I’m sure prove to be a good investment in extending your craft.

Review of the Penguin Book of Oulipo

December 10, 2019 in Bookshelf, Creative Writing, Language, Oulipo, Reviews, Oulipo book

The word Oulipo is an acronym of a French group, Ouvroir de littérature potentielle. This is usually translated as Workshop of Potential Literature, although given its association with the sharing and critique of work on creative writing courses, the word ‘workshop’ might be ditched in favour of ‘work room’.

Revoke of the Penny Borough of Ourselves

December 10, 2019 in Bookshelf, Creative Writing, Language, Oulipo, Reviews, The lighter side, Oulipo book

One of the techniques employed by the Oulipo is known as N+7. This is where you take each noun, and replace it with a word that is seven words on in the dictionary. Of course, results vary according to what dictionary you use. The following article is an N+7 version of my review of the Penguin Book of Oulipo. Enjoy!

Review: Short-Form Creative Writing

November 12, 2019 in Bookshelf, Creative Writing, Reviews

Short-form writing is neither quick nor easy, but the effort is, in my opinion, worth it. This book explores the form with useful information, challenging exercises, and interesting examples.

Click the pic to be taken to this book’s Amazon page. (This is an Amazon affiliate link.)

Should writers aim for unmindfulness?

October 14, 2019 in Bookshelf, Moments, Reviews, Quick looks

Perhaps a useful aim of writers is to lead the reader to put the book or article down, and disappear in a flight of imagination. After all, surely one measure of success is that what you’ve written led someone to think of something, or to make connections, that had not occurred to them before?

Click the cover to go to the book on Amazon (affiliate link)

Book review: The Online Journalism Handbook

October 03, 2019 in Bookshelf, Journalism, Reviews

This is a very useful reference book for anyone who is serious about online journalism.

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Review: The Story of Paintings

September 26, 2019 in Bookshelf, Reviews

With children as the target audience, this book is a fair-paced romp through the history of paintings from cave paintings to the present day. All that in less than 100 pages!