I love books, and I love reviewing them. However, I’ve decided that a one-size fits all approach to reviewing books (or anything else, come to that), just won’t do. So I’ve categorised my reviews into 6 types.
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I love Substack, but…
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I was faced with a conundrum: should I write a Preface to the 3rd Edition, a Foreword to the 3rd Edition, or just stuff it all into the Introduction and be done with it?
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7 Features of Bad Writing suggests some common characteristics of poor prose. Any one of these 'sins' would serve as an indicator, especially if they occur more than once or twice.
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Shock, Horror! by Terry Freedman
I’ve been asked to write a book review by a magazine. Here’s the process I went through.
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I love second-hand bookshops. Whenever I go on holiday, one of the first things I do is go to the nearest Tourism Information outlet and get a list of the local used bookshops.
So, what do I like about them, and what does this have to do with ebooks?
time’s running out! Picture created in ImageFX
This collection of work by Gay Talese is utterly brilliant, and contains items that haven’t seen the light of day in a long time.
Read MoreNot everything in life is black and white -- but perhaps more of it should be.
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Creative writing class
Reading each student’s work each week, at a rate of ten minutes each, took nearly two and a half hours. Thinking of suitable comments, adding them in to the appropriate place in Google Classroom, and updating my spreadsheet markbook took another hour and a half.
Something had to be done.
Read MoreLast week I announced a competition to win a copy of A Town Without Time, the new collection of work by Gay Talese. Here is the link again, this time with an unrestricted link!
Read MoreHere are seven handy techniques with which to enrich your writing. Used sparingly, they can be very effective at bringing a piece to life.
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Three creative writing experiments: stories written in the hardboiled style.A short review, plus a chance to win a copy of this new book.
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Here is a mixture of news, articles and links you might like. A word of warning though: one of the pieces below is pure fiction. I will leave you to determine which one.
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was intrigued to discover that a popular news magazine of the sixties had been anticipated by Defoe.
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A load of chips — photo by Terry Freedman
Lois has an arts degree from the University of Oxford, which means that she can tell you everything you need to know about the influence of post-modernism on Latin-American literature in the final quarter of the twentieth century, but she can’t add up.
Read MoreThe Music Programme of Study requires students to have an understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history, and an appreciation of different musical styles.
Read MoreIn all, twenty three poets are considered, and they constitute a wide variety: alongside the usual ones like Milton and Chaucer, we find Sappho and Basho. Each chapter is a mixture of biography and quotations.
Read MoreI was very pleased to be able to give a load of women the benefit of my wisdom and experience on a Jane Austen course a few months ago.
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Me feeling somewhat exercised
Playing the feminist card strikes me as intellectually lazy.
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