Japanese Literature : An Introduction for Western Readers by Donald Keene

$10.00 AUD

Category: SECONDHAND BOOKS

How to Be an Author: The Business of Being a Writer in Australia by Georgia Richter; Deborah Hunn

$34.99 AUD

Category: ENGLISH

Georgia Richter and Deborah Hunn look at the business of becoming an author. In a friendly, informative and practical way they share all you need to know about inspiration and research, preparing to submit to a publisher, creating an author brand, legal, ethical and moral considerations, pitching and ef fective social media and much more. ...Show more

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by Peter Boxall (ed)

$20.00 AUD

$45.00 (55% off)

Category: SECONDHAND BOOKS

Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Cliches, Cant & Management Jargon by Don Watson

$15.00 AUD

$32.95 (54% off)

Category: SECONDHAND BOOKS

At last, the longed-for and much-requested companion volume to DEATH SENTENCE, Don Watson

A Dictionary of Australian English by Edward E. Morris

$30.00 AUD

Category: SECONDHAND BOOKS

THE OXFORD COMPANION TO CLASSICAL LITERATURE by M C HOWATSON

$30.00 AUD

Category: SECONDHAND BOOKS

The Artful Dickens - The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist by John Mullan

$27.99 AUD

Category: ENGLISH

Discover the tricks of a literary master in this essential guide to the fictional world of Charles Dickens. From Pickwick to Scrooge, Copperfield to Twist, how did Dickens find the perfect names for his characters? What was Dickens's favourite way of killing his characters? When is a Dickens character most likely to see a ghost? Why is Dickens's trickery only fully realised when his novels are read aloud? In thirteen entertaining and wonderfully insightful essays, John Mullan explores the literary machinations of Dickens's eccentric genius, from from his delight in clich s to his rendering of smells and his outrageous use of coincidences. A treat for all lovers of Dickens, this essential companion puts his audacity, originality and brilliance on full display. ...Show more

Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell

$14.99 AUD

Category: ENGLISH

A wickedly witty field guide to bookstore customers from the Person Who Doesn't Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover) to the harried Parents Secretly After Free Childcare. It does take all kinds. If you visit bookshops more often than the grocery store, you'll recognize the types. There's the Expert (with subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman). Then there's the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lyrca Clad), the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter), and the Family Historian (generally Americans who come to Shaun's shop in Wigtown, Scotland). Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer -- all from Shaun Bythell (author of Confessions of a Bookseller), the funniest sell-and-tell observer in the house of books. This is the perfect read for anyone who ever felt a bookstore was home. You've been spotted! Or have you?   ...Show more

The Bookseller's Tale by Martin Latham

$35.00 AUD

Category: ENGLISH

'The right book has a neverendingness, and so does the right bookshop.' This is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. Taking us on a journey through comfort reads, street book stalls , mythical libraries, itinerant pedlars, radical pamphleteers, extraordinary bookshop customers and fanatical collectors, Canterbury bookseller Martin Latham uncovers the curious history of our book obsession - and his own. Part cultural history, part literary love letter and part reluctant memoir, this is the tale of one bookseller and many, many books. ...Show more

Ex Libris: 100 Books for Everyone's Bookshelf by Michiko Kakutani

$34.99 AUD

Category: ENGLISH

From 'the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world' (Vanity Fair) comes an inspiring and beautifully illustrated selection of the life-changing books that none of us should miss 'Why do we love books so much?' For legendary literary critic Michiko Kakutani, books have always been an esca pe and a sanctuary, the characters of some novels feeling so real to her childhood self that she worried they might leap out of the pages at night if she left the book cover open. In Ex Libris, she offers a personal selection of over 100 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with passionate essays on why each has had a profound effect on her life. From Homer's The Odyssey to The Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, Ex Libris covers a rich and vast range of classics, old and new, that will help build a well-rounded reader and citizen of the world. With gorgeous illustrations by lettering artist Dana Tanamachi that evoke vintage bookplates leafed between Kakutani's inspiring essays, Ex Libris points us to our next great read - and proves an unmissable reminder of why we fell in love with reading in the first place. ...Show more

THE MODERN LIBRARY : THE 200 BEST NOVELS IN ENGLISH SINCE 1950 by CARMEN CALLIL AND COLM TOIBIN

$20.00 AUD

Category: SECONDHAND BOOKS

Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame by Robin Robertson (ed)

$15.00 AUD

$27.95 (46% off)

Category: SECONDHAND BOOKS

A collection of stories from some of the world's greatest writers about their own public humiliation. Humiliation is not, of course, unique to writers. However, the world of letters does seem to offer a near-perfect micro-climate for embarrassment and shame. There is something about the conjunction of h igh-mindedness and low income that is inherently comic; something about the very idea of deeply private thoughts - carefully worked and honed into art over the years - being presented to a public audience of dubious strangers, that strays perilously close to tragedy. Here, in over 80 contributions, are stories about the writer's audience, the fellow readers, the organiser, the venue, the 'hospitality', or the often-interminable journey there and back. Then there are the experiences of teaching and being taught, reviewing and being reviewed, of festivals and writers' retreats, symposia, signing sessions, literary parties and prizes, the trips abroad, with all the attendant joys of translation and, finally, the bright worlds of television and radio that can bring so many more people to share in your shame. These are the best stories: Those told against the teller. And for the reader, apart from the sheer Schadenfreude of it all, there is admiration too: for that acknowledgement of human frailty, of punctured pride, but also of the seeming absurdity of trying to bring private art into public space. Contributions come from Simon Armitage, Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, Louis de Bernieres, Margaret Drabble, Roddy Doyle, Kazuo Ishiguro, A.L. Kennedy, John Lanchester, Patrick McCabe, Norman Mailer, Rick Moody, Andrew Motion, Andrew O'Hagan, Colm Toibin, Irvine Welsh, James Wood and many others. Reviews: "Entertaining reading. This is a jolly romp and will make a good stocking-filler for any authors of your acquaintance." - Sunday Times ...Show more