‘Book Bites’ for Wednesday 7th September 2011

Meet Charles Mysak, cigar-puffing bookseller extraordinaire - I've always been a fan of strong real-life characters, and there are certainly plenty of those in the wonderful world of books. Take cigar-puffing Charles Mysak, who has sold books on the … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Tuesday 6th September 2011

Man Booker shortlist announced - Although I'm not a fan of the unfair amount of coverage it gets, I'm always interested to see what books make it on to the Man Booker shortlist every year. You may remember that the longlist announcement caused quite … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Monday 29th August 2011

Taking Murakami to the stage - The Economist has a nice little write up on the new Haruki Murakami play which has been taking Edinburgh by storm this past week. Adapted from Murakami's novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Stephen Earnhart's adaptation … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Saturday 13th August 2011

Readers like spoilers - According to researchers at U.C. San Diego people prefer to know how a story ends before they read it. A team at the university ran three separate experiments using twelve short stories - from the likes of Chekhov, Updike, and … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Friday 12th August 2011

Touring the literary hotspots of Edinburgh - If you ever wanted an easy to follow Google Maps-based interactive guide to the places in Edinburgh which are settings in books, you're in luck. The good people of Edinburgh City Libraries have produced an … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Thursday 5th August 2011

Melville House announce HybridBook project - Brooklyn-based publisher Melville House has released details of a new publishing innovation which launches on August 16th. Hybridbook combines the traditional form of the printed book with an electronic … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Wednesday 13th July 2011

In praise of battered books - Gotta love David Barnett's post over at Guardian Books, in which he shows some genuine affection for the more battered titles to be found on his bookshelves. I absolutely get where David is coming from. Every … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Thursday 9th December 2010

Stinging Fly offer appealling subscription deals - People got a heads up on Twitter today from David Hayden (@seventydys - Publishing Director of The Folio Society), telling them that The Stinging Fly - the wonderful Irish press responsible for first … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Tuesday 21st September 2010

Paris Review website opens legendary 'Interviews' archives to all - I don't know if you've seen the snazzy new Paris Review website yet, but if not then you may well want to pop on over and have a gander. However, it's not the peachy new colour … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Monday 24th May 2010

Bakewell 'bigs it up' for Montaigne (in parts) - Although you've yet to see a review on RobAroundBooks of Sarah Bakewell's awesomely stupendous (and lengthily titled) How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer … [Read more...]