Bookshelf of the Week: Bratislavan Bibliophile

There’s not a lot of detail about the subject for this week’s Bookshelf of the Week – other than it was taken in Bratislava, by fiction writer Michal Hvorecky – but I don’t think it really needs any. With books flowing from wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling, and even spilling out to the next room, this [...]

Cover Love: Knut Hamsun series from Souvenir Press

In my latest Cover Love feature, I take a look at the Munch emblazoned covers of the Hamsun series from Souvenir Press

Rob’s 5 Reading Rules (inspired by Michael Bhaskar)

Inspired by Michael Bhaskar’s ‘rules for reading’, I thought I’d offer up 5 ‘reading rules’ of my own.

Behind the Pen: Libby Cone, author of War on the Margins

In the first author interview I’ve brought to RobAroundBooks, I get face to face with Libby Cone, author of War on the Margins, which is release this week from Duckworth Publishers.

Bookshelf of the Week: Where books rule supreme

I adore this shot submitted to Flickr by ooh_food and chosen for this week’s Bookshelf of the Week, and I adore it for a couple of reasons. The first reason is the most obvious – wall to wall, floor to ceiling – a sprawling and glorious bookish vista. The second is how domineering the books [...]

Introducing ‘Reading Journal’

Reading Journal is a new feature I’m bringing to RobAroundBooks, and it’s one that will help me present my journey through books and reading in a more comprehensive and enriched way.

As it stood, a big gap existed in my reading record. I was covering the start of every bookish journey with my forethoughts, and the end with my final review (afterthoughts), but the transit in between was a dark and empty void. Reading Journal aims to fill that void and bring a bit more colour and light to proceedings.

[Sunday Salon] : The ‘Proust Questionnaire’

With Thursday’s ‘Proustian epiphany’ still fresh in my mind, and my ‘patient’ wait for the books to arrive continuing, you can imagine there’s still a lot of Proust fever going on in my head at the moment. My regular reading of course continues, but in the moments of ‘downtime’ I seem inclined to set [...]

RobAroundBookLists: Waterstone’s ‘The Writer’s Table’ featuring Nick Hornby

I’m always keen to hear what book titles other authors like to recommend because there’s just something about their ‘insider’ literary position that make their recommendations seem all the more worthy (plus you get a voyeuristic gawp into their reading practices )). Bearing this interest in mind I thought I would use this week’s [...]

Bookshelf of the Week: Hong Kong Urinal

On Bookshelf of the Week I like to mix things up a bit – combining the practical with the aesthetic, the straightforward with the ingenious and the sensible with the plain silly. This week it probably doesn’t get much sillier (yet still darn cool), than this shot captured by Ian Lloyd (lloydi) of a bookshelf [...]

RobAroundBookLists: 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize short lists

The ‘short lists’ for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize were announced on Wednesday making them topically ideal for the focus of this week’s RobAroundBookLists feature. But what actually is the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize I hear you cry? Well for those who don’t know here’s the official blurb:
The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, one of the world’s [...]

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