‘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 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...]

‘Book Bites’ for Monday 17th May 2010

Penguin launch luscious 75th anniversary website - So you all know that this year marks the 75th anniversary of Penguin Books, right? Well, regardless of whether you or you didn't, then might want to get yourself over to Penguin's shiny new 75th … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Monday 28th September 2009

Obama Music: The music behind the man - I don’t think there are many people who would argue that Barack Obama is likely to be one of the most iconic leaders of the 21st century. And with such a prestigious mantle it’s not surprising that a lot of … [Read more...]

‘Book Bites’ for Monday 21st September 2009

Fifty-Two Stories serve up exclusive Jess Walter short - It’s Monday so another serving of short story from my favourite short story ‘vending machine’, Fifty-Two Stories. This week it’s an exclusive short from Jess Walter called Beneath All … [Read more...]