I found this 2013 article on the University of Cambridge website. Four writers—Sarah Burton, Trevor Byrne, Malachi McIntosh and Helen Taylor—talk about how reading and writing shaped their childhood, the power of fiction, what makes good literature. Here are some extracts from their their thoughts on the power of fiction: Sarah Burton: "The power of …
Category: About reading, writing and books
What Readers Have Known All Along: Reading Can Make You Happier
An article from the New Yorker by Ceridwen Dovey about bibliotherapy, healing through books, something readers have known about for a long time. "Bibliotherapy is a very broad term for the ancient practice of encouraging reading for therapeutic effect. "The first use of the term is usually dated to a jaunty 1916 article in The …
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The Fiction of Development
Are certain works of fiction valid for the study of development? The premise of this working paper by David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock is that they are. This paper is a challenge to development practitioners and academics "to include fictional representations of development issues within the scope of what they consider to be 'proper' forms of development knowledge". From …
The Type Taster—How Fonts Influence You: Sarah Hyndman
Published by Type Tasting Publications, 2015, 148 pages. Sarah Hyndman brings 20 years of experience as a graphic designer, with findings from neurologists and psychologists, to her book about types and fonts. When I read the book’s blurb, I expected a collection of essays, which this book is not. It’s a largely visual, hands-on introduction …
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What is Literature For?
Literature is not just words, but can be visual too! Loved this imaginative video on what literature can do for us with Alain de Botton on voiceover. Thanks to Paola Cagna for sharing this!
One World, Many Stories: Sharing Books from the Challenge
We finally held our reading event at the ICV Arcade last Wednesday (19 November)—on the one day that the Geneva public transport system decided to go on strike! I was worried that people wouldn’t come, what with no buses or trams running, and traffic jams because more people were taking their cars. But we had …
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Shady Characters—Ampersands, Interrobangs and other Typographical Curiosities: Keith Houston
Published by Particular Books / Penguin, 2013, 252 pages. Writing and typeface are things we take for granted, almost as if the letters, punctuation signs and symbols we use have always been around. So it’s good to have someone remind us that behind these characters is a long and interesting history. Keith Houston picks a …
On a Lighter Note… The Things that People Use for Bookmarks
What do you use as bookmarks? As someone with a large collection of bookmarks, I am fairly traditional about what I use to mark my place in a book. But according to AbeBooks, people use all kinds of things, including a baby's tooth, a diamond ring and a marriage certificate from 1879! Read on...
The Danger of a Single Story
I have been meaning to put this on for a while because I think everyone will enjoy it! "It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is …
Suroor’s Favourite Books
Here's the mise en scène with my top 15 books—I know it was supposed to be 10, and believe me, I tried. The books I selected are the ones I love, and go back to often. Books that give me comfort, make me think, or simply make me laugh out loud. There were many more …
Talking About Books 