Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? by J.A. Sutherland

$6.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Series: World's Classics

John Sutherland investigates 35 literary conundrums, ranging from Daniel Defoe to James Joyce. Why does Robinson Crusoe find only "one" footprint? And how does Magwitch swim to shore with a great iron on his leg? These questions and more are answered.

Is Heathcliff A Murderer by J.A. Sutherland

$6.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Series: World's Classics | Reading Level: very good

This volume investigates 34 conundrums of 19th-century fiction. Applying "real world" questions to fiction is not in any sense intended to catch out the novelists. Typically, one finds a reason for the seeming anomaly. Not blunders, that is, but unexpected justifications.

By the Book: Writers on Literature and Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review by Pamela Paul

$16.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: very good

Every Sunday, readers of The New York Times Book Review turn with anticipation to see which novelist, historian, short story writer, or artist will be the subject of the popular By the Book feature. These wide-ranging interviews are conducted by Pamela Paul, the editor of the Book Review, and here she brings together sixty-five of the most intriguing and fascinating exchanges, featuring personalities as varied as David Sedaris, Hilary Mantel, Michael Chabon, Khaled Hosseini, Anne Lamott, and James Patterson. The questions and answers admit us into the private worlds of these authors, as they reflect on their work habits, reading preferences, inspirations, pet peeves, and recommendations. By the Book contains the full uncut interviews, offering a range of experiences and observations that deepens readers' understanding of the literary sensibility and the writing process. It also features dozens of sidebars that reveal the commonalities and conflicts among the participants, underscoring those influences that are truly universal and those that remain matters of individual taste. For the devoted reader, By the Book is a way to invite sixty-five of the most interesting guests into your world. It's a book party not to be missed. ...Show more

This is Not the End of the Book - Two great men discuss our digital future by Umberto Eco & Jean-Claude Carrière

$16.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: very good

Every Book Its Reader: The power of the printed word to stir the world by Nicholas A. Basbanes

$15.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: very good

Inspired by a landmark exhibition mounted by the British Museum in 1963 to celebrate five eventful centuries of the printed word, Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a lively consideration of writings that have "made things happen" in the world, works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the im agination of countless influential people. In his fifth work to examine a specific aspect of book culture, Basbanes also asks what we can know about such figures as John Milton, Isaac Newton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Adams, Frederick Douglass, Helen Keller, even the notorious Marquis de Sade and Adolf Hitler, by knowing what they have read. He shows how books that many of these people have consulted, in some cases annotated with their marginal notes, can offer tantalizing clues to the evolution of their character and the development of their thought. Nicholas A. Basbanes, who has been called "our leading author of books about books" by Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough, offers an engaging consideration of writings that have "made things happen" in the world— works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the imagination of countless influential people such as John Milton, Isaac Newton, Frederick Douglass, Henry James, Helen Keller, and even the notorious Marquis de Sade and Adolf Hitler. Basbanes also profiles the most articulate readers of our own time— including Harold Bloom, Robert Fagles, Helen Vendler, and Elaine Pagels— and offers insightful discussions of literary canons and classic works in translation as well as powerful exhortations on the ability of literature to train physicians, nurture children, and rehabilitate criminal offenders. First published 2005. ...Show more

Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore by Nancy Goldstone

$10.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: good

Muse by Jonathan Galassi

$8.00 NZD

Category: Hardback fiction | Reading Level: good-very good

The Trinity Apocalypse by David McKitterick; Nigel J. Morgan; Ian Short; Teresa Webber

$40.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Series: British Library Studies in Medieval Culture | Reading Level: near fine

The Trinity Apocalypse has long been considered the finest manuscript of its kind. Containing the text of the Book of Revelation, accompanied by a commentary and a remarkable series of illustrations that depict the dream of John in vivid detail, it was written and illustrated in England in the mid-thirt eenth century (with a text in French), and stands at the height of artistic achievement. Amidst the figures in the dream, there are people and animals familiar in contemporary life, depicted with a colour and vitality whose appeal speaks over the centuries. The essays in this collection concern the creation of The Trinity Apocalyps and its subsequent history, including the circumstances surrounding its coming to its current home at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the seventeenth century. The contributors examine the extraordinarily close relationship between text and image in the Book of Revelation and how these images were interpreted in The Trinity Apocalypse. The first close examination of this extraordinary work, David McKitterick's volume is accompanied by a CD containing the entire text, with an English translation. ...Show more

Tolkien's Gown and Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books by R.A. Gekoski

$10.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: good

Rick Gekoski has been described as the Bill Bryson of the book world. Rare book dealer, academic, publisher, critic, bibliographer, and broadcaster, his BBC Radio series Rare Books, Rare People was acclaimed by The Daily Telegraph as 'one of the gems of Radio 4'. In Tolkien's Gown, a book based loosely on that hugely successful radio series, he discusses twenty great works of modern literature as both texts and objects. At once erudite and funny, the essays give a publishing biography of each book, together with comments about the author's involvement with first editions of the works. 'What is the value of a book?' he asks. The answers are both critical and financial, involving appraisals of the literary qualities of the works, together with an account of their (sometimes surprising) value in the rare book trade. His stories are fascinating and diverse, and involve memorable encounters with, among others, Graham Greene, William Golding, J.D. Salinger, Ted Hughes, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes and Harold Pinter. Relations between book dealers and authors can be uneasy: J.D. Salinger threatens a law suit, William Golding produces a parody of the author, Ted Hughes thinks he has been overcharged. While Graham Greene is simply delighted to have done business. For anyone who loves books, Tolkien's Gown offers a wealth of amusement and instruction, and enough literary anecdotes to last a lifetime. First published 2004. ...Show more

A Handbook of Rugby Literature by David McLaren

$20.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books

Sebastian Walker,1942-91 - A Kind of Prospero by Mirabel Cecil

$16.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: very good

A biography of Sebastian Walker (1942-91), who founded the internationally acclaimed publishing house Walker Books.

Annotated Bibliography for the History of Health & Medicine in New Zealand by Derek A Dow

$25.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good