Books & Reading

A Sunday Times BestsellerChristopher Hitchens (1949-2011) was a matchless writer, debater and humanist. Throughout his life he shone the light of reason and truth into the eyes of charlatans and hucksters, exposing falsehood and decrying hypocrisy...

"The ultimate literary bucket list." -The Washington Post "If there's a heaven just for readers, this is it." -O, The Oprah Magazine Celebrate the pleasure of reading and the thrill of discovering new titles in an extraordinary book that's as...

From bestselling author Bill Bryson comes this compelling short biography of William Shakespeare, our greatest dramatist and poet. Examining centuries of myths, half-truths and downright lies, Bill Bryson makes sense of the man behind the...

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Act of Love, Cathy Rentzenbrink's Dear Reader is the ultimate love letter to reading and to finding the comfort and joy in stories.'Exquisite' - Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups'A warm, unpretentious...

Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader is Vivian Gornick's celebration of passionate reading, of returning again and again to the books that have shaped her at crucial points in her life. In nine essays that traverse literary criticism,...

Exam Board: AQA Level: GCSE Grade 9-1 Subject: English Suitable for the 2024 exams Complete coverage of...

In Only a Voice, George Scialabba examines the chasm between modernity's promise of progress and the sobering reality of our present day through studies of the most influential public intellectuals of our time. In Scialabba's hands, literary criticism...

A darkly comic and moving memoir on what it means to be human in a world where nothing is certain, from the award-winning Oxford professor.'A book that will stay with you for life'NATALIE HAYNES'The best book about multiple sclerosis'THE TIMESWe all have...

Discover over 300 seasonal book recommendations in the ultimate reading list for book lovers everywhere.-----'I will be giving this book to everyone I know' - Elizabeth Day'Francesca Beauman writes about the books she loves with irresistible passion,...

The bestselling phenomenon - an enthralling 6,000-year journey through the history of books and readingA FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST AND MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR'Outstanding, universal and unique' NEW YORK TIMES'A literary phenomenon.' TLS'Masterly...

The Gutenberg Parenthesis traces the epoch of print from its fateful beginnings to our digital present - and draws out lessons for the age to come. The age of print is a grand exception in history. For five centuries it fostered what some call print...

A WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH In this love letter to reading, curated by Pandora Sykes in aid of the National Literacy Trust, bestselling and beloved writers share their favourite books: the ones they hold most dearly, that they return...

In this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, legendary Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau showcases the passion that made him a critic-his love for the written word. Many selections address music, from blackface minstrelsy to...

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of Thomas C. Foster's classic guide-a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes and contexts, that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience...

**SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020** From renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic, Michiko Kakutani, comes an inspiring and gorgeously illustrated selection of the life-changing...

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Brilliant. The unwritten Bowie book that needed writing' CAITLIN MORAN 'Splendid. Provides plenty of evidence of Bowie's restless, rummaging intelligence, and his pleasure in the fact that books allow readers to slip into...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781681376639Author Peter BrooksFormat PaperbackPage Count 176Imprint The New York Review of Books, IncPublisher The New York Review of Books, Inc

Beginning with new evidence that cites the presence of books in Roman villas and concluding with present day vicissitudes of collecting, this generously illustrated book presents a complete survey of British and Irish country house libraries. Replete...

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of C. S. Lewis' death, this attractive book offers daily inspirational readings from this much-loved writer, making this a most thoughtful gift. Few people, whether children or adults, have not been touched by...

A sense of certainty and unhesitating confidence is rare in the contemporary world. An unrelenting flow of choices confronts us at nearly every moment of our lives, and if we are honest about it then most of us will admit that we waver in the face of...

A dazzling biography of two interwoven, tragic lives: John Keats and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 'Highly engaging ... Go now, read this book' THE TIMES 'For awhile after you quit Keats,' Fitzgerald once wrote,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780300179040Author Geoffrey RobertsFormat HardbackPage Count 320Imprint Yale University PressPublisher Yale University PressWeight(grams) 156g

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781496425805Author Sarah ClarksonFormat PaperbackPage Count 288Imprint Tyndale House PublishersPublisher Tyndale House Publishers

The extraordinary history of news and its dissemination, from medieval pilgrim tales to the birth of the newspaper Long before the invention of printing, let alone the availability of a daily newspaper, people desired to be informed. In the...

John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) is a literary landmark. His reworking of Biblical tales of the loss of Eden constitutes not only a gripping literary work, but a significant musing on fundamental human concerns ranging from freedom and fate...

Ecocriticism explores the ways in which we imagine and portray the relationship between humans and the environment across many areas of cultural production, including Romantic poetry, wildlife documentaries, climate models, the Hollywood blockbuster The...

The Selling and Self-Regulation of Contemporary Poetry is the first book-length study of the contemporary poetry industry. By documenting radical changes over the past decade in the way poems are published, sold, and consumed, it connects the seemingly...

This collection is the first to historicise the term ephemera and its meanings for early modern England and considers its relationship to time, matter, and place. It asks: how do we conceive of ephemera in a period before it was routinely employed (from...

A celebration of reading, of libraries, and of the mysterious human desire to give order to the universe Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781941040997Author Ursula K Le GuinFormat HardbackPage Count 150Imprint Tin House BooksPublisher Tin House BooksWeight(grams) 295gDimensions(mm) 180mm *...

Major transformations in society are always accompanied by parallel transformations in systems of social communication what we call the media. In this book, historian Frederic Barbier provides an important new economic, political and social analysis of...

If you know sentences, you know everything. Good sentences promise nothing less than lessons and practice in the organization of the world. Some appreciate fine art; others appreciate fine wines. Stanley Fish appreciates fine sentences. "The New York...

Now in paperback, in the tradition of E. H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World, a lively journey through the story of language With a language disappearing every two weeks and neologisms springing up almost daily, an understanding of the origins...

A guide to writing fiction by the Booker Prize-winning author of Vernon God Little.Part biography, part reflection and part practical guide, Release the Bats explores the mysteries of why and how we tell stories, and the craft of writing fiction. DBC...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780544002340Author Instructor Jonathan GottschallFormat PaperbackPage Count 272Imprint Mariner BooksPublisher Mariner BooksWeight(grams) 218gDimensions(mm)...

An amazing guide to some of the most beloved, original, inspiring, hysterical, heart-warming, compelling, rude and downright scary books that have enchanted children the world over. In 100 Children's Books That...

'A fascinating journey into our relationship with the physical book...I lost count of the times I exclaimed with delight when I read a nugget of information I hadn't encountered before' Val McDermid, The TimesMost of what we say about books is really...

This volume is an in-depth and exquisitely illustrated guide to the Second Age of Middle-earth, one of the least-explored periods of Arda's history.The Illustrated World of Tolkien: The Second Age, is the follow up companion to the best-selling The...

A much-loved author brings the world of literature alive for all ages This 'little history' takes on a very big subject: the glorious span of literature from Greek myth to graphic novels, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter. John Sutherland is...

A working father whose life no longer feels like his own discovers the transforming powers of great (and downright terrible) literature in this laugh-out-loud memoir. Andy Miller had a job he quite liked, a family he loved and no time at all...