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Behind-The-Books Blog
Articles by WorkExperience
Get ready for National Libraries Day
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Library goers up and down the UK are preparing to mark National Libraries Day on 4 February 2012. It will be the finale to a week of events that will celebrate libraries and librarians, and highlight the importance of reading. For example, in London at Canning Town Library, library users will be able to hear [...]
It’s literary hashtag time again!
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Literary-themed hashtags sweep Twitter on a seemingly regular basis at the moment. For example, @Foyles runs an almost weekly literary hashtag competition and participation is high. Last week’s chosen theme was #bookrailway and the entry, Now We Are Six Minutes Late, won for its ‘realistic sense of exasperation’! Whether it is driven by procrastination or [...]
A Marginal Error
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
I recently had the great pleasure of visiting Skoob, the massive second-hand bookstore in London that not even Oxford’s traditional charity bookshops can compete with. After two hours of feverishly scouring the shelves for the best bargains, I triumphantly presented my winnings – five pounds for ten tattered, ancient, dust-cloth books. These are the kind [...]
A trip down memory lane with Matilda: The Musical
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
I was brought back to my childhood in a flurry of bright scrabble-shaped letters, music, singing and dancing this weekend when I saw Matilda: The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre. Ronald Dahl has been one of my favourite authors since I could read, or perhaps even before that when my mother read to me. James [...]
When does Christmas start for you?
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
On the first of November I left early to fight my way through Oxford Street to see the Christmas Lighting Celebration. It was packed inside the fenced in street, with a crowd stretched from Marks & Spencer to Marble Arch, and it did, indeed, begin to feel like Christmas. Together the crowd sang out ‘Santa [...]
Bring on the rain, and the stories that go with it…
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
It’s another miserable day: the sky outside is a stubborn steely grey, and rain periodically lashes or drizzles against the A&B office windows. Those of us unlucky enough to have forgotten our umbrellas have reached our desks soggy and displeased, damning our bleak British weather. But perhaps we shouldn’t condemn the precipitation too quickly. Often [...]
The taste of a good book…
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
This Saturday I found myself at the Southbank Centre’s Autumn Wine and Cheese Festival. On two levels, booths packed side by side boasted their wines, ales, ciders, cheese, bread and goods for those passing by. Now I don’t know about you, but when I see that many sweet treats tempting me in one place, I [...]
Groovy punctuation…
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
The internet has a lot to answer for: identity theft, horror porn, and Rebecca Black, to name just a few examples. However, if there’s one thing it is good for (unless, that is, you are a sadistic online thief with a penchant for woeful bubblegum pop), then that is providing a wealth of semi-useless information [...]
Goodbye, Mr. E-book….
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011
“So, as I fumbled through my backpack for something to eat, I found the US Declaration of Independence and had a lightbulb moment…” Last week, I came across an article on the Guardian website which caught my interest. Michael Hart, inventor of the e-book and founder of Project Gutenberg, died last Tuesday aged just 64. [...]
Something for the travelling readers out there…
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
This summer I spent four weeks travelling through Peru and Bolivia. Everyone said how much they admired me for going on my own, but also expressed their worry for my safety. Yet when I got there, being alone wasn’t my main cause for concern. It was the fact that I’d finished the only book that [...]
Giving Books
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Earlier today I was compiling a list of my top ten books on the World Book Night website. They are currently in the process of selecting the 25 titles to be given away next year and are asking people to give their suggestions. It seemed simple enough, search for the title, drag and drop the [...]
Currently we are...
…Reading
Going Too Far, by Catherine Alliott. Susie: I rarely read 'girly' books but came across Alliott a few years ago. I've read 3 of her books thus far, and was delighted to spot this one for 30p in a charity shop. I've not opened it as yet but am hoping for another witty, grown-up, middle-class romcom, with lots of 4x4s and country houses!
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