Reading Copy Book Blog

One of my aspirations is to write a children’s picture book.  As I have become more “serious” about this, I’ve been reading tips on getting started and getting to know the industry. An important step is to become familiar with those who have gone before you -  That is,  published authors and their books. So [...]

On a day where there is only more news about lay-offs in the publishing industry, I spotted this article in The Guardian about Tony Blair’s official Christmas card. It’s a pretty rubbish article but reminded me about the large number of Christmas cards from famous people that can be found on AbeBooks. Here are some [...]

Conde Nast Traveler picks Berlin, Dublin and Boston as the three best cities for bookworms to travel to Berlin Artists aren’t the only creative types flocking to Berlin, Europe’s new cultural capital. The city has been attracting both fledgling and established writers from around the globe, including Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides. And don’t forget [...]

Happy Birthday Scrabble! By 1931, he had developed a word game that also had a bit of arithmetic thrown in, which he called Lexico. It was played without a board. He made about 200 copies which he sold or gave away, but it did not catch on. Then in 1938, he had a better idea [...]

The shortlist for the $40,000 British Columbia non-fiction award was announced last week. To be nominated the author must be Canadian and must have published between Nov. 1, 2007 and Oct. 31, 2008. Short listed works were: Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings by Mary Henley Rubio The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the [...]

I’m sure you recall the resulting ruckus when it was revealed that James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces wasn’t quite as non-fiction as an autobiographical account should be. But here’s a flip side to that tarnished coin – an author who writes a true account of his life only to discover that what he has [...]