101 things a translator needs to know but doesn’t necessarily think to ask

It’s always good to find a new book on translation – for reading yourself or as a gift for a translator friend. 101 Things a Translator Needs to Know contains “over 500 years’ collective experience in translation pondered, distilled and published: nuggets of translation wisdom from prominent exponents of the profession”. The introduction describes 101 as “a book for …

Apostrophes: everything you ever wanted to know, just about.

Yesterday, 16 August, was International Apostrophe Day, and the cue for lots of apostrophe articles and Twitter posts. The following quick guide to when and how to use an apostrophe was taken from an article in The Guardian by David Marsh: If you can’t use an apostrophe, you don’t know your shit. How to use an apostrophe …

Get me to a bookery!

The Joy of Books, by Type Books in Toronto, has got me itching to go book-shopping. And to jump on a plane to Toronto. By Marian Dougan

A last-minute Christmas gift for spelling-challenged book lovers

Just enough time for one more gift idea for book lovers: “Spell It Out –The Singular Story of English Spelling”, by David Crystal. In the words of the publishers, Profile Books: Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out, our foremost linguistics expert David …

Christmas gifts for Mac users (2): an iWork “cookbook”

For Mac users who still haven’t ventured away from Microsoft Office, the “iWork for Mac OS X Cookbook” by Alexander Anichkin provides lots of ideas on how to create great documents and presentations. The iWork suite consists of Pages (word processing), Numbers (spreadsheets) and Keynote (presentations). According to Packt Publishing, you can: “Use iWork to create high quality documents …

Christmas books for Mac users

Macs are great computers but we don’t always use (or even know about) their full potential. If you know someone who’s recently bought a Mac, or who’s had their Mac for ages but doesn’t use it to full effect (who does?), then a Peachpit Press user guide might make a good present. I know — a …

Christmas gifts for book-lovers (and translators!)

Books  always make wonderful Christmas presents. They can be beautiful objects in themselves, so lovely to open on Christmas morning. And then there’s the lasting pleasure as you read, enjoy, and remember the content. If you know any translators, they’re sure to appreciate a book from Peirene Press or Hersilia Press — two publishing houses …

Reading the past in Turkey

As I mentioned in my last post, about the perils of leaving your computer unattended for too long, we spent our summer holiday in Turkey this year. One of the books I took with me was The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller. I’d like to say this was a carefully considered choice on my …

Festival Times: Milngavie Book and Arts Festival

I haven’t had time to post anything recently as I’ve been working on Milngavie Book and Arts Festival, as Twitterer-in-Chief  (follow the Festival on Twitter) and Deputy Webmaster (ie, I mess things up and the true Webmaster, Anne Nelson of Intuitive Internet (isn’t that a great name?) sorts them out). If you live in Central Scotland …

Correction to our post on Itchy Coo press

We’re delighted to correct our previous post on Itchy Coo press: happily, they are not closing down. Here’s their comment in full, to put the record straight: The story [published in Scotland on Sunday] is not accurate. Itchy Coo is NOT closing, and the books will continue to be available as long as folk continue …