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 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 …

Styling your style guide: Christmas gifts for stylish writing

  The 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) was published this year. There are of course many wonderful style guides: some are listed here. But The CMoS is the one I’m after — just look at the lovely colours on that cover! (I’ve still got the orange 15th edition; I think this …

Gifted in translation (4): Glorious Goldoni

As I’ve been putting together the last few posts on books as Christmas gifts, it’s been a lovely surprise to discover so many publishing houses specialising in their own niche markets or in helping little-known authors get published. Sparkling Books: are publishers of non-fiction and fiction. Our series are: Sparkling Perspectives – non-fiction Sparkling Imaginations – …

Gifted in translation (3): The Little Prince

For those of you looking for Christmas books for children, two new translations of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” have just been published. The one shown above is a sort of double translation, as it’s a graphic adaptation by Joann Sfar with translation by Sarah Ardizzone. It’s published by Walker Books (who really should credit the …

Gifting a book by its cover: Christmas gifts as heirlooms

  In a recent article in the Guardian, Stuart Walton asks: “Do books furnish a room, as Anthony Powell’s Bagshaw insists? Or are they just a massive encumbrance?”. It depends on the book, surely. Any designed by Coralie Beckford-Smith would add beauty and delight to any room. Coralie designs for Penguin, and her books would make …

Gifted in translation: specialist publishers

Books are always a lovely Christmas present, all the more so if they’re carefully chosen and a wee bit out of the ordinary. Hersilia Press and Peirene Press both specialise in books in translation. Hersilia is “an independent publisher bringing you the best of Italian crime fiction” and Peirene “specializes in contemporary European literature in …

It’s the thought(ful gift) that counts

A lot of us will be re-thinking our Christmas-present habits this year — more Christmas minimalism and less Christmas spending-for-spending’s sake. For some reason — and I don’t think it’s just the wintry weather that we’re experiencing here in the UK — I’ve been feeling Christmassy for the first time in years. Maybe it’s because …