We are reading more books. During the pandemic one medium in particular reached new heights: the audiobook.
All things Audio: The rise of the paperless book
Death of the Critic: The Role of Goodreads and Letterboxd
Whose opinion would you trust more: 3,000 members of the public or a singular reviewer? As a creature of habit, it seems that I am unable to watch any film on Netflix until I know that it has a rating of 3.6 stars or above on Letterboxd.
Clamping Down on Misquotation
Literature is all too often a victim of misquotation and misattribution. These mistakes, once made, proliferate at an alarming rate, entrenching what John Green never said and what Virginia Woolf said in slightly different words in the public memory. Or should I say public imagination?
Don’t Let Your Children See…Michelle Obama’s Shoulder?
On 2nd March 2021, a young readers’ edition of Michelle Obama’s best-selling autobiography Becoming was released. Having felt inspired by Becoming as a young adult, I was delighted to hear that a young readers edition was going to be published.
How Instafeminism is Damaging the Feminism 101 Genre
If there’s one thing the Florence Given v Slumflower scandal has highlighted, it’s the snobbery surrounding ‘feminist 101’ books. Searching Twitter for both influencers’ names returns Tweets like: ‘loooool not Florence Given and The Slumflower fighting over who monetised the Pinterest quotes they shared on Instagram and put in a book’.
The Author and the Ghost
Have you ever considered hiring a professional ghost?
No, not the supernatural kind – the literary kind. Splicing the word “ghostwriter” into two, this professional ghost entices prospective clients with the promise of its own invisibility. It increases its allure by marketing itself as a formless entity detached from its own literary labour.
Cooking for Beginners – What the Books Don’t Tell You
My parents hate cooking. As a child my dinners came straight from the oven – turkey dinosaurs and potato waffles galore. When they came home from a long day at work, the last thing they wanted to do was toil away in the kitchen, and I was fine with that.
Enid Blyton’s Class of 2020
Huddled under the covers, clutching my little torch, reading late into the night is a fond memory of my childhood. Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers series was always a firm favourite of mine, and I simply couldn’t hide my delight in seeing it being adapted into a series by the BBC early last year. Despite an array of university deadlines, a global pandemic hit and I had a whole lot of time on my hands. As such, I found myself rushing downstairs at lunchtime to snuggle on the sofa with my younger sister, reliving my childhood, and cherishing every single episode.
‘The Hippy Wasp’: More Reasons to Appreciate the Quirkiness of the Bee
Most of us know the importance of bees. But did you know that there are over 200,000 species of bee, in all sorts of colours, some with iridescent stripes that refract light to produce rainbows like an opal? Or that some are as large as the palm of your hand? Have you ever considered that a bee is a long-haired vegetarian – a “hippy wasp”?
“Shiny Screens” and Societal Value Manifested in Black Mirror and Instagram
Tiegan Dudley It is no secret that today’s culture is extensively encompassed in a virtual world. But with this ever-increasing digital age, could it be possible that these “shiny screens” become the […]
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