In Saturday’s Guardian Review section there’s an article by Ben Blatt that might interest you, it’s about the favourite words of particular authors, the words they most use and what they tell about that author. You can read it here.
There’s a review by Colin Kidd of a new biography of Oliver Cromwell by David Horspool. Oliver Cromwell: England’s Protector. An interesting read, although I’m not a mad royalist – I can’t stand Cromwell who didn’t just cause mayhem in England, he spread it up to Scotland too, doing much the same as certain contemporary people of his type are getting up to in the Middle East nowadays, but even more so in Ireland, where he is still hated.
We had a very busy weekend, donating boxes of books to a second hand bookshop for re-sale on Saturday, then travelling miles to go to a second hand booksale on Sunday, and buying another twenty books or so! But more on those books another day.
I always enjoy your Guardian Review links–thank you!
So that was a busy weekend, sorting through all your books.
Just curious (naturally): Did you receive cash for the books you toted to the second-hand shop?
And, did that allow you to purchase the next twenty? (Oh, I do so want to hear about those!)
Your friend and nosy snoop.
Judith,
No we didn’t receive any cash, although he always gives us a wee discount on any books we buy. That’s the first time we had given him books, he might have paid us if we had asked I suppose, but as it is now the only second hand bookshop in the whole county of Fife (I think) – we’re keen to help his business. There is a bookshop in Alnwick, north England called Barter Books and they do what they say – barter books giving a discount if you take unwanted books to them, but I think they are very overpriced so you could probably get books much cheaper off the internet, not so enjoyable I know and no toy trains involved!
Interesting link to the article about authors’ favourite words.
I observe that of the six photos of authors there, five of the subjects have lips pressed together as they smile, which may indicate something about the way they like to express themselves.
As for exclamation marks – I know I tend to disregard articles with too many of these, as being frivolous in tone and probably content.
I’m dying to add one to this response!
Valerie,
Or maybe they were hiding their teeth!
Yes I also know that feeling of wanting to add an exclamation mark as you can see. They’re fine amongst friends I think, sometimes they are good to make sure that people get the idea that it isn’t a terribly serious statement.
I loved the link to the Ben Blatt book — especially the part about the authors that use the most cliches. Too funny.
Karen K,
I’m convinced that it’s those cliches that make some people big fans of the writing.
The Ben Blatt article was brilliant; I have it bookmarked. And I am the world’s worst at sprinkling exclamations marks everywhere. So I shall desist on this occasion even though I’m quite sure the sentence requires one.
(Oooh that was hard!)
Sandra,
LOL (as they say) I’m quite keen on the odd exclamation mark myself! But I think we’re using them sort of tongue in cheeki-ish.