Readings Recommends: Essays, Language & Reference
A Point Of View
$32.99 – Paperback book / Macmillan
The BBC Radio 4 series,A Point of View, has been on the air since 2007. Over the years, it's had a variety of presenters – including the national treasure that is Clive James – talking for ten minutes about anything and ... Buy or find out more →
The Psychopath Test
$0.00 – Paperback book / Macmillan
This is a story about madness. It all starts when journalist Jon Ronson is contacted by a leading neurologist. She and several colleagues have recently received a cryptically puzzling book in the mail, and Jon is challen... Buy or find out more →
The Secret Life Of Pronouns
$35.00 – Hard back / Bloomsbury
A surprising, and entertaining, explanation of how the words we use (even the ones we don't notice) reveal our personalities, emotions, and identities.
We spend our lives communicating. In the last fifty years, we've zoo... Buy or find out more →
Modern Manglish
$24.95 – Paperback book / Scribe Publications
'If I die laughing my family will sue the authors.' Phillip Adams
'Despite the evidence presented here, do not despair about the state of the language, do not lose hope. For in exposing this language James and Scruby arm... Buy or find out more →
The World's Most Difficult Quiz: The King Williams College General Knowledge Papers 1981 to 2011
$26.95 – Paperback book / Liverpool Uni Press
For 50 years Guardian readers have been stumped by the fiendishly difficult General Knowledge Paper set annually at Christmas for the pupils of King William's College. Here, for the first time, is a compendium of the GKP... Buy or find out more →
Unpacking My Library: Writers And Their Books
$24.95 – Hardcover book / Yale Univ Pr
As words and stories are increasingly disseminated through digital means, the significance of the book as object—whether pristine collectible or battered relic—is growing as well. Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their ... Buy or find out more →
Instead Of A Book: Letters to a Friend
$39.99 – Hardcover book / Granta
Written in an even more vivid and direct style than her celebrated memoirs, Diana Athill's letters to the American poet Edward Field reveal a sharply intelligent woman with a brilliant sense of humour, a keen eye for the... Buy or find out more →
The Best Australian Essays 2011
$29.95 – Paperback book / Black Inc
‘Turn the page and hear the voices within …’—Ramona Koval
The Best Australian Essays 2011 offers up bliss and illumination in equal measure – from the pleasures of the flesh to the events that convulsed the world... Buy or find out more →
You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws And The Power Of Words
$24.95 – Paperback book / Black Inc
Why does language move some of us to anxiety or even rage?
For centuries, sticklers have donned the cloak of authority to control how people use words. In this sensational new book, Robert Lane Greene strikes back to def... Buy or find out more →
Is That A Fish In Your Ear? Translation And The Meaning Of Everything
$39.95 – Hardcover book / Penguin Group Uk
People speak different languages, and always have. The Ancient Greeks took no notice of anything unless it was said in Greek; the Romans made everyone speak Latin; and in India, people learned their neighbours' languages... Buy or find out more →
Big Elephants Are Useful
$29.95$9.95 – Hardcover book / New South Books
Do you know why Big Elephants Are Useful To Indians For Unloading Logs? Because it’s a BEAUTIFUL way to get a tricky spelling right. Have you ever lost an arguement? Or was it an argument? If you can just remember “I los... Buy or find out more →
Oxford Treasury Of Sayings And Quotations
$29.95 – Hardcover book / Oxford University Pr
A rich profusion of phrases and quotations, arranged under a wide range of subjects, make this book the ideal place to look for your favourite words or special sayings on any subject. This fully revised and updated treas... Buy or find out more →
On Rereading
$34.95 – Hardcover book / Harvard Univ Pr
After retiring from a lifetime of teaching literature, Patricia Meyer Spacks embarked on a year-long project of rereading dozens of novels: childhood favorites, fiction first encountered in young adulthood and never befo... Buy or find out more →
The Bedside Book Of Algebra
$24.95$0.00 – Hardcover book /
The Bedside Book of Algebra is a collection of problems, some with a very practical application, others designed as purely theoretical puzzles, that will offer something of interest to everyone. Each section is written i... Buy or find out more →
The Bedside Book Of Physics
$24.99 – Hardcover book / Pier 9
The Bedside Book of Physics is an entertaining and informative introduction to the world of physics, written with the curious beginner in mind. Covering history of physics from the early Greek thinkers to the modern inte... Buy or find out more →
Bedside Book Of Chemistry
$14.95 – Hardcover book / Pier 9
THE BEDSIDE BOOK OF CHEMISTRY is a fascinating, interactive guide to the history and uses of chemistry, with particular reference to the famous periodic table of elements. It contains clear and concise explanations of di... Buy or find out more →
The Bedside Book Of Geometry
$24.95$14.95 – Hardcover book / Pier 9
The Bedside Book of Geometry is a fascinating, interactive guide to the history and uses of geometry. It contains clear and concise explanations of different geometric concepts, as well as profiles of key thinkers and th... Buy or find out more →
Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary (Deluxe 5th Edition)
$69.95$39.95 – Hardcover book / Oxford University Pr
Now available in a special deluxe format with coloured endpapers, gilt edges and other features, the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary provides an authoritative description of Australian and international English unri... Buy or find out more →
On Conan Doyle: The Whole Art Of Storytelling
$29.95 – Hardcover book / Princeton Univ Press
A passionate lifelong fan of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda is a member of The Baker Street Irregulars--the most famous and romantic of all Sherlockian groups. Combining memoi... Buy or find out more →
On Rabbits, Morality, etc: Selected Writings Of Walter Murdoch
$29.95 – Paperback book / Univ West Aust Pr
If the essay should come to displace the novel in popular favour, it would be a clear sign of an advance in civilization. - Walter Murdoch
Sir Walter Murdoch was Foundation Professor of English at The University of Weste... Buy or find out more →
Writing Your Life
$24.95 – Paperback book / Allen & Unwin
Everyone can write a life story.
If you have dreamed by childhood creeks, had coffee with a friend,
watched the sun rise after a partner has died, or lived through any
of life's twists and turns, then you have a life sto... Buy or find out more →
Letters And Numbers 3
$14.95 – Paperback book /
Tackle the toughest letter games, crack the most difficult number challenges and pit yourself against the tricky conundrums. With hundreds of brain-defying puzzles, it's the ultimate test for would-be champions. Compete ... Buy or find out more →
Letters And Numbers 2
$14.95 – Paperback book / Hardie Grant
Letters and Numbers is a global phenomenon - hugely successful in both France and England, it is a new, fun family quiz that everyone is playing. Compete against the clock and test your lexical dexterity and mathematical... Buy or find out more →
Shakespeare's Freedom
$31.95 – Hardcover book / Univ Chicago Pr
The author of Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare explores four themes that made William Shakespeare such a unique figure among his peers, including the idea of beauty in his works, his fascination with... Buy or find out more →
All Things Shining: Reading The Western Classics To Find Meaning In A Secular Age
$35.95 – Hardcover book / Free Press
In unrelenting flow of choices confronts us at nearly every moment of our lives, and yet our culture offers us no clear way to choose. This predicament seems inevitable, but in fact it's quite new. In medieval Europe, Go... Buy or find out more →
Selected Prose Of Dorothy Hewett
$32.95 – Paperback book / Univ West Aust Pr
Dorothy Hewett was never fazed by her own gifts as a writer. Although best known as a playwright and poet, Hewett produced some outstanding works of prose.
Selected Prose of Dorothy Hewett offers readers new and old a st... Buy or find out more →
The Great Australian Novel: A Panorama
$24.99 – Paperback book / Brolga Publishing
Written originally for a French audience to inform them about the richness of Australian writing, The Great Australian Novel – A Panorama now appears in a remastered English version. It is a story of Australia, its peopl... Buy or find out more →
Faulks On Fiction: The Secret Life of the Novel
$35.00$14.95 – Trade paperback / Bbc Books
A social history of Britain through its literature by bestselling novelist Sebastian Faulks - published to coincide with his landmark series on BBC2
The British invented the novel, with the publication of Robinson Crusoe... Buy or find out more →
School Blues
$32.99 – Trade paperback / Maclehose Press
Daniel Pennac has never forgotten what it was like to be a very unsatisfactory student, nor the day one of his teachers saved his life by assigning him the task of writing a novel. This was the moment Pennac realized tha... Buy or find out more →
Love Sex Death And Words Surprising Tales From A Year In Literature
$45.00 – Hardcover book / Icon Books
Love, sex, death, boredom, ecstasy, existential angst, political upheaval - the history of literature offers a rich and varied exploration of the human condition across the centuries. This title focuses on the curious ar... Buy or find out more →
Enigma Three
$39.95 – Hardcover book / Murdoch Books
Welcome to Greek antiquity with its mathematicians, philosophers and...its enigmas! Settle down without delay to solving these brain-teasers of all kinds. Try and work out what percentage of spectators attend the Olympic... Buy or find out more →
The Best American Essays 2010
$8.00 – Paperback book / Houghton Mifflin
The provocative and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens takes the helm of the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this perennial favorite that is "reliable and yet still surprising--the best of the best" (Kirkus Rev... Buy or find out more →
The Naive And The Sentimental Novelist
$24.95 – Paperback book / Hamish Hamilton
What happens within us when we read a novel? And how does a novel create its unique effects, so distinct from those of a painting, a film, or a poem? In this inspired, thoughtful, deeply personal book, Orhan Pamuk takes ... Buy or find out more →
Letters And Numbers
$14.95 – Paperback book / Hardie Grant
Letters and Numbers is a global phenomenon – hugely successful in both France and England, it is a new, fun family quiz that everyone is playing. Compete against the clock and test your lexical dexterity and mathematical... Buy or find out more →
The Preparation Of The Novel: Lecture Course At The College De France 1978-1979
$41.95 – Paperback book / Columbia Univ Pr
Completed just weeks before his death, the lectures in this volume mark a critical juncture in the career of Roland Barthes, in which he declared the intention, deeply felt, to write a novel. Unfolding over the course of... Buy or find out more →
Working The Room
$49.95 – Hardcover book / Canongate
This collection sees the best of Geoff Dyer’s extensive essays and journalism from the last ten years collected in one volume. It follows Anglo-English Attitudes, the last collected volume of essays from 1999.
Characte... Buy or find out more →
The Art Of Great Speeches
$39.95 – Paperback book / Cambridge Univ Pres
What makes a great speech 'great'? The Art of Great Speeches uses insights from classical thinkers to reveal how great orators such as Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, the Kennedys, Al Gore and Hitler persuade their aud... Buy or find out more →
Bendable Learnings
$19.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
NEW customer-focused edition with extra strategic alignment. More key challenges for readers going forward.
Mission statements are everywhere: you have to have one, whether you're a Fortune 500 company, a hedge fund, a p... Buy or find out more →
The Naive And The Senitimental Novelist
$32.95 – Hardcover book / Harvard Univ Pr
What happens within us when we read a novel? And how does a novel create its unique effects, so distinct from those of a painting, a film, or a poem? In this inspired, thoughtful, deeply personal book, Orhan Pamuk takes ... Buy or find out more →
Words Fail Me: A Journey Through Australia's Lost Language
$35.00 – Trade paperback / Abc Books
This long anticipated follow-up to the hugely successful and popular LOST FOR WORDS revisits the rich, inventive and rogueish language Australians used to speak, before globalism stole it away.
Hundreds of readers have r... Buy or find out more →
Speaking Our Language / What's Their Story
$52.90$0.00 – Book - unsepcified / Oxford University Pr
Special bundle of Bruce Moore's two books Speaking Our Language: The Story Of Australian English and What's Their Story? A History Of Australian Words.
Speaking Our Language: The Story Of Australian English
For the first... Buy or find out more →
To Be Or Not To Be... And Everything Else You Should Know From Shakespeare
$17.95 – Hardcover book / Michael Omara Books
A fresh, new look at Shakespeare's work, showing how and why it remains such an integral part of popular culture and the English language. The book covers everything from the characters, essential plotlines and the most ... Buy or find out more →
Bottersnikes And Other Lost Things: A Celebration of Australian Illustrated Children’s Books
$59.95 – Hardcover book / Miegunyah Press
Lazy Bottersnikes in outback rubbish tips, Sir Pronoun's dilemma about standing in Miss Noun's place and the story of how Jack built a house, a hut or a shack are all to be found in this treasury of Australian children's... Buy or find out more →
Opening Pandora's Box: Phrases We Borrowed From The Classics And The Stories Behind Them
$17.95 – Hardcover book / Michael Omara Books
To open Pandora's Box is to get yourself into trouble through unwise curiosity. It has been one of those days. You've worked like a Trojan, displaying titanic strength and stoic endurance in order to overcome the Hercule... Buy or find out more →
The Little Black Book: Books
$40.00$14.95 – Paperback book / Hodder Headline
Poets and playwrights, novels and novelists, publishing coups and personal stories, literature as we know it has been shaped by the key exponents of the craft, quirks of fate, meetings, love affairs and moments of despai... Buy or find out more →
The Classical Tradition
$69.95 – Hardcover book / Harvard Univ Pr
How do we get from the polis to the police? Or from Odysseus’ sirens to an ambulance’s? The legacy of ancient Greece and Rome has been imitated, resisted, misunderstood, and reworked by every culture that followed. In th... Buy or find out more →
Historical Thesaurus Of The Oxford English Dictionary
$528.95 – Slipcase / Oxford University Pr
The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is the largest thesaurus in the world.
Based on the OED, the Historical Thesaurus of the OED (HTOED) contains almost every word in English from Old English to the... Buy or find out more →
What's Their Story? A History Of Australian Words
$19.95 – Paperback book / Oxford University Pr
At last the real stories behind some of Australia's unique and best-loved words are ready to be told. A companion volume to Bruce Moore's highly-successful Speaking Our Language, this collection tells the story of Austra... Buy or find out more →
By Hook Or By Crook: A Journey In Search Of English
$39.95$9.95 – Hardcover book / Overlook Press
David Crystal has been described (by the Times Higher Education Supplement) as a sort of ′latter day Dr Johnson′, a populist linguist who has promoted the study of the English language in an academic and broadcasting car... Buy or find out more →
Macquarie Dictionary: Fifth Edition
$129.95 – Hardcover book / Macquarie Library
This fifth edition of the Macquarie, measuring a new awareness of environment and fragility, will mark a turning of the tide in our consciousness, in the span of our response, in the way we give voice to place - and plac... Buy or find out more →
A Dictionary Of Modern English Usage: The First Edition
$47.95 – Hardcover book / Oxford University Pr
No book had more influence on twentieth-century attitudes to the English language in Britain than Henry Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It rapidly became the standard work of reference for the correct use of... Buy or find out more →
An Apple A Day: Old Fashioned Proverbs And Why They Still Work
$17.95 – Hardcover book / Michael O'mara Books
Does absence really make the heart grow fonder? Can beggars be choosers? Is it always better late than never? Proverbs are short, well-known, pithy sayings that offer advice or words of encouragement and are used in ever... Buy or find out more →
Storymen
$29.95 – Hardcover book / Cambridge Univ Pres
What do the artistic works of acclaimed author Tim Winton and eminent Ngarinyin lawman Bungal (David) Mowaljarlai have in common? According to Hannah Rachel Bell they both reflect sacred relationship with the natural wor... Buy or find out more →
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays
$45.00 – Hardcover book / Hamish Hamilton
How did George Eliot's love life affect her prose? Why did Kafka write at three in the morning? In what ways is Barack Obama like Eliza Doolittle? Can you be over-dressed for the Oscars? What is Italian Feminism? If Rola... Buy or find out more →
Best Advice Ever Given
$14.95 – Paperback book / Globe Pequot
With so many decisions to make in the areas of love and relationships, education and professional endeavors, success and personal happiness, it's no wonder that most of us seek good advice from the fount of collective hu... Buy or find out more →
The Best Australian Essays 2009
$29.95 – Paperback book / Black Inc
The Best Australian Essays 2009, compiled by Robyn Davidson, presents a selection of the year's best non-fiction. With wonderful essays by Australia's finest writers, this diverse collection captures the year that ... Buy or find out more →
In Conversation: Ben Naparstek talks with 39 Great Writers
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Scribe Publications
Why did Jay McInerney once blow up a lavatory? Why does Peter Handke still mourn the passing of Slobodan Milosević? Why does Michel Houellebecq miss being in a psychiatric hospital? Why doesn’t Wole Soyinka want to visit... Buy or find out more →
The Queen's English
$0.00 – Paperback book / Univ Nsw Pr
English may well be the most widely spoken language in the world but what exactly do we mean when we talk about 'the English language'? The Queen's English is the perfect guide to understanding what makes the English tic... Buy or find out more →
Should You Judge This Book By Its Cover? One Hundred Fresh Takes On Familiar Sayings And Quotations
$30.00 – Paperback book / Granta
Unpick glib aphorisms and root out cliche with the best-selling author of The Pig that Wants to be Eaten.
Another rapid-fire selection of short, stimulating and entertaining capsules of philosophy from the master of the ... Buy or find out more →
Speaking Our Language: The Story Of Australian English
$32.95 – Paperback book / Oxford University Pr
For the first time ever the story of Australian English is about to be told in full. Speaking our Language is written for people who want to know where Australian English came from, what the forces were that moulded it, ... Buy or find out more →
Reading The OED
$29.95$14.95 – Hardcover book / Viking
From Abluvion to Zyxt - a yearlong account of reading the greatest dictionary in the world and plundering its treasures:
Apricity (n.) The warmth of the sun in winter.
Constult (v.) To act stupidy together.
Obaginate (v.... Buy or find out more →
Quarterly Essay 41: The Good Life: The Search for Contentment in the Modern World
$0.00 – Paperback book / Black Inc
In the first Quarterly Essay for 2011, David Malouf returns to one of the most fundamental questions and gives it a modern twist: what makes for a happy life?
With grace and profundity, Malouf discusses new and old ways ... Buy or find out more →
Oxford Dictionary Of Quotations (7th Edition)
$57.95 – Hardcover book / Oxford University Pr
Here is a major new edition of the most authoritative dictionary of quotations available, bringing you the wit and wisdom of past and present--from the ancient adages of East and West to today's most memorable lines.
Thi... Buy or find out more →
Unpacking My Library: Architects And Their Books
$34.95 – Hardcover book / Yale Univ Pr
What does a library say about the mind of its owner? How do books map the intellectual interests, curiosities, tastes, and personalities of their readers? What does the collecting of books have in common with the practic... Buy or find out more →
The Oxford Companion To The Book
$450.00 – Slipcase / Oxford University Pr
The Oxford Companion to the Book is a unique work of reference covering the broad concept book throughout the world from ancient to modern times. Including traditional subjects such as bibliography, the history of printi... Buy or find out more →
Collins Dictionary Of The English Language
$60.00$49.95 – Hardcover book / Collins
This dictionary contains all the words and definitions you need every day, plus over 200 essays and special features on a wide range of language topics. With essays on topics such as the history of English, the influence... Buy or find out more →
King James Bible: 400th Anniversary Edition
$96.95 – Slipcase / Oxford University Pr
Afterword by Gordon Campbell
This 400th anniversary edition of the King James Version of the Bible is a reprint of the 1611 text, in an easy-to-read roman font instead of the black-letter type of the original. The origin... Buy or find out more →
Bible: The Story Of The King James Version 1611-2011
$10.00 – Hardcover book / Oxford University Pr
This is a history of the King James Version of the Bible (known in Britain as the Authorised Version) over the four hundred years from its remote beginnings to the present day.
Gordon Campbell, expert in Renaissance lite... Buy or find out more →
Begat: The King James Bible & The English Language
$39.95 – Hardcover book / Oxford University Pr
What do the following have in common?
Let there be light - A fly in the ointment - A rod of iron - New wine in old bottles Lick the dust - How are the mighty fallen - Kick against the pricks - Wheels within wheels
They a... Buy or find out more →
The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos From Bookworms Worldwide
$20.95 – Paperback book / Harper Collins
"The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide" is a guide to the emerging subculture of literary tattoos--a collection of more than 150 full-color photographs of human epidermis indelibly adorned with q... Buy or find out more →
Writing On The Edge: Great Contemporary Writers On The Frontline Of Crisis
$39.95 – Hardcover book / Rizzoli
Powerful essays by such luminaries and literary giants as Daniel Day-Lewis and Martin Amis offer a compassionate look at the crises that most affect our world today.
An important book for anyone interested in global issu... Buy or find out more →
Home Truth
$29.99 – Trade paperback / Harper Collins
An exceptional collection of personal stories on the meaning of ′home′, featuring Peter Goldsworthy, Andrea Goldsmith, Gabrielle Lord, Marion Halligan, Matthew Condon, Rosaleen Love, Cassandra Pybus, Ian Britain, Carmel ... Buy or find out more →
Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
$49.99 – Hardcover book / Faber
From the bestselling and prize-winning author of 1599, an investigation into who wrote Shakespeare's plays.
For two hundred years after Shakespeare's death, no one thought to argue that someone else had written his plays... Buy or find out more →
Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules Of Writing
$22.99 – Hardcover book / Weidenfeld And Nicolson
"These are the rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story."-Elmore Leonard
For aspiring writers and lovers of... Buy or find out more →
Telling Tales: A History Of Literary Hoaxes
$24.95 – Paperback book / Hardie Grant
When Dionysus the Renegade faked a Sophocles text in 400BC (cunningly inserting the arostic 'Heraclides is ignorant letters') to humiliate an academic rival, he paved the way for two millennia of increasingly outlandish ... Buy or find out more →
On Passion: Little Books On Big Themes
$19.99 – Hardcover book / Melb Univ Press
A wonderful, ultimately joyous, insight into the creative life of one of our best loved poets.
In On Passion celebrated Australian poet Dorothy Porter delves headfirst into the passions, both literary and earthly. We dis... Buy or find out more →
Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books And The People Who Read Them
$26.95 – Paperback book / Text Publishing
The Possessed draws on Elif Batuman's articles in the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and n+1 to tell the true story of one woman's intellectual and sentimental education and her many strange encounters with scholars devo... Buy or find out more →
A Little Book Of Language
$29.95 – Hardcover book / Nsw University Pr
With a language disappearing every two weeks and neologisms springing up almost daily, an understanding of the origins and currency of language has never seemed more relevant. In this charming volume, a narrative history... Buy or find out more →
The World Of The Book
$59.95 – Hardcover book / Miegunyah Press
The World of the Book is a celebration of the book using the world-class rare books collection of the State Library of Victoria. The book includes an extraordinary range of volumes from important historical titles, such ... Buy or find out more →