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Parchments, Paper and Palimpsests
The word ‘palimpsest’ is not usually found in an eleven-year’s vocabulary, even a word-loving kid, as I was. I learnt it only because my family were living in England My mother had, with the idea..
Drawing Dragons
In P3 (as grade 3 is known in Northern Ireland) my teacher began reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit. It probably comes as no surprise to anyone who knows the books I’ve illustrated that it left an..
Paper Traces
Recently my boyfriend and I broke up. When the recriminations and the laments were done, my parting request was that he return my copy of Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem. He’d borrowed it months earlier,..
The Lost Art
I am a reader. I don’t mind how or where I read a book as long as I can lose myself in a story. Reading allows me to escape to another time and place; makes me..
The shape of books to come
My name is Nick and I’m a gamer. I enjoy playing games, and I enjoy making them. I’ve spent the last 15 years working as a video game developer and now myself, and two of..
Lost Treasures
It was like a small death – a lemming leaping over the precipice with the mob because someone thought it was a good idea. Only to survive and wonder how you could be convinced such..
A View of One’s Own
I am not tremendously for or against ebooks – they simply are but one more form that stories can take. Unlike newspapers, I think there will always be a market for printed books, and that..
A pernickity book worm
From the moment my mother first introduced me to the written word I have been a book worm. Always curious, always questioning and always devouring new stories and adventures – eager to dig in and..
E-books: a love-hate relationship
E-books are brilliant. I don’t like e-books. These two statements sum up my feelings about e-books, and rather than try to resolve the paradox by choosing one side or another, I’m going to let the..
The Inside Opinion – Exclusive Interview
Everyone remembers their first great book that they ever read, flipping the pages excitedly, imagining the characters inside your head, feeling what they feel, and seeing what they see. Whether it was sci-fi, mystery, romance..