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Posts tagged ‘Review’

Dec 31

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Read to Write

Books are the spice of my life, as it is for many. I read everything. Newspapers are daily fodder. Nothing escape my clutches; old magazines at the barber’s, paper bags made from old newspapers and magazines from the grocers’, wrap-around old newspapers from the vegetable vendor, old books with the pavement seller. To read is to breathe.

I took to writing. What I wrote was influenced one way or the other by what I was reading. Books gave me knowledge. Life experience. I had my opinions. It all showed in my writing. I had stories to tell. Because I was reading, I was learning how to tell them. I was no longer racing through the pages…

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Dec 26

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The Year That Was

The sun is setting. Already it grows dark. It is that time of the year when another year gives way to yet another. In four days time we will bid adieu to 2011 forever. For so many it was the last year of their lives. For so many others, it marked new beginnings, of hope, togetherness and renewal. The world will welcome the new year with fireworks and merrymaking. Many will be waiting to start something anew. Many will make promises to themselves they will not keep.

Twenty eleven was a landmark year in so many ways. Things changed. The Apple is no longer the same. It’s a year since J D Salinger died. For the first time…

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Dec 22

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The Perfidy of Piracy?

This week, award-winning Spanish novelist Lucía Etxebarria announced she will quit writing since more copies of her book have been downloaded illegally than sold. She said she could no longer justify devoting three years of her working life to producing a book. Agreed, she may have a point. Agreed, after China and Russia, Spain has the highest number of per capita illegal downloads in the world. Agreed, loss from illegal downloads and e-book piracy costs writers and publishers close to $3 billion in the US alone. But what if the writers themselves advocate file sharing?

Many authors claim making their work available online increases book sales…

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Dec 18

PersonReadingBook
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Honestly, how much can you read in a year

Here I am. It’s three in the afternoon. Already it grows cold. My toes are numb in the slight chill. The sun peer weakly over the fronds of the coconut tree across the road, its light weaving cobwebs in my sight as the weak light pricks my eyes. I have a book on my lap, my last of this year. Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat Table. There are so many more of them cluttered around the house in small piles that will have to wait their turn. And I have failed yet again.

Last year, I set myself a target to read a book every week. Correction – I said I’d finish a book every week. I failed. Badly. I ended up reading about half of that. I bought twice as much, about ten books a month. I am asking myself now, so late in the year…

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