I start reading Bookworm in my childhood bedroom, unaware of how perfect the setting is. All around me lies the backdrop of my imagination – the library that raised me – and by the end of the first chapter, I’d laughed and wept and texted three of my friends to find out if they’d read … Continue reading Book Review: Bookworm, Lucy Mangan’s Memoir of Childhood Reading
Perhaps it’s the passing of yet another birthday (oh hi I'm 27 now) or perhaps it’s the autumnal turn in the air, but September for me has always been a time to embrace change. It’s a month of shedding the worries of the last year and making good on those promises made back in January. … Continue reading Inspirational books to curl up with this autumn
Having spent a weekend doing my best impressions of a noughties teenager at Reading Festival 2017 (leaving me with a neck that can barely move from my flailing attempts at hairography), it’s no surprise that my brain has been percolating on some ideas around music. Because you might be rocking headphones whilst you read this, but does music help with productivity? Does your favourite song really lift your mood? Is it true listening to music can make you smarter? Learn languages faster? Boost your memory? There are dozens of myths about the power of music. Here are some of the ones I find most interesting.
Words. Words. Words. Beautiful, evocative, and slightly miraculous when you think about them. Here are 11 of my favourites - sure to capture the hearts of anyone bookish.
"Subject your senses – all five of them – to a wide range of different experiences. Challenge your preferences and dare to be uncomfortable. I think that if we always stay inside a narrow comfort zone, this weakens our ability to perceive and understand the world around us. Make your brain work!"
Get shit done. As a mantra, I don't imagine my granny would approve. But it's seen me through deadlines, races, awkward meetings, breakups, and pretty much my entire twenty-something life. More thousands of words to write than hours in the day? Get shit done. No sleep, surviving on coffee, horrible "real-life" workload? Get shit done. Want to stay in … Continue reading Idea Debt & Getting Sh*t Done
Matilda is one of my favourite literary heroines - strong-minded, smart, sassy, an enthusiast in life. And Roald Dahl's novel, other than being the rebellious nerd's handbook to growing up good, has a very special message I don't think any other makes quite so brilliantly: books are magic (uniquely, portably so) and they give us power - super powers - that we barely notice. Here are my musings upon that, with some ideas for how we can become Real Life Superheroes.
I am not trying to sell you a new job (although we are hiring if you’re awesome and want to work with me) but this blog does ask you to examine your idea of "careerism". If you stop half way, you may suffer from the following symptoms: confusion, anxiety, nausea, uncontrollable weeping and intense itchiness of the feet. If you do experience any of these, don’t worry, it’ll pass once you get off your butt and change your stars.
The Game by Neil Strauss They say "Don't hate the player, hate The Game." But after reading Strauss' Number One Best Seller, it's clear the player's got problems too When I've had a tipple too many, I have a habit of buying everything on my Amazon wishlist. Sometimes I catch it in time to cancel … Continue reading Book Review: OK so I read The Game by Neil Strauss
If you're like me and you chase that feeling where it's like an author has just bitchslapped your brain with a brilliant idea, when you can feel your hair stand on end because you *just never thought of it that way before*, or when your whole world turns into a warm ball of goo because everything has been tilted on its axis and you barely know up from down anymore then here are six non-fiction books for you (fiction recommendations coming soon).
The Scribble Bug 