“The only end of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.” – Samuel Johnson One of the best and most succinct summaries on the purpose of books, with which we wholeheartedly agree. A book must either amuse or instruct the reader, but it should never, on any account, bore or depress! Continue reading Quote of the Month–March 2015
As February is the shortest month, we picked a fairly brief (only 150 pages) novel for this month’s Reading and Refreshments: John Buchan’s classic spy thriller, The Thirty-Nine Steps, which relates the tale of an averted German invasion just before the outbreak of World War I. And what excitement Buchan packed into those 150 pages! I think it is safe to say that this is the most spine-tingling page-turner … Continue reading The 39 Steps
“I take great pains with my work, pruning and revising with a tireless hand. I have the welfare of my creations very much at heart. I cut them with infinite care, burnish them until they become brilliant. What many another writer would be content to leave in massive proportions, I polish into a tiny gem.” – Ernest Hemingway The initial act of writing is only … Continue reading Quote of the Month–February 2015
This month, Reading and Refreshments will be highlighting another one of Louisa May Alcott’s lesser-known but delightful novels: Rose in Bloom. In this sequel to her children’s novel Eight Cousins, Alcott’s heroine Rose Campbell is all grown up and returned from a tour round the world, to find herself up to her ears in complications: helping guide seven boy cousins now grown to manhood, supporting … Continue reading Rose In Bloom
“If a book is well-written, I always find it too short.” – Jane Austen We at The Sibling Writery will never understand the modern market’s preference for short, stingy books. After all, when you love a book, aren’t you always sad when it ends? Good novels should be long! Continue reading Quote of the Month–January 2015
The Sibling Writery 