Author: Ayn Rand
By Penguin Classics

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Great Fictional book - just don't treat it as philosophy, 2010-08-18
As a story book, it is a gripping novel. I can see why it seems to be a favourite for teenagers as it inspires individuality and to break away from society to do your thing. And the sexual tension in it helps too.

I just hope people don't get carried away with some of the ideas too much though since there are quite a few objectivist ideas that are just totally wrong.

It is good for people to seek to make something of their lives but we do live in a society and there are good reasons why we need work with society rather than just do our own thing all the time. One of the false assumption is that your way is always the right way when you can just be crap and might be better to learn off others. Roark was special but what about all the people that think they can sing on X Factor and the average Joe? Hope they don't read this book and insist they can sing and society is wrong.

If everybody insist on inventing the wheel for themselves, society would have gotten no where. It is efficient for people to follow others instead of being the original thinker themselves all the time. There is a balance between doing what you want and what society wants. And I would think there is a case to say we are all in some way imitators and got our ideas from somewhere rather than all from yourself.

Think I am going off on one here on the philosophical ideas. But great novel nevertheless because it is so emotionally explosive. Worth 5 stars.

Author: Penguin
By Penguin

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Very nice, 2010-08-22
Lovely set of Penguin covers. I intend to frame groups of them and given them as customised presents.

Author: Lewis Carroll
By Penguin Classics

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Nice booklet of a classic, with drawings, 2010-08-23
This book was bought because I had the exact same book in Portuguese and needed some help. This was page for page identical including the drawings.

As far as I can tell it's the original text without any abridgment. The paper is non-shiny and it's easy to read the text.

What else can I say? It's a classic and should be prescribed reading for all children!

Author: Bernard Cornwell
By Penguin

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Good? Yeaaah, 2010-01-12
This book was by far the best! (I mean it) I was amazed and couldn't stop reading it. I very much enjoyed the ending, it does finish off the story but it does also leave a few question open for you to think about... and it will make you think.

Author: Thomas Hardy
By Penguin Classics

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Better than I expected..., 2010-05-13
I bought this book because I had heard good things about it and never came round to reading it. The cheap price was a bonus and I must say that this is one of Hardy's best works. Brilliant story, brilliant characters and you have no excuse to not read it seeing as it is cheap and a classic!

Author: Nick Hornby
By Penguin

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Best since Fever Pitch, 2010-08-07
Whilst only a short book the events and situations of the lives of the characters are painted with enough depth to make you laugh and wince and contemplate in equal measure.
Nick Horby's core base is like he is; 40 something and at a point in life where it is OK to reflect knowing that there is still time to change if that is what you want.
The key characters - Tucker, Anne and Duncan are all at this point and the subject of refelction and mortality is handled with great skill and a quick touch that never disappoints.
In one incident Anne is looking back at an old photo of a lady on the beach. She is building a sand castle and she wonders, now that the old lady is long dead, if spending her time (even only a couple of hours) was something she would regret with hindsight (language in the book more choice).
Another line is 'The two biggest parts of a man's life were his family and his work and Tucker had spent a long time feeling wretched about them both'. Tucker really had been hopeless in so many regards but he has chances to change things - we all do.
Comedy is weaved in with some great laugh out loud lines (that don't sound great out of context but you really should have been there)...........
Tucker is in hospital and a newly found relative wants to come and sing to him. He is left wondering how bad could death be - 'A quick heart attack and out, and he would avoid hearing songs by bearded common-law sons-in-law for his entire life'.
A quick read - well worth it

Author: Bill Bryson
By Penguin

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Still masterful and masterly, 2010-06-01
Do you put 'spoonsful' or 'spoonfuls' of sugar into tea? Do you know the difference between defining and non-defining clauses and between 'androgynous' and 'androgenous'? Can you tell irony from sarcasm and 'prophecy' from 'prophesy'? If you can, then you don't need this book. But you'd probably want to read it anyway. To all intents and purposes, Troublesome Words is the same as the earlier Dictionary of Troublesome Words, with a makeover to make it look new (rather like this review, in fact).

The great triumph of Troublesome Words is that it's arranged like a dictionary but is interesting enough to read cover to cover as though it were a novel. It projects a sense of personality (Bryson's) and his values: companies' eccentric and convention-defying names - with backward facing letters, for example - should never be allowed to become 'a distraction in print'. It bears the hallmark of Bryson's distinctive style: conversational, witty and taut. All it lacks is a narrative.

Although essentially a work of reference, Brysonisms lighten the way. The entry for 'that' and 'which', for instance, advises brushing up on those clauses, defining and non- . 'Learning these distinctions is not, it must be said, anyone's idea of a good time, but it is one technical aspect of grammar that every professional user of English should understand because it is at the root of an assortment of grammatical errors.' And woe betide anyone who spells 'barbecue' with a 'q' and hyphens because they are clearly 'not ready for unsupervised employment'.

Other books of this type are more famous, authoritative and formidable - those by Fowler and Partridge in particular. But this one is actually entertaining as well as instructive, and is also considerably more recent (and therefore more in touch with contemporary usage). It has my vote, anyway.

Author: Ken Robinson, Lou Aronica
By Penguin

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Bloody Brilliant!, 2010-07-30
Ok, quite simply i am in love with Ken Robsinson and am thoroughly gutted he is married. He is a genuine man who is passionate about cultivating creativity in education and speaks from a very simple and accessible and truthful place.
I highly recommend this to everyone who is passionate about education in particular as i feel this can helo teachers to access their own passions first in order to nurture it in others, as well as people who are pn their own journey to discoverying their own creative passions. READ IT! :)x

Author: Ayn Rand
By Penguin Classics

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Quite simply the best book I've ever read., 2010-08-05
Ayn Rands eposure and disection of the evil of collectivism is an almost spiritually satisfying experience.
I write not too much more but her destruction of the idiocy that states that the rich oppress the poor and replaces it with the unproductive oppress the productive was the most memorable epiphany of my intellectual life.
I'm no academic, just a frustrated productive person wondering why wealth is associated with guilt in our poisenous society.
I am now able to hold my feelings within a defined thought structure and that is a simple but great pleasure and relief.
Earning money is an honourable pursuit whilst getting money is a low form of depravity ..... absolutely spot on ..... any politicians and the like reading?
(Apologies for any grammatical or spelling mistakes)

Author: Sgt. Dan Mills
By Penguin

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Incredible, 2010-09-02
An absolutely cracking account of combat in a modern theatre of war. The pace is set from the very first page, and never lets up. Dan Mills succeeds in dragging you along by his side, through the streets and alleys of Al Amarah, into every contact (of which there are many!) I felt my heart-rate rise along with my adrenaline levels at every one.

Between the lines, it's clear that things are situation normal with the British Army; poor planning and leadership from the top, with only the quality, professionalism, common sense and desire to get the job done, of the men and women at the sharp end, making the incredible achievements that we should all be so proud of, possible.

I bought this book to read whilst away on holiday. When it arrived, I thought that I should check out the first couple of pages, just to check it was worth it's weight on the baggage allowance. Big mistake! I could hardly put it down and finished it within three days.