romance of the book

Websites, blogs, interactive CD-roms, audio books, electronic books - none (as yet) excite the love and passion that the book does.

children's non-fiction and the internet

narrative children's nonfiction

missing children's non-fiction

It surprises me how little Australian children's nonfiction is published. Nonfiction seems to me to be something culturally important. On those grounds adult nonfiction is supported, but I don't sense anything like the same level of support for children's nonfiction.

Is it that we can't sell our non-fiction overseas? We're not doing much children's nonfiction on Australian topics. Much less it seems to me than New Zealand or Canadians do about themselves. We do even less non-fiction on topics of interest to other parts of the world. Do we lack the confidence in our factual knowledge? Is it a part of our cultural cringe?

I know that publishers argue that nonfiction is more expensive to design and print, so you're having to invest more and, even successful, children's nonfiction peaks in sales and then drops away while successful fiction has the support for a longer life span.

double negative, well a form of it

John Atanaskovic of Atanaskovic Hartnell recently raided by the Project Wickenby tax investigation task force said: "All law firms not irregularly receive subpoenas and search warrants". Is he saying that Atanaskovic Hartnell regularly receives search warrants? I reckon this use of the double negative by Atanaskovic shows why it should be made illegal, well at least its use by the legal profession.