robotnic.co

#NudgeYourWorld – I’m Canongate’s Guinea Pig!

by //

Recently Canongate Books put a call out for literary guinea pigs for a new project called #NudgeYourWorld.

I volunteered.

 

 

The eminent playwright Sir Tom Stoppard once said that the right words, in the right order, can nudge your world a little.

This is the thinking behind Canongate’s bookish experiment – #NudgeYourWorld.

 

Each month, they are picking one book and sharing its lessons – then it’s up to us to try to apply its wisdom to our daily lives.

I’m participating in #NudgeYourWorld – a project which encourages readers to apply the wisdom of selected books into their day-to-day lives.

The first literary guinea pig for the project was Milo McLaughlin, who explored Edward Slingerland’s paradoxical Trying not to Try. He did really rather well with it.

Now it’s my turn, and I’ll be reading and living by The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman.

Over the next 7 days, I’ll be reading Oliver’s antidote to self-help and the cult of positive thinking in his book which is dubbed, happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking”.

Here’s the book trailer for more on the book.

 

 

Keep up with BEDA to learn how I get on!

Have you read a book that changed your life?

Book Review: The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin

by //

Once in awhile a book comes along that’s impractical to read cover-to-cover over the course of a few sittings but serves as the perfect reference guide.

The Novel Cure is like those medical dictionaries mum used to have before WebMD came along. It’s a lovingly compiled reference guide of maladies – and the perfect novels with which to cure them.

I was lucky enough to meet the incredibly well-read co-author Ella Berthoud at Canongate’s 40th birthday party last week (which was a blast – see #theotherside.). She brought the Novel Cure Surgery to the party (literally!) and provided prescriptions in person.

I requested a book to get over my Great Expectations hump, for which she made 2 stellar suggestions in the form of Mister Pip by Lloyd James and Jack Maggs by Peter Carey. She also recommended Half Asleep in Frog Pyjamas by Tom Robbins for a bout of job anxiety.

The book has also come in incredibly handy already. It’s been of great practical use for getting over my common cold this weekend, diagnosing and prescribing a friend’s man flu, and good comic relief for a mild but potentially chronic case of “married, being”.

The authors’ suggestions range from the irreverent to the downright literary, providing useful, funny, and interesting suggestions to any issues which may ail you. Although I suffer a chronic case of out-of-control to-read pile, it’s a brilliant book to have around – and it’d make a fantastic stocking-stuffer.

If you want to give it a go for yourself, you can visit the surgery online via The Novel Cure website. You can also follow them on Twitter @TheNovelCure.

The Novel Cure is published by Canongate in the UK and Penguin in the USA. You can buy it on The Book Despository here (UK) or here (US).