Christopher Shevlin's Blog, page 6
June 11, 2012
The first review from someone I don’t know
I’ve been made ridiculously happy this afternoon by someone I don’t know giving Perpetual Astonishment a five-star review on Amazon. It has increased my determination to rate every book I like from now on: I had never realised the huge pleasure it gives. It is at least as nice as getting that Lego spaceship when I was six, or taking ecstasy that time when I was twenty.
Next time you see me, I’ll have given English Weather by Neil Ferguson a five-star review, because that’s what I’m reading at the moment.
This is it here:
In the middle of reading and already recommending… 11 Jun 2012
By Fanny Johnstone
Format:Kindle Edition
I have been ambushed by The Perpetual Astonishment. It was lying around our house waiting for my husband to read it, and I was in that unnerving state of being ‘between books’ so I picked it up, loved the cover, started reading and have since resented any interruptions like sleep or work or children complaining of being hungry. In fact I’m enjoying it so much I’m leaving work an hour early just so that I can read it in bed.It is very funny, well written, charming, intelligent and although it could, if it wanted to, swagger about being blatantly cool it has chosen to do it in a modest unassuming way (which, of course, is way cooler).
If you need cheering up or just need entertaining then I recommend it 100%. And no, I don’t know the author.
June 10, 2012
Free today
The Kindle edition of my book is free today (Sunday the 10th of June), so why not download it, read it, give it a five-star Amazon review, then buy copies of the paperback for your extended family, friends, workmates and acquaintances?
Or just download it.
June 8, 2012
What looks like a bunch of bananas but isn’t?
Over the last few days there has been a mini-epidemic of people coming to this site because they Googled “What looks like a bunch of bananas but isn’t?” (WordPress tells me some of the search terms people use to come here.) Perhaps only the first of them was genuinely looking for the answer. The rest have probably come because I mentioned the search on FaceBook.
Anyway, if you were that first person and you come here again, I’m afraid that the answer to your question is “nothing”. It’s disappointing I know, but there it is.
To make you feel better, here is a link to a BBC news story about a group of students who have turned some bananas into a piano:
MIT students’ invention turns bananas into keyboard
N.B. You might be tempted to think that this banana piano is something that looks like a bunch of bananas but isn’t. Unfortunately, it’s something that looks like a bunch of bananas but is a bunch of bananas but also (apparently) functions as a piano. If that’s what you were looking for then you need to be more specific with your search terms.
June 7, 2012
Mangiafuoco
I’ve been thinking about doing some more illustrations for the day dividers inside the book. This is the first…
June 6, 2012
Get your books here
I’ve just signed up with PayPal so that I can sell the book from my website. This means that I can send signed copies and what-not. (You also get a free bookmark with every copy – imagine.) Just click ‘Buy the book‘ at the top of the page.
The book is also available from Amazon, Foyles and all the other online book sellers.
June 3, 2012
Jubilee
At Tower Bridge
The surly-polite crowd
With flags and anoraks
With bunting and occasional grins
Entirely hides the fleet
A whispered fanfare
Rumours of the Queen
The bitter, hard-driving June rain
This is Britain
