Contents note: pt. 1 THE WORLD AROUND THE BOOK -- Do We Need Stories? -- Why Finish Books? -- E-books are for Grown-ups -- Does Copyright Matter? -- The Dull New Global Novel -- Reading It Wrong -- Why Readers Disagree -- Where I'm Reading From -- pt. 2 THE BOOK IN THE WORLD -- What's Wrong with the Nobel? -- A Game without Rules -- Most Favoured Nations -- Writing Adrift in the World -- Art That Stays Home -- Writing without Style -- Literature and Bureaucracy -- In the Chloroformed Sanctuary -- Writers into Saints -- pt. 3 THE WRITER'S WORLD -- The Writer's Job -- Writing to Win -- Does Money Make Us Write Better? -- Fear and Courage -- To Tell and Not to Tell -- Stupid Questions -- The Chattering Mind -- Trapped inside the Novel -- Changing Our Stories -- Writing to Death -- pt. 4 WRITING ACROSS WORLDS -- `Are You the Tim Parks Who...?' -- Ugly Americans Abroad -- Your English Is Showing -- Learning to Speak American -- In Praise of the Language Police -- Translating in the Dark -- Listening for the Jabberwock -- In the Wilds of Leopardi -- Echoes from the Gloom.

Should you finish every book you start? How has your family influenced the way you read? What is literary style? How is the Nobel Prize like the World Cup? Why do you hate the book your friend likes? Is writing really just like any other job? What happens to your brain when you read a good book? As a novelist, translator and critic, Tim Parks, is well-placed to investigate any questions we have about books and reading. In this collection of lively and provocative pieces he talks about what readers want from books and how to look at the literature we encounter in a new light.