How To Give Your Child A Lifelong Love Of Reading published today

My latest book, published by The British Library, is out today - although I've written it, there are also lots of mini-essays from famous children's writers such as Michael Rosen, Jacqueline Wilson, and Abi Elphinstone. It also features reading lists by age and subject from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). Available online from your local indie bookseller as well as from the usual suspects. Here's the official bumph:

Full of age-appropriate reading suggestions and ideas to encourage tricky readers, discover how to instill one of life’s greatest skills: curiosity and a lifelong love of learning. Complete with dedicated contributions from Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen, Abi Elphinstone, Cressida Cowell, Hollie McNish, Ken Wilson-Max and Julia Eccleshare, this title taps into an increasing concern about anti-screen activities and return to traditional forms of creative thinking.

How do you create an active reader? Why is reading good for creativity? Why is it vital for teaching the next generation resilience and positive mental health?

In the digital age of never-ending screen time you could argue that the power of books has diminished. But while screens have changed the act of reading, Alex Johnson believes reading is even more important, and that people value books more than ever. This is visible in the sales of printed special editions, the revival in reading aloud, the increased interest in poetry anthologies and the rescuing of ‘lost words’ from obscurity.

But the problem is: with so many competing distractions, which are the best books for children to read and how can we access them? How do we get children to start reading? And how can we encourage them to be curious? How can we encourage their reading and maintain their interest? In this book of practical advice, Alex Johnson brings his tremendous enthusiasm and informed passion to answer these questions, and many more, to ensure a new generation of bookworms are whisked away to new worlds and essential discoveries.

A Little Saw

 

Friend of Shedworking Andy Clark who runs the excellent Workshopshed.com site ('

Making and repairing in a shed at the bottom of the garden') has a new book out which looks marvellous, A Little Saw. Here's what he says about it:

Many people like to use the phrase “the right tool for the job”. This is great if you know what the right tool is or even what the choices are. There are a bewildering number of different types of saw so this book focuses on some common types that you are likely to find in your workshop, garage, maker space, tool library or shed. With the aid of this book, you should be able to identify and select the right saw for your job. Often it is not critical to get the perfect saw but choosing the best one available to you will help you to quickly make accurate quality cuts.

The paperback version is available from Amazon for £3.99 and the Kindle edition is just £1.99. Hopefully other titles from Andy will follow soon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of which do not require planning

Urban Botanics - garden office gardening

Research consistently shows that greenery in the workplace - however small that may be - is good for our health. Indeed, many shedworkers are also keen gardeners. But whether you're already pretty experienced with a trug or just wondering what might work in the limited space inside your garden office, Urban Botanics by Emma Sibley (Aurum Press) is well worth a look and certainly worthy of a place on your shed bookshelf.

Essentially it's a lovely plant guide, with atmospheric full page illustrations over its 150 pages by Maaike Koster  (to be honest, it's quite relaxing simply looking at her art work) and very readable text by Emma Sibley, founder of London Terrariums. They have picked 70 different plants including succulents, cacti, flowering and foliage plants so there will be something for whatever size garden office you work in. Among the choices are the Bunny Ears Cactus, Copper Pinwheel, and Swiss Cheese Plant. Each one gets a double page spread with enough relevant information about what it is and how to look after it without vast quantities of text to wade through. Recommended.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here

The Woodies by the Ponds

There are very few books aimed at a younger shedworking reader, but Cathy Watts' The Woodies by the Ponds is an honorable exception. Cathy writes at her home in Tortington Priory from her garden office, a Writer's Retreat model from Scotts of Thrapston inspired by Virginia Woolf's writing hut. It also features in the Sussex-based author's book, illustrated by Emma Ball, which focuses on the 'Woodies', tiny folk who travel on the backs of dragonflies and have adventures with the wildlife around the Priory's ponds.
 
Cathy's previous books will also be of interest as they feature the 'Sandies', creatures who live under beachhuts and come out at night to tidy up after humans.
   

--------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden office specialists. Click here for more details.

my cool shed by Jane Field-Lewis

A decade is a long time in shed books. Ten years ago, Gordon Thorburn's hugely successful book 'Men And Sheds' was published featuring an entirely male lineup of shedworkers, hobbyists and Suffragen Bishops, photographed by Laura Forrester in black and white (one per double spread), mostly unsmiling, all from the UK, and in very traditional sheds. It helped - as did the previous year's launch of readersheds.co.uk - to kickstart renewed interest in shedlike atmospheres.

Ten years on, and with Sally Coulthard's Shed Chic book in between, we now have Jane Field-Lewis's new book 'my cool shed - an inspirational guide to stylish hideaways and workspaces'. The huge number of photographs are in full colour, the sheds are from all over the world, and the sheddies are both male and female. There's even a sourcebook at the end to help you get the look as well as gorgeous endpapers (see image below). The term 'shedworking' is now used without explanation. Much has changed.

my cool shed is split into several sections looking at artists, musicians, retreats, gardeners, writers, workspaces and time out. Many of the people featured are shedworkers (indeed plenty of the 35 garden offices and sheds featured have appeared on this blog or in the Shedworking book) which underlines again how much has changed in shed useage since 2002. Each entry also has a section called 'style notes' which allows Jane - who is a professional multi-disciplinary stylist - to talk through the look of each shed with her expert eye.

Jane writes nicely and there's no pretentious gobbledygook. It's a lively read and her hard work in tracking down some marvellous sheds (I particularly like French artist Richard Texier's studio at the end of a pier) has paid off in spades. But what really makes it stand out are the several hundred photographs by Tina Hillier. She has absolutely got to grips with each of the sheds, picking out intriguing details inside as well as atmospheric exterior shots - even if you're familiar with some of these sheds, there are so many new shots of them that you won't be disappointed.

You should certainly buy my cool shed (published by Pavilion in hardback at £14.99) - not only is Jane a decent person, this will definitely be the best book about sheds published this year.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday posts are sponsored by The Stable Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

Almost Green: book reading

Friend of Shedworking Fiona Gilsenan went to a reading by friend of Shedworking James Glave and sent us this review:

I'm sorry to say I drove my car the ridiculous distance of .8km to the Fernwood Community Association where eco-writer and Shedworker James Glave was addressing the Annual General Meeting of the Victoria Car Share Co-op on Monday night. But I think he would understand. James is the first to acknowledge the challenges faced by well-intentioned but frazzled parents (and freelance writers) as they take baby steps to greener lifestyles. He was at the meeting to read from his very funny book, Almost Green, in which he chronicles building an environmentally sensitive writing studio on Bowen Island near Vancouver.

As part of his own "half-hearted fumbling toward sustainability" the Eco-Shed represented a pretty steep learning curve, but James can now speak confidently about the relative soft costs of cob or straw-bale versus rammed-earth construction and advise on a method for storing harvested rainwater from the roof of a 280-square-foot building. (That method involves hitching a 250lb plastic cistern to a Lexus SUV, but it represents an impressive if potentially lethal commitment to sustainable shedworking.)

The Eco-Shed , featured in the September issue of Oprah's Winfrey's O at Home magazine, is now complete, although it serves only part-time as a shedworking venue. James reckons it is built to a Gold LEED standard, with its passive-solar design, salvaged and reclaimed lumber, Danish wood stove, and super-efficient ventilation and insulation systems. Meanwhile, it has to earn back its advance (approximately $100,000 Canadian dollars), so at weekends it doubles as a guest suite for visiting city dwellers seeking a green getaway.

You can read excerpts from the book at James' site and also at Salon where some of the comments have become a little heated.

The Shed - issue 16 now out

The new issue of The Shed is now out. Do nip along and have a read.

Outhouses of the East and West

Those of you who have understandably been missing the regular Thursday Outhouses slot will be glad to hear about two books suggested by materalicious' creator Justin Anthony. Outhouses of the East is by Ray Guy and Sherman Hines while Outhouses of the West is by Silver Donald Cameron and Sherman Hines. To be honest, I haven't actually seen either book yet myself, but Hines is an excellent photographer and I suspect they'd both be perfect additions to any toilet bookshelf.

The Shed - issue 15 available in lovely new format

The new issue of The Shed - number 15 - is now out. But times have changed and The Shed has changed with them. No longer simply available as a pdf, it is now a fully online e-mag (though there are one or two things to sort out before the next issue emerges) which you can read by simply clicking here. Navigation is pretty easy - click on a page to bring it into focus, click to the side of a page to move pages, or on the corner. If you have any problems, do contact me and I'll sort it all out.

It's a great issue too with writer Clare Dudman featuring in the My Shed slot, Sarah Salway continuing her shed serial, Felix Bennett's marvellous View From A Shed and a new slot featuring readers' shed stories. You can read it online, download it as a pdf, and email a friend directly from the site to tell them all about it. Happy reading!

S.H.E.D your life

"It seems we need to S.H.E.D. That’s Julie’s acronym for Separate the treasures (What is truly worth hanging on to?), Heave the trash (What’s weighing you down?), Embrace your identity (Who are you without all your stuff?), and Drive yourself forward (Which direction connects to your genuine self?). Julie’s taken the whole “clean and declutter” out of organizing and placed it in the self-help arena (I see a speaking tour on deck). “When you’re eager to make a change in your life, but you are unsure of your new destination, you need to SHED,” she writes. It’s about purging “the physical and behavioral clutter holding you back so you can finally create real change in your life.” The words “defunct,” “obsolete” and “obligations” were bantied about, juxtoposed with “richer” and “more meaningful.”"

Chief Home Officer.

Snowy shedworking

While most of us are content to work from garden offices in our back garden or yard, the more adventurous shedworker will want to have plenty of tricks up his or her sleeve. What, for example, should we do in case of snow and ice? Worry no more. How to Build an Igloo And Other Snow Shelters by NE Yankielun promises to explain how to look for the best snow, explains all about slab shelters and drift caves, and includes tips on proper winter hydration and fuelling tips. And it's keenly priced.

Almost Green - story of an eco-shed

Jame's Glave's book Almost Green which tells the story of how he built an eco-friendly garden office is due out in September but you can read some excerpts free at his web site. Here's a taster:

"This is a book about the construction of a sustainably designed 280-square-foot writing studio—the building I have come to call my Eco-Shed. But it is also about the making of an evolution. It is about my own ecological awakening and my personal struggle to reconcile an increasing awareness of a sick planet with a sprawling economic and political framework more or less engineered to preserve the status quo. It is about the end of the world as we know it and the promise of a better one to replace it just in time. It is about the small trade-offs we make in our heads every day between convenience and cost, entitlement and personal responsibility. It is about our natural instinct to flatten the protruding nail of personal sacrifice with the always-handy hammers of convenience and denial. It is about genuinely wanting to leave a lighter footprint on the planet but running smack up against a series of obstacles—some practical and objective, others less so—and muddling through with as much humor and grace as possible."

The future of The Shed magazine: your thoughts please

A couple of years ago we contemplated turning The Shed magazine from a simple pdf title that weighs down your inbox into an all-dancing, all-singing, all-shedworking e-magazine which you can read online (or download if you still prefer). There was a mixed reaction to the demo we put together then with the help of the nice folk at Zmags but things have moved on now (not least the price is lower as well as higher readership figures) and we've put together another demo for you all to have a browse around. So please do click here and take a look - navigation is hopefully fairly selfevident and the key thing is to click once on a page to zoom in and make it readable. And once you've had a good nose, do let me know what you think.

The Shed - issue 14 now out

The latest issue of the biggest selling and most eco-friendly magazine about garden office shedworkers is now out. This one has a strong literary flavour - read the first part of our new shed story serial by acclaimed author Sarah Salway, savour the shedlike poetry of Jeremy Over, and marvel at the garden office of Canterbury Laureate Patricia Debney. Elsewhere, Nick Inman investigates a distinctively French approach to shedworking and we welcome back cartoonist Felix Bennett. If you haven't received your free copy yet, please email me and I'll email you one straight-ish back.

Spare Room Start Up

Spare Room Start Up is the new book from Enterprise Nation supremo Emma Jones published by Harriman House. The book covers pretty much everything you need to know to start up a business from home and includes plenty of examples of shedworkers (including me and this site). It's nicely designed which is always a good start, with plenty of photos and attractive imagery, a 'How to' book which doesn't look like the usual drab 'How to' books. But it's also a cracking read, broken down into three main sections, business, lifestyle and technology, and most importantly with a huge number of case studies so you can see how other people have done it. I suspect this will become the first book anybody thinking of working from home will buy and it deserves to be really rather successful.

Cabin fever

A great article in ReadyMade magazine about shedworking structures including name checks for Modern Shed, hive modular, Sustain, Modern Cabana, and Mfinity plus some great examples of Edgar Blazona's designs in situ (his bestselling MD100 is pictured above).

WHY magazine

WHY (work.home.you) is a marvellously slick online magazine which makes The Shed look like the product of a John Bull printing set. It covers a wide range of topics for homeworkers/shedworkers from business topics and technology tips to recipes and lifestyle issues like shedworking in the nude. It is published bimonthly (and there's also a blog) but there's an excellent library of back issues to explore online to keep you busy. This really is well worth a long browse.

Heavenly hideaways

Country Living magazine has a great nine-page spread in its April issue out now devoted to what it calls Heavenly Hideaways. It covers treehouses, 'rustic retro residences' such as Airstream trailers, summerhouses - including the shedworking soft furnishings specialist Jeanne Lainé - and follies. Lots of familiar namechecks but one or two new ones too. Excellent photos and well worth a browse.
Thanks to Garden Monkey and the other person whose name I've rudely forgotten for the alert

Leap

At this rate by the end of the year the number of books which mention shedworking will be in double figures. The latest is entrepreneur Ian Sanders' guide Leap! Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free. Here's an excerpt from the book which he says is for aspiring shedworkers everywhere:

"There is a new trend for garden offices. In fact ‘Shedworking’ is not new; writers and artists have worked in sheds and summerhouses for generations. The bonus of a garden workspace is that there is a separation between where you live and where you work and with wifi you don’t even need an extra broadband connection. Salim is a radio producer who has built an office space and edit suite at the end of his garden away from his noisy kids; Sam is another Shedworker who runs a small record label from an outbuilding at the back of her garden."

Ian is more of a summerhouseworker than a shedworker but also something of a thirdplaceworker. He says:

"When it comes to workspaces I am a bit promiscuous but typically work includes the office at home in my loft (if my young kids are quiet); the summerhouse when it is sunny; a local office where I hot-desk a couple of days a week; a member’s club in Covent Garden; numerous trains, tubes and coffee shops in between."

You can read his blog here, find out more about him from his rather nice web site here and buy the book here.

James Glave: Almost Green

Writer James Glave has built himself a lovely eco-shed studio (pictured above) at his home on Bowen Island and also written what sounds like an intriguing book chronicling the build which used, among other things, FSC timber, heat-recovery ventilation, rainwater harvesting, edible landscaping (a nice touch) and passive solar technology. Douglas Coupland has already given the book the thumbs up ("a smart and contemplative read"). Here's some more information from the author:

"Part obsession, part labor of love, part money pit, the project has served as a crash course in the techniques, conundrums, and trade-offs of sustainable design. It’s been a public exercise in learning by doing, assuaging nervous neighbors, alienating the in-laws, pushing my marriage to the limit, and mustering reserves of time, money, and life force that I didn’t know I possessed. Ultimately I hope the studio will educate and inspire others to demand something better from their own homes, which may in turn one day point the way toward a healthier and better tomorrow for us all.

Yet ALMOST GREEN is more than just the story of a construction project. It chronicles how a driven, cash-strapped, bleary-eyed stay-at-home-dad learns when to dig in his heels, when to make sacrifices, and when to make bitter compromises along the path to the carbon-reduced life. It is an adventure of challenge and change, a fumbling one-man quest to reinvent suburbia, one cul-de-sac at a time."

Almost Green is out in autumn with Greystone Books. More photos of James' shed at his flickr site and indeed at readersheds.co.uk where he has shared his shed and added more details and so is in the running for Shed of the Year 2008. He's also giving a talk on May 10 about his shed at Light House. You can hear him on a vangogreen podcast too which is well worth a listen.