As its name suggests, this is a blog about books. My name is Jane Gleeson-White and I’ve published two books about books, the first - Classics - was published in 2005 by Random House. I let it go out of print in 2011 so I can blog it here, chapter by chapter, starting with Homer and ending with Salman Rushdie.
I’m also blogging here about all other bookish things. My special interests apart from the so-called ‘classics’ are French, Russian and American literature, mythology, physics, mathematics, economics and ecology, and Australian literature.
My second book is Australian Classics published in 2007 by Allen & Unwin and again in 2010 in paperback. It discusses 50 Australian writers from Rolf Boldrewood (‘Robbery Under Arms’, 1889) to Tim Winton.
My new book Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice shaped the modern world – and how their invention could make or break the planet was published in hardback by Allen & Unwin in November 2011 and in paperback in February 2012. As its title suggests, it’s quite different from my other two books except that it’s also about a book, an encyclopaedia of mathematics published in Venice in 1494, and its impact on the world.
DOUBLE ENTRY:
WON the Nib Waverley Library Award for Literature 2012
Shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Awards 2013
Shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year Awards 2012
Shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards 2012
It was published as Double Entry: How the merchants of Venice created modern finance in the UK and Europe by Allen & Unwin UK and in North America by WW Norton.
I am a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of New South Wales, which includes a dissertation on Alexis Wright and Kim Scott. I also blog at Overland literary journal as red herring.
