By the Book

By the Book is Ramona Koval's love letter to books and writing, a tribute to the stories that have changed and enriched her life.

What is it about reading that we love so much? Why do books make our lives so much richer? Ramona’s Koval’s By the Book is about reading and living, and about the authors that have written themselves into her life: from Oliver Sacks to Oscar Wilde, Christina Stead to Grace Paley.

It is about learning to read (and asking her mother to buy her a copy of the Kama Sutra), about love and science (and her childhood ambition to be Marie Curie), about arctic exploration (and her ruminations on what part of a husky she would eat if she had to), about poetry and travel and falling in love. In our book-devouring nation, this is a book for every avid reader and every avid listener who has been spellbound by Ramona’s interviews over the years. By the Book is quintessentially Ramona: warm, bright, erudite—unmissable.

Ramona Koval is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. She is the editor of Best Australian Essays and was the presenter of ABC Radio National’s The Book Show. Her most recent book was Speaking Volumes: Conversations with Remarkable Writers, a collection of her international literary interviews.

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'Koval’s enthusiasm bubbles from the page. It confirms the erudite and talented Koval is a treasure, whose voice is sorely missed on our airwaves.' Australian Bookseller+Publisher

‘Australia's literary microphone mistress.' Times Literary Supplement

The voice of literature.’ Jane Sullivan, Age