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Reading lists

Books with ideas that could change your life

A Book of Solace

If You Should Fail

Why Success Eludes Us and Why It Doesn’t Matter

'There is an honesty and a clarity in Joe Moran's book If You Should Fail that normalises and softens the usual blows of life that enables us to accept and live with them rather than be diminished/wounded by them' Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass 
 
 'Full of wise insight and honesty. Moran manages to be funny, erudite and kindly: a rare - and compelling - combination. This is the essential antidote to a culture obsessed with success. Read it' Madeleine Bunting 
 
Failure is the small print in life's terms and conditions. 
 
Covering everything from examination dreams to fourth-placed Olympians, If You Should Fail is about how modern life, in a world of self-advertised success, makes us feel like failures, frauds and imposters. Widely acclaimed observer of daily life Joe Moran is here not to tell you that everything will be all right in the end, but to reassure you that failure is an occupational hazard of being human. 
 
As Moran shows, even the supremely gifted Leonardo da Vinci could be seen as a failure. Most artists, writers, sports stars and business people face failure. We all will, and can learn how to live with it. To echo Virginia Woolf, beauty "is only got by the failure to get it . . . by facing what must be humiliation - the things one can't do." 
 
Combining philosophy, psychology, history and literature, Moran's ultimately upbeat reflections on being human, and his critique of how we live now, offers comfort, hope - and solace. For we need to see that not every failure can be made into a success - and that's OK.

This is a deeply tender book, and full of wise insight and honesty. Moran manages to be funny, erudite and kindly: a rare - and compelling - combination. This is the essential antidote to a culture obsessed with success. Read it

Joe Moran is a brilliant historian, and the most perceptive and original observer of British life that we have. He makes the humdrum riveting

There is an honesty and a clarity in Joe Moran's book If You Should Fail that normalises and softens the usual blows of life that enables us to accept and live with them rather than be diminished/wounded by them

Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass

A fascinating insight. Moran's honesty is brilliantly raw and uncomfortable at times, but under the apparently bleak message on the surface there is an uplifting truth to be found. For myself, the concept of failure has been redefined

Moran is a wonderful, witty writer

Moran is a past master at producing fine, accessible non-fiction

Joe Moran is a wonderfully sharp writer, calm, precise and quietly comical

I really love Joe Moran's work, he writes with such generosity and kindness

These stories are beautifully told, and they are comforting at first... Moran's compassion shines through this gift of a book

A ­calming antidote to the world of ­professionally failing... What Moran has created is a slim, lyrical and blessedly cool-headed reflection on failure as a universally shared human trial... What he provides, instead of the mechanical business strategies laid out in some popular failure titles, is a selection of fascinating and often moving lives, characterised in some way by their failure

A beautifully written meditation on life's inevitable setbacks and what he sardonically terms "the failing well movement". Moran encourages us to accept our impostor syndromes, to avoid becoming a "sporting masochist" for whom winning is everything, and to admire the history of West End musicals that were instant, notorious flops

A classic anti (or counter-intuitive) self-help treatise -- robustly argued, intellectually sturdy, laced with self-deprecatory humour... it is deeply empathetic to the trials of the creative life

Joe Moran is Professor of English and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and is the author of seven books, including Shrinking Violets: The Secret Life of Shyness, First You Write a Sentence and If You Should Fail. He writes for, among others, the Guardian, the New Statesman and the Times Literary Supplement.

Failure is the small print in life's terms and conditions. 
 
Covering everything from examination dreams to fourth-placed Olympians, If You Should Fail is about how modern life, in a world of self-advertised success, makes us feel like failures, frauds and imposters. Widely acclaimed observer of daily life Joe Moran is here not to tell you that everything will be all right in the end, but to reassure you that failure is an occupational hazard of being human. 
 
As Moran shows, even the supremely gifted Leonardo da Vinci could be seen as a failure. Most artists, writers, sports stars and business people face failure. We all will, and can learn how to live with it. To echo Virginia Woolf, beauty "is only got by the failure to get it . . . by facing what must be humiliation - the things one can't do." 
 
Combining philosophy, psychology, history and literature, Moran's ultimately upbeat reflections on being human, and his critique of how we live now, offers comfort, hope - and solace. For we need to see that not every failure can be made into a success - and that's OK.

The Elements of Reading, Writing … and Life.

First You Write a Sentence.

A STYLE GUIDE BY STEALTH - HOW ANYONE CAN WRITE WELL (AND FULLY ENJOY GOOD WRITING) 
 
'Joe Moran is a wonderfully sharp writer, calm, precise and quietly comical' Craig Brown 
 
Advanced maths has no practical use, and is understood by few. A symphony can be enjoyed, but created only by a genius. Good writing, however, can be written (and read) by anyone if we give it the gift of our time. 
 
Enter universally praised historian Professor Joe Moran. From the Bible and Shakespeare to Orwell and Diana Athill, First You Write a Sentence.show us how the most ordinary words can be turned into verbal constellations, sharing: 
 
- The tools of the trade; from typewriters to texting and the impact this has on the craft 
- Writing and the senses; how to make the world visible and touchable 
- How to find the ideal word, build a sentence, and construct a paragraph 
 
Good writing can ignite the hearts and minds of readers, help us notice the world better and live more meaningful lives. And it's a power we all can wield. 
 
'What a lovely thing this is: a book that delights in the sheer textural joy of good sentences . . . Any writer should read it' Bee Wilson 
 
'Thoughtful, engaging, and lively . . . when you've read it, you realise you've changed your attitude to writing (and reading)' John Simpson, formerly Chief Editor of the OED and author of The Word Detective 
 
'Moran is a past master at producing fine, accessible non-fiction' Helen Davies, Sunday Times

Joe Moran has a genius for turning the prosaic poetic

Thoughtful reflections on how to write well

Joe Moran is the most perceptive and original observer of British life that we have

Moran has fast become Britain's foremost explorer and explainer of the disregarded

Juliet Gardiner, author of 'Wartime: Britain 1939-1945'

Moran is a wonderful, witty writer, and here he surpasses himself

Compelling . . . There's plenty in Moran's book to delight grammar and language nerds

Humane and witty . . . as a primer in generous and lively writing, First You Write a Sentence is blithe and convincing

Exquisite...Moran's own sentences are so deliciously epigrammatic that I considered giving up chocolate in favour of re-reading his book...He is more mentor than instructor

The sentence is the common ground where every writer walks. A poet writes in sentences, but so does the unsung author who came up with Items trapped in doors cause delays. A good sentence can be written (and read) by anyone if we simply give it the gift of our time. 
 
 Enter widely-acclaimed author Professor Joe Moran. First You Write a Sentence is his unpedantic and authoritative explanation of how the most ordinary words can be turned into verbal constellations of extraordinary grace. Using examples ranging from the Bible and Shakespeare to George Orwell and Maggie Nelson, and studies of what can best fire the reader's mind, he shows how we can all write in a way that is clear, compelling and alive. Good writing can even make ourselves known to others and live more meaningful lives. It's an elegant gem in praise of the English sentence.

Joe Moran

'Habit and routine make us blind to the everyday familiar but Joe Moran reveals that the people we rarely notice in railway stations, parks, restaurants, and on city streets, are all uniquely mysterious and unknowable, as indeed are the people we think we know well. A salutary and eloquent reminder that the mundane is in fact the exotic. Thoroughly enjoyable.'

Michael Foley, author of The Age of Absurdity 

'Combining fascinating theory and history with beautiful human observation, this book is a true delight.'

‘Building on deep thought and curiosity, this beautifully-written book will help you fully appreciate the rich world of humanity’

Erling Kagge, author of Silence: In the Age of Noise

'A delicious meditation on the messy, human stories we need in our optimised world. Moran's easy prose makes meandering through the everyday as thrilling as a ride on a roller coaster.'

Aleks Krotoski, author of The Immortalists

The fascinating practice of people watching is beginning to disappear and we are often too busy with our devices to notice those around us. But what do we miss when they all go unseen? 
 
Whether in lecture halls or offices, cafés or courtyards, Professor Joe Moran has spent many hours watching people – and he’s learnt that we can’t fully understand others unless we really look at them properly. He shows us how this uniquely human pastime can teach us to pay attention to the things we normally overlook and thus learn new things about ourselves. 
 
Along the way, he introduces famous people-watching sociologists, anthropologists, artists and writers, from Erving Goffman and Desmond Morris to Alice Neel and Virginia Woolf. Through Moran’s own ‘field research’, he reveals the hidden strangeness of human behaviour, from the unique language of couples to workplace rituals, and the unlikely things that unite us. 
 
In a digital-driven world, The Lost Art of People Watching encourages us to be more curious about those around us, about our quirks and our similarities – and shows us how our lives will be richer for it.

Joe Moran

Books by Joe Moran

Articles featuring Joe Moran

Books with ideas that could change your life

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