Steven Poole Livres

A hilarious compendium, for fans of The Office and Eats, Shoots and Leaves, that rails against something that drives us all utterly mad: office jargon.

'Clever and entertaining.' Sunday Times'Elegantly written and full of surprises.' Daily Telegraph'Always entertaining and often eye-opening.' Financial TimesOld ideas that were mocked or ignored for centuries are now storming back to the cutting edge of research and informing the way we lead our lives. In Rethink,Steven Poole explains why today's chess grandmasters, quantum physicists and psychologists are mining the last 2,000 years of history for answers to the problems of the present. He explores how long-neglected thinkers could transform our everyday lives- from improving the way boardrooms operate, to inspiring grand projects for social and political change. And above all, he shows that by rethinking discarded ideas we can each gain a better understanding of the world - and perhaps be better equipped to change it.'A whirlwind of discovery ... Among the greatest compliments you can give a book is that it helps you to see things differently.' Guardian'When it comes to describing a complex idea clearly, Poole is one of the best writers around.' Sunday Times'Fascinating ... Poole confirms his standing as one of our liveliest and most thought-provoking writers on science and technology.' Spectator

A weird and wonderful word and its meaning for every day of the year.

Unspeak is language as a weapon. Every day, we are bombarded with those apparently simple words or phrases that actually conceal darker meanings. 'Climate change' is less threatening than 'global warming'; we say 'ethnic cleansing' when we mean mass murder. As we absorb and repeat Unspeak we are accepting the messages that politicians, businessmen and military agencies wish us to believe. Operation Iraqi Freedom did more than put a positive spin on the American war with Iraq; it gave the invasion such a likeable name that the American news networks quickly adopted it as their tagline for reporting on the war. By repackaging the language we use to describe international affairs or domestic politics, Unspeak tries to make controversial issues unspeakable and, therefore, unquestionable. In this thought-provoking and important book, Steven Poole traces the globalizing wave of modern Unspeak from culture wars to the culture of war and reveals how everyday words are changing the way we think.

Ground-breaking account of the cultural history and impact of videogames, from Pong and Space Invaders to Tomb Raider and Tekken. Videogames are here to stay. It is now more than a quarter of a century since the appearance of the first commercially available videogame, Pong. Now the profits on blockbuster games are measured in terms of the first weekend's millions, like those of mass-market films. Sony estimates that nearly 1 in 5 UK households has a Playstation; worldwide sales of its console have topped 30 million. Videogame design is now the subject of accredited BSc degrees at universities. The market domination by British based videogame companies is one of the success stories of the decade. Yet videogames are still seen as a compromised art-form, derivative at best, actively harmful at worst. In Trigger Happy, Steven Poole asks the question: If this is an artform, what kind of an artform is it? Where did it come from, and where is it going?