Phil Barber

reading, writing, publishing

Books and reading have always been among my passions. I regularly devour doorstopping novels, and my bookshelves groan under the weight of my favourite authors and series. My main tastes are in fantasy and science fiction, and graphic novels. But those are by no means the only genres that interest me; I read widely, from those genres to historical fiction, crime fiction, biographies and autobiographies, humour and satire, even the occasional chick-lit book when the only things available are on my girlfriend's shelves. I also read a great deal of non-fiction.

In the past few years, I've begun to love not only reading books for enjoyment, but re-reading them, studying the craft of writing within them. Working out why I enjoy them, what attracts me to this character rather than that, this situation rather than the other. Writing professionally has ever been a dream of mine, which I continue to pursue, gradually, in my own time.

More recently, I've come to the conclusion that the publishing industry could be an interesting and productive place in which to work. In particular, scientific publishing could be an excellent way to combine my creativity and experience in a development environment with my knowledge and love of science, and my enjoyment of reading and books. To help further that aim, I have begun training in copy-editing and proofreading with the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

The images on this page are public domain images used in good faith from various public domain websites and Wikimedia Commons.
The contents of this site are © Philip Barber/thespaceinvader unless otherwise stated.
Last updated 03-Feb-2011.