Wooden Books

Wooden Books - The Mathemagical Ancient Wizdom Series Wooden Books was founded in 1999 by designer John Martineau near Hay-on-Wye. Eco friendly and educational.

The aim was to produce a beautiful series of recycled books based on the philosophies, arts and sciences. Using the Beatrix Potter formula of text facing picture pages, and old-styles fonts, along with hand-drawn illustrations and 19th century engravings, the books were designed not to date. Small but stuffed with information. Big ideas in a tiny space. There are over 1,000,000 Wooden Books now in

print worldwide and growing, as readers from Canada to Korea, Greece to Spain, Japan to the Czech Republic all fall under the unique spell of this innovative series. Every page of every little Wooden Book can be quickly browsed on our groundbreaking website www.woodenbooks.com - try before you buy, just like in a bookshop. You can also design your own star-covered box-set, or download PDFs. New titles for autumn 2013 are 'Curves' by Lisa DeLong and 'Celtic Pattern' by Adam Tetlow

08/12/2025

ENTHYMEME - the rhetorical argument

"Enthymemes draw on commonly accepted notions (e.g. traitors should be punished), not logical truths. This does not make them less efficacious. Aristotle’s analogy (p.20) explains how and why they work: enthymemes are to rhetoric what syllogisms are to logic—technical means of reasoning from assumed premises to a conclusion. In brief, they are the very body of persuasive proof."

From RHETORIC by Adina Arvatu & Andrew Aberdein, 2015

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

03/12/2025

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

"Is any figure better known than the rhetorical question? Is there only one sort of rhetorical question? Actually, no: both of these questions are rhetorical questions, but they are examples of significantly different figures. The standard rhetorical question is EROTESIS, a question which presumes its own answer:

"If you’re gonna ask if you can ask me a question,give me time to respond.Unless you’re asking rhetorically, in which case the answer is obvious—yes." (Ocean’s Twelve)"

From RHETORIC by Adina Arvatu & Andrew Aberdein, 2015

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

01/12/2025

INTRODUCTION

"RHETORIC is the enfant terrible of the Trivium family. Like grammar and logic, it has an ancient pedigree; unlike them, it boasts a rather chequered reputation. At times the infamy even outstrips its ancestry. You cannot, for instance, dismiss someone’s speech as ‘grammatical’ or ‘logical,’ but let it pack a wallop, and the cry of ‘rhetoric!’ deafens all. And that is because, from its inception millennia ago, the art of persuasion has been in tension with the truth. And philosophy. For what is to stop a good rhetorician from bending the truth to suit her case? Should rhetoric not make liars and bull-mongers of us all?"

Image: La Rhétorique, French tapestry (ca. 1510-1520, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs).
The personification of Lady Rhetoric is again majestic—seated on a throne, holding insignia of royalty—and surrounded by practitioners of the art. No ancient or Church authorities are present anymore, reflecting the growing self-confidence of Renaissance rhetoric.

From RHETORIC by Adina Arvatu & Andrew Aberdein, 2015

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

28/11/2025

RHETORIC - The Art of Persuasion by Adina Arvatu & Andrew Aberdein, 2015

What do you do when you use a metaphor? Or a simile or analogy? Can you tell the difference between a synecdoche and a metonymy? What are the secret tricks used every day by professional persuaders? In this learned little volume, illustrated by Merrily Harpur, AdinaArvatu and Andrew Aberdein demonstrate the principles of Rhetoric via its key figures and devices, using copious examples to show howall human communication deploys the techniques of this ancient art.

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

26/11/2025

What we're reading this week:

RHETORIC - The Art of Persuasion by Adina Arvatu & Andrew Aberdein, 2015

What do you do when you use a metaphor? Or a simile or analogy? Can you tell the difference between a synecdoche and a metonymy? What are the secret tricks used every day by professional persuaders? In this learned little volume, illustrated by Merrily Harpur, AdinaArvatu and Andrew Aberdein demonstrate the principles of Rhetoric via its key figures and devices, using copious examples to show howall human communication deploys the techniques of this ancient art.

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

24/11/2025

CHINESE WINDOWS - for framing landscapes

The Chinese saw windows as what the Chinese Ming period scholar gardener Li Yu called opportunities for ‘unintentional painting’. The window opening, which could be circular, hexagonal, gourd, petal or fan-shaped, became frame to a carefully composed garden or natural landscape feature when looked through from within.

From PORTALS by Philippa Lewis, 2018

21/11/2025

STILES THROUGH - narrowing the access

"This style of stile can be built in stone (see example from Goldhanger, Essex, below right), wood (below left) or metal(as in the example from Owlpen, Gloucester, opposite lower right). A simple squeezer stile can be built out of a curved or J-shaped branch, sawn or split down the middle and reflected into two sides."

GATEWAYS - small and secret or public and impressive

"King Nebuchadnezzar II built in 575 BC the Ishtar Gate through the walls of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, a cedar gate set within a huge structure depicting aurochs and lions (below). A gate is the first impres- sion to what lies behind and its design will often indicate its purpose."

From PORTALS by Philippa Lewis, 2018

14/11/2025

PORTALS - Gates, Stiles, Windows, Bridges & Other Crossings by Philippa Lewis, 2018

When is a threshold a portal? What is a sallyport? How many ways are there to cross a wall, a fence or a river? What is a kissing gate? Are there gateways to other worlds? In this beautiful book, packed with rare antique illustrations and original drawings by artist Miles Thistlethwaite, author Philippa Lewis explores the fascinating world of liminal boundaries and the inexhaustable variety of ways in which we cross them.

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

12/11/2025

INTRODUCTION

"The word ‘portal’ derives from the Latin porta, which means gate, specifically a city gate, but also any place of ingress and egress. A portal is generally an optimistic thing, both literally and metaphorically. A portal can be a door, window, arch, gateway or just a gap in the hedge."

"Its companion word—‘threshold’—describes the point on the ground under the portal, and can have the sense of being a springboard or a taking-off point: the threshold of success, the threshold of maturity."

From PORTALS by Philippa Lewis, 2018

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

07/11/2025

“The line has always been at our service—tool and companion on our journey into being, it has measured, mapped, woven and wriggled its way through our lives, its quicksilver flexibility fueling our discoveries.

We harness lines to make our world, to bind language into time, to connect and protect, surround and select. They are our means for bringing our imagination into existence, our will manifested.”

Adam Tetlow, from CELTIC DESIGN, 2013

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

05/11/2025

Speaking of shelves... Check out our wooden display stands!

16 slot and 20 slot stands are available for FREE to stockists of Wooden Books when ordered fully stocked.

Contact [email protected] for more info!

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

03/11/2025

✨ COMPETITION NOW CLOSED! ✨

UK and US winners will be randomly selected and contacted tomorrow! Thanks to everyone who participated in the competition, it was wonderful to see so many Wooden Books on your shelves 📚

Fun fact: there are now 99 titles in the series! Next year's releases will tip our total number of Wooden Books to over 100!! We'll be sure to run another big competition to celebrate this big moment 💫

A huge thanks to all our customers for supporting Wooden Books for keeping our small publishing business afloat as we continue to explore an ever-expanding range of topics ✨ 🙏 ✨

WOODEN BOOKS
Small Books, Big Ideas

Address

Glastonbury

Website

https://linktr.ee/woodenbooks

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Wooden Books posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Wooden Books:

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company in Glastonbury?

Our Story

Wooden Books was founded in 1999 by designer John Martineau near Hay-on-Wye. The aim was to produce a beautiful series of recycled books based on the classical philosophies, arts and sciences. Using the Beatrix Potter formula of text facing picture pages, and old-styles fonts, along with hand-drawn illustrations and 19th century engravings, the books were designed not to date. Small but stuffed with information. Eco friendly and educational. Big ideas in a tiny space. There are over 1,000,000 Wooden Books now in print worldwide and growing, as readers from Canada to Korea, Greece to Spain, Japan to the Czech Republic all fall under the unique spell of this innovative series. Every page of every little Wooden Book can be quickly browsed on our groundbreaking website www.woodenbooks.com - try before you buy, just like in a bookshop. You can also design your own star-covered box-set, or download PDFs.