or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
44 used & new from £0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Travels in the Scriptorium
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book

Travels in the Scriptorium (Hardcover)

by Paul Auster (Author)
2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £9.09 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.90 (30%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 10? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
16 new from £0.18 24 used from £0.01 4 collectible from £7.96
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover £13.35 £13.43 15 used & new from £0.82
Paperback (Export Ed) £6.99 £6.23 26 used & new from £0.01
Hardcover (Large Print) £18.78 £18.89 11 used & new from £13.99
Audio CD (Audiobook,CD,Unabridged) £12.49 £11.24 12 used & new from £4.55
Perfect Paperback £6.96 £7.03 13 used & new from £0.01
MP3 CD (Audiobook,MP3 Audio,Unabridged) £10.49 £9.44 10 used & new from £8.97

Frequently Bought Together

Travels in the Scriptorium + The Brooklyn Follies + The Book of Illusions
Price For All Three: £18.65

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

In the Country of Last Things

In the Country of Last Things

by Paul Auster
4.2 out of 5 stars (13)  £5.46
Oracle Night

Oracle Night

by Paul Auster
3.8 out of 5 stars (19)  £4.98
The Brooklyn Follies

The Brooklyn Follies

by Paul Auster
3.5 out of 5 stars (19)  £4.79
The Music of Chance

The Music of Chance

by Paul Auster
4.2 out of 5 stars (24)  £4.84
Leviathan (Faber Fiction Classics)

Leviathan (Faber Fiction Classics)

by Paul Auster
4.3 out of 5 stars (39)  £3.79
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 120 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber; First Edition edition (5 Oct 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0571232558
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571232550
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.6 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 54,095 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #16 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > A > Auster, Paul

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

"'... as much a novel about the semantics of storytelling; Mr Blank remains a perfect study of confusion and memory that says everything about Auster's brilliance.' Metro" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Irish Times

'Draws both reader and writer into the protagonist's desperate search to make sense of his existence ... intriguing.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Travels in the Scriptorium
62% buy the item featured on this page:
Travels in the Scriptorium 2.4 out of 5 stars (15)
£9.09
Mr Vertigo
10% buy
Mr Vertigo 4.6 out of 5 stars (11)
£4.96
Moon Palace
10% buy
Moon Palace 4.5 out of 5 stars (46)
£5.37
The Brooklyn Follies
9% buy
The Brooklyn Follies 3.5 out of 5 stars (19)
£4.79
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.4 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Metaficition, not better fiction, 24 Sep 2007
By Ichabod J (Farleigh Wallop, Hampshire) - See all my reviews
  
This review is from: Travels in the Scriptorium (Paperback)
Paul Auster is capable of exquisite storytelling, but I found this one hard work.

Mr Blank finds himself in a locked room, unable to remember how he got there - or much else. Some of the objects in the room have written labels to indicate what they are called. (For those of you who don't recall their Philosophy of Language 101 we're being told to explore the relationship between the physical world and words - and blow me down, it gets even cleverer - occurring in a fictional universe, a construct of language and the author's imagination!)

The cast of characters that visit Blank in his room are drawn from Auster's previous works. Reviewers elsewhere with far more patience and application than me have listed the novels from whence they've all sprung. But essentially, we've got an exercise in self-referencing that may tickle the obsessive pedants amongst you, but will leave those hoping for a good yarn cold.

This should appeal to Auster readers that would list `The New York Trilogy' as his best work (I wouldn't). For me, various goings-on in a locked room have limited appeal, but the book is as well-crafted and readable as one expects from Auster. It also has the redeeming quality of being short: those who enjoy it may re-read it all the sooner and those who do not have little cause to rue too much misspent reading time.

(Anyone utterly captivated by the central conceit of this novel should try the work of John Barth, especially his doorstep-sized offering `Letters'.)

This one wasn't quite my cup of tea, but I'll still give Auster's next novel a go - I just hope he'll be letting his characters get out more.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Metafiction, not better fiction, 17 Oct 2006
By Ichabod J (Farleigh Wallop, Hampshire) - See all my reviews
  
Paul Auster is capable of exquisite storytelling, but I found this one hard work.

Mr Blank finds himself in a locked room, unable to remember how he got there - or much else. Some of the objects in the room have written labels to indicate what they are called. (For those of you who don't recall their Philosophy of Language 101 we're being told to explore the relationship between the physical world and language - and blow me down, it gets even cleverer - occurring in a fictional universe, a construct of language and the author's imagination!)

The cast of characters that visit Blank in his room are drawn from Auster's previous works. Reviewers elsewhere with far more patience and appreciation for attention to detail than me have listed the novels from whence they've all sprung. But essentially, we've got an exercise in self-referencing that may give tickle the obsessive pedants amongst you, but will leave anyone hoping for a good yarn cold.

This should appeal to Auster readers that would list `The New York Trilogy' as his best work (I wouldn't). For me, various goings-on in a locked room have limited appeal, but the book is as well-crafted and readable as one expects from Auster. It also has the redeeming quality of being short: those who enjoy it may re-read it all the sooner and those who do not have little cause to rue too much misspent reading time.

(Anyone utterly captivated by the central conceit of this novel should try the work of John Barth, especially his doorstep-sized offering `Letters'.)

This one wasn't quite my cup of tea, but I'll still give Auster's next novel a go - I just hope he'll be letting his characters get out more.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Dreadful, 3 Mar 2008
By M. G. Wilson (Eastbourne) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Travels in the Scriptorium (Paperback)
Unlike previous Amazon reviewers, this was my first encounter with Paul Auster. To others in the same situation my advice would be: try something else. This is dreadful. There may well be clever self-referencing to other parts of the Auster canon; I wouldn't know. But as a stand alone story, it just doesn't stand up. Auster doesn't know how to write this sort of thing, which might more usually be found in the Science Fiction section, by writers who understand their craft. The narrative voice is a serious problem, with its incongruous mix of knowledge and ignorance. And at no point did I ever feel involved or have any interest in what would happen next, much less care about the characters.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Low point in a career
The reviewer that mentioned the twilight zone was spot on. This may have been written as a script for tales of the unexpected... Read more
Published 1 month ago by I. Perry

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a great introduction to Auster
Amnesiac mr. Blank is exploring the room he lives in and reading the papers on the desk, as various people come to nurse him or have a chat. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Christian Jongeneel

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh dear.
Please give this a wide berth.

It's about a writer who's produced some great books in the past but now seems to have run out of ideas. Read more
Published 13 months ago by D. Weare

3.0 out of 5 stars Great concept
This book had me gripped with its opening pages but somewhere in the middle I began to get bogged down by it. Read more
Published 15 months ago by kehs

3.0 out of 5 stars Great concept
This book had me gripped with its opening pages but somewhere in the middle I began to get bogged down by it. Read more
Published 15 months ago by kehs

5.0 out of 5 stars It's only a Papermoon.
'The New-York trilogy' and 'The music of chance' are a part of the best novels I ever read. In these novels imagination becomes reality, leading to psychological chaos and loss of... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Jan Dierckx

2.0 out of 5 stars Not that entertaining
I was so excited at the prospect of this book but was left wondering if my time could have been better spent doing something else .... Read more
Published 16 months ago by SJSmith

2.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read but disappointing
I was so excited at the prospect of this book but was left wondering if my time could have been better spent doing something else .... Read more
Published 16 months ago by SJSmith

2.0 out of 5 stars Travels In The Scriptorium - Paul Auster
I first read a Paul Auster book around 18 months ago, and at the time, it sparked a wave of differing emotions, from exitement, to satisfaction and then to utter dissapointment... Read more
Published 19 months ago by reedydeluxe

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh Paul, what have you done....
I am a huge Paul Auster fan. I have all his books and screenplays, and have read and re-read them. So when "Travels in the Scriptorium" came out, I was delighted. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Supertad

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.