{"product_id":"ian-gouge-selected-poems-1976-2022-paperback","title":"Ian Gouge - Selected Poems (1976 - 2022) - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eIan Gouge\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt a recent reading event, I was asked which of my collections was my 'best book'. It was an innocent enough question, designed to aid a purchasing decision. It was also an unfair question. Any marginal preference I may have for one or the other is inevitably dwarfed by the knowledge that there are good pieces in all my volumes of poetry and that, in expressing a preference, a potential reader will always be in danger of missing out on something I would like to think 'worthy'. Yet you can't expect your average reader to buy all your books!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor a while I had been toying with the idea of pulling together a 'selected works', gathering all my favourite poems under a single cover. This notion had been growing in strength partly as a result of more regular attendance of 'open mics' at which I sometimes struggled to decide what to read; wouldn't it be rewarding to be able to take a single book to such events knowing every piece inside was a live candidate? On the back of that ambition, the 'best book' question only added fuel to the fire.\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSo here it is, a 'Greatest Hits' from my seven collections published to-date. And, because I couldn't help myself, I have thrown in a small number of as yet unseen poems. Of course, I should also say that this endeavour in no way diminishes the value of the individual books themselves; there are many more poems that might easily have found their way into this volume had size not been a consideration.\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 136\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.32 x 8 x 5.25 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 01, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47412471988473,"sku":"9781739766061","price":14.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/b27b2kXZNN9781739766061.webp?v=1770840378","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/ian-gouge-selected-poems-1976-2022-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}