You can see a list of most of my books on my author page on Amazon. And here they are individually with a short description.
As the cover says, it’s “a philosophical novel about Christianity, power, democracy, and the human mind.”
It’s beautiful with its glossy yellow cover and 261 pages of content. Here’s the Amazon page for the book.
I’ve always been interested in creativity and creative thinking, and one of the best ways to learn more is to teach or to write about it.
So I decided to write a book about How to Think Creatively. It’s 120 pages and is priced at $4.99, so everyone can afford to buy it 😇.
A graphical book about happiness. I wrote this when books on happiness were all the rage, but not having the appropriate credentials to get a book contract (and not working very hard to find a publisher) I decided to make this a web-based book. Take a look.
A book about writing computer software using the Smalltalk language. Smalltalk is one of the most elegant and beautiful programming languages, but, alas, it was relegated to the minor leagues when the Java programming language became popular – just after this book was published 😢.
Software Quality and Productivity
I wrote this book on computer programming but it is long out of print.
In a former lifetime I wrote guidebooks to two major rock climbing areas in the U.K.: Clogwyn du’r Arddu and Gogarth. The latter got this review, not so much about the book as what it inspired:
Few climbing guides have provoked such massive development of a cliff as Alec Sharp’s Gogarth guide. The enormous nation-wide rise in standards helped by training on climbing walls had largely passed Wales by. The sheer difficulty of obtaining descriptions to the routes done in the eight years since Crew’s guide had slowed development down to a few routes a year. Conditions were ripe for an explosion of activity and the publication of Sharp’s guide was the catalyst. One year later the Supplement described over 75 routes which had been added to cliffs supposedly approaching maturity. The historical importance of Sharp’s guide may well lie in the gaps that it showed between routes rather than in the routes that it described.
Climbing Articles
When I was rock climbing I wrote articles, interviewed climbers, and had articles written about me. Here are some of the articles.
Who’s Your Friend. An interview I did with Ray Jardine, the inventor of Friends, the revolutionary climbing cams. It appeared in Mountain 69.
The Gogarth Saga. A two part article about the sea cliffs of Gogarth, which appeared in Mountain 57 and 58.
Bolder Boulder. An article about climbing in Boulder, Colorado, which appeared in Mountain 86.
Those Fearful Days. An article about three climbs I did, which appeared in Rock + Ice #54.
The Most Amazing Move in the World. An article somewhat about the first ascent of Creeping Lemma on Gogarth, Anglesey.
The Sharp End. An article about me which appeared in Rock & Ice, December 2000. (The caption on the initial photo is incorrect: I did both the first and second ascents of Days of Heaven 😀)
Climb. Three pages from the book Climb! The History of Rock Climbing in Colorado which mention my first ascents in the Boulder area.
Boulder Canyon Rock Climbs. I did the first ascent of many new climbing routes in Boulder Canyon, and this guidebook has some flattering things to say about me 😀: “The big event of 1979 and the early 1980s, however, was the debut of Alec Sharp, an imported Englishman who burst upon the scene with a flurry of hard new routes. With a British eye for potential lines, a willingness to do a little rappel inspection and cleaning, and the talent to back his ambitions, Sharp quickly established a slew of testpieces in Boulder Canyon, including Arms Bazaar (5.12a R) on Bell Buttress, and Englishman’s Home (5.11c/d) and Never a Dull Moment (5.12a/b) on Castle Rock – all rite-of-passage climbs that inspire climbers to this day. Sharp’s energy, skill, tactics – and the computer generated list of new lines he would compile and print out in a notorious series of 4×5 yellow-covered, staple-bound booklets – galvanized complacent locals into action and ignited a surge of development that has continued ever since.”
Eldorado Canyon – A Climbing Guide. I also did many first ascents in Eldorado Canyon, and this guidebook also mentions me: “The most prolific first-ascentionist of this time was Alec Sharp, an ex-pat British climber who broke the traditional mold in several ways, with frequent use of rappel previewing, and a preference for new terrain over freeing old aid routes. Sharp’s bold climbing and keen eye for a subtle line produced dozens of runout and dangerous routes in the next few years, including The Human Factor, False Prophet, Climb of the Century, Kindness, Tanquerey, Kubla Khan, Ministry of Fear, Dangerous Acquaintances, and Way Honed and Gnarly.”
Other
Besides all this I’ve had various other articles and interviews published in software and climbing magazines, and have had a few blogs – Endless Curiosity, and Diary of an Indecisive Man. My current blog is Cat World.
Cycle Uphill 
Hi Alec
Love the book The Happiness Dance. You really should publish it ! Knew you in Bristol when you were on teaching practice and you started me off drawing with pen and ink. I’m still doing it all these years later and get so much pleasure from it, so am taking a leaf out of your book, the section entitled Being With Others 2 and saying a big thank you. And I still have some of your pictures !
Linda
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