Something to cook, to read and to learn.
Kitchen Made Easy teaches people who have never cooked to make 218 dishes, one page and one picture at a time. Lady Zoro is an adventure about the wife who is secretly every bit as good with a sword as her famous husband, and Lamplight & Ash a romance in a city lit by stolen magic, which Scriptorium can read to you, a voice for every character. Calligraphy Made Easy teaches beautiful lettering from the very first stroke. All four are read in Scriptorium, on your computer and your phone, and you can start any of them free.
Kitchen Made Easy
by SJ Mohamed
Step-by-step recipes for people who have never cooked before, with simple measurements, clear heat settings and a picture for every dish.
- No guessing the heat: instead of “medium heat”, every step says how far to turn your stove dial.
- Every oven temperature also gives the fan-oven, °F and gas setting.
- Cups and grams for the ingredients that matter, and a measuring guide.
- Tick-box ingredient lists, numbered steps and a top tip on every recipe.
- An illustrated Kitchen Basics guide: tools, measuring, knife skills, cooking words, food safety, and perfect rice, pasta and mash.
Proudly South African, too: boerewors, sosaties, pap and chakalaka, bobotie, bunny chow, milk tart, malva pudding and koeksisters, with a braai guide and the hand test for perfect coals.
The sample is an e-book too: EPUB, 2.4 MB. Pay through Paystack, and the next page gives you your book key: it opens the whole book in Scriptorium on two devices, a computer and a phone, say. How reading works
Look inside
Lady Zoro
Her husband wears the mask. She wears it better.
by SJ Mohamed
While Zoro is away on business — as usual — his wife, who is secretly every bit as good with a sword as he is, puts on a mask of her own to save the town, keep her daughter safe and make sure her husband never, ever finds out.
The town of San Lorenzo has always relied on Zoro. What nobody knows, least of all Zoro himself, is that his wife, Doña Isabel, was trained in secret by her grandfather, a retired fencing master. For years she has quietly tidied up after her husband’s adventures: stitching his cape, hiding his horse when soldiers come knocking, and once or twice finishing a fight he thought he had won.
When Zoro rides off to the capital on yet another “business trip”, a scheming new commander arrives with a plan to take over the town. With her husband gone and her daughter in danger, Isabel has no choice. Lady Zoro rides out.
The free chapters are an e-book too: EPUB, 240 KB. In Scriptorium the first three chapters are open to read before you buy, and your key unlocks the rest.
29 of the novel’s 50 chapters were written in Scriptorium, the word processor we make. See Scriptorium →
Lamplight & Ash
In a city built on stolen light, love is the only thing that’s free.
by SJ Mohamed
Halcyon City, 1923. The rich live in a blaze of golden light. The poor live in its shadow.
Clementine Doyle sells cigarettes in a Narrows speakeasy and hides a forbidden gift: she can mend anything that’s broken. Julian Ashgrove is heir to the family whose lamps light the whole city, and the keeper of a secret that could ruin them. One stolen pocket watch binds them together with a thread of magic neither can break.
Then they discover what the city’s light is really made of, and that it is being drained from the people of the Narrows. Before the Glass Moon rises on New Year’s Eve, a cigarette girl and a millionaire’s son must risk everything: their hearts, their lives, and the light of forty thousand souls.
The free chapters are an e-book too: EPUB, 680 KB. In Scriptorium the first three chapters are open to read before you buy, and your key unlocks the rest. Lamplight & Ash needs Scriptorium 3.61.1 or later.
Press Listen in the reader and Scriptorium reads the chapter aloud, Clem and Julian and everyone they meet each in a voice of their own, and turns the page for you.
Inside the book
Calligraphy Made Easy
by SJ Mohamed
Learn beautiful lettering step by step, from your very first stroke. Calligraphy is not handwriting: it is a small set of strokes, and this book shows every one of them.
- Six complete alphabets, with the order and direction of every stroke of every letter drawn out
- The tools, from your first pen to nibs, brush pens, inks and paper, and how to sit and hold them, left-handed too
- The foundations: the parts of a letter, pen angle and nib widths, thick and thin strokes, warm-up drills
- Spacing, layout, flourishes, colour and going digital, six projects to make, and words that read two ways
- Troubleshooting, a 30-day practice plan, a glossary and practice sheets
The sample is an e-book too: EPUB, 1.5 MB. Pay through Paystack, and the next page gives you your book key: it opens the whole book in Scriptorium on two devices, a computer and a phone, say. How reading works
Look inside
Kitchen Made Easy and Lady Zoro for R199
Both books together: R49 less than buying them one at a time. One key opens both, on the same two devices.
Read in Scriptorium, on two devices
- Pay through Paystack. The next page gives you your book key. It starts with MWB-: keep it somewhere safe.
- Get Scriptorium for Windows, Linux or Android. It is free to download, and books open in it without a licence, even when its trial is over.
- Open File ▸ Books. Press Download beside the book, then Unlock the book, and type your key.
One key opens the book on two devices, a computer and a phone, say. Once it is unlocked, the book opens without the internet. A book cannot be printed, copied or passed on: the key works only on the devices it unlocked.
A novel can be listened to as well: press Listen in the reader, and Scriptorium reads it aloud, a voice for every character, chapter after chapter.
Questions
How do I get the book after I pay?
Paystack takes the payment, and the next page shows your book key. Then get Scriptorium, open File ▸ Books, press Download beside the book, and unlock it with the key. The key is kept with your purchase: Find my book key gives it back any time, from your email address and the payment’s reference on your Paystack receipt.
Which devices can I read it on?
Computers with Windows or Linux, and Android phones and tablets: Scriptorium runs on them all. One key opens the book on two of them. To move it to another device, open the book on one of the two and choose More ▸ Remove from this device. Scriptorium is not on the iPhone, the iPad or the Mac yet.
Can Scriptorium read a book to me?
Yes, a novel. Open it in Scriptorium and press Listen (the speaker at the top): the chapter is read aloud, each person who speaks in a voice of their own, and the next chapter follows by itself. More ▸ Voices… lets you give anyone another voice. It uses the voices of your computer or phone, and Scriptorium’s own, with nothing sent anywhere. Listening needs Scriptorium 3.61.1 or later.
Which version of Scriptorium do I need?
Scriptorium 3.57 or later reads Kitchen Made Easy, Lady Zoro and Calligraphy Made Easy; Lamplight & Ash, with its pictures, needs 3.61.1 or later. Scriptorium tells you when there is a newer version, and every version is free to download.
Do I need to buy Scriptorium too?
No. Scriptorium is free to download, and books open in it without a licence, even when its trial is over. A Scriptorium licence is for writing your own documents; reading a book never needs one.
Can I print the book, or give it to someone?
No. A book is read in Scriptorium, and cannot be printed, copied or passed on: the key works only on the two devices it unlocked. The free samples are ordinary PDF and EPUB files, to keep, print and pass on as you like.
My key says it is in use on two devices.
Open the book on one of them and choose More ▸ Remove from this device, and the key is free for the new one. If that device is lost or broken, write to [email protected] and we will free the key.
I paid but did not get a key.
Try Find my book key with the reference on your Paystack receipt (look in your spam or promotions folder for it). Still nothing? Write to [email protected] with your name and the email address you paid with, and we will sort it out.