A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Sara Pennypacker give a talk to children's librarians, during which she mentioned a program that she and a few of her children's author friends have launched:
"Share Our Books was born from a conversation a few of us children's authors had about how much we loved Community Reads. The idea is for an entire elementary school community from the principal and teachers to the bus drivers and nurses and, of course, the students and their families to share the experience of reading the same book at the same time. It's an honor and a joy to have our books chosen to help bond a community this way. What could we do to encourage more of it, we asked each other? The answer was obvious...provide the books."
Just back from a wonderful, but all too short, stay at the Booklovers' Bed and Breakfast in Lyme Regis, on the South coast of England. Run by Bob and Mariko Speer (Bob pictured right), the three room bed and breakfast is perched on the top two floors of the Sanctuary Bookstore - a booklover's paradise where antique books jostle for space with the not so antique but often exotic and sometimes rare. From travel and topography to mysticism and religion by way of a generous helping of novels, thrillers, mysteries, sci-fi and much more, The Sanctuary has it all, including a popular section devoted to the most requested authors - a wonderful section in which to pick up a long lost favorite. Downstairs is a bargain basement where all books are £1 or less. And when you've had your fill of books, you can start on the bountiful collection of prints and original works of art - many of which are stored in the downstairs loo, which makes for a convenient seat while browsing the racks.
All in all, the building has, I'm told, nineteen rooms devoted to all things books and art; but lest you have visions of some expansive emporium, let me set you straight - this is a bookstore English style, with tiny rooms creatively stacked with books, art and giftable knickknacks on pretty much every conceivable surface, both vertical and horizontal. Despite being so fully utilized, the space feels warm and welcoming, not cluttered - inviting you in to explore every nook and cranny. The housewife in me couldn't help wonder at the challenge of keeping everything dusted, but I sneakily ran my finger across a couple of surfaces and found barely a speck!
The bed and breakfast can be reached from the bookstore or through its own entrance (useful for when the store is closed) and is furnished in an old fashioned, comfortable style complete with a claw foot bathtub. How is it possible, I asked myself, as I wallowed decadently, that I could have got through almost five decades without experiencing the joys of a claw foot bathtub? The guest rooms double as a storage area with books for sale lining the walls, but don't worry that you'll be woken to find a stranger sitting on the end of your bed settling in for a good read, these bookshelves are your personal and private domain for the length of your stay.
On Monday April 23, to celebrate World Book Night, tens of thousands of volunteers across the USA and UK will give away books - a million copies in the UK and half a million in the USA.
If you're not familiar with World Book Night here's a quick overview:
World Book Night is inspired by the Catalonian Day of the Book. Catalonia (an autonomous region in the north of Spain) has long celebrated April 23 as The Day of the Rose, because it is the day they celebrate their patron saint, Sant Jordi (St George), whose symbol is a rose. Then, back in 1923, an enterprising bookseller started to promote the holiday as The Day of the Book, because it was on that day in 1616 that William Shakespeare and Miguel Cervantes (author of Don Quixote among other classics) both died. Actually, pedantically speaking, while they are both recorded as dying on the same date, due to differences in the calendars (Spain adopted the Julian calendar way ahead of Britain) they actually died a few days apart - but let's not be picky! Garcilaso de la Vega is also recorded as dying on that day so sometimes is included in references to The Day of the Book.
With the recent release of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" I've been thinking about some of my favorite fictional characters. Because, naturally...or not, Lisbeth Salander ranks right up there as one of my favorite female fictional characters of all time. I know that Stieg Larsson's gritty series with its share of graphically violent content doesn't suit everyone's taste. Furthermore I imagine the movie image of the dark, pierced and spiky-haired Swede might leave many folks cold, wondering what there is about her that could possibly appeal to anyone. And yet, several months after I finished reading Larsson's trilogy this married, advanced-age mother of two grown men still sometimes wonders what Lisbeth might be up to.
Yes. That's what I do. When I befriend a fictional character in a book we become bff's [Best Friends Forever]. For instance I can't recall how many years ago I read Nabokov's "Lolita" but to this day during the occasional idle moment I wonder what my old buddy Humbert Humbert is up to. Yes. I have to admit that a true rat bastard like Humbert is an odd pick as a favorite character, much less as a friend. After all, who could like a pedophile? Truth? Nobody. And maybe, in this case, friend is the wrong word. I think ours -- Humbert's and mine -- is more a student/master relationship. See, he's a terrific liar. Okay, he's a filthy, scum-of-the-earth pedophile. But he couldn't be such a scumbag if he wasn't a master of prevarication. From page one Humbert grabs and holds my attention with the utter abandon with which he lies to me. And to himself. There are times when he has both of us temporarily convinced that he's not as big a bastard as we thought.
When I was a kid I brought home a paperback book that my parents didn't think I should read. Mind you, this was during an era when our neighborhood drugstore's book racks never sported anything but the most innocuous (by today's standards) sorts of pulp fiction, from detective stories to romance novels to true crime. So you can be assured that my selection was about as tame as, say, a Disney animated movie. But it had a lurid cover photo and a rather suggestive title, suggestive, at least, to my 12-year-old sensibilities. Also to my mom because when she spotted it on my nightstand she freaked. She asked my dad to speak to me about it and confiscate the book.
The author Neil Gaiman is a prominent backer of libraries and literacy, and he has a great idea for a new Halloween tradition. He thinks we should all give scary books as gifts on Halloween. He's calling it All Hallow's Read. As a fan of Gaiman's work, books in general, and scary things – I think this sounds like fun.
I love books. There's nothing like the experience of cracking open a brand new book and spending a lazy Saturday reading all day. My favorite places to spend an afternoon are the library or a bookstore. I am that person at the flea market digging through a bin of old books, looking to purchase a piece of history. I have books from my childhood and my mother's childhood that I enjoy sharing with my children. I hope to pass on my love of reading, and these books, to my grandchildren.
Recently, I discovered an organization called "Permanence Matters". I was surprised to learn that many of the hardcover books that I've bought recently will likely not be around for me to pass to my grandchildren. It seems that in an attempt to save money, some publishers are printing hardcovers on low quality "groundwood" paper. In fact, according to Permanence Matters, more than half of the books on the New York Times bestseller list are now printed on this inferior paper instead of what is known as "freesheet" or "permanent" paper. To clarify, the issue of permanent versus groundwood paper is separate from discussions about acid-free paper (virtually all books are printed on acid-free paper these days anyway so it's not an issue anyway). Groundwood paper is made by a mechanical grinding process which leaves components such as lignin in the paper. Lignin is what causes the paper used in mass market paperbacks and newspapers to go yellow and brittle after a few years; the paper also tears more easily because the fibers are shorter.
This week marks the USA's 30th annual Banned Books Week (sponsored by half a dozen American library, bookseller, journalist and publisher associations; and endorsed by about half a dozen more.) During Banned Books Week, bookstores and libraries across the USA celebrate (for want of a better word) the books that have been challenged or outright banned from libraries with in store displays, readings and so forth.
A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. Over the past ten years, the American Library Association has recorded 4660 challenges - which they estimate represents about one in four or five of the actual number of challenges, as most go unreported. Of these reported, about 30% of challenges are due to "sexually explicit" material, about a quarter due to "offensive language", about one in five due to material deemed "unsuited to age group", about 10% due to "violence", and 8% due to homosexuality.
In a series of lectures, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk ruminated on what goes on in the mind of a person reading a novel. His thoughts are summarized by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. below.
Do these match your experiences? The point about finishing a (great) novel and feeling that it had been written just for me particularly struck home - it maybe irrational but it's so true!
What is Metafiction?
Ckubala said: I immediately thought of Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruif Zafon. A book about books, I think this f...
[More]
A Dozen of the Best Poetry Websites
Marguerite Theophil said: Thank you Davina, for this great list. One website I could recommend is Ivan Granger's Poetry Chaikh...
[More]
A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Sara Pennypacker give a talk to children's librarians, during which she mentioned a program that she and a few of her children's author friends have launched:
Just back from a wonderful, but all too short, stay at the 
All in all, the building has, I'm told, nineteen rooms devoted to all things books and art; but lest you have visions of some expansive emporium, let me set you straight - this is a bookstore English style, with tiny rooms creatively stacked with books, art and giftable knickknacks on pretty much every conceivable surface, both vertical and horizontal. Despite being so fully utilized, the space feels warm and welcoming, not cluttered - inviting you in to explore every nook and cranny. The housewife in me couldn't help wonder at the challenge of keeping everything dusted, but I sneakily ran my finger across a couple of surfaces and found barely a speck!
The bed and breakfast can be reached from the bookstore or through its own entrance (useful for when the store is closed) and is furnished in an old fashioned, comfortable style complete with a claw foot bathtub. How is it possible, I asked myself, as I wallowed decadently, that I could have got through almost five decades without experiencing the joys of a claw foot bathtub? The guest rooms double as a storage area with books for sale lining the walls, but don't worry that you'll be woken to find a stranger sitting on the end of your bed settling in for a good read, these bookshelves are your personal and private domain for the length of your stay.
On Monday April 23, to celebrate World Book Night, tens of thousands of volunteers across the USA and UK will give away books - a million copies in the UK and half a million in the USA.
This week marks the USA's 30th annual Banned Books Week (sponsored by half a dozen American library, bookseller, journalist and publisher associations; and endorsed by about half a dozen more.) During Banned Books Week, bookstores and libraries across the USA celebrate (for want of a better word) the books that have been challenged or outright banned from libraries with in store displays, readings and so forth. 
