Loud in Libraries

The Get it Loud in Libraries scheme

"Last year 290 million visits were made to Britain's 3,500 libraries. Where once it was simply to take out a book, now it is to read the newspapers, browse the internet, borrow CDs - or listen to live music. Get It Loud is a great example of the way libraries are diversifying, says Culture Minister David Lammy. 'We know that teenage boys are one of the hardest groups to get into libraries, and with libraries like this one drawing them in, it's exciting.'

What's next? Parsons wants to start a library-based festival in the North-West, 'a sort of mini-Glastonbury/Live 8 thing'. 'We need to think big to make people sit up and take notice,' says Parsons. 'Libraries as a rule are far too humble, yet we've got resources which can change people's lives.'"

Christchurch City Libraries will be making music in the libraries this May for New Zealand Music Month ...

Guilty pleasures

The Whitbread Book Awards have undergone a revamp, and under a new sponsorship deal they will be the Costa Book Awards. They will be announced on 10 January 2007.

The Costa Book Awards just undertook a survey in the UK to find out which authors were considered "guilty pleasures".

Stephen King was revealed as the UK's favourite literary guilty pleasure author. It turns out that 85% of us have favourite authors that we enjoy reading but wouldn't necessarily own up to in public.

The top five authors most secretly enjoyed are:

1. Stephen King
2. J.K. Rowling
3. John Grisham/Dan Brown
4. Danielle Steele/Catherine Cookson
5. Terry Pratchett

If you have a literary guilty pleasure that you want to conceal, you can download one of four specially designed book jackets and ensure no-one can judge you by your book jacket.

This provoked me into thinking of other trashy but enjoyable reads:
Sergeanne Golon - The Angelique series featuring a golden haired minx and her adventures in the time of Louis XIV in France. The beautiful and courageous Angelique de Sance de Monteloup, the daughter of an impoverished nobleman, and the gallant, intelligent and charming Joffrey Comte de Peyrac discover and share a love that few people ever experience. However they have only a brief time to enjoy their happiness together before they are cruelly torn apart by forces beyond their control. See this Literature map of Sergeanne Golon.

The Library still has the Angelique books in Store.

Can you think of other authors of pleasurable potboilers?
How about Harold Robbins, Jackie Collins, Shirley Conran ...?

How to do?

Just came across this new Web2.0 attraction today - the idea behind it is that "Everyone in the world is an expert on something" so this is a site where people can contribute instructions on how to do things. There is some control though - you have to sign in and create a bio that explains why you are an expert in the areas that you want to write in and you have to be approved by the editors. Then each how-to also goes through and editorial process.

Thus far is very US-centric, well what isn't? It will be interesting to see what happens when two people make How-tos for different parts of the world which are both correct - maybe they'll label them with geographical information?

There's a bit there now - have a poke around.

1980s cover versions

Grant Lee Phillips has released an album called nineteeneighties. (read a review - hold this item. His cover versions of songs by The Cure, Robyn Hitchcock etc are dreamily low key and evocative. He even takes on one of my favourite epics - Echo and the Bunnymen's The Killing Moon.

Coincidentally, Q magazine (August 2006) focused on the 80s music scene and came with a cd of cover versions.

And yes it is official - every 80s cover version album must feature The Smiths - Phillips does "Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me" and the Q magazine cd has Clayhill doing "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want".

Best books of 2006

Tell us your favourite reads of 2006

What books did you read this year that you just couldn’t stop telling people about? Now is your chance to share your impeccable literary taste with a very wide audience via our Best Reads of the Year list (see the 2005 list).

Tell us which books you loved in 2006 and why - preferably books that came out this year but there could be room for a timeless classic section if you are passionate enough about them.

The Library has kept lists of staff and customers' favourite books since 2001 - reading them is a great way to find out something interesting to read.

6 word stories at Wired

Wired this month (Nov 2006) has a great little article wherein they've asked a bunch of, mostly sci fi and fantasy, authors to write a story in six words. In the printed magazine many of them have then been designed into artworks but print being limited in size they had to leave some out so pop along to the web site to read them all - and additional ones in the comments.

They are mostly pretty great so its hard to pick a favourite but I did like Joss Whedon's: "Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so." and "Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back." by David Brin.

Curb your enthusiasm

Larry David was the hidden genius co-creator of the comedy Seinfeld. The neurotic character George Costanza was based on Larry.

But in the series Curb your Enthusiasm he is the star - sociopathic, inappropriate, and living out all the dilemmas of modern day manners.

Not everyone will find his misadventures funny, but if you like your humour dry and bracing this is the show for you. Painfully funny and cringe inducing.

For more tv comedies at the library:
see Comedy - video recordings
and Television comedy

Our collection includes Blackadder, The Office and Extras by Ricky Gervais, and The Good Life.

Christmas reading

What books will be finding their way under the Christmas tree this year?

The Guardian Books section has made their guess, and this article also provides some useful information on the state of publishing in the UK.

Jamie Oliver - Cook With Jamie (Michael Joseph)
Publisher's pitch: "With this ultimate kitchen companion you can be a student of Jamie's in your own home."
We say: After retailers' furious price-cutting last Christmas, Penguin has ramped up the RRP of Jamie's latest offering to £26 in an attempt to stop shops selling him below £10. Are people still hungry for Jamie in his incarnation as the "new Delia", and will he match last year's record sales? Odds: 7/4 favourite

Michael Palin - Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years (Weidenfeld)
Publisher's pitch: "Perceptive, funny and riveting reading."
We say: Patron Saint Palin already has a couple of festive number ones under his belt for his travelogues. These diaries don't have an accompanying television series, but his unmatchable appeal and the promise of Python stories should guarantee a place in the top three bestsellers. Odds: 3/1

Billie Piper - Growing Pains (Hodder)
Publisher's pitch: "The funny, honest and insightful story of an extraordinary young life."
We say: Of the crop of starlets with Christmas autobiographies - Kerry Katona, Chantelle - Billie will stand out. The ex-Doctor Who star has the mum-and-daughter market wrapped up and supermarkets will sell this by the trolleyload. Odds: 3/1

Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? (Profile)
Publisher's pitch: "Popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening."
We say: "The pick of the loo reads. This could find even more readers than its predecessor, Does Anything Eat Wasps? - number five last Christmas." Odds: 33/1

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion (Transworld)
Publisher's pitch: "A hard-hitting, impassioned rebuttal of all religion."
We say: This has topped Amazon's bestseller list all week. Could Dawkins pull off an unlikely coup and outsell the celebrity autobiographies? Odds: 33/1

Bootiful Bookmarklets

Search our catalogue, cinch database or localeye web site from any web page anywhere by bookmarking these links. Once you've added them to your bookmarks all you have to do is highlight some text on any web page and click the bookmark and a search will begin.

We're working on ones that will do the search in a new window so that you don't lose your current page. This could be really useful if you want to know if we have a book that is referred to on a web page.