Tag Archives: reading

A rare treat

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A rare treat; lying in bed in the morning, the cat asleep on the covers, the lace curtains moving with the breeze, a thunderstorm passing overhead, corellas flying wildly and squawking,  reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery; I smile. My tea cup is empty as I read about the love of tea shared by Madame Michel and the young budding intellectual Paloma Josse. There are so many turns of phrase in this book that I smile constantly enjoying the story. I savour the experience. Here is my full review.

Book Well

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Book Well is “evocative”.

That is the conclusion that I have come to after being immersed in the Get Into Reading training sessions held at the State Library of Victoria last week.

There are so many other descriptions I could offer telling you what I think it is and what it is not. But even then you would be no closer to knowing the importance of this work and how it affects people.

It is a unique process that has profound impact on the well being of the individual. Research continues to try to identify how this reading aloud process affects the human brain.

It is surprising to feel the effects of listening to someone read great literature aloud. It sounds simple but it is not.

Aside from learning about the process, the other benefit of this week was the bonding of the group – real friendships blossomed immediately. There was a generosity of spirit that cocooned the whole experience. The experienced trainers from the UK set the tone for this I think.

We also shared a group task that took many of us well out of our comfort zones. We were to give a performance of Romeo and Juliet. Every one of us was to contribute in some way. And we were to use the text from the play; but could shape the play however we chose. It was to be 20 minutes long.

I, who has never performed before at all, was Mercutio. We performed a brief fight scene with Romeo, Tybalt, Benvolio and Mercutio. And of course, Mercutio and Tybalt both die.

Our performance was in the heritage listed Queens Hall of the State Library of Victoria to a small invitation-only audience. We had props, lighting, backdrops, music, costumes and a new script. This was all achieved in 4 days with only 1 hour at each end of the day for preparation. It was a lot of fun and a really positive experience.

Linking this task to the Get Into Reading program is difficult. I can only assume that by reading Shakespeare plays out loud in this way it gives us the confidence to read anything aloud to groups of people.

It is exciting to have shared this experience of Book Well with this group of amazing people and to be at the cusp of something new and exciting. I feel privileged to have been involved.

“A little, aloud” edited by The Reader Organisation will be available later this year.

BureacraSpeak

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Do you speak BureacraSpeak? Sad to say I am learning this unique language. It is tight, legalistic, compartmentalised, and full of jargon. I have had my fill of strategic plans, policies, procedures, guidelines, standards and proposals. It is a barren and arid landscape with no soul. I am amazed that anything gets accomplished at all in this environment.

Oh to return to literature that is creative, expansive, poetic, and inspirational. The reality bending ideas of Richard Bach. The colourful, detailed illustrations of beauty and lifestyle by Frances Mayes. Tales and photos from France and Italy. Stories about music, art, language and culture. Intelligent and thought provoking writing that fills your soul with possibilities. Words that celebrate the reality and beauty of life. And words that teach us how be happy.

Who would have thought that in order to maintain a library of words that fill these common and shared  literary needs, it must be done using the structure of words that are dry, meaningless and overwhelming in  their weight, seriousness and number?

On the radio

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Ray Jones is a radio commentator on the local community radio station 3RPCFM in the Western districts of Victoria Australia. He is an older guy who has been around Portland his whole life.

Yesterday he interviewed me for his program. The purpose of the interview was to advertise an upcoming event. Maura the Clairvoyant Librarian is touring Victoria as part of the Victorian Public Libraries Summer Read program organised and sponsored by the State Library of Victoria. Maura will predict your next great book to read. She will be in Portland on the Town Green on Friday 15th January from 11:00am until 2:00pm. The pre-recorded radio interview goes to air on Sunday 10th January and Wednesday 13th January during Ray’s program.

It was an interesting interview and Ray posed some tricky questions, that I was unprepared for. He posed the problem of the possibility of the internet crashing with far-reaching effects, and how our community depends so heavily on its functions. He talked about the deterioration of the English language and asked me who was to blame. He asked if I remembered Cuisenaire. I do.

I responded as the thoughts came to me. I told him (and the listener) that I had recently listened to the talk by Bill Thompson at The Big Issues conference held at the State Library of Victoria. Bill is a journalist from the UK and a commentator on technology and future trends. He stated that the current wave of online based technology is just in its infancy and no-one can predict what or how we will be using this type of technology in five years time.

I commented that the changes we see in English language usage – the deterioration of spelling and grammar (and perhaps our ability to express ourselves and communicate effectively) will only continue to get worse in my opinion. This is mainly due to the growing popularity and accessibility of online writing and conversations, such as this blog. I know my English language skills are not great and I do in fact blame the schooling system in the Victorian public schools in the 1970’s. Grammar was scrapped from the curriculum. (At least it was at the school I attended). I have had to work hard since then to try to bring my writing skills to an acceptable standard.

But further to that we all see how people abbreviate words for SMSing and the sentence constructions when using Twitter and Facebook. How long will it be before teachers start seeing this type of spelling appearing in school work? Maybe it is already.

By the way, Maura is not really clairvoyant, but a performer!! I think so anyway. I have been asked by customers if she is really a clairvoyant.

I have just finished reading The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. It is the second in the trilogy and I loved it as much as the first one The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I can imagine the movie with Bruce Willis playing the role of Mikael Blomkvist. What do you think?

Alex Miller

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Alex Miller has been a prominent Australian author for some time now and I am aware of this. But I have only just discovered him myself. Better late than never I guess especially when you are rewarded with such beautiful writing as his.

Landscape of Farewell (2007) is the first of his that I have read only this week. It is a poetic and moving story of two old men sharing a shack in the Australian outback, while trying to come to terms with the loss of their wives, as well as sorting out the shameful curse of their very different family stories.

Lovesong (2009) is one of the books on this year’s list for the Summer Read organised by the State Library of Victoria. I had read a brief review somewhere and immediately wanted to read it, mostly because it begins in a cafe on the outskirts of Paris. Anything about France and I am sold. So far I love it. Our library staff are reading the books on the Summer Read list so that we can be well informed for our customers.

I am aware of his other novels and know he is a prize winner, so he was an author on my mental list of must-reads. I am delightfully surprised to find he writes beautiful, gentle stories that are cleverly woven around love, family, landscape, and culture. He explores the human relationship in all its complexities, especially where cultures collide. You quickly warm to his very human characters.

Reading his stories now is pertinent for me because I am living in a landscape that is new and foreign to me, while also having left important family members behind. I too am missing loved ones while trying to adjust to an unfamiliar new life. His stories resonate within me in a profound way.

What next?

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26-07-08_1132What next? What book will I read next? How do you get your hands on that next good read? Perhaps you have a stack waiting on your bedside table. But is there anything inspiring there that will capture your interest and attention?

Here are some ideas for when you may be short of something to read.

You can always look at the best-seller lists in the weekend newspapers, but often these will remain stagnant for weeks on end. Harry Potter dominated the top 10 sellers for so long it was ridiculous. Now the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer are slow to be toppled from the top.

Your local bookshop will regularly publish catalogues that could whet your appetite.

Amazon is a good website to go to because you can sign in to get personalised recommendations. Your search results are retained and further recommendations are made to you based on your lists.

Library Thing is a great social networking website for readers. You can catalogue your own library of books at home or use it as a place to list your favourite reads and based on this you can easily link to other books with the same tags or other readers with similar reading tastes. Go to their Zeitgeist to find a huge array of links and lists. You can also search by tags, for example, you might like to search for “France and travel”. This is my first point of call for finding new reading material for myself. Click here to find out what a Zeitgeist is, if you don’t already know.

Wikipedia has a list of best-selling books which may remind you of that classic you have always wanted to read.

WhatshouldIreadnext is a cute little website that attempts to answer this question for you. You have to register and then list books you have read and based on this list it will find other titles that may interest you. It is rather limited in its power and depth.

Read everything by your favourite author? “Who else writes like…?” by Roy and Jeanne Huse is a book commonly found in local libraries that can help you identify an author who writes in a similar style as your favourite author.

Who writes like from Coffs Harbour City Library offers links to websites to help you find authors.

Goodreading magazine is a great monthly magazine for Australian readers that offers reviews, excerpts, interviews and more great information.

Or you could go to your local library and ask a Librarian. They tend to be rather well-read and know current trends in reading and are more than happy to help you find a good book to read.

Another option is to join a local book club. This also prompts you to read books that you might not otherwise read.

You are what you read

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Are you influenced by what you read? Does your mind absorb the ideas set down by others? Do you live inside the scenes created, even temporarily? I suppose that’s why reading fiction is a form of escapism.

 

As a Librarian it is no surprise that I value books and reading for self improvement. I value learning from the experiences, and thoughts that others have worked so hard to set down in words. The more you read the more you learn. Even if you don’t retain it all and reject some ideas, we grow and evolve by taking on a little bit from each book we read.

 

At the moment I am reading a novel titled “Deception” by Michael Meehan. It is about a young Australian man who traces his ancestry to France in order to unravel his family history. It is exquisitely told, set in the Australian desert, Paris and New Caledonia. He weaves his tale masterfully between the past and the present. I have engaged in tracing my family history in the past and yet for the first time it has occurred to me to trace the one French branch of my family tree. It would be so interesting to learn some more French history while unraveling my own family tree, also fulfilling my love of all things French.

 

Meanwhile someone close to me has discovered they have cancer. It is a shock. I remember reading a few years ago a book titled “Your Life In Your Hands” by Jane Plant. She is a UK scientist who had breast cancer, suffered through chemotherapy, a mastectomy, radiation treatment, and was eventually given 6 months to live. As a scientist she researched the situation thoroughly, eventually having a “light-bulb” moment thinking that in Asian cultures the incidence of breast and prostrate cancer is remarkably low and they don’t eat dairy products. Eliminating dairy products from her diet from that moment the tumors shrank and disappeared altogether. She wrote her book in 2000 and now in 2008 she is alive and cancer free. Her experience, research and discoveries provide hope and practical advice for others facing the cancer death sentence. I gave the book to that person to read and make up their own mind. After all what have they got to lose?

 

Not only are we what we read but we are what we eat!