Book discussion group August

Next meeting of the Manly Library Book Discussion Group (Book Club) will be on Wednesday 8th August at 6pm.

Our topic is Medieval Mysteries – even without modern forensics, medieval mysteries could be solved. What do you think they have in common?

If you would like to come along or want further information, please contact Fran on 9976 1732.

One suggested book to read is Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Also check out the Official Rules for writing Medieval fiction.

Some other suggestions are:

Koulias, Adriana
Temple of the grail.
Sydney : Picador, 2004.
France--History--13th century--Fiction.
F /KOUL

Lawhead, Steve.
The mystic rose.
London : HarperCollins, 2001.
Series Title: (Celtic crusades ; 3)
Spain--History--711-1516--Fiction.
F /LAWH

Lindbergh, Judith.
The thrall's tale
Sydney : Bantam 2006.
Middle Ages--Fiction.
F /LIND

McIntosh, Pat.
The harper's quine.
London : Constable, 2004.
Scotland--History--15th century--Fiction.
F /MACI

Moore, Viviane
Blue Blood
London, Gollancz, 2000
F/MOOR

Morgan, Philippa.
Chaucer and the legend of good women.
London : Constable, 2005.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, d.1400--Fiction.
F /MORG

You can check the availability of these titles in our online catalogue.

NY Times says librarians are hip!

As if we didn't already know! This article from the New York Times fashion section looks at the emergence of the cool librarian:

"Librarians? Aren’t they supposed to be bespectacled women with a love of classic books and a perpetual annoyance with talkative patrons — the ultimate humorless shushers?

Not any more. With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is “looking to put the ‘hep cat’ in cataloguing.”"

People read more than in '70's!

The BBC reports that people are reading more than they were in the 1970s!

The research was done at the University of Manchester, and more information can be found in this press release. The study looked at data from the UK and found that in 2000 Brits read an average of five minutes more per day than they did in 1975. The figures from the US, however, suggest that Americans in 1998 read for nine minutes less than they did in 1975. One reason for the increase, they suggest, is that while people have more things on during their day, they have more 'gaps' between activities to slot reading time in.