Living the rock and roll dream

Andy Summers memoir provides great insight into the fickle and hedonistic world of the Rock and Roll star. Whilst Summers is best known as the guitarist for the Police he was also a member of the Animals. Perhaps the most fascinating part of this book is his recollections of his formative years and the development of his passion for the guitar. He also provides a great description of the music scene in London during the 60's where he was friends with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. Summers proves himself to be not only a great guitarist but also a very talented writer. Considering that Sting's nick name for Summers was the Art monster this comes as no surprise. There were many amusing passages in this book and I found myself laughing on numerous occasions. With out doubt the best music biography I have ever read.

Shakespeare

by Bill Bryson. 2007.

Following a less than enthralling autobiography, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, in one fell swoop Bill Bryson bounces back with this excellent biography of Shakespeare. What I particularly like about this biography is that it resists the temptation to make something out of nothing. Countless biographies of Shakespeare, faced with the lack of any hard evidence for large parts of his life, fill the gap with speculation and repetition of myth. Bryson is upfront about saying, we don’t know what Shakespeare was doing in this period – we just don’t know, alright? In fact, so little is known about Shakespeare’s life, that it’s amazing that any biography is possible – he appears to vanish into thin air. Bryson sets Shakespeare in the context of his eventful times, unveiling a vast wealth of social detail, some of it rather horrid. Lovers of interesting factoids will find plenty to enjoy. There are surprisingly few extracts from the plays or sonnets, however. Altogether Bryson comes across as well-read, critical, and a touch zany. Some will have an antipathy to his approach, but others will read him with bated breath.

In the above passage, words and phrase in red are first found in Shakespeare. The man’s genius beggars all description.

- John.

Book Crossing

Book Crossing is a catch and release community for books around the world. Books are tagged with a Book Crossing ID, and are registered on the site. Then they are released into the wild - sometimes with clues to their location. The next person who finds the book can log in to the site and review the book before releasing it again! The book might have traveled around the world, and it's progress can be followed.

On Tuesday I came across a Book Crossing book in a phone booth. It was a cold and stormy night and the label on the front said 'Take me home!' so I could hardly refuse. It's chicklit, which I'm not really into, but I'm going to give it a go.

To hunt for active book releases in New South Wales check this page.

- Anne

Putting a figure on it

For a few years now I’ve spent three or four hours a day commuting to and from work by public transport. This gives me plenty of time to read, and I get through several books a week, mostly fiction, sometimes history or biography or current affairs. But we’re on a tight budget, so I don’t buy many at full price. Sometimes they’re books I’ve picked up in op-shops or jumble sales, but on the whole the place that supplies most of my reading material is Manly Library.

I did the sums recently. Say five or so books a week for ten years: that amounts to 2,500 books. Given that they’re mostly new or recent hardbacks, paying full price for them from the shop at, say, $40 each would come to $100,000. This doesn’t take into account other stuff that I borrow for the family, such as children’s picture books, DVDs, CDs or magazines. Over my reading lifetime, to my amazement, I find that the total so far must amount to something like half a million dollars! And my eyes aren’t worn out yet! And I’m in no danger of exhausting the Library’s resources, because there are still so many great books to read.

It’s not as though I’m a particularly heavy user of the Library, either, because we know there are borrowers out there who go through a couple of books a day. All I know is, I owe a huge six-figure debt to all the public libraries I’ve ever belonged to, and I know my imagination would be much the poorer without the inspiration libraries have provided.

- John MacRitchie

Elvis' library card for sale

Elvis' earliest known signature was found on a library book slip he signed in 7th grade in Tupelo Mississippi. The book was English Fairy Tales by Flora Annie Steel. Apparently the bidding started at US$45 000.

A Venetian bestiary

by Jan Morris. Faber & Faber, 2007

Reviewed by Ann Skea.

This small, slim book about animals is not as insubstantial as it looks. Jan Morris's writing is as rich and colourful as ever, and her knowledge of the history and the little-known sights of Venice provides her with a rich source of material.

In fluctuating temper and varying fortune, in and out of love with the place, I have written rather too much about Venice in the sixty-odd years since the city first bewitched me", she writes in her 'Introduction', signing it with her Welsh name, Trefan Morys. This book, she goes on to say, is "by way of an epilogue", but whether she can ever really get Venice out of her system seems doubtful. Morris's imaginative, vivid and humorous style is evident from the first paragraph of the book. And her familiarity with Venice and her delight in its history, its people, its art, and its curiosities, is evident in the things she draws attention to in this book: the "unmistakable knees" of the owl on the statue of Minerva in the Riva degli Schiavoni; the "black humour" of the artist portraying Noah's raven in the mosaics of the Basilica; the exclusion of male cats in the street-name of the one thoroughfare named for the cats of Venice; and the symbolic presence of the four Golden Stallions of St. Mark in a painting of the crucifixion by Lotto. All this and much more is packed into this little book about the beasts - real and mythical, mild and monstrous - of Venice.

This is not a book which will allow you to follow some kind of 'Jan Morris Animal Trail' through Venice (thank goodness!). A few of the many paintings which Morris mention are not (I think) even in Venice, although the artists are Venetian. This is a book, however, which may open your eyes to some of the delights which the average tourist to Venice generally misses. The curious and fascinating carvings on the capitals of the Doge's Palace, for example; and the many different animals which can be found around the streets and in Venetian painting and architecture. My own favourite discoveries amongst Venetian animals have been the mouse (not the lion, which Morris mentions) in the Carpaccio sequence of St. Jerome in the Scuola degli Schiavoni, and the cat which peeps out from beneath the skirts of Athena on the gates of the campanile of San Marco. This book, makes me keen to go and discover more.

- Ann Skea