Britain's best book borrower?

The Guardian reports that a 91-year-old library member in Scotland is probably Britain's most prolific book borrower. Staff noticed that she was up to her 25 000th loan! She now reads about 12 books per week, mostly romance, and first borrowed in 1946.

The Pearls of reading

Nancy (BookLust) Pearl’s approach to helping people find books they like, is to elucidate from readers the characteristics they find especially appealing about books they already know. She delineates these “appeal characteristics” as:

· Character Example: A Prayer for Owen Meany
· Setting Example: The Shipping News
· Story Example: The Pelican Brief
· Language Example: Possession
Embracing all four (the blockbusters) Example: Lonesome Dove

http://www.nancypearl.com/

By looking at these examples and other books you have read, people can delve within themselves to determine what characteristics they find most appealing. Of course, different people respond in distinct ways, loving certain books for totally unique reasons. Many are surprised when they analyze their reading pleasures in this manner.

A little exercise to try –
Write down your all time five favourite books.
Look at what is common to all of them – is it the story line, characterization, the setting or the way it is written?
Is one different? If so consider what type of mood you were in when you read this. Sometimes your mood may change what most appeals to you at that time.

Happy Reading!!

- Fran

The book is dead, long live the book

by Sherman Young. USW Press, 2008.

Sydney academic Sherman Young believes that, as an influence in society the importance of the book has declined almost to the point where it is dead as an object. He chooses to convey this message in a book, so I suppose there’s life in the old format yet, but he makes a strong case all the same. In many ways books have been overtaken by newer formats. Older texts can be found on sites such as Project Gutenberg, and newer books are increasingly available in e-book format. In due course, a sufficiently attractive e-book reader will be on the market, and then we can expect the book to go the way of the vinyl record, becoming little more than a niche market. Young points out that this is not altogether a bad thing. For instance, there is much more likelihood of specialist texts being found by their target audience in an electronic format – no more haphazard ordering from book-shops which can only carry a fraction of the material being published. Young’s argument is persuasive, and spells a worrying message for booksellers, which will have to reinvent themselves, perhaps carrying a smaller range of stock and selling more coffee. But what does it imply for public libraries? Can we carry on buying and shelving books as we have done for the last hundred and fifty years, or do we move into e-books in a bigger way before it’s too late? Should we blog a bit more? Young has an entertaining style, and his book can be digested fairly rapidly. I recommend it to anybody who likes reading; we’re still just about in the majority.

- John

(Update: Sherman Young also has a companion blog for his book)

Revolutionary road

By Richard Yates. Vintage, 2008.

Richard Yates Revolutionary Road is now a movie, but the book, published in 1961, is a work of serious moral intent - about the shortcomings of its characters. Frank and April Wheeler are a living as a dysfunctional couple so she devises an escape plan, one that will enable Frank to realise his potential while she works, at least until her husband finds an occupation more suited to a literate war veteran. As Richard Yates's novel unfolds, however, it becomes apparent that though Frank might rail against the suburbs, he lacks the imagination or boldness for change and so his marriage rapidly unravels.

- Wendy

The book of Emmett

by Deborah Forster. Random House, 2009.

Deborah Forster’s novel, The book of Emmett is a powerful and emotional work that begins with the funeral of Emmett, the father in the story. Forster has written an emotional tale of domestic violence with simple yet engaging language. Set in the western suburbs of Melbourne, where Forster grew up, the novel traces the complex relationships between brothers and sisters and the love and pain that evolves between them in this house of violence. It brings together some strong images of growing up in this period and how children forgive but are still damaged by a violent upbringing

- Wendy