Brrrr. Well not yet, but it’s coming so time to get those books so you have some good reading while you’re all tucked up and warm. Now, you’ve heard the one about the kindle haven’t you? That’s right, kindle, that’s what you use to start a fire with. Hmm, thought so.
What happened to March and April you may ask? Well busy reading great books of course:
Kenya Hara – Designing Design
Philip Pulman – Dark Materials Trilogy
Steven Pinker – The Language Instinct
Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Sonnets from the Portuguese
Somerset Maugham – Of Human Bondage
Josephine Hart – The Stillest Day
Carol Shields – Happenstance
Virginia Woolf – A Room of One’s Own
Agatha Christi – Autobiography
Eric Siblin – The Cello Suites
A change at The Book Room is the demise of Happy Hour for the winter months – ‘bleak mid winter’ – not quite it is Sydney afterall but the early darkness alters our habits – we are less willing to linger on the way home even in the inviting atmosphere of the shop with a relaxing glass of wine – so until Spring… Though of course if you want to make it BYO come into the shop anytime!
Recent chats at The Book Room with customers and friends have revealed some rather quirky ideas regarding books and their uses – The first – A book burning auction (please ignore historical connotations of book burnings and the reference to kindle) as all book lovers know the world is full of books they absolutely hate and conversely those that they love forever – one man’s trash is another’s treasure. So an auction to put your most hated book on the fire and alternatively a chance for you to save your all time favourite from the flames – which books would you choose to save? Hypothetically of course! The bonfire would not only rid the shop of unloved books but also provide a bright warm focus for the cooler months. Thank You ‘C’.
The second idea developed from the concept of sponsoring an animal at the zoo – sponsor a bookshelf of your favourite authors at the shop! With a declining reading public of physical books and rapacious landlords it is a way for you – the book loving public – to save your local bookshop. Even if you no longer wish to read a paper book, a book lover still loves to browse and surround themselves with books and this is a way to maintain your addiction. Also the sponsor will be able to impress their friends by showing off “their” shelf of books. Thank You ‘S’.
So my fellow readers if you have any ideas for The Book Room please join the discussion – Remember though, nothing can replace going into a bookshop – and that’s why I tend to all these books, so that you all can come down to the shop and fondle a book!
And remember, reading is like travelling in that they both offer something new, we can get and be absorbed by and through it but most of all, we learn more from reading and travelling than from anything else.
Enjoy your reading.
