Reading Places

This time last week I was in New York, and find I am still recovering from what was a very hectic trip. Apparently there are 5 time zones between here and there and consequently it will take me 5 days to feel normal (!) again.

On our trip we did squeeze in a couple of bookshops as well as the very grand New York Public Library building, which somehow felt strangely familiar. The Strand Bookshop off Union Square boasts 18 miles of books. It was certainly densely packed and I was able to spot lots of titles by American authors I now want to read. This store has a great website too with lots of book choice information.

All of which is preamble to telling you more about Reading Places which launches on Monday. If you revisit this website on Monday 9th May you should spot a new banner and link to our new promotion. If you follow through, you will have approximately 100 books promoted to you, all linked to the theme of travel. I have tried to match Fiction & Non- Fiction titles, so for example if you are planning a trip to Easter Island you will be able to find both a novel and a factual account flagged up for you. We can add more titles through the year so please get in touch if you read a particularly evocative novel while on your travels.

We also want people to send us photos from their travels, pictures of books or people reading in unusual places. These will go up on our Facebook site, NOW that's what I call READING.

More next week

Are writers born or made?

I attended a riveting event at City Library Manchester last night which was part book launch and part debate about the value of creative writing MAs. The room was packed, not sure who by, but I guess lots of people either already on, or who may be had considered and rejected going on, a Creative Writing course.

First-time novelist Rachel Genn, a recent participant on the Novel Writing MA at Sheffield Hallam University was launching her novel The Cure. Also launching her most recent novel The Testament of Jessie Lamb, was her former tutor at Sheffield Hallam, Jane Rogers.

Both writers read from their books. The Cure is set on and around building sites in Shoreditch but is really about loss, isolation and displacement.
...Jessie Lamb is set just in the future- 6 months on from where any reader starts- and is told through the voice of a 16 year old girl. Is Jessie heroic? Or is she, as her father fears, impressionable, innocent, incapable of understanding where her actions will lead? This was the issue Jane most wanted to address in this book.

After the readings, chair Sherry Ashworth, herself a writer and creative writing teacher at MMU, led the duo through a series of probing questions, asking them to address the value of Creative Writing courses and the perennial issue of whether or not a writer can be "created" through teaching.

The exchange was fascinating to me, as someone who feels instinctively that writers are born. Jane seemed to back my instinct by saying that writers can be helped and improved, for example with how to build characters or how to structure a plot, but need to arrive with an innate feeling for language and a vision for what they want to communicate. Rachel agreed that she was someone who definitely needed support with how to control and shape her words, but the strong drive to write was what drew her to a course

Questions from the audience quickly drew out some strong feelings, particularly around the question of whether it is now almost essential for a new writer to attend a creative writing course, if they want to be "discovered" by an agent. Jane tried to allay fears on that score but I'm not sure everyone was convinced. Agents do, it seems, visit Creative Writing schools to make new contacts with aspiring writers.

The overall impression from the evening was that writing is b.....y hard work! Students on creative writing courses need to work hard, take criticism and persevere. Tutors must work hard at being even-handed and supportive, while giving criticism where its needed. We readers are indeed the lucky ones, enjoying the fruits of all that effort.

Reading Places

After much angst and changes of direction, Time To Read has now decided on its focus for activity for this year. Reading Places will promote all sorts of travel writing, in the broadest sense. We will promote books which support travel to far flung parts of the world, but we also promote books to the armchair traveler: those books which transport you to other countries, real and imaginary from the comfort of your own front room, or, let's hope, the garden deckchair.
I am currently spending much time researching fiction set in other countries to pair up with the more self-evident travel guides and directories. So yes, I am still searching for a, so far elusive, novel set in Fiji. Any ideas anyone?
In the meantime I have just finished reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen which I have been waiting to do since its release last autumn. I loved it. Like The Corrections its an absorbing read about the complex relationships between people in an introspective middle-class American family. So much is familiar and at the same time I wanted to scream at them for not communicating better with each other. The bits that really grabbed me though were set in a lakeside summer-house which, both Patty and Walter at various times retreat to. This seems to be a recurring motif in American Literature, from Thoreau's Walden to the most recent novels I have read. In both Freedom and the very bleak Caribou Island (David Vann), the need for a lakeside retreat is obsessive. And yet in neither of these is "retreat" really possible. The outside world really can't be avoided.

World Book Night Successes

Everyone who took part in WBN seems to be rating it as a success. Although it will be impossible to know how many of the books given away on Saturday are read, certainly the spirit in which they were given and received seems to have been very positive.
I was at a charity for homeless people , where, not only were they eager to receive books, but also wanted to know about them and were keeen to find out more about what was being given away. Picture shows giver David with some of the "receivers".

Warrington Libraries had 2 success stories, not only getting books given away at a Wolves RUFC match but also inspiring comedian Sarah Millican to announce WBN and encourage people to pick up books from library staff at the interval. Janet said The books went so fast we couldn't believe it!

Sarah from Salford took books and staff to The Lowry and said Just wish I'd had more books! They all went in about an hour! Five hundred!

I was in a meeting in London yesterday with some publisher representatives. The feeling at that was also that it had been successful in creating a buzz about books. I suppose they will be eagerly looking for an upsurge in sales now. We need to feedback our thoughts on the whole scheme which was hugely ambitious. Some of the glitches were probably inevitable in a project of this size. It will be important to hang on to the core purpose which was to get books into the hands of more people and enthuse them about reading.

time-to-read: World Book Night

time-to-read: World Book Night: "Its almost here. Tomorrow sees the first World Book Night and a million books being given away. The organisation must have been a logistical..."

World Book Night

Its almost here. Tomorrow sees the first World Book Night and a million books being given away. The organisation must have been a logistical Everest but certainly we have lots of books in Manchester and have seen a long list of other book givers so there should be lots of books "on the streets".

Lots of library services are organising events. The latest I have heard of is a Quiz Night at Wallasey Central Library on the Wirral. See www.wirral.gov.uk to find the details on the libraries' pages.

I shall be at The Mustard Tree which we hope will be featured on the BBC 2 World Book Night programme just before 9pm.

I'll report back next week on how it goes.

the World of Books Day & Night

Its potentially a big week for books. Thursday is the UK's World Book Day. Always thought it was odd that we didn't fit with the rest of the world which holds WBD on April 23rd, but its to do with schools & Easter hols I believe. That aside, World Book Day in the UK has seen massive publisher support for children's reading and in recent years the launch of a new set of Quick Reads.

Quick Reads are a great series of books for people who have never had, or who have lost the habit of reading. Each year 10 titles are published on World Book Day and libraries and learning organisations work hard to get them into the hands of people who may not discover them on their own.

The list of new titles for this year can be seen on the QR website. I notice this year's list includes books by top borrowed author James Patterson, alongside former Monty Python star Terry Jones and a Martial Arts Adventure from Benjamin Zephania. So there should be some really varied and interesting reading to be found.

WBD will be closely followed on Saturday by the first World Book Night
The intention of WBN is that a million books will be given away by a "army of passionate book givers". While there have been some murmurings of scepticism about this venture by some booksellers, writers and librarians ( after all libraries are full of free books all the time- the only difference is we ask you to bring them back), it does seem that it should be successful at getting books into people's hands in some unusual and imaginative ways. Book givers have been recruited in sufficient numbers and certainly from where I am in Manchester, there is a long list of givers who have opted to collect their books from libraries and take them who knows where?

I am excited to be supporting a project which hopefully really will get books into the hands of people who are not already regular book buyers, though we are told, are often voracious readers. Manchester Libraries are supporting The Mustard Tree , a charity which supports homeless and marginalised people. The library service is working in partnership with the Mustard Tree to present an open mic night at which clients of the charity can perform their work. The library service is delighted that the BBC has chosen this event as one to highlight on their special BBC 2 World Book Night programme.

Around the NW region there are plenty of other WBN events as well. It makes me proud as a librarian to see so many library staff, currently working under great pressure, still willing and able to pick up an external opportunity like this and create lively events which will bring books to more readers.

I shall try to give as much publicity as I can to all the events taking place "on my patch".