Melbourne Rare Books Week and great service

I went to a fantastic event on Wednesday night for Melbourne Rare Book Week, at Reader's Feast and had a really wonderful time. It was Never Do That To A Book, readings from Anne Fadiman's book Ex Libris.

I arrived early, intending to have a browse and only realised when I got there that the shop might have intended to shut and then re-open. Thank heavens they didn't! It gave me some time to have a lovely browse. The staff at Reader's Feast are always so great, and checked in with me to see if I was there for the event and then left me to it.

The event itself was wonderful, and was introduced by Mary Dalmau, an inspiration to booksellers everywhere. Mary has been involved in Rare Books Week from the beginning, and introduced Zoe Bertram and Roz Hammond, actors who read three essays each from Ex Libris. I have the book, and have read it a number of times, and thought that both women did a great job in bringing the essays to life.

After the readings, Mary spoke again and asked the audience to think about their favourite books, while she asked Zoe and Roz about theirs. That created a lovely atmosphere, and a few people shared their thoughts.

It was a really lovely night, and I look forward to many more events at Reader's Feast. Melbourne Rare Book Week was certainly lots of fun for me, even though I only attended a couple of events - I hope you were able to attend some too! I recommend registering for the mailing list on their website, which you can do here.

As well as being on this mailing list, I am also on many, many others, including international book newsletters. One of those newsletters is from Publishers Weekly, which includes a blog called ShelfTalker, written by children's booksellers. This entry caught my eye, and actually really touched me.

There are a few things happening in the post, but the story of a how a bookseller tried to cheer up a grumpy young girl on holiday with her family really touched me. For many years when I was younger, I was this grumpy teenager, not content to be grumpy myself, but actively trying to bring down others around me. It's not a time in my life that I'm proud of, and I work hard every day to be a completely different person. This bookseller really went above and beyond for this customer - she wasn't just out for a sale, she was really trying to cheer up someone who needed it.

That idea of service is something I really try to exemplify myself, and I just love to see it in others. As well as being an admirable quality, it makes me want to shop at stores staffed by people like this, and tell everyone about them, and come back to shop again and again. If I get the chance, I'd love to drop by the store staffed by this blogger.

Happy reading!

All the things

Phew, I've been all over the place the last couple of weeks - sorry, no time to write! I hope you've been reading something good!

As I've been all over the place, this is going to be a post with a whole lot of things included.
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Firstly, last Thursday I went to the opening of Rare Books Week, Beautiful Books at the Wheeler Centre. It was such a great night, hosted by Steve Grimwade, the former Head of the Melbourne Writers Festival. I volunteered for the festival when Steve worked there, but of course he wouldn't remember me - that was years ago, and there were hundreds of us! But it was still nice to feel a connection to someone on stage. The talk was really wonderful, lots of pictures of beautiful books, both historical and more modern. The cover is what gets most of us to pick up a book in the first place, but it's interesting to think about the inside as well - what font is used, how much white space is there, are there illustrations or decorations at the start of each chapter? How much does the beauty of a book influence your willingness to buy it, or how much you love it?

I've been reading the Game of Thrones series on a e-reader recently, and although I love the books, the e-books are some of the ugliest things I've ever seen. No care has been taken with them, they are really just electronic versions of the paper book - blank pages and all. Blech, not attractive. I think it's the lack of care that gets to me. But it's much easier than lugging those 1,000 page behemoths around!
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I've had to re-think going to the Bendigo Writer's Festival - I couldn't get the leave I wanted, and I've accidentally booked myself into some events here in Melbourne. I think I'll still try to see my friend Megan's panel on Sunday, but it will just be a day trip.
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I came across this article over the past 3 weeks, and was not surprised to hear that Jamie Oliver has never read a book - he's dyslexic, and he pointed out he gets bored quite easily. That's cool - get into audio books, Jamie!

But what if a friend of yours came to you and said that they had never read a book, or hadn't read since high school (over 10 years ago for me), and they would like you to recommend what they should read first. What responsibility! Your choice could either turn them off reading forever, or help them fall in love with reading, a love that will last the rest of their life. What books would you recommend?

For me, it would depend on the person. This was something I loved when I worked in bookstores, talking to someone, asking what they liked - not books, just tell me what you like. If they had just read something they loved, or hated, sure, that helps to narrow down the possibilities to suggest, but it's not really necessary to talk about books to find the perfect book for someone.
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Speaking of bookshops, the Australian Booksellers Association is running a poll for people to vote for their favourite bookstore. You can win book vouchers worth $500, and you can vote here. I voted already! And I'm planning what I'll buy with my $500, so I hope I win!
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One of the genres I wanted to get into this year was comics and graphic novels. I'm stalled on the graphic novel area, but I'm powering ahead with comics! One of my very lovely friends works at Classic Comics, at the top end of Bourke Street, so I dropped in one Sunday afternoon and had a delightful time getting a personalised recommendation. I was so excited to see that The Phantom is still in production, as I have fond memories of reading this series as a kid - I used to spend $1.50 of my $2 pocket money on a Phantom comic every week, and still get a giant bag of lollies to read. I laughed to see that the price had hardly gone up at all - a regular issue is still just $3.50!

I also bought a Captain America comic, The Winter Soldier, which I was excited to read. I loved the movie that came out in 2011, and decided then that I wanted to read the comics, and I'm finally getting round to it.

My friend recommended Green Lantern too - I haven't seen the movie, and the comic was so interesting. A really fascinating story, which led to a lot of talk the next time I visited - yes, I am now one of 'those' people, who argues in comic book stores about whether Green Lantern or Batman is better! Green Lantern all the way!

I'm hardly a regular yet, but I am loving seeing more of my friend, and talking about comics. They are really such a fascinating area of literature, and I'm really in awe of some of the fans I've met at the store, and the staff, who can reel off Green Lantern's oath, and all the names of Batman's sidekicks, and tell you the Kryptonian names of Superman's parents, and so on. The depth of knowledge and passion some people have around comics is just fantastic!
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Finally, I'm going to another Rare Book Week event on Wednesday night (24 July), Never Do That To A Book. I think tickets might still be available, but you will definitely have to book. Get onto it! Love to see you there.

Welcome to the blog!

Hello and welcome! It's lovely to have you here with me.

I am Jessica, and this is my space to talk about books. Books that I'm reading and that I loved, and books that I don't think did their job well, and books I think everyone should read and books I wish I had read.

I'm also going to talk about book-ish things - libraries, authors, book launchs, exhibitions, other blogs. I have signed up for newsletters about books from all over the world, so I'll share any interesting tidbits I get from those, too.

I love to read all sorts of books, both fiction and non-fiction. My favourite genre is Young Adult, especially YA Fantasy. I also love stories of survival, like after a shipwreck, or a plane crash. Bonus points if cannibalism is mentioned! I really love reading about World War II, I find it a fascinating period of time, with amazing examples of self-sacrifice and heroism and utter nastiness and horror. It just feels like a really specific time period that encapsulates absolutely the best and the worst of humanity.

Following on from my fascination with WWII, I want to read more poetry. Some really wonderful poetry was written by men in the mud and blood and the nightmare of the trenches, poetry that can fill your spirit and carry you away on a dream. I want to read the poetry from the trenches. And I want to read Australian poetry too. I have always admired people who are able to recite poetry and I want to be able to do that.

I have not been spending a lot of time in real-life bookstores lately, which is another thing I want to change. I have been getting a lot of books from the library and re-reading some of my old favourites, but I also know there's so many amazing books coming out all the time and it's important to keep up with those. My favourite bookstore is Reader's Feast, which I loved when they were in a slightly tricky-to-find spot on Bourke street, and which I completely adore now that they are in the gorgeous former George's building on Collins street. There are lots of others I love too, Dymocks on Collins street, Hill of Content, Readings in Hawthorn and Readings at the State Library of Victoria.

I'll try to keep things mostly book related, but I'll probably stray occasionally. For instance, I love Melbourne. I mean, really, I love Melbourne a lot. And there are so many book-ish things to do in Melbourne! So I'll definitely be talking about my own beautiful city, Melbourne.

This is your space to talk about books too - if you have thoughts on a post of mine, please do share! When I worked in a bookstore, my favourite thing to do was talk to people and find the perfect book to recommend to them. If you need a book to read, let me know what you've read lately and loved, or what area you want to get into, and I'll see what I can do. I luckily have some very talented friends who will probably jump in with suggestions too.

This is really just an introductory post, but I'll be back soon with a review or two to share.