Links for the next meeting - When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

A review on Huffington Post culture blog (favourable)

A review on the Canadia Globe and Mail (less-favourable)

Sarah Winman talks to Richard & Judy

A random bookshop owner (employee?) interviews Sarah Winman

And a podcast (courtesy of Robin), which talks about the book from the point of view of the publishers -- a rare insight

Some discussion questions to make you think before the meeting

See you on Wednesday!

Links for the next meeting - The Hare With The Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

Official site, including netsuke gallery, and reading guide

Black Book Swap - Saturday 3rd March

This upcoming event might be interesting:

"The first ever Black Book Swap event will take place on Saturday 3 March. There will be books to swap, authors to meet: Alex Wheatle; Chibundu Onuzo; Colin Grant; Sonja Lewis & Bim Adewunmi, and also the chance to meet other book lovers and dedicated readers. It’s free! We’re so excited! We can’t wait! Put this date in your diary now. (Saturday 3 March 2012, 1pm - 5.00pm Cottons Caribbean Restaurant, 70 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QP)

Bring a book to swap: whether you loved it and want others to know that joy; or hated it but cannot bring yourself to bin it, bring it along and swap it. You are bound to find an exciting read to replace it. Come along and join in even if you don’t have a book to swap. Any leftover books will be donated to charity.

Black Book Swap is free but as places are limited, so best to reserve a place, email: blackbookswap[at]gmail.com"

Site with more info here

Links for the next meeting - A Gothic Triple Bill

Here are some links for the next meeting, our Gothic treble of The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and a short story collection.

General themes - You can look at The Gothic using some of Freud's thoughts on 'Das Unheimliche', or 'The Uncanny' - that funny creeping feeling you get when that small part of you is screaming that something just isn't right, and WHY do they always insist on investigating strange noises in haunted houses dressed only in a dressing gown, and by candle-light...???!!!

Freud’s 1919 essay on Das Unheimliche is rather long, but some of the elements of ‘The Uncanny’ are very relevant to what we recognise as ‘The Gothic’ - and you'll see many of these themes occuring in our texts for this thursday. Freud listed 8 characteristics – 8 causes of fear used in literature:

Inanimate objects mistaken for animate – eg dolls, waxworks, severed limbs...

Animate objects behaving as if inanimate or mechanical eg trances, fits, epilepsy etc

Being blinded

The double – twins, doppelgangers

Coincidences or repetitions

Being buried alive

An all-controlling evil genius

Confusions between reality and imagination – waking dreams etc

(Taken from The New Uncanny, (2008). Ed Sarah Eyre and Ra Page)

Enotes on Udolpho

Analysis of Jekyll from Wikipedia

Joanne Harris in the Telegraph on Edgar Allan Poe

10 alternative book covers

Produced to promote a new competition, these covers are excellent. I particularly like this one for A Tale of Two Cities.

Full details of the competition are here. The closing date is 19th April

Links for the next meeting - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Here are some links for the book, found by Kelly:

In case you haven’t had time to read it, book-a-minute

Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender’s Game, Intention, and Morality

A really interesting negative review

The little-known dark side of Ender’s Game

And, of course, there is going to be a movie

A scary statistic...

There are now more pound shops than book shops in the UK, according to the Local Data Company:

"In the year to the end of October, there was a 14.2pc increase in pound shops taking the total to 3,005, according to research for The Daily Telegraph undertaken by Local Data Company, which tracks shop numbers in 487 town centres.

This is in contrast to the 2,705 book shops in the same area. Book shops have suffered from a decade of unrelenting competition from supermarkets and the internet. This year Waterstone’s has trimmed the number of stores it operates."

I'd love to see some other stats - surely there can't be more bookmakers than book shops?

All the more reason to support your local book shop!