Travel Reads

I was at the airport yesterday seeing off my parents on an overseas trip.  They're going to be away for 4 months enjoying themselves and having fun!  While Dad was rummaging through his hand-luggage, searching for a pen, I noticed he pulled out a book.  Well, he is going to be on a plane for a long length of time and then, he'd probably read before bed each night - much like he does here.  But once he finishes that book, what will he do with it?  Leave it in the hotel?  Go to a Book Exchange or Second-Hand Book Store for another?  Or will it sit in his bag unfinished and at the exact same place he left it as before?

Now, when I travel, I take a book or two with me - traditional books - and then I'll take a few e-books on my iPod with me too.  The traditional books are for when I'm going to bed, but the e-books are for when I'm out and about and just want to read little snippets when I'm eating at a cafe or waiting for somebody.  
Otherwise, I usually only take about three books with me on holidays, or traveling long distance - and this doesn't include my Dream Dictionary.

So, what do you take on holidays?  Do you take anything on holidays to read?  Or do you totally enjoy your vacation and keep reading for home only?  Would love to hear from you all.  Until my next post, happy reading!

Book Baggies

I haven't been reading all that much lately.  It's not a focusing problem; it's something I've been working on lately.  And once I begin working on something I tend to drop everything else around me and concentrate on that one thing.  Yep, I become very single-minded.

As you all know, I received what I thought was a strange kind of present from my folks:  a sewing machine.  I really didn't expect it and didn't want it.  However, as the saying goes: when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  So, I began thinking about what I could do with this machine.  I'm an artistic person and wanted to work it in with my art; as well as integrating it with my love of reading and books.  So, I looked over the patterns Mum gave me and found a design for a pillowcase (but I have plenty of those!).  Then, it struck me!  I thought to design a simple baggie for books to protect them from wear and tear when you're out and about reading them.

I worked out the prototype from cheap, light material and then - just today - I worked on my first two real ones from good quality material.  And it's worked out well!  However, I'd like to have some people's opinions about them.  So, what do you think?  Would you buy them if I began making them?  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts about my new baggies.  

I found that I can fit 2 books in one baggie along with a bookmark.

 I hope you all enjoy my new design on book baggies.  I can make them in any colour (the green ones I've got here are for one of my friends who loves this colour and it's her birthday soon).  So, until my next post, happy reading!

Red Dog by Louis de Bernieres

Going by the name Red Dog, this lovely Kelpi captured the hearts of anyone he met in the late 1970's while he lived in Dampier, Mt Tom Price and around Western Australia.  The stories which were gathered about this famous dog are true, brilliantly told and hilariously funny; and yet will touch your heart as you are taken along the life of Red Dog.  Even though he never says a single word during this book - and his human friends do all his talking for him - this account of this wonderful dog's life also gives you glimpse of the true Australian outback; its glaring heat, the desert and how truly hot and dreadful it can be.

Being an Australian, I can really connect with the characters of this book; especially seeing I've owned a dog as well.  However, my family never owned a dog quite like Red Dog.  This dog was most certainly a one of a kind.  Now, I think all us dog-owners can relate to the fart-in-the-car experience from our dogs, or the looks they give us when they're trying to tell us they didn't do anything wrong (when the exact opposite is the truth).  However, Red Dog was truly a friend to all in the vastness that is Western Australia; nobody truly owned him, he owned the land and its people.  He enjoyed life completely and - like they say - Red Dog enjoyed a dog's life.

Louis de Bernieres was born in London in 1954. After graduating in Philosophy from the Victoria University of Manchester, he took a postgraduate certificate in Education at Leicester Polytechnic and passed his MA, with distinction, at the University of London.

De Bernières’ first novel, The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts, was published in 1990 and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best First Book Eurasia Region in 1991.

The Great Cities: San Francisco

I love this city; absolutely adore it to the very core! From the Golden Gate Bridge to Coit Tower to Lombard Street and the infamous prison 'The Rock' Alcatraz in the middle of the bay, I have had a love affair with this city for a long time... however, I've never been there.
There have been films and television shows I've watched just to see the gorgeous views and I've taken in educational shows about the San Andreas Fault that is the biggest of its kind. However, it's the city I'd love to live in and see and delve myself into; and this book get me lost in it every time. It doesn't matter that it's an old one, it's the beauty of the parks, the streets, the people and those cable cars that get me every time. And just like the song, I have lost my heart to San Francisco and would love to see her sights and smells and journey around her hilly surrounds to find out more about her.

This book may be published in 1979, however, I don't mind. I know this city has changed a lot. And since, my parents have been there to see it (and strangely enough, every time we talked over the phone, I kept suggesting places for them to and see and when they did, they were surprised I knew about them!). Mum said she could see me living in San Fran quite easily because it was an easy place to get around, the people were lovely, food was gorgeous and there were so many art galleries, I'd be there for a few years just to see them all.

The Cool Parents' Guide to New York by Alfred Gingold and Helen Ragan

If you've ever traveled with children, you'll know it can be either fantastic fun or pure hell. Well, traveling around the Big Apple is no different; and this sweet little book makes doing just that a whole lot easier for you! This book covers everything your kids would ever want to do; and you'll also find the outings fun as well. From Chinatown to Metropolitan Museum of Art to inline skating by the Hudson River, this book will take you and your family all over New York City in the name of fun for all around. And not one of you will say they're bored. This book makes things much easier for you with mud maps, addresses, websites, phone numbers and pretty much anything else you'd need to make getting to your destination a cinch! It has suggestions for meals, lunches and light snacks too. So, while you're planning your next trip to The Big Apple with your family, hunt down this book as well and pack it into your suitcase (buy two in case your kids are conflicted on what they want to do and both of you need to split up in the name of keeping the peace! Also, then you won't get lost when you meet up again later on).

Alfred Gingold grew up in New York City and studied theatre and English at Cornell University. He has worked as a director, actor, and teacher in New York and further-flung localities. Today he lives in Brooklyn with his wife, son and their dog, George. Alfred Gingold has written for numerous publications, including Esquire, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, My Generation, The New Republic, The New York Times, New York Woman, Travel & Leisure, Worth and, of course, Queste, the journal of Rolls Royce owners. “Don’t Ask,” his humor column on the Prodigy Internet Service, was named one of the ten funniest sites of 1996 by Yahoo Internet Life. He covered the Westminster Dog Show for Slate in 2002.

I haven't found that much about Helen Rogan; except that she is in the publishing world. There's no mention of an official website or any biography I'm afraid. So, I'm sorry to say that I'll keep on searching for you guys until I find something about her.

Literary Landmarks of New York by Bill Morgan

I picked this one up at a sale and thought that I ever got myself to New York City, I'd take it along with me and see some of the sights with it; and I mean the literary sights where some of the famous - and not so famous - writers hung out for meals, parties and swapped notes with other writers. Even if you don't get to fly there, it's well worth a read to find your favourite American or New York author and find out exactly what they got up to in their hey-day ... or are still getting up to! This book is a wonderful read and had photographs of the very people us readers and writers are crazy about! So, sink your teeth into this one and follow your favourite party-going writers around the Big Apple.

Bill Morgan has had an interest in the Beats that goes back to the early 1970s, when he was attending library school at the University of Pittsburgh. he compiled a bibliography of the works of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet and owner of City Lights Books, the famous San Francisco bookstore and one of the most important publishers of the early Beat writers, most notably Allen Ginsberg for his master's degree thesis. After finishing this, Morgan was encouraged by the editors at the University of Pittsburgh Press to pursue this project with a view towards eventual publication. He continued his research, working in close collaboration with Ferlinghetti as his personal bibliographer, and, after a decade of patient research, he published the very thorough and scholarly Lawrence Ferlinghetti: A Comprehensive Bibliography (New York: Garland Publishing, 1982).
Morgan had moved to New York City by 1980 where the San Francisco poet referred him to Allen Ginsberg, whose own personal library and archive were among the best sources of information in New York on the Beats. Consultations with the poet grew into an enduring relationship that lasted from the early 1980s until Ginsberg's death in 1997. During the years Morgan served as Ginsberg's archivist and bibliographer, he helped the poet to organize and maintain his ever-increasing library and records. As Ginsberg's bibliographer, Morgan spent fifteen years corresponding with and visiting numerous publishers, editors, scholars and library collections in order to gather sufficient information to document the history of Ginsberg's prodigious output and the worldwide attention it has drawn. The results that have appeared are in a massive and authoritative two-volume bibliography: The Works of Allen Ginsberg, 1941-1994: A Descriptive Bibliography and The Response to Allen Ginsberg, 1926-1994: A Bibliography of Secondary Sources (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995, 1997).
Bill Morgan has probably the largest private collections of printed works of and about Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg in private hands. He found it increasingly difficult to maintain these two very large and valuable collections in his New York City apartment, he reluctantly determined to part with them. Knowing that Ferlinghetti was a UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus, he decided in the fall of 2001 to offer his collection of the San Francisco poet to the UNC libraries. Discussions with library officials led to the transfer of the collection to Chapel Hill in December of that year, partly as sale and partly as gift. Pleased with the outcome and aware that the library's interests extended to other authors associated with the Beats, Morgan then offered a similar arrangement for his even more remarkable Allen Ginsberg collection. His proposal was enthusiastically greeted at UNC, and the materials were delivered to the Rare Book Collection in Wilson Library in August 2002.

(taken from: http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/beats/morgan.html)