Rock on...

Chris Cleave is a pretty smart dude. He of Incendiary and The Other Hand among others, writes a blog and has a faithful following on Twitter. Cleave recently came across George Orwell's 1939 essay on Charles Dickens ,which is well worth a read. He's included an excerpt here, or check out the full essay here. It is kinda cool, enjoy!

Library graffiti

Interesting concept...not sure that it has legs as a serious literary collection. Quinn Dombrowski has taken over 700 images of graffiti in the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago.
'Song lines, love notes and maths problems' appear on the walls (presumably in the bathrooms...it doesn't specify) along with political statements, cultural asides and even a poll about the Ancients. It begs the question, who even thinks to take a pen into the loo?

Manna from heaven

Look! The universe gifted me with two literary treasures today: 

The latest LRB landed in my letterbox from London and I discovered Patrick White. 

Neither of which will in any way fan the flames of self-confidence in a wannabee writer but both should inspire nonetheless...

And, if you happen to pass by my favourite local second-hand bookstore, drop in and ask to see Desire Books' latest acquisition, a 1958 first British edition On The Road, one of only 3000 in the original print run. Don't need to tell you how much I love a bit of Jack.

Cover art

Cool book covers I found here.

Make books not wii

Thanks Eva for the link to Maureen Johnson's blog post Sell the Girls. I've never read her books but Johnson's comments on the alleged 'crisis in boys' reading' are worth a look. Apparently there's a dire need for male authors and 'boy' books, according to the New York literary scene. Are they kidding? 
I would weigh into the argument but not tonight Josephine, my brain is fried. Forget the readers for a moment, this writing lark is exhausting.  

She's a rare bird

Hope you've been saving your pennies booklovers, there's a book sale on in New York in December. A couple of the treasures up for grabs have my name written all over them.... though sadly I don't have a few cool $mill to cough up for them. sob.
The books are among a collection of 50 items from the estate of a certain Lord Hesketh, who died in 1955. 
A first edition of Shakespeare's plays, widely acknowledged as the most important in all English literature, and a rare book by America's most famous bird artist, John James Audubon, billed as the priciest tome in the world, are going under the hammer in a literary coup for Sotheby's.
Shakespeare's 'First Folio' dates from 1623 and among the 36 plays included are The Tempest, Twelfth Night and Macbeth. It's expected to go for around 1 to 1.5 million pounds.
The bird book, which took Audubon 12 years to complete, contains around 1000 illustrations of 500 breeds of birds. The dude knew his stuff. Charles Darwin quoted the highly influential natural historian three times in The Origin of the Species. Only 119 original copies of Birds of America - said to have inspired generations of ornithologists - are known to exist and this one is tipped to achieve a whopping four to six million pounds at auction. 
Wow. Santa Claus did I mention I have been a very, very good girl this year...

There she blows

Had to post this incredible photo - a volcano erupting on the Big Island in Hawaii in July by Alain Barbezat for National Geographic. 

It has nothing to do with literature or reading but everything to do with inspiration and energy. Specifically, the way I'm hoping my story will erupt onto the page in front of me...bring it on!

Telling tales...

Saw this article about DBC Pierre at the Melbourne Writers Festival on lit blog The Outlet. In it they call him a wonderful lunatic. He of the 2003 Booker Prize winning Vernon God Little, which I haven't read, is pounding the pavement with his new novel called Lights Out In Wonderland which I'm thinking I might. Partly because he seems so nuts - in a crazy irreverent creative kind of way.
On Enough Rope in 2006 Andrew Denton described him as 'living proof that truth is stranger than fiction'. The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed him via telephone when he was in Scotland recently and said he sounded 'so sober he could only be very drunk'. In his defence, it was 3am by his clock. What else would one be doing up at that hour, in a bar, in Edinburgh?
DBC Pierre (aka Peter Finlay from South Australia - via Mexico, Spain, England, the West Indies and now Ireland) was born in a winery, raised in a mansion in Mexico City, had a ten-year-long house party to cope with his father's death, did loads of drugs, lived the life of the jet-set, fraudulently sold a friend's apartment and lived as a recluse for a time listening to Russian and German orchestral music. Among other things. 
And he's written four novels. If Hank from TV's Californication was a real living person I reckon they'd hang out. 
Can anyone out there recommend any of his books?

On beauty...

I know you're not supposed to feed them but.... how can I resist? They're completely beguiling, surprisingly tame and I am totally seduced by their beauty. 
My rainbow lorikeet friends. These two come visit me every second day and if they can't find me, they fly around to each window and peer in and tap and trill until I appear like a dutiful slave to appease their every whim. Ok so producing a few seed-filled breadcrumbs isn't that hard, but the point is, there's something magnetic about them that is impossible to ignore. 
My very wise friend in Africa always tells me birds are the messengers of the gods and when they come calling we must listen to them. My very wise Aboriginal friend also speaks of the wisdom of birds. She tells me that the birds will only come to you because they choose you, and they have knowledge of the world that only they can see because they fly above it and look down and see all that goes on in this place...
Birds have always been a rich source of inspiration in mythology, legend, symbolism and literature and when you see these little fellas on your balcony the obvious question is: how did the birds get their colours? 

Got to love the Dutch...

...because some bright spark in the Netherlands created this! A reference desk made entirely from books. It's housed in the Delft University of Technology.  Only problem is - what happens when you want to read one? 

#657; The Negotiator

Haaa! Just saw this from David Malki ! over at Wondermark. Love it.

Poets pushing product

After recently discovering a virtual library of famous dead people reciting their classic works on the web, I see now that Levi's has taken a literary tack in its new ad campaign across the USA. 
It's a stretch but if it spawns a new generation of poetry enthusiasts it can't hurt. The Go Forth ads claim to appeal to the 'smarts and heritage' of the American people and feature dubbed audio of Walt Whitman reciting his famous poem Oh Pioneers! You can check out the ads here and here.
Makes me wonder what the Australian market might stomach? The Banjo pushing Bega Cheese...? Perhaps a bit of Dorothea MacKellar selling sunscreen...? 
I reckon A.D. Hope could have been put to great creative exposure in the recent federal election campaign. Would have made it worth listening to anyway - and we might have even gotten a winner.

Thanks dad x

My dad - who would rather stick pins in his eyes than go shopping - ventured out into a mega-mall and bought me a present yesterday all of his own volition. And guess what it was?!
Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Kid on Earth!
Started reading it last night and, for my first foray into the graphic novel form, I reckon it's the ideal introduction. The images are simple yet soulful, Jimmy speaks to you using few words but loads of expression, so the text and imagery are in perfect symmetry. I like its thickness and its texture and the way you have to turn the book sideways sometimes to read the frames, and I love that my dad bought it for me after reading my blog.
That's makes me RubyfireWrites - The Luckiest Girl on Earth.
Here's what other writers and critics say about the book:
'Arguably the greatest achievement of the form, ever.' Dave Eggers
'Beautiful, poignant, and at times utterly heartbreaking, this multi-layered coming-of-age story may be one of the finest sympathetic portraits of a loser we have in history.' 
The Boston Sunday Globe.
'A work of genius.' Zadie Smith
And this...
'Ware's work is the comic equivalent of Joyce's Ulysses - no one's ever read it, and those who have know that it sucks, but it sure looks great on your bookshelf.' Ted Rall
Am only a few pages in yet, but so far so good (blah to you Mr Rall). Will keep you posted.
(Click on the images to enlarge for your reading pleasure.) 

What novelists do when they're not writing novels...

Nick Hornby moonlights as a lyricist and sometime alternative-folk-meets-deadpan-poetry-slamming-performance-artist, apparently. Check out this collaboration between Hornby, Ben Folds and Pomplamoose, one of the songs from an album they've recorded, Lonely Avenue, due for release later this month.
The song is called Things You Think and here's a grab from the musical quill of Mr Hornby himself:
'Did you know that Dickens invented 13,000 characters? 13,000! That's a character a day for the whole of his working life. What have I done today?...'
I like it. It's kinda catchy, have a listen.

Niseko manga

Thanks for reminding me about this little Niseko manga bar G! Graphic novels are a serious business in Japan. We found this little cavern of comics in the snows of Hokkaido a while ago... doesn't matter if you can't read the hiragana, katakana, kanji... all you need is sake, good company, an unfettered imagination and the stories virtually write themselves...

I want to read...

Jimmy Corrigan - the Smartest Kid in the World. 
I've never been into graphic novels but this one got a huge rap on First Tuesday Book Club last night. I haven't delved into this genre since I put my last Archie comic back on the shelf about 25 years ago (some of his adventures are imprinted indelibly in my mind - I hope he and his mates enjoy a Renaissance in due course). I'm curious because Marieke Hardy said Jimmy's tale moved her to tears and I want to know what the fuss is all about.
I found a review in January magazine online which says:
'Jimmy Corrigan is the eponymous full-color, 380-page tale of a sad, socially inept man who visits his father after years of estrangement. The story that unfolds is an intricate mosaic that, with artful use of flashbacks, spans generations. The main protagonist is the current-day Jimmy Corrigan, but there's a secondary storyline, featuring Jimmy's grandfather -- also called Jimmy Corrigan -- set in late 19th-century Chicago.

'Both Jimmys have a tendency to indulge in spiteful daydreams laced with absurd elements. Both are social pariahs greatly oppressed by their respective parents. Both are unsympathetic losers forever poisoned by fear, anger and -- most of all -- parental betrayal. They are so wrapped up in their own lives that they are incapable of any true feeling for anyone else, save spite and hatred and envy. Ware's story navigates with dreamlike logic between the two Jimmys and their respective fantasy lives.'
No wonder she cried... Stay tuned.
Are you into graphic novels? Which ones?

Bookaholics Anonymous

My name is RubyfireWrites and I'm a bookoholic.
Just when I think I am fortified against temptation.... I come across a bookstore and all resolve crumbles. Sigh.
Books + shop = ka-ching goes the till. 
This was Saturday's haul from Andy's Book Shop on the northern beaches (19 bucks for the lot). I went out shopping for figs, spinach leaves and raspberries, so of course it was natural that I came home with a pile of books.
Cervantes' Don Quixote, Plutarch's Fall of the Roman Republic, Aboriginal Myths and Legends by AW Reed and - haha! - for a little light relief The Love Queen of the Amazon by Cecile Pineda. The Rousseau artwork on the cover caught my attention and the blurb on the back won me over for the $4 spend: 
"Expelled from her demure convent school in the small town of Malyerba, Peru, to be led kicking and screaming to the altar, Ana Magdalena was kidnapped on the night of her wedding only to escape and find refuge with the man of her dreams. But marriage to the penniless deluded writer Federico Orgaz was to herald even more extraordinary adventures. From her colourful initiation into the life of the flourishing bordello La Nymphaea to her exalted role as Madam of the legendary pleasure-dome La Confiteria, Ana Magdalena's sensuous journey would lead her into realms hitherto unknown..."
They say when trying to write, one should also read read read. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

Why poetry is cool

Came across this image taken by Steve McLaughlin in Montreal on the LRB blog. 
Literary graffiti - love it!

'I found words to console me, they call it "poetry".' So true.

McLaughlin is bussing it around America and Canada interviewing 'semi-prominent figures in experimental, or semi-experimental, poetry' for a series of podcasts. Read all about it here.

Say whaaaat??

The book I'm reading at the moment is full of big words. Gi-normous words. To the point where I read it holding the book in my left hand and the dictionary in my right hand. So it was with some amusement that I came across this rather large lexeme the other day...
Polyphloisboiotatotic.

Huh???

According to the Oxford English Dictionary this ridiculously huge expression translates to:

'That roars most loudly of all or very loudly indeed'.

It was once used (probably the only time it was ever used in the history of etymology) in a sentence by William Makepeace Thackeray, when, in 1843 he wrote:

'The line of the shore washed by the poluphlosboiotic, nay, the poluphlosboiotatotic sea.'

Respect.