Evolving English

It's moments like this one needs a Tardis. Keen to see Evolving English: One Language Many Voices at the British Library - an exhibition that traces the social, cultural and historical influences on the English language in an interactive, hands-on, 21st century-cool kind of way. 
So if one happened to be in London right now, one could pop along and check out 'the roots of Old English, slang dictionaries, medieval manuscripts, ads and newspapers from around the world, everyday texts and dialect sound recordings' from all over the place.
It also has an audience-participation section where people can record themselves reading the kid's book Mr Tickle - the text of which apparently evokes a wide range of sounds present in the English language - the idea being that as people participate the exhibition experts compile a living 'voice map' of where we English speakers of the world are today and what we sound like. Go on, record your voice here.
This one, however, happens to be in Sydney right now. So instead I got my word-geek fix at the Gleebooks summer sale. Picked up a copy of Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin by Nicholas Ostler and it's bursting with stuff-one-needs-to-know.
Stuff that makes perfect sense in this Y, Z, Whatever Gen world we live in, where kids write essays on iPhones using animated emoticons, words of one syllable or less, no vowels. And some of them have never in their life felt the dewiness of grey finger-printy digits smudging the tablecloth after an hour with a real, hard copy, freshly minted newspaper. 
Stuff like this, from the cluey old Greek dude Horace - who may or may not have realised the weight of his words way back in 70BC - when he wrote: 
'Many words that have fallen will be reborn, and many that are now in honour will fall, if usage wills it, for that holds the judgement, the law, and the standard of speaking.'
I, for one, believe a Renaissance is due for the word 'behoove'. It would behoove us all to remember our words and use them wisely so that our language may flourish.
Which words do you think deserve a newfound appreciation?

Giants fall

It's been a long while coming and last week it finally happened. Borders / Angus&Robertson went belly up, probably taking with them the hopes of many a publisher for payments due... and devastating for their employees who are always the ones to bear the brunt. The internet is abuzz with the whys and the hows and the what nexts, but it's virtually impossible to feel sorry for the bookchain heavy weights who've apparently mismanaged their way into this mess.
Go you little independent bookstores and second hand sellers - the bedrock of the literary trade.Go you good things! 

Literary List Week...

This week is Literary List Week on Rubyfire Writes. Cyberspace seems to be full of people making lists - top 50 this, top 20 that, top 3-gazillion something else - so I've been stashing away a few literary lists for your reading pleasure. 
To get you in the mood, take a look at this Huffington Post selection: Nine of the Most Amazing Bookstores in the World. I'm excited to say I can cross three of these off my list of yet-to-see shops and, happily, add to my 'holiday' list an additional six destinations.
In 2008 The Guardian named Selexyz Bookstore in Maastricht, Holland, the best bookstore in the world. This heavenly store is located inside a refurbished Dominican church that dates back to 1294. Wow.

El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was once a theatre named The Grand Splendid (which, in 1929 premiered the first ever movie with sound).

A homegrown entry - Gould's Book Arcade in Sydney, Australia. Bob Gould started selling books in the inner west suburb of Newtown in 1967. Bob has over a millions books and records to sell either in the store, in storage or on line.

'Amazing' means different things to different people. I could add a few, perhaps more humble, bookstores to the list. You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine...!

London Review of...blokes

They've been quite hard to come by in Sydney so, in the past whenever I happened upon a copy of the London Review of Books, I always made sure it went home with me. 
Then I got jack of looking for it and subscribed. Now my appetite is sated on a regular basis. (Plus, it means you get exciting mail, instead of just boring white envelopes with little windows that always spell B-I-L-L.)
LRB is a fortnightly rag full of insightful opinions about all things literary, written by contributors who are seriously clued up about their subject matter. 
Love the in-depth book reviews, philosophical discourse, intellectual essays (which sometimes lose me but I try) and even some of the political enquiry.
It has its own bookshop in Bloomsbury which, of course, required a visit on a recent trip to London, where they sell cakes that 'express the ethos of the London Review of Books: independent-minded, surprising and energetic'. Yum. They were good.
Anyhow, despite the veritable feast of brain food contained within, the page I always flip to first is...
Page 39. Personals. Completely unexpected and hilarity ensues.
Check these out, from July 8 2010:
'Semi-detached youngish man (62), wide range of interests, from the mind, through politics, to rugby, invites younger woman to tour the Highlands end July in E-type. Meet London or nearby to check compatibility.' M, 62
'The only danger involved in dating me is that my cosmic reverberations may make you pass a kidney stone of pure solid gold. They call me the Flusher. I also enjoy the music of Billy Joel.' M, 43
'I've been reading LRB for at least six years - time to cash in on that and get me some sex. Ladies? M, 43.'
And this dude even recited original verse...'Bookish girl wanted. Audio poem: hellobookishboy.blogspot.com' Which must have worked because the link seems to have disappeared...go Bookish Boy!

Feast your eyes on this...

The Abbey Bookshop on Rue de la Parcheminerie in Paris, perfect for an afternoon of English-language book perusing. Check out the secret sliding shelves in the last photo. I was in heaven...

Comptoir de l'Image

I can't wait to go to this bookstore in Paris!

Described by Wallpaper* City Guide Paris as an 'ideas vault', the tiny shop - Comptoir de l'Image - is packed with a collection of photography and design books, 'a catholic range of contemporary magazines' (huh?) as well as vintage fashion titles. Très bon!

Back in blog-land

Literary meanderings through my mind during my last few weeks' hiatus from blogging:
On forgetting to pack my book when travelling: Sydney Domestic Airport's Watermark bookshop is always a treat. The initial disappointment of realising I'd left my book at home (Catch 22) immediately gave way to the delight of having to buy a new one. Picked up Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall, having read screeds about how wonderful it is. I'm not disappointed - 217 pages in and I can't put it down. 
On the Sydney Writer's Festival: came and went in a flash with some great events that were not dampened by Elizabeth Gilbert's last minute no-show. Comment overheard from a gaggle of Goths on a pavement in Glebe at 10pm on the Friday night. "I reckon Erotic Fan Fiction would have been better if Damo hadn't been chucked out for trying it on the dude dressed up as Wonder Woman. He had good legs though, even in blue tights, so you can't say it was Damo's fault."
On finishing my writing course: Saturdays have become a treasured weekly sojourn into the world of books and writing. The eight week workshop has come to a close but the ink is flowing faster and the will remains strong. Nice to know there's 14 fellow souls out there feeling the frustrations and the fever of writing. Write, fingers write, let us find out what we know!
On dark horses: Turns out, one among us in my writing workshop happened to be launching a  book all along... Annette Stewart's biography of the writer and artist Barbara Hanrahan was published in May and sounds fascinating. (Gleebooks' Gleaner magazine has it advertised at $3995...hopefully it's a typo Annette, not sure I can afford it at that price!)  Barbara Hanrahan: A Biography is published by Wakefield Press. 
On blogging: Now that my temporary state of life-overload has passed, blogging will resume as normal :)

Books at play...

Lucky kids in Beijing! The city has possibly the coolest children's bookstore on the planet. Kids Republic was designed by architect Keiichiro Sako. Along with picture books from all over the world, it has an activity room for storytelling and animation screenings. Check out the round reading nooks and playground style layout.