Edinburgh By The Book

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

Edinburgh Castle (photo by David Monniaux)

The hugely popular Edinburgh Book Festival has unveiled its 2010 program. The annual bibliophilic love fest is being held in the beautiful Charlotte Square Gardens from August 14th through the 30th and is expected to draw more tha 250,000 visitors. With an abundance of prize-winning authors—Pulitzer, Booker, Orange and Costa—as well as Nobel and Poet Laureates and nearly 800 other writers from 50 nations, this year’s festival has something for every book lover.

The festival launches on Saturday August 14th with Philip Pullman debating his controversial, re-imagined story of Christianity, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, with Richard Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford. The festival was scheduled to close on Monday August 30 with an appearence by Jose Saramago, the first Portuguese language Nobel Laureate in literature, but the author died unexpectedly last Friday.

A 2010 festival highlight will be the first-ever Short Story Project for which the festival has commissioned 50 British authors to write stories based on the theme “Elsewhere”. The festival website has posted the first five stories by Louise Welsh, A L Kennedy, Allan Radcliffe and Eleanor Thom.

Scott Memorial

In another innovation, the festival is also introducing a free, unticketed mini-fringe festival called “Unbound”, which will include a mix of readings, performances, music and “a healthy dose of the unexpected”. Unbound will take place nightly at the Highland Park “Spiegeltent”.

If you can’t wait until August, West Port (Edinburgh’s Soho) neighborhood holds its own Book Festival this week, from June 24th through the 27th. The events are being held at 10 venues around West Port, including the beloved Edinburgh Books shop, Old Town Books, The Illicit Still and the Wee Red Bar. For more information visit the festival website.

Ian Rankin & Ruth Rendell 2009 Festival

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What Do Canadians Do After Hockey Season ?

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

The following post is courtesy of Susan Moore from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 

Sidney Pier

 

The picturesque town of Sidney-by-the-Sea is Canada’s only Book Town. Situated on the beautiful Saanich Peninsula, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island just twenty minutes from Victoria, Sidney is a bucolic little town with twelve unique book stores. The Sidney Book Town was created in 1996 and centers on the marvlous Haunted Bookshop, which is Vancouver Island’s oldest book store . 

Sidney is also a very popular “green” tourism destination. It’s the gateway to the southern Gulf Islands National Park Reserve and a great place for whale watching, boating, fishing, biking, hiking and camping. It’s also the only Canadian port of call for the Washington State Ferry Line from the US. 

The best time to visit Sidney is on Thursdays in the Summer when Beacon Avenue is transformed into the Summer Market with over two hundred vendors and the book stores stay open late. 

For more information see the Sidney Book Town website .

Betsy Rose
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Pushing the Envelope in Poland

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

Controversial Banner

Art gallery owners in Poznan, Poland are facing jail-time over an enormous banner outside of their gallery advertising an upcoming show titled “Abnormal Nudes”. The huge poster features a nude Minnie Mouse sprawled under a giant Nazi swastika.

The banner image by Italian artist Max Papeschi is called “Nazisexymous”. Local residents are especially enfuriated by the ad’s placement nextdoor to the local synagogue. During World War II the synagogue was looted by the Nazis and then flooded for use as a swimming pool for German troops.

Local prosecutors are studying the banner to determine if it promotes Fascism, a crime punishable by up to three years in jail in Poland.

The gallery manager, Maria Czarnecka, has denied that the poster promotes Nazism, saying “Our goal is not just to exhibit, but to provoke, to show how modern pop culture comments on reality”.

Ironically, Poznan just inaugurated a PR campaign last week to encourage tourism. The campaign, called “Breath of Culture”, is aimed at burnishing Poznan’s image as a city of art and culture, and is part of a movement to have Poznan named the “European Capital of Culture” for 2016. Really ?

Poznan

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Nordic Noir

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

Henning Mankell

Philadelphia author Joe Queenan recently visited Sweden for the BBC World Service and recorded a fascinating podcast on the phenomenon of Scandinavian crime fiction.

Queenan explores the social stressors that are making the Nordic region such fecund ground for popular fiction. You can listen to or download the podcast at the BBC World Service .

Helen Tursten

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Book Town Bredevoort

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

Landstraat Bredevoort

Bredevoort Boekenstad started in 1993 as a private initiative to bring the historic centre back to life. Now it has over 30 antiquarian & second-hand bookshops, art galleries and studios. Bredevoort Booktown has been honoured with many national and international awards. It is one of the founding members of the Association of International Booktowns and has a partnership with the art-village Schöppingen, in the Munster area. Bredevoort Booktown’s Committee of Recommendation has renowned members. If you want to support this project you can become a ‘Friend’.
Regularly there are small cultural events: concerts in the 16th century church, exhibitions, writer’s lectures, workshops and the “Gondelvaart”.  

Bredevoort antiquarians offer a large selection of books in English, German and many Dutch antiquarian bookshops. An opportunity to find the one book which you have been looking for.
Every third Saturday you’ll find a specialized bookmarket with bookdealers from all over the country on the square under the old trees, and bookbinding demonstrations in the former school. Many antiquarians are opened on the Sunday in the same weekend.
In May and August Bredevoort organises the large international bookfairs with dealers from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The large private sellers market in July is very popular. And on Easter Monday you can find bargains at the yearly clearance market.  

"Honesty" Bookshop

Bredevoort is a very charming medieval town. The ancient street plan can still be traced without major changes and the entire town centre is a listed national heritage site.  

You can find more information at: Bredevoort Boekenstad

This post was provided by Jaap Brinkman

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Book Town Redux : St.Pierre-de-Clages

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

This post was provided by Jamie Emery. 

Swiss Book Town

Situated in the heart of the majestic Swiss Alps, in the Canton Valais, and surrounded by magnificent vineyards, St.Pierre-de-Clages has a colourful history as a Celtic and Roman settlement. In the 11th century Benedictine monks constructed a Romanesque church in the center of the village. 

Today, the diminutive village of 630 inhabitants, with lovely 16th and 17th century houses and shops, is home to the Village Suisse du Livre and fifteen antiquarian booksellers. The annual Fête du Livre Book fair in August also attracts more than 120 booksellers from Switzerland, France and Italy, along with 20,000 avid book-lovers. 

Market day

This gorgeous little book town is easily accessible by train on the Lausanne-Simplon Line or in less than ten minutes by road from nearby Sion. It makes a brilliant day trip from Montreux, Lausanne or Geneva. 

St.Pierre

For more information, please see the St.Pierre-de-Clages Book Town website

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Book Town Favorites : Redu, Belgium

Posted on June 18, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

This post was suggested by Joanne Allen.

Redu

The first Book Town established on the “Continent”, Redu Village du Livre was founded in 1984. Today there are twenty-four bookshops, offering antiquarian and secondhand titles, in the little, thousand year-old village of 500 nestled in the Ardennes.

Redu attracts more than 300,000 bibliophiles a year to the otherwise sleepy village. The best time to visit is in August, when the Nuit du Livre is held. Village shops and restaurants stay open all night and there’s music and fireworks.

Along with terrific bookshops, Redu boasts many artisanal shops selling baked good, food, soap and clothing.

Redu weekend market

Redu

                            

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What’s Your Favorite Book Town ?

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

Fjaerland

Whatever you call them: Boekenstad, Paese dei Librai, Village du Livres or just Book Towns, they are small towns or villages in which secondhand and antiquarian bookshops are concentrated. Most Book Towns have developed in settings of historical interest or scenic beauty. And many Bücherstadt  have been the result of community efforts to revive local economies through Bookstore Tourism.

Most booklovers are well acquainted with Hay-on-Wye , Wales, and the story of its creation by the legendary Richard Booth. But how many bibliophiles know about Montereggio Paese dei Librai  in Italy or the newest Village du Livres in Esquelbecq, France ?

For sheer gobsmacking beauty and chutzpah, my nominee for favorite European Book Town has to be Fjaerland, Norway. Magically situated in an achingly beautiful spot between a fjord and a glacier this Noske Bokbyen is a bibliophilic nirvana. Huddled along the waterfront, Fjaerland’s bookshops are housed in former barns, a stable, the old post office, a ferry terminal, old grocery store and a boathouse.

Arnold's

The town boasts that there are four kilometers of book shelves and more than 250,000 used, secondhand and antiquarian books for sale. And since this is Norway, the titles are from throughout Europe and North America.

So if you plan to visit Western Norway, and why wouldn’t you want to, you may as well book a room at the only hotel in town, the grand 19th century Hotel Mundal, and spend a day or two.

For more information on Bokbyen Fjaerland visit their website. And for more on the International Book Town Movement try the International Organisation of Book Towns official site .

Western Norway

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London Literature Festival (and more)

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

This post on the upcoming London Literature Festival (July 1 through 18) was provided by UK correspondent Evan Smythe.

Southbank Centre

Football, philosophy, capitalist apocalypse, comedy and adventures in science are just some of the features of this year’s festival, which brings the world’s best writers and thinkers to Southbank Centre. Experience the radical force of Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek and make a date with father of American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis. Plumb the ocean depths with explorer Sylvia Earle, hear Jeanette Winterson deliver the Southbank Centre Lecture and play ball with Brazilian footballing legend Sócrates. Experience the uncanny with a contemporary performance of The Yellow Wallpaper and stare into the eye of the beast with a new production of Moby Dick. Master the art of kissing, join our Book Club and make history by taking part in the world’s first Litweeter festival.

This year bibliophiles and booklovers of all stripes are in for a treat with an exceptional line-up of authors and poets from around the globe. World Lit is celebrated throughout the Festival with events highlighting rising literary talents from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.

While you are on the South Bank, be sure to visit the special exhibition being held at Lambeth Palace until July 23rd. It’s well worth a detour.

Four hundred years old in 2010, Lambeth Palace Library (part of London’s Lambeth Palace) celebrates this momentous occasion with the exhibition Treasures of Lambeth Palace Library. Featuring manuscripts, books and archives, it offers a fascinating indication of the library’s vast scale.

Among the huge array of materials found in the exhibition is the founding collection owned and used by Archbishop Bancroft as his ‘theological arsenal’ in a time of religious controversy and as a scholar and patron of learning. Treasures include a Gutenberg Bible from 1455, the first book printed in Western Europe from movable metal type; the 12th-century Lambeth Bible, regarded as one of the monuments of Romanesque art; and some unique witchcraft tracts collected by Bancroft through his interest in debates over diabolic possession and exorcism.

Lambeth Palace

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Where in the World is Maardam ?

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Brian D. Butler

This post is the first in a series suggested by reader Laura Courier. 

Hakan Nesser

Now that Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy” has taken the world by storm, English-speaking readers are finally taking notice of some of Scandinavia’s other stellar authors. Most booklovers are familar with Sweden’s media darling, Henning Mankell, but the world is just warming to the other Nordic bestsellers. 

Håkan Nesser has published twenty wildly successful books in Sweden over the past twenty-two years, but only four have been translated into English so far. These titles are from a ten book series based on Chief Inspector Van Veeteren and his detective squad. The series takes place in an unnamed northern European country that at various times resembles Sweden, Germany, Norway and even the Netherlands. The characters, places and locations switch between Swedish, Dutch and German names.

The action in Nesser’s novels generally centers on the fictitious city of Maardam; a town rife with contemporary European angst that could be just about anywhere north of Brussels. The recurring central character, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, a lugubrious, philosophical cop, is a cross between Mankell’s unsentimental, depressive Kurt Wallender and Fred Vargas’ quirky, sardonic Commissaire Adamsberg.  

Nesser’s complex characters, economical writing and Hitchcock-ian plots make for intriguing, disconcerting and riveting novels from start to finish. Nesser is a controlled stylist, who manages to unsettle, frustrate, challenge, but still amuse his audience. Fortunately, we will finally see more of his books in translation. Nesser’s latest novel to be published in English, The Inspector and Silence, will be released on July 2nd.

The Inspector and Silence

 

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