World Book Night Events!

World Book Night is happening in the UK, US and Germany on the 23rd April, so why not check out their interactive map of events!

http://www.worldbooknight.org/events/events-map

This is the selection of books that people will be giving away all over the country, see any you like? Any look...familiar? Check out other people's events and see what they are giving away too!

More film reviews by Ellie!

If you love reading Ellie's regular film reviews on this blog, you'll be delighted to know that Ellie is now also reviewing films at Push Start Play.

Have a read of her review of "Robot and Frank", which is currently showing at Cinema City.

And here is a sneak peak of the film, starting with a great library scene!

The future of the book...

Book art display in the Information Store this week: 

where do you see the future of paperbacks versus ebooks?

 

 

Red Nose Day in the Information Store

You might have noticed something funny going on in the Information Store today....?

1. Information Store staff all wearing various shades of red.

2. Information Store staff brushing away the crumbs from their Red Nose Day cookies!

2. Students running round trying to work out the James Bond film with the longest title....

3. Last but by no means least - our resident face painter, Avril Wilkisnon, decorating students and staff with a variety of red noses, flowers, animal faces and glitter.

See our Facebook fpage or student photos.... http://www.facebook.com/#!/ccninformationstore

Did you do something funny for money?

Countdown to World Book Night - Pt. 3!

The final installment of our rundown of books being given away for World Book Night is upon us. But dont worry, there will be plenty of reminders around between now and April the 23rd!

The third book being given away in the Information Store is E.H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World as chosen by Learning Resources Assistant Ellie Wilkin.

A Little History of the World is a non fiction book which does exactly as the title says, however, the one thing that makes this book different is that the author wrote it in 1935, so it doesn't cover history from 1935 onwards. What it does do, is cleverly, concisely and clearly document the history of our world from the Neanderthals all the way through to the end of WWI. It is wonderfully written and its timelessness as historical non-fiction makes it an even more charming little book. The facts within will never change, the stories he tells are legendary and the history of our world reads almost like fiction.

Here is why Ellie chose this book:

"A Little History of the World is an informative and insightful book about the history of our little planet up until the first world war. Its easy to read and documents great moments in history like the Knights at the round table, the ancient Olympic games and the various revolutions that have torn countries apart. Each chapter is like a little story in itself, but my favourite chapter is the one about the Egyptians, there's nothing like a good true tale about Mummification to keep your pages turning!"

World Book Night is only a few weeks away so spread the word and make sure you keep up to date with us on TWITTER, FACEBOOK and PINTEREST!

Don't forget, make sure you are in the Information Store on the 23rd April to take part in this massive global event!

Countdown to World Book Night - Pt. 2!

Following on from last weeks post about World Book Night and the first book that we will be giving away copies of being revealed...its time to announce the second one!

Library Services Manager Sam Floyd has chosen the classic tale Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. If you are unfamiliar with the story its a fantastic, swashbuckling tale which was first published back in 1883. It follows the story of young Jim Hawkins, who lives with his parents in the local inn. One night a man named Billy Bones dies in the inn after being accosted with the dreaded Black Spot - an infamous Pirate curse. Feeling the need for action, Jim and his Mother break into Billy's chest and steal a logbook and map therein. They soon learn that what they have stolen is of value as they discover they stole Billy's treasure map where X marks the spot of the loot of renowned pirate Captain Flint. Jim and his friend Squire Trelawney immediately start out on an expedition to sail the seas and retreive the treasure. However, another pirate is on the trail of the map, the smooth talking and devious Long John Silver - and he manages to trick his way onto Jim's ship...

The historical tale that ensues is full of mutiny, murder, treasure and adventure and makes for very entertaining reading which will keep you on your toes and eagerly turning the next page!

Here is why Sam chose this book:

"Treasure Island was a book I greatly enjoyed as a child – it was excellent escapism with pirate adventure, treasure maps where “X” marks the spot, great characters and suspense.  I wanted to give other young people the opportunity to enjoy the original Pirates of the Caribbean!" 

Sam will be giving away her 20 copies of this heroic tale in the Information Store on April the 23rd. If it sounds like a book you might be interested in giving a go, then make sure you pop along to get yourself a copy! Absolutly free!

World Book Night has inspired all kinds of people to start reading and enjoying books, people all over the country will be giving away copies of their favourite books in their community. They have a blog on their website with some testimonies and information about their cause. You can visit it here:

 

http://www.worldbooknight.org/blog

DVD Review - The Hunger Games (2012)

The Hunger Games is a science fiction action film based on the books of Suzanne Collins of the same name. Starring the recent Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence as the tenacious Katniss Everdeen, the film follows her incredible journey as she fights for her life in horrifying circumstances.

The Hunger Games is set in the futuristic dystopian nation of Panem which consists of a Capitol city and twelve districts who due to a rebellion on the Capitol in previous years must now sacrifice their own as punishment. Each year, a representative from the Capitol comes to each of the districts for ‘The Reaping’ where two children aged between twelve and eighteen are selected to represent their district in the annual Hunger Games. Primrose Everdeen, the younger sister of our protagonist Katniss, is selected as the female representative but Katniss nominates herself in her place knowing that her sister wouldn’t survive. Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) is the male nominee and the two travel to the Capitol where they receive training and recognition for the event that is about to possibly end their lives. To the people of the Capitol, the Hunger Games is like the Olympics. It’s a huge event and everyone gets very excited about seeing the ‘tributes’ as they are paraded and interviewed like celebrities. The trick to surviving the Hunger Games is making sure the people like you, if you are favoured then people watching on TV at home can send food, medicine and various survival kits if you need them. Katniss and Peeta meet and train with the rest of the tributes and suss out their competition, some are fierce and some are weak. After significant guidance from Haymitch Abernathy, a previous winner of the Hunger Games (Woody Harrelson) and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), Katniss and the rest of the tributes are sent up into an extravagant artificial forest where they must fight until to the death and the one remaining survivor will be the victor.

A few of the eager tributes die in the first few minutes at the ‘Cornicopia’ a structure which consists of food, medicine and weapons which everyone runs at all at once. It very quickly descends into a huge blood bath as people get hold of weapons. Katniss grabs a rucksack and a bow and arrow from the pile and disappears into the forest, dodging her competition. She watches up a tree as the deaths of tributes are announced by a canon. The creators of the Hunger Games liven things up a bit for her when they start a huge forest fire to divert her into the path of the hunters and set wild bear like dogs on her trail. Luckily for Katniss, she has won the hearts of the viewers and they send medicines for her when she is injured. With thousands of people willing her to survive and a select few willing her to die, Katniss’ survival depends solely on her survival abilities and skills as an archer. Will she reign victorious? Or will she succumb to the Hunger Games tomb?

The plot may sound familiar and comes also in the form of the Japanese action-horror film Battle Royale where school children are put on an island to fight until the death, however, don’t be fooled. This film is incredibly violent, very disturbing in places and despite one main plot point being similar, they are very different films to be enjoyed on very separate levels.  I would recommend The Hunger Games to most but to those of you with a strong stomach and the correct date of birth you could give Battle Royale a shot. I have warned you though. The Hunger Games has also come under scrutiny from various people remarking on how it promotes an unhealthy body image, certain unfair perceptions of race and a likening to the true life tory of the controversial figure Kony who created his own army of children who would kill each other.

Despite its criticisms and it being banned in Vietnam (suprisingly) The Hunger Games is an entertaining watch whether you know the outcome or not and some of the tributes fall foul of some pretty gruesome deaths. The futuristic hairstyles and clothes much resemble those of older science fiction films like The Fifth Element and the contrasting wealth of the Capitol and the Districts surreptitiously underlines how bleak life is for these children. It feels like the role of Katniss was made for Jennifer Lawrence who perfectly adapts to the strong and feisty character readers of the books will recognise. With familiar faces cropping up along the way – Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz and Donald Sutherland – The Hunger Games triumphs as a different take on the bleak, dystopian future that directors all across the board seem to believe is in store for us. Hopefully we won’t be nominating our young to go to a big fake forest and kill each other though…

Why not borrow The Hunger Games from the Information Store? You will find it in the DVD Zone shelved at 791.43 H! It’s a great film to watch with friends or on your own!

Further Reading in the Information Store:

We’ve got the whole series of The Hunger Games books in the book zone, so why not get ahead before the next film is released! You will find The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay shelved at 823.92COL.

Countdown to World Book Night!

 

World Book Night has been running for a few years now and is a way for people to share the books they love amongst people that may not have as many opportunities to read, or people who haven’t really ventured in to recreational reading in our local community. It’s a great cause and has already had some remarkable results. Visit the World Book Night website for more information at http://www.worldbooknight.org

Some of the library staff here at City College have been chosen as givers for this years World Book Night. This means that they have chosen a book that they love and on World Book Night they will be given 20 copies of the book to share amongst their chosen community.

Three members of the library staff have been chosen as givers and each week we will reveal a member of staff and the book they have chosen. This week, The Information Store’s Digital Resources Office Amy Straker has chosen the book ‘Me Without You’ by Jojo Moyes and she will be distributing copies of it here at the Information Store on 23^rd April!

Here is why Amy chose this book:

“I chose mine because it is a great read, but with an unexpected story line. The cover looks like a light hearted tale of boy meets girl, but it is so much more than that. When Lou loses her job in a coffee shop she takes a job as a carer for the rather dashing Will, who has been injured in a motorcycle accident. They don’t hit it off, at all and Lou doesn’t know about the dark secret that Will has been keeping from her, that threatens to change everything. I hope it will appeal to students who want wouldn’t usually read for pleasure, and that the interesting plot will encourage students to take a copy, and hopefully pass it on…”

Reading books doesn’t have to be just for school or college, it’s a great thing to do in your spare time. You can lose yourself in exciting stories, become heroic characters and be transported to other worlds. If this sounds like something you would like to get involved in, make sure you come to the Information Store on the 23^rd April!

Keep your eyes peeled on the Between the Lines blog to find out what the other books being given away will be!

Reading resolutions

I just spotted these great reading resolutions on the World Book Night blog. I have always felt quite guilty about point 1, but now I feel much better!

 

2013 reading resolutions:

This time last year we made 9 reading resolutions. Some we've kept, quite a few we haven't, but that's not going to stop us trying with them again! We've repeated them below and annotated them with our successes and failures. Is there anything you'd add or change?

1. Give up on a book if you’re not enjoying it. There are too many great books to persevere if you’re really not getting on. Obviously don’t quit after a few pages, give it a little time to settle in, 50-60 is the perceived wisdom (or 1/3rd of the book if it’s particularly short).
- I have absolutely done this this year and it's lead to me getting so much more pleasure from what I have read. I think it's now a habit and one I hope will lead to a more rewarding reading life.

2. Give as many books as you read. Obviously as well as what we’re doing on April 23 we’re going to aim to give away at least a book a week, if not more in 2012. Sometimes they’ll be the book we’ve just read, passed on (sometimes they’ll be newly purchased copies of the book we’ve just read as we can’t bear to part with ours!), sometimes they’ll be carefully and lovingly chosen gifts, sometimes they’ll be books that have sat unread for too long and deserve better homes. But whatever they are they’ll be amazing gifts.
- Everyone who invites me to their home now gets a book and pass on as much as I'm prepared to part with from the books I've loved reading this year. Plus, regular WBN followers will know how much I'm in love with Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, so many people have received these as gifts from me this year.

3. Read outside your usual choice. We’ve all got particular tastes: subjects, areas and genres that we know we enjoy. But some of our best reading experiences have come from stepping away from the norm and trying something different for a change. So for every book we read this year within our comfort zone, we’re going to pick one from outside it. After all, we can always give up and move on if it doesn’t work out.
- Hmm. This has been an interesting one. I'd say I've stepped outside my comfort zone maybe a quarter of the time rather than half. I'm still definitely making value judgements about books without trying them and still being regularly delighted with books I don't think are my sort of thing when I do try them. Obviously must try harder with this one!

4. Read aloud more often. Publicly admitting that I read aloud to my husband almost makes me blush. I don’t know whether it’s because reading is such a seemingly intimate, private activity or because we associate reading aloud as something we do only to children or the infirm, but for whatever reason it is, it doesn’t feel like something I should admit to doing. But it is brilliant – you get the combined pleasure of reading with the shared experience of discussing it as you go along, like a book club but with instant gratification. I cannot more highly recommend it, start with something short (our first read aloud was Alan Bennett’s Uncommon Reader) and see how you go. No cheating and reading ahead on your own though, that completely ruins the fun!
- I'm still doing this, enjoying it more than ever and really think everyone should. I'm currently reading Wolf Hall to my husband (I know, I'm obsessed) and it's been interesting as I'd read it before and he hadn't. It's almost like taking someone new to a favourite place - I'm loving experiencing it for the first time vicariously through him and getting things from it that I didn't before. It's ridiculously long when you read it aloud but absolutely brilliant. We started at the end of November and are now very nearly finished. We've both read other things ourselves along side but as we've got more into it we've abandoned Christmas TV to read to each other instead.

5. Read more. Bit of a given this one, but looking back over my 2011 reading I find that increasingly those odd moments when I would have picked up a book have been filled with emails or twitter or playing games on my iPhone and, to be honest, I feel poorer for it. So I’m going to try to waste less time and fill it with amazing stories and writing.
- I've definitely read more this year, but I've still finished the year feeling like I've wasted more time than I should. Partly this is down to a frustration that I don't always have the book I'm reading with me and desperate desire not to have to buy it twice in physical & e format. Maybe 2013 will be the year publishers & booksellers get bundling right.

6. Keep a reading diary. The best books, our favourites, mark out our lives. I waited for my sister to come out of hospital aged 7 with The Princess and the Unicorn for comfort, overcame travel sickness aged 13 as I couldn’t stop reading To Kill a Mockingbird, tackled unrequited love with By Grand Central Station I sat down and Wept and knew I’d found my match when he read The Good Soldier and agreed it was the best book ever written. But I wish I could look back at everything I’ve read over the years so I’m going to keep a reading diary so I can!
- This started well, then fizzled out in the middle months. It's been very easy to track since October as I've read all the WBN books (plus a few others as well). But I can't for the life of me remember half of what I read that isn't written down. If there's one resolution I want to keep this year it's this one.

7. Be completely honest about what you’ve read. Whilst I’ve never out and out lied about having read a book, I’ve been known to give ambiguous answers or nod and smile when discussing a book as if it’s one of my favourites! What does it matter whether I’ve read Wuthering Heights, We Need to Talk about Kevin or Twilight (all on my to read pile)? And I shouldn’t be ashamed to admit that I haven’t.
- All those books are still on my to read pile. Maybe for 2013 I should be completely honest with myself about whether I'm actually going to read something or not!

8. Get over reading guilt. This kind of applies to all of the above. Reading is an incredible pleasure but too often we find ourselves feeling guilty about all manner of things from whether we’re reading enough to whether we’re reading the right books (or what the right books actually are) and almost all of the above resolutions sort of feed this. So whilst we try to read more, read out of our comfort zone, read out loud and keep track of what we read we’re going to remember the cardinal rule: reading is a great joy and whatever we do or don’t do, read or don’t read we’re not going to let any guilt get in the way of us really enjoying our reading in 2012.
- I really took this to heart in 2012. Particularly when 50 Shades of Grey was published and various parts of the media (as well as people up and down the country) decided to debate, again and again, who on earth was reading it, why, and whether they were actually 'readers'. My thoughts on this are lengthy and not always polite, but they were summarised before the debate started in this resolution. Never let anyone, ever, make you feel bad for what you're reading. I'm not going to try to pretend that 50 Shades was the best book I read, or particularly life changing, but it was a very enjoyable romp to read over a dreary summer weekend.

9. And last but very much not least, sign up to be a World Book Night giver and help spread and share a love of reading.
- Check. Obviously!

If there's one thing I've learnt this year then it really is that I'm a creature of habit. The more I read, the more I wanted to read rather than do any of the other habitual things I do to pass the time. So if I can make keeping a reading diary and diversifying my taste more habitual then hopefully these can be things I do for life not just for January! Now I just have to work on the more exercise, less food & drink and spending money habits too...

Make someone's day

Make someone's day tomorrow. I'm not talking Valentines, I'm talking about giving an unwanted book to an underprivileged child.
 
Tomorrow is International Book Giving Day. Please bring in any preloved children's books to the Information Store desk, or SA103, and we will pass them on to a library that we work with in Dedza, Malawi. 

Make someone's day tomorrow!!