April is not only the time to celebrate spring, it is also
the time we celebrate books!! April 23
is Canada Book Day. It is also celebrated around the world as World Book and
Copyright Day!
There is much concern about the demise of the book as we
know it, given the exponential growth in the e-book and the requisite reader
market. I have even heard talk about redefining the word “e-book” given that
the reading experience with an e-book is evolving to be so different from the
experience reading a “regular” book. The difference is not just in the way it
looks and feels, but also the whole content. With wifi turned on, your reader
links you to the world and thus the “book” is no longer a contained entity; dictionaries
are just a click away, footnotes are live links to related research, static
photos become embedded videoclips There’s
no denying it, reading is evolving and with it the book. This is not to say
that the one will disappear with the growth of the other; it is not an
“either/or” rather an “in addition to”. There will be times and places where
paper is the preferred option, and vice versa.
At TBPL, books and reading - in whatever format - are
celebrated every day. For Canada Book Day, we are celebrating with an author
reading – April 23, 7 pm at the Waverley Library. Join Thunder Bay writer,
Charlie Wilkins as he reads from his new work "Little Ship of Fools":
the dramatic and hilarious story of sores and survival on a human-powered journey
across the ocean. When he joined the expedition, Wilkins had never swung an oar
in earnest. In a tale both harrowing and hilarious, Wilkins takes the reader
along for seven weeks of rationed food, festering sores, breathtaking sunrises,
sleep deprivation, and mile-high waves alongside a devoted crew of
misadventurers.
For your reading pleasure, here are some Fiction titles that
have books or libraries/librarians at the centre of the story – can’t think of
a better way to celebrate books than by reading one about those who love them!
People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. “Inspired by a true
story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical
grandeur by acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning author. This ambitious,
electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah,
a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain.
When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this
priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient
binding-an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair-only
begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the
intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra-nationalist fanatics.
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. “Obliged to borrow a
book when her corgis stray into a mobile library, the Queen discovers a passion
for reading, setting the palace upon its head and causing the royal head of
Great Britain to question her role in the monarchy.”
If you are looking for a lighter read and something that is
in e-book format, then try The Scrappy Librarian Mysteries by Marion Hill. Hill's humorous series features Wyndham,
Oklahoma, public librarian and amateur sleuth, Juanita Wills.
Celebrate the book this month in whatever format you chose
to read it in. Happy reading!Barbara Philp
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