A regular series of posts that highlights the quirky, best and worst found on our bookshelves at home.
Off the shelf: Greece, 1978 (Greece National Tourist Organisation)
I’m not sure why I have this book. It was part of my childhood – always on the shelf in our family home. I know it was my mum’s or that someone sent it to her from Greece, but that’s all I know. It is a wonderful time capsule of tourism 1978 style (which isn’t all that different from tourism 2011 style!). Especially because it was provided ‘with compliments’ and is ‘not for sale’ – imagine getting a book like this one just to encourage you to travel!
It is almost entirely large format photographs of all aspects of Greece – everything from the islands to the mountains, even a selection of underwater shots. Towards the back are maps and information for travellers; sparse compared to the kind of information you’d get today.
I’ll never get rid of this book – it has been around for so long, I don’t know what I’d do without it! Do you have a book that has sat forever on your shelf?
A regular series of posts that highlights the quirky, best and worst found on our bookshelves at home.
Off the shelf: Pettsons och Findus kokbok (by Sven Nordqvist)
About six years ago now I travelled to Sweden to housesit a small farm with two horses for the winter. I had a wonderful time and, because I was isolated and snow-bound in a small village for much of the time, I got to visit places that tourists never would.
When I was invited to the local primary school I had a lovely time with students practising their English and me my bad Swedish! I spent almost a whole day there and spoke to teachers about their work and students about their lives. It was a fascinating way to learn more about Sweden and the people who lived in the village I was staying in.
At the end of the visit I received the Pettsons and Findus Cookbook – a large format cookbook for kids with the famous Swedish cartoon characters of Pettsons and Findus (a cat). The book is organised by season and includes traditional Swedish recipes for summer, winter, spring and autumn. While I haven’t cooked any of them, every time I look at it, I’m drawn to recipes such as Appelkaka (apple cake), Pannkakstarta (pancake stack) and Pepparkakor (ginger bread men like things) and it reminds me of that wonderful winter spent in Sweden.
And the image from the book below? Almost exactly what the little farm I stayed on looked like!
Ever had a wonderful book as a present that reminds you of an amazing trip?
A regular series of posts that highlights the quirky, best and worst found on our bookshelves at home.
Off the shelf: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (by Stieg Larsson)
Grabbed off my shelf today is the wonderful Stieg Larsson trilogy. I came to this series quite late but of course once I got my hands on the first one and read it in a day or two, I just had to read on.
While you’ve probably already read this series (and if you haven’t, I can’t recommend it enough), it is always worth going back to these favourites and seeing if they stand the test of re-reading.
I think this series will. Have you re-read these books? Let us know what you thought the second time around!
A regular series of posts that highlights the quirky, best and worst found on our bookshelves at home.
Off the shelf: Je Suis Australiene: Remarkable women in France, 1880-1945 (by Rosemary Lancaster)
This incredible book, pulled off my shelf this week and published by the wonderful people at UWA Press, traces the stories of five Australian women, plus a clutch of Australian nurses stationed in France during the wars. Using mostly the women’s own words and writings, Lancaster examines why these women chose France and how they lived there.
Perhaps the most incredible chapter is the one on the nurses, who worked under incredible stress and in horrific conditions to provide the most modern medical care known in the world – often they knew more than the doctors they worked alongside.
This is a fascinating book and well worth the read! Especially for contemporary women heading to France!
Have you travelled in France? What is your unique experience; je suis Australiene?
Do you know about the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne? It is the centrepiece of Melbourne’s UNESCO City of Literature Initiative. Lucky Melbourne has been recognised by UNESCO as one of the Centres of Literature in the world along with Edinburgh, Iowa City and Dublin.
The Wheeler Centre is where all this comes together and their website is well worth a visit.
They have a ‘Talking Point’ section that allows you to add your views about a current topic. What makes you go into a physical bookshop is one that we were interested to see the answers for. You can add your own thoughts there, but we’d love to hear them here too.
For me, while the price can’t compare and as an avid reader, the instant gratification of downloading a book is often irresistible, I still love physical bookshops and want to support them as much as possible (hence the creation of Bookshop Tours in the first place!).
Walking into a bookshop is like coming home – friends old and new sit on the shelves, a smile from behind the counter, a chat about books and walking away with a little package of anticipation can’t be replaced. It is a destination and an event. I believe there is space in this world for both experiences.
Do you belong to a book club? I’ve tried a few times since moving back to Perth to find a good one to join and we’ve tried to find book clubs to contact and tell them about our tours but we’ve come to the conclusion that all the best ones are truly independent – low key, below the radar – just a group of friends meeting to talk about books (and other things!).
I have a friend that has been a member of a book club for some 27 years! That must be some kind of record. She told me that she formed it with some other teachers as they had all just had babies but wanted to keep their minds active. Now their babies are having babies! Lovely!
Book clubs are well catered for at the bookshops we tour and we can design a bookshop tour just for you and your book club.
What is your book club reading this month?
If you aren’t a member of a book club but want to become one, let us know – we might be able to help (or perhaps start our own new one!).
Just after our inaugural tour I posted a collection of photos showing our journey from Northbridge to Victoria Park, Leederville, Mount Lawley and back to Northbridge – a lovely evening indeed. Now we’ve also got our hands on some feedback from our first tour participants and so yes, I’m going to brag a little and say that we had fantastic feedback – and here are some examples of it.
One tour participant said:
It was fabulous. Well done! [I liked] seeing new shops I didn’t know existed and doing it in a group.
Another woman who come home with no less than five new books wrote similarly:
Great to know about new places and to share them with others.
Several participants thought that getting to chat with the owners of the bookshops was a real bonus, among other highlights:
[The best thing was] meeting owners; relaxed atmosphere; humour; no pressure to buy, food lovely and unexpected.
[I liked] meeting the bookshop owners, finding new bookshops away from my usual haunts; loved it all.
Thanks so much to our lovely first tour participants for this wonderful feedback – now we’re recruiting people for our March 4 and April 8 tours so do get in touch if you’re keen to take part!
A regular series of posts that highlights the quirky, best and worst found on our bookshelves at home.
Off the shelf: Green Pens: a collection of garden writing (by Katie Holmes, Susan K. Martin and Kylie Mirmohamadi)
This lovely book, pulled off my shelf, is a beautiful edition of historical and contemporary writing about gardening and gardens in Australia. It allows me to indulge my two favourite subjects – history and gardens – wrapped up in gorgeously designed and printed book. In fact the design makes use of a lovely William Morris wallpaper design; no wonder I love the look of it!
The writing ranges from the first impressions of those on the First Fleet, through some of our most loved including Sally Morgan, Drusilla Modjeska, Henry Lawson, Gwen Harwood and Miles Franklin. There is also a huge selection of unpublished diaries and letters that describe the ways Australians’ have gardened throughout white history.
This book would make a wonderful gift for just the right person, or if you’re that person; treat yourself!
Do you love reading about gardens? What is your favourite garden book?
This week the program for the Perth Writers Festival was released. (You can request a hard copy or view it online, if you haven’t already!) Taking place over the first (long) weekend in March, this is always a great weekend, filled with the fun and drama that so many readers and writers coming together brings us.
With a bunch of well-known writers coming all the way to Perth – including no less than ten overseas guests this year – there is bound to be a session that’s perfect for you. Some of the highlights will include Joanne Harris (need we say more than Chocolat?), Annie Proulx and Armistead Maupin. Yes, we literally drooled over the programme!
Here at Bookshop Tours we are running a Northern tour on Friday, March 4th, to tie in with the Perth Writers Festival. Winding up at the delightful Beaufort Street Books, there will be a bonus Festival-related surprise waiting all our tour participants there – but we can’t tell you quite what it is (we know, but we’re keeping it a secret!).
We are a small tour company that specialises in taking book lovers to the best independent bookshops in Perth, Western Australia.
Join us for discounts, behind the scenes tours, extra info, author talks and lots of fun!
The website is the place to read about what is happening in all things books and bookshops and other literary things, especially in Perth.
You can subscribe to our blog posts, check out the tours we have coming up, book tickets or contact us to organise a custom tour for your group or book club.
