Notes From the Shire

Booktopia 2018 is only a few months away...

I am of an age where I should have a measured and mature response to Valentine's Day. I don't...

Now that the illusory holidays are behind us, we can get back to reality. Let us consider the taser....

If I had $10 for every time a parent tells me about his or her child’s advanced reading skills, I’d be driving a much newer car. Selecting books for these hungry young readers can be as challenging as selecting books for reluctant readers. Rather than make a beeline for the young adult section for your ten-year-old prodigy, talk to a children’s bookseller. Here are some of the things we can advise you on:

Books have entertained, and enriched the lives of, many people. Indeed, the tactile aspects of bound pages can be just as enjoyable as the stories themselves. Some of the great joys in life are touching, smelling, looking at and listening to books.

You go into a bookstore and you can feel the jacket covers, sometimes slippery and soft and sometimes gritty and rough, under your fingers as they protect the books as they silently sit there, waiting until you open that first page. The books call to you, telling you “buy me and you’ll find a magical world.”

Christmas is coming- we've had a little snow, carols are playing in every store, people are a little kinder to their neighbors. But for me the ultimate knowledge that the season is upon us is marked by one of my siblings carrying up the “Christmas box,” a gigantic appliance box circa 1982.