Summer and Reading..
Summer's here finally!!! This weeekend was actually hot - yes, that's a good thing, and it looks like the weather's here to stay.. It's such a pleasure to be outside, to see everyone else outside.. Summer's the time for street fairs, tangy beers on the patio, concerts in the open, shakespeare in central park, strolling home at 3am, protesting without freezing, life is looking up..
Spring time, Summertime, any time's a good time to go to The Strand, spent a good part of the last weekend there.. No less a literary figure than Umberto Eco (whose works I admire greatly) said it was his favourite spot in the US, I would agree in a flash.. There once used to be a Book District in New York, like the Garment District, Theatre District etc., the world's largest used bookstore is all that survives from those days. The place is paradise for the true bibliophile. 18 miles of books stacked end to end says the blurb, a mere statistic that hardly does justice to the character of the place, and the joy of seeing books of every hue, binding, and vintage stacked in shelf upon shelf upto the ceiling, not to mention the disbelief at finding them at bargain prices.. If it sounds too good to be true - go there dear reader, you won't regret it..
While on the subject of books, happened to stumble on this article in The Guardian that suggests that men are much less likely to read books written by women.. I would consider myself a gender-blind reader, yet I cannot escape from the fact that I have few works by women at home.. It was really quite eye-opening, maybe I'm not so gender-blind after all.. The bias is unconsious, but that doesn't really make it any better, should do something about it the next time I'm in a bookstore.. Continuing the thread of readers and sellers of books, is this nicely written article on Rediff about the razing of the street book stores in Bombay. This whole Shangai-sation drive is getting pretty ridiculous and is hurting those with less to begin with..
Spring time, Summertime, any time's a good time to go to The Strand, spent a good part of the last weekend there.. No less a literary figure than Umberto Eco (whose works I admire greatly) said it was his favourite spot in the US, I would agree in a flash.. There once used to be a Book District in New York, like the Garment District, Theatre District etc., the world's largest used bookstore is all that survives from those days. The place is paradise for the true bibliophile. 18 miles of books stacked end to end says the blurb, a mere statistic that hardly does justice to the character of the place, and the joy of seeing books of every hue, binding, and vintage stacked in shelf upon shelf upto the ceiling, not to mention the disbelief at finding them at bargain prices.. If it sounds too good to be true - go there dear reader, you won't regret it..
While on the subject of books, happened to stumble on this article in The Guardian that suggests that men are much less likely to read books written by women.. I would consider myself a gender-blind reader, yet I cannot escape from the fact that I have few works by women at home.. It was really quite eye-opening, maybe I'm not so gender-blind after all.. The bias is unconsious, but that doesn't really make it any better, should do something about it the next time I'm in a bookstore.. Continuing the thread of readers and sellers of books, is this nicely written article on Rediff about the razing of the street book stores in Bombay. This whole Shangai-sation drive is getting pretty ridiculous and is hurting those with less to begin with..