Reading and books are more important than ever for contemporary society. Here an image of The Rose Main Reading Room at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (also known as New York Public Library Main Branch) – an elegant study hall in the heart of Manhattan.
Patrick Robert Doyle /Unsplash
Today’s libraries build communities and provide space for learning new technologies but it is critical that they continue to be about books and reading too.
Melissa Lucashenko, winner of the 2019 Miles Franklin Award.
Courtesy of the Miles Franklin/ Belinda Rolland
This prize confirms Melissa Lucashenko’s status as one of Australia’s top writers of contemporary fiction.
Many of the classic books of Canadian literature thrived because of women editors, publishers and agents. Some are profiled here: Anna Porter in the 1970s, Bella Pomer in 2015 and Claire Pratt in 1950.
Diane Pullan; Facebook; special collections
Irene Clarke, Claire Pratt, Anna Porter and Bella Pomer were among the women who changed the face of Canadian publishing. Their achievements deserve our attention.
Whether indoors or outdoors, building a makeshift creative space to share the joy of books lays a foundation for early literacy.
(Shutterstock)
A book nest - or nook - is a cost-friendly way to model and enjoy literacy with your preschooler that invites their creative involvement and offers space for positive connections to grow.
If you can’t get to Venice, Italy, allow a book translated from Italian to transport you there.
Tom Podmore/Unsplash
Reading fiction can increase your empathy and reading fiction translated from another language can improve your cross-cultural understanding. Why not let a book transport you?
Anna McGahan as Charmian Clift in Sue Smith’s play Hydra. Long overshadowed by her husband George Johnston, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in Clift’s life and work.
Jeff Busby/Queensland Theatre
Fifty years after her death, Australian writer Charmian Clift is experiencing a renaissance. With her forward-thinking columns, Clift’s voice rose above the crowd during post-war Australia.
When it comes to reading, choosing the books your child reads, forcing them to read at certain times and asking them questions about their books are all big no nos.
Walter Withers, ‘The Drover’, 1912, oil on canvas. A recent book reinterprets Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife in 99 ways, offering new perspectives on the classic short story.
Wikimedia Commons
Ryan O'Neill’s book reimagines a classic Australian short story. He retells The Drover’s Wife 99 times in various forms, including a poem, an Amazon review, and even as a Cosmo quiz.
The ‘gothic’ genre was once thought to be inapplicable to Australia. But there is a strong gothic tradition in Australian literature and film, seen in examples like Picnic at Hanging Rock.
IMDB
Gothic texts are not all bloodsucking vampires and howling werewolves. An Australian Gothic tradition took root alongside colonisation, influencing writers from Marcus Clarke to Alexis Wright.
Entry to Mount Rushmore along the Avenue of Flags.
Xiao Fang/Wikimedia
Patriotism means pride in country, but what are we proud of? A former national park ranger suggests that visiting historic sites can remind Americans of the heritage, good and bad, that they share.
In the novel Coach Fitz, the narrator is seemingly unaware of his humorous voice. This device is one way that the novel subverts expectations.
Shutterstock
At the centre of the novel Coach Fitz is Tom, an anti-hero whose unintentionally humorous voice drives the narrative. Tom is an awkward everyman, a naïve Don Quixote, a digressive Tristam Shandy.
View from a highway rest stop east of Ravensthorpe, Western Australia. In Kim Scott’s Taboo, the landscape becomes a narrator.
Chris Fithall/flickr
The omniscient narrator is alive and well in fiction. Kim Scott’s most recent novel uses a collective narrative voice that encompasses the landscape as well as the human.
Cynthia Banham with Kevin Rudd in 2008. Banham’s memoir explores both the trauma she experienced during a plane crash in 2007 and her family’s history.
Dean Lewins/AAP
In her fragmentary family memoir, Cynthia Banham interweaves narratives of war and migration with her own traumatic plane crash - ultimately reclaiming her identity in the process.
Les Murray at the National Gallery in Canberra in 2002. He was often seen as an unofficial Australian poet laureate.
Alan Porritt/AAP
A legal expert looks at the issue of robot rights and what makes us human.
Vicki Laveau-Harvie has won the 2019 Stella Prize for her memoir The Erratics. With rare honesty, the book shatters expectations of what a mother should be.
Stella Prize
Globalization is making it harder to identify and trace outbreaks of foodborne illness. Technology can help, but consumers may also have to rethink their food choices.
Libraries are offering new and innovative things that belie their historic image as silent places to read.
With advancements in technology, libraries are offering much more than something to read. A library researcher offers a sampling of some unexpected items that library patrons can check out these days.