Declan over at Crime Always Pays is giving readers the chance to win a copy of The Semantics of Murder, Aifric Campbell’s debut novel. Head on over and answer the not-too difficult question by Tuesday 6 May to put yourself in the running.
(PS – The independent adjudicator has adjudicated independently. The winner of the Iron Man ticket **sponsored by movies.ie** for tonight is ….[drum roll]…. Colm. An email with details is on it’s way) 
Two author videos worth a look. John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow talking up their new books:
And Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers talking about book design:
Faaaar too late for this to be news but, kudos to all over at Analogue for their win at the SMedias. We be rollin’. They be hatin’.
Tom Raftery is out to help you write better blog posts, using Zemanta.
Feel like making a movie? Artemis Eternal is looking for you.
365tomorrows has hit their 1,000 story. Wowsies.
Replantable greeting cards. Recycling in the garden.
And last but not least: Lette’s list of weird things that live. My favourite is the star nosed mole (pictured). Impressive list.
Sinéad C has tagged me. Sinéad Gleeson reckons 2008 is the new 2005 with the number of memes doing the rounds.
Ms Cochrane’s rules state I have to describe myself in no more than 6 words (either 6 individual words or a 6 word sentence). So, here goes:
I’m refusing to grow up. Ever.
I think a return tag is in order for Eoin.
Heard some great news recently about Oisín McGann (Irish children’s writer) – his book Small Minded Giants has been optioned for film. Congratulations Oisín!!
It sounds like Gavin O’Connor is behind the buy – the man who brought Colin Farrell and Ed Norton together for the upcoming Pride and Glory. [That bit's an unsubstantiated rumour really - and the last rumour I blogged didn't go so well]
You can read the first chapter of Small Minded Giants online here and while you’re at it, have a look at some of the other brilliant books by Senor McGann.
Through the magic of Jazz Biscuit (and the dashing Darragh Doyle) I made it to Vexille tonight. Lette would have been proud – it was animé brilliance with a twisted plot, enough to make Rubber Ritchie wince. Sinéad was there somewhere too – looking forward to reading what she thought of the movie.
Vexille was showing as part of the Cinemagic Festival and there are still some more some great movies lined up for the week. Donnie Darko (Tuesday 29) Toy Story and Last King of Scotland (Wednesday 30) Jaws (Wednesday 30 – I know I’ve done Wednesday already but it’s Jaws!) and a special preview screening of Iron Man on Thursday 1.
If only I didn’t have to work…
I’m late getting to this: The Carnegie Medal shortlist was announced somewhere in mid-April. The award goes to an outstanding book for children and young people, first published in the UK.
This year’s shortlist is:
Kevin Crossley-Holland | Gatty’s Tale
Linzi Glass | Ruby Red
Elizabeth Laird | Crusade
Tanya Landman | Apache
Philip Reeve | Here Lies Arthur
Meg Rossoff | What I Was
Jenny Valentine | Finding Violet Park
There are a few titles I have read, What I Was and Crusade, some names I have read before, Philip Reeve and Kevin Crossley-Holland, and others who are new to me. As with all awards, I’m surprised not see some names up there – David Almond, Derek Landy and Siobhan Dowd’s London Eye Mystery.
The Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist on the other-hand is spot on, with only Oliver Jeffers missing. Some of the year’s best books are listed – including two from the brilliant Emily Gravett.
Anthony Browne| Silly Billy
Polly Dunbar | Penguin
Emily Gravett | Little Mouse’s Book of Big Fears
Emily Gravett | Monkey and Me
Jane Ray (Text by Carol Ann Duffy) | The Lost Happy Endings
Chris Riddel | Ottoline and the Yellow Cat
Ed Vere| Banana!
Somewhere on the lines of filth. Anyone else taking the opportunity to go naked in public on camera?
Spencer Tunick comes to Dublin – 21 June.
The winners of the Irish Book Awards were announced last night. The full list is available here.
Congratulations to Brendan O’Brien who took home the Children’s Book of the Year (Junior Category) for The Story of Ireland and to Roddy Doyle* on winning the Children’s Book of the Year (Senior Category) with Wilderness.
*I met Roddy Doyle about two weeks ago and had planned some witty comments about the award nomination. When I finally did meet him, I smiled stupidly, shook his hand and barely said anything. AGH.
Midget Wrangler is looking for filthy posts but I can’t be that honest, my Nan reads this blog. (Hi!) In lieu of divulging my filthy side here’s a link to something else filth related:
In the fight for Net Neutrality, Tania Deveraux has vowed to sleep with every virgin in the US willing to campaign for their cause. She will even cover her own expenses to get to you. There are some terms and conditions: applying virgins must be have proof of their campaign with a copy of a forum/blog post or video.
It does get filthily better:
Not enough filth for you? Try this on for size.
Acupuncturists do it with a small prick.”
Agents do it undercover.”
Ambulance drivers come quicker.”
The list goes on and on and on and well, here’s one more…
Bankers do it with interest, but pay for early withdrawl.”
There isn’t a lot I can ever say about the Irish Writers Centre but their new series looks really interesting.
The ‘Hourglass Readings‘ will pit Dermot Bolger and a series of guests in front of an audience to read and discuss their work. The series begins in May with Jennifer Johnston and continues with Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, Joseph O’Connor, Claire Kilroy, Glenn Patterson and Anne Enright all confirmed.
Tickets will be available two weeks before each event and the details will be up on the IWC website soon.
I won another competition! (ignore previous note on not winning anything)
Movies.ie (cheers!) have given me two tickets to see Iron Man next Wednesday night (30 April) in an undisclosed location in Dublin. Deb can’t make the show so I have a ticket for one (un)lucky sod. Stick a comment below and an independent adjudicator will choose the winner at random on Monday.
If you haven’t heard about the new Iron Man movie, here’s a taste:
Huzzah!
I won a competition! (I never win competitions! Except that one with the Wii – thank again Science Week)
Many thanks to Tom in Children’s Books Ireland who just sent me on a copy of Mark Barratt’s Joe Rat. CBI already have a new competition to win family tickets to Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s The Snail and The Whale stage adaptation. (It’s playing in the Helix throughout May). The book is a classic picturebook (198-) and lives in my top 20 reading list. Top 20 picture books list anyway…
Who didn’t know and love Chapters on Abbey Street? It was a powerhouse of knowledge and dust and more than the occasional spider. A children’s section at the very back of the shop that was removed from everything from the main store. A decent, archaic/chaotic secondhand basement. Cheap books and movies and music.
And on top of all this. It had an amazing building:
But the times, they are a-changin’. And Chapters has evolved alongside Dublin. It has taken up residence on Parnell Street and become an impressive book-seller while maintaining some of it’s previous charm. The building is new (and huge) and forms part of the regeneration project around Parnell/Moore/Jervis Street.
The prices are still kept considerably low in comparison to other stores and the massive floor space means that they are very likely to already have what you’re looking for. Much of the chaos is lost in the new shop – bright lighting and considerably more organised shelving makes the experience more shopper friendly. The children’s section is still at the back of the shop, more as a result of neglect than a thought-out feature though.
Chapters’ true saving grace is in it’s second floor. Nearly equaling the size of the ground floor, upstairs is dedicated to secondhand books and you can nearly always get what you’re looking for there at half the price.
Previous posts:
obsessive blogger | Books Upstairs, College Green
obsessive blogger | Hodges Figgis, Dawson St.
obsessive blogger | Reads of Nassau Street
obsessive blogger | Bookshop Map
First came the Maybury Hotel.
And now the European Supplies group has set out to accomodate the ex-pat population in Spain by producing “British food stuffs at low cost”. Introducing the Maybury range of Baked Beans, Tea, Farmhouse Cheddar and high quality Back Bacon.
I’m back. First order of business is to respond to Eoin’s book meme from last week.
The rules are easy enough:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
So. The nearest book I can see is William Goldman’s The Princess Bride. (Flicks to page one hundred and twenty-three, counts five sentences and types…)
“Now he surprises you with Bonetti’s attack.”
But Inigo was not surprised for long. Again his feet shifted; he moved his body a different way.
Disappointingly the three sentences weren’t the famous four:
“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
As instructed, I’m tagging Colm, Housekeepin.org, Alison, Yvonne and Chris Murray.
It’s official. At last night’s launch of Sixteen After Ten – an anthology of work by the Trinity College Creative Writing M.Phil students – the school announced that Richard Ford (Pulitzer, Pen and Faulkner winning US writer) has been appointed associate professor for the next three years.
There will be a series of readings and Ford will also act as American writer in Residence throughout the college. There’s plenty of him to go around…
And to make things fair: a belated congratulations to Harry Clifton (Poetry professor for the UCD Creative Writing MA) on winning the Irish Times Poetry Now Award.
More from the Irish Times.
I’m sitting somewhere between procrastination and getting heaps done (about average so) but to keep things ticking over while I’m occupied (some toilet humour) here’s a comics related link dump:
From the mighty Forbidden Planet blog comes news of Macbeth, the graphic novel.
The Times (UK) has a piece on real life superheroes. Rumour has it that you can register yourself as a superhero here.
On the topic of heroes, Whereof one can speak, aka Katherine, has spotted new Lego Marvel Heroes.
Random House has finally launched the long awaited DFC (David Fickling Comics?). £10 for a new comic filled with new material each month – including strips by Philip Pullman, John Aggs and Nick Sharrat. Nice – but will it work?
Word Balloons is another new initiative for kid’s comics – aimed at delivering news to everyone. It’s still a new site though so content is only gathering…
Eoin Purcell has an interesting post on e-book DRM – and Binary or Bust sneak peaks another new format…
And what would a link post be if I didn’t post something from Rick: Missed valentines day? He’s got you covered.
Badges have hit the blogosphere – first came the Mulley Man’s most sought after Fluffy badge (and Sabrina’s Fluffer badge for himself). Elly created the WWMD (What Would Mulley Do?) stickers for the blog awards and then Tuppenceworth’s Fergal announced the Obbsessive Blogger badges – for blogging with passion, or obsession.
But wait! There’s more – Midget Wrangler has brought us the Filthy badge – awarded to the dirtiest (naughty not muddy) post of the week. And Dr. Fústar-stein has created the Dreadful Thoughts badges (or are they spirits cleverly made to look like badges in a bid to get close your organs?)
Go earn your blogging stripes…
The Irish Times and Amnesty International are running a series of short stories to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Published in the Weekend supplement on Saturdays the first story appeared three weeks ago by John Boyne, The Round Hall. It was followed by Colum McCann’s harrowing I just don’t like the screaming and last week saw Roddy Doyle’s Custer never had to go in front of a tribunal take the stand.
It’s a very interesting way of highlighting the anniversary and bringing the short story back into the Irish Times. Unfortunately the stories are behind the paywall on the Times’ site and Jazz Biscuit requires that any mention carries:
John Boyne | The Round Hall | Read
Colum McCann | I just don’t like the screaming | Read
Roddy Doyle| Custer never had to go in front of a tribunal | Read
Busy week getting things ready for my week off. Expect plenty of procrastinating blog posts from Monday. For now:
Bookslut has two recommendations: Regina Lynn’s excellent Sexier Sex and the webcomic Next Door Neighbourhless: The True Story. I heart Jessa Crispin.
Stan ‘excelsior’ Lee is heading to Disney. To work on three new projects according to Kung Fu Rodeo. Lee’s not past it. Not at all.
A new comic based on Tori Amos’ music is coming. CBR has the rest. Reminds me of the excellent book that accompanied Frend’s angel she’s a killer release last month.
Can’t remember who linked to it but Reproduckt is worth a click. French and German webcomics to tickle the taste-buds.
Use FontStruct to build your own font. Oddly addictive. Honest. [via Photos.com]
And finally, via the Grand Poo-bah, er Rick: the interweb is watching you on cubo.cc
The Dublin Writers Festival (11 – 15 June) has started to publicise names for the festival. The line up has two or three names that might make you pant heavily – Salman Rushdie (if he’s your cup of tea – I haven’t liked much of his new stuff), J P Donleavy (general upstart extraordinare) and Esther Freud.
Disappointingly the rest of the leaked line-up isn’t too invigorating – John Boyne, Ann Enright, Sebastian Barry (last years One Book, One City) and Marian Keyes have all appeared in readings, festivals and debates around Dublin since the New Year. All the same, I’m looking forward to the festival – and it is great to have Dublin City Council investing in literature and arts. Booking for Salman Rushdie at the Gate has already opened, here, and the full programme will be announced on 29 April.
Books Upstairs is celebrating it’s thirtieth year this year. Still housed on College Green in Dublin the shop has become synonymous with the humanities. Owned and run by Maurice Earls (of DRB fame) Books Upstairs holds a long running tradition of knowledgeable, loyal and long-serving (suffering?) staff.
The shop itself is a favourite to most of Dublin’s writers – poets, novelists and playwrights alike all grace the creaky boards regularly. Though not top of my list, Books Upstairs is often best for poetry and literary fiction – both Irish and international – and it remains true to it’s aim of selling good books at good prices.
If anything, I would like to see the shop invigorated with new, younger customers. Located directly opposite the front entrance to Trinity College I always expect it to be laden with undergraduates cradling copies of Milton – an expectation I have never witnessed…
Previous posts:
obsessive blogger | Hodges Figgis, Dawson St.
obsessive blogger | Reads of Nassau Street
obsessive blogger | Bookshop Map
About obsessive bloggers | Tuppenceworth.ie
Thanks Fergal for sending me a badge – one designed by himself, the other by Green Ink. Wearing both with pride.
An article from the Economist on the difficulties in publishing picture books:
Not all are quite so gloomy. Booktrust, a charity, has launched the Big Picture campaign to raise the profile of picture books. At the Illustration Cupboard, a London gallery, John Huddy reckons the market is correcting itself, rooting out inadequate contenders. Panicky book folk may be talking their business down—but new ways to sell cheaper products across borders must certainly loom.
Time for a new kind of picture book? More on picture books here.
If you haven’t already, check out Fústar’s excellent Dreadful Thoughts discussion series – opening up worlds of demented men, ghosts and horrific beasts of unspeakable horror to readers who dare to follow…
Some interesting chat on Edgar Allen Poe’s Tell Tale Heart and Saki’s Sredni Vashtar.
Colm has two posts on downloadable books here (and here) following the post on Neil Gaiman and Harper Collins’ success .
I think books are the medium most likely to succeed with this kind of model – apart from the whole “owning the artifact” thing that applies to all media, I find that reading from a computer is much more tiring than reading from a book.
I hope that the advent of newer technology (e-Ink for instance) will make the issue of reading from a screen obsolete. Until a product is developed with wider appeal, devices, like Kindle and Sony’s e-Reader, will appear on the horizon but continue to fall short of the mark. The iPod Touch, with it’s large, legible screen, could be the solution – or an indicator for others to build an e-reader that appeals to people.
The appointment of Bob Miller (Guardian and Telegraph) to Harper Collins is a sign of publishers willingness (despite scepticism in the industry) to diversify and develop – especially relationships with bookstores.
A link post for today seeing as I’m off to the Poetry Now Festival for the weekend. (Say hello if you’re there.)
A new blog looking at the arts online. Great idea with some loooong posts. Business with Arts Blog.
Joe Hill, brilliant btw, reviews Neil Gaiman’s new book. Not to be read by us normal folk for a few more months.
On reviews, the-girl-who’s-afraid-of-foxes looks at Miranda July’s No one belongs here more than you.
Achokablog talks to Anthony Horowitz for the UK Herald.
Stereotyping recommends: Rice-Boy. Go have a read.
Two from Una – The (5th) Dublin Gay Theatre Festival launched last night (missed it for work). Programme is going on the site soon. A new mag, Butcher Queers (only 1000 copies though) but looks great!
InterventTech are looking for bloggers on ‘New Media and Visual Arts, Performance and Live Arts, Music Sound and Sonic Art, Flash Animation, Video and Games, Computer, Net and Data art’. More over at Cyberscroll.
Aoife over on The Indie Hour is mixing things up – school starts here.
Caitriona has a complete list, including links, to all the bands for Electric Picnic. Hours of work, so you don’t have to.
And finally: Elly’s birthday is May 6. Birthday celebrations and Bertie’s ousting part in the Longstone Pub. Hooray!
The book for this years Dublin: One City, One Book project has been announced as Johnathan Swift’s, Gulliver’s Travels. The project aims to get everyone in the city reading, and talking about, the same book.
Vintage Classics has released a new version of the book (pictured) and there is a rake of publicity events (including some with Fiona Tierney and illustrator Úna Healy, Andrew Carpenter and a screening of Upon The Window Pane in the IFI)
Darren Shan has agreed to write the winning bidder of an ebay auction into one of his next books – either his children’s novel The Demonata or his new adult fiction Hell’s Horizon. The winner’s character will get ’several mentions’ and a death scene.
Darren has given it a plug on his site and the bidding has been fairly high. How much would you pay to star in a Darren Shan book? Nearly €1,000 according to the current bid.
A very worthwhile cause and a great way to raise money.
Continuing the Obsessive Blogger book rant: Dawson Street has been the mecca for Dublin book buyers for as long as I can remember. It once housed Forbidden Planet, Eason-Hanna as well as Waterstones and Hodges Figgis (both owned by HMV).
Hodges Figgis, famously mentioned in Ulysses, is reportedly the largest bookstore in Ireland and stocks 60,000 titles (approx). Specialising in Irish related books, you can spend some comfortable hours between the bargain books basement and the three floors above. It is not always the most cost effective store but it is competitively priced for larger releases and bestsellers. The staff seem to stick to their own areas of interest and each have more than a working knowledge of what books are coming out, been discussed and what is on the shelf (and where).
My favourite service in Hodges Figgis is their dedication to finding a book if it’s not shelved – doesn’t sound like much, but it is surprising how few stores are really interested in getting a book for one customer. The shop is vast and it is easy to get overwhelmed on your first visit but if you have a few hours to spare Hodges Figgis is one place to watch time pass by.
Previous posts:
obsessive blogger | Reads of Nassau Street
obsessive blogger | Bookshop Map
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