Thursday, October 11, 2007

Eastern Regional Library Show

Library staff member Lesley Conway runs a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 98.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next Wednesday for a great show.

On Wednesday's show


For all you readers who want something 'real', there is a lot on the shelf in the non-fiction collection, but.....how to find it? We often send you to the Biography collection which in most of our libraries is a separate collection, but there are a lot more personal experiences which come in diary or letter form, or are about the writers work or travel experience and which are not in with Biography.

If you know that the number system on the books indicates the subject of the book, then you know if you browse from 900 to 920 you will find books about travel, including travel writers reminiscences and personal stories. If you would like a bit more detail though, our branches have subject lists available which give you the number to look for on the shelf for a topic of interest. Our staff are always happy to advise and assist too, so don't hesitate to ask if you would like to read about formula 1 racing car drivers, or mountaineers, or philosophers.

Some books which I found on the shelf this week include Between a rock and a hard place by Aron Ralston. Most people would remember the newspaper reports about this young man who found himself pinned by the arm while rock climbing alone, and who had to amputate his arm to survive. He writes fluently and with a lot of background detail, quite engrossing. Another great read is Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, which was made into a very successful movie. It is a story of 3 men who took an unlikely horse and created a winner which caught the imagination of the US in the same way that Phar Lap did here in Australia. There is wonderful background on the world of horse racing in the 1930's, and some larger than life characters. If you like reading about the world of movie making, a truly entertaining book is With Nails by Richard E. Grant, who documents 10 years of his life as he progresses from being an unknown actor from Swaziland to partying with the stars in Hollywood.

Even fiction can give some autobiography in fictional form such as Mystic River by Norman MacLean and Snobs by Julian Fellows. Last but not least, there is some wonderful listening on audiotape and audiodisc, one of my all time favourites being Gerald Durrell's writing about his travels to collect animals for his zoo. Today I played an excerpt from Encounters with animals, and recommend also his The stationary ark, Overloaded ark, The Bafut Beagles, How to shoot an amateur naturalist, and A zoo in my luggage.

--Lesley

I love real stories as well. Gerald Durrell is fantastic. I love My Family and other animals, a book he wrote about his childhood. I was also fascinated reading Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, a story about the 1996 Everest expedition that ended in tragedy. Jon was a member of the expedition. Another of his books is Into the Wild, the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young man from who, after his college graduation, donated all of his money to charity, changed his name and began travelling the American West. It has been made into a movie that is coming to cinemas soon.

Cheers, Maryanne

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