Litfest

December 22, 2009

Xmas card 09

Filed under: Uncategorized — Andy Darby @ 4:15 pm


Xmas card 09

Originally uploaded by Litfest

Seasons greetings one and all!

December 17, 2009

New Bookcrossing point in The Storey

Filed under: Jonathan Bean, news — Tags: , , , — Andy Darby @ 2:43 pm

bookcrossing-logo-900 Pop into the NICE Bar at The Storey from this week and you may notice a new feature. Tucked away on a side wall amongst the comfy sofas and chairs is a small shelf of books. It’s a new bookcrossing point started by Litfest to share the joy of some old reads with you lovely readers!

If you are not familiar with the concept of Bookcrossing points, I shall explain. Bookcrossing has spread the globe as a somewhat unique way of recycling your books, in a social way. Bookcrossers give new life to old books. Read your book, then register it on the bookcrossing website, leave it in a designated bookcrossing point or just on a park bench, then track it’s adventure across the world.

Litfest have started a Bookcrossing point in the NICE Bar at The Storey. It’s a place to relax with a coffee or beer and browse works by a new author or two, take the book away, enjoy, log the experience on the bookcrossing website, then return it to the litfest bookcrossing point or to any other one – there are several across Lancaster alone, and start again.

Lancaster Bookcrossing points:

1. NICE Bar. The Storey Creative Industries Centre, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster. LA1 1TH

2. University of Cumbria. Lancaster.

3. University of Cumbria Library. Lancaster.

4. The Gregson Centre.Moorgate, Lancaster.

Join BookCrossing. Help make the whole world a library and share the joy of books. Reading becomes an adventure when you BookCross!

December 16, 2009

How many have you read?

Filed under: Jonathan Bean, news — Tags: — Jonathan Bean @ 11:22 am

Some time ago the BBC produced their list of 100 books we all should read…

sadly, the BBC predicts most people have only read 6 out of 100 of these books. How many have you read?

01 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
02 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
03 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
04 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
05 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
06 The Bible
07 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
08 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
09 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

December 11, 2009

Having Our Cake

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Sarah Hymas @ 5:53 pm

We’ve just taken delivery of copies of the first ever issue of Cake, the new poetry magazine that describes itself as Lancaster Literary Magazine. It has risen from the oven that is Lancaster University, edited by two of its undergraduate students, Andrew McMilland and Martha Sprackland, with Professor Paul Farley as associate editor.

Although the poems and reviews inside come from further that the university campus, combining familiar names (Woolworths by George Szirtes opens the magazine) with ones I hadn’t come cross before. It is perhaps fitting to the ambition of the magazine (cited in the impassioned editorial) the magazine closes with Amy Blakemore, also to be found in Bloodaxe’s Voice Recognition, celebrating new poetic voices for the 21st century.

It’s half four on a Friday. It arrived an hour or so ago. I’ve found a swooping variety of celebration, regret, unease and play in the few poems I’ve read. I like it.

Apparently the editors have ambitions for the magazine’s production values, so I can only see it going from strength to strength and we’re proud to be stocking the first I hope of many.

If you’re curious, then come down to the Poetry Bookcase and have a leaf …

December 10, 2009

December Spotlight

Filed under: Events, Jonathan Bean, news — Tags: , , — Jonathan Bean @ 12:59 pm

Our friends at Spotlight have just forwarded on details of the next fun-packed evening…
For more information: www.spotlightlancaster.co.uk

Friday December 18th
@  The Storey Auditorium,  Meeting House Lane, Lancaster LA1 1TH

** PLEASE NOTE **
In a new development Spotlight will now
OPEN DOORS at 8pm
with an earlier start time of 8.15pm for the
OPEN MIC & MAIN BILL

Admission £4 / £2 (conc.)
Open Mic 8.15 – 8.45 pm

Nigel Jay – Prose
Nigel became a familiar face on North West TV – to those glued to BBC news!
Reading from his first novel, ‘AND NO WINGS’, (God, the Archangel and the President. Can They Save The World?)

Michael Durrant – Poetry
His work has recently appeared in ‘TYPE’.

Antony Christie – Poetry
His second full length collection ‘Of Love and Drowning’ will be published in January 2010.

Angela Martin – Poetry
Making her first appearance on the main Spotlight bill

Reginald Winters – Comedy Music
‘A four star sell out show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with ‘How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse’.’

Kevin Wilkinson – Music
A new mini album … ‘A Little Light’ is now available for free download…
Compere: John Freeman
email: spotlightclub@btinternet.com
Lancaster Spotlight is funded by Arts Council England and supported by Lancashire County Council and
Lancaster City Council.
Spotlight works in association with litfest.

Spotlight
Friday December 18th
@
The Storey Auditorium,
Meeting House Lane. Lancaster

** PLEASE NOTE **
In a new development Spotlight will now
OPEN DOORS @ 8pm
with an earlier start time of
8.15pm for the
OPEN MIC & MAIN BILL

Admission £4 / £2 (conc.)
Open Mic 8.40 – 9.10pm
Nigel Jay - Prose

Nigel became a familiar face on North West TV – to those glued to BBC news!

Reading from his first novel, ‘AND NO WINGS‘, (God, the Archangel and the President. Can They Save The World?)

Michael Durrant - Poetry

His work has recently appeared in ‘TYPE‘.

Antony Christie - Poetry

His second full length collection ‘Of Love and Drowning‘ will be published in January 2010.

Angela Martin - Poetry

Making her first appearance on the main Spotlight bill

Reginald Winters - Comedy Music

‘A four star sell out show at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with ‘How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse’.’

Kevin Wilkinson - Music

A new mini album … ‘A Little Light’ is now available for free download…

Compere: John Freeman

email: spotlightclub@btinternet.com

Lancaster Spotlight is funded by Arts Council England and supported by Lancashire County Council and

Lancaster City Council.

Spotlight works in association with litfest.


Preston is My Paris

Filed under: Events, Jonathan Bean, news — Tags: , , — Jonathan Bean @ 11:53 am

A message from the fine folk over at Preston is My Paris, a local arts and photography magazine who are looking to expand their remit by including new writing from local writers.

The magazine comes out once per month and you can find out more by visiting their blog at http://prestonismyparis.blogspot.com/

They have opened the door to submissions – 1000 words or under of poetry or prose. The theme is ‘Preston’ and the deadline is the 9th February for inclusion in their February issue.

The Lancashire Writing Hub will be supporting Preston is my Paris by launching the literature special edition of their magazine at the February Word Soup on Feb 16th – contributors to the issue will be offered the opportuntity to read at the Preston is my Paris showcase slot.

For more information about Preston is My Paris, email Robert or Adam at prestonismyparis@gmail.com

Please pass the word around…

December 2, 2009

Goodbye to Borders

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — Sarah Hymas @ 1:16 pm

Borders, the American bookshop giant, is closing down. A shock, not only for book buyers, but for some of its employees, apparently.

When it first arrived here, not that long ago (it seems) the chain looked poised to take over the bookselling world, and certainly revolutionised mainstream selling techniques – using what many independents and second-hand sellers had done for years – comfort, sofas, browse-ability.

As with so many of the recent business collapses there is the debatable opportunity for benefiting from cheap stock.

There is also the rising question of what change will come from this collapse? Given the excitement at getting cheap books, the demise of consumerism, mooted by some as a result of this recession, looks unlikely. But will there be a restructuring of our high streets? Is there a chance for independent sellers?

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