So what is World Book Night?

World Book Night is an annual celebration of reading and books that takes place on 23 April. It sees passionate volunteers give out hundreds of thousands of books in their communities to share their love of reading with people who don’t read regularly or own books. World Book Night is run by The Reading Agency, a national charity that inspires people to become confident and enthusiastic readers to help give them an equal chance in life.

The name took its lead from the well-established and successful children’s reading celebration in UK and Ireland called World Book Day. So as day is for children, then night is for adults and night is also when we traditionally think about celebrations.

If I had known about it earlier I would have got myself organised to share around some of my preloved books on the day. I have been planning for a while to pass on books that I am not likely to read again through a local BookCrossing Zone.

One of the books I am currently reading is ‘The Perfect Heresy: The Life and Death of the Cathars‘ by Stephen O’Shea.  At the beginning of the chapter on Carcassonne there is a perfect description of what I saw and how I felt when I caught my first fleeting glimpse of Carcassonne as I traveled from Toulouse airport:

TO APPROACH CARCASSONNE for the first time is to dream with your eyes open.  the turrets and bastions of the old city stand on a deceptive rise in the valley of the River Aude, so the crenelated citadel appears suddenly, floating in the middle distance, a visitor from another time.  The tan stone blocks of the ramparts turn auburn, then mauve in the late afternoon sun.

After the taking of Jerusalem by crusaders in the year of grace 1099, pilgrims started to travel to Palestine in ever greater numbers to worship at the tomb of Christ, the Holy Sepulchre.  It was to ensure their protection that in 1119 – 1120, a knight from Champagne, Hugh de Payns, founded an order which was going to become extremely famous, the “Templars”.  Yet, who, today, still recalls that, originally, the “Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon” could be counted on the fingers of one hand?

After the Council of Troyes in 1129, the Order of the Temple experienced huge growth, creating hundreds of commanderies in the West and playing a key role in the defence of the Crusader States.  Enjoying the unfailing support of the papacy, in the 13th century, it became such an economic and financial force that it soon generated jealousy among temporal powers and, in particular, the King of France, Philip IV of France.

From glory to tragedy, this was the fate of the brothers of the Temple, who were accused of all forms of evil in 1305 and who were all arrested on teh same day, the “fateful” Friday 13th October 1307.  As was their Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, most of the were burnt at the stake after being unfairly tried.

Removed from the esotericism of which, all too often, they are the subject, this work offers to take a clear look at the incredible history of these soldier monks, the Knights Templar.

Review:

I picked this book up as a companion to a book about the Cathars when I visited Carcassonne last year, it gives a brief but very detailed overview of the “knights Templar”.  The book starts by explaining the idea of a crusade and then goes on to detail  the various crusades, the notable characters that were involved and the conflicts between the Templars and politic and religious authorities.

The book contains many illustrations and there is a lot of information packed into a book of only 126 pages.  There is a bibliography giving ideas for further reading and also a page detailing places/organisations where you can ‘find out more’ about the Templars.

I would recommend this book for anyone who would like a brief but thorough introduction/overview of the Knights Templar’.

The book is published by Editions OUEST-FRANCE

It’s 1928, Freddie Watson is still grieving for his brother, lost in the Great War.  Driving through the foothills of the French Pyrenees, his car spins off the road in a snowstorm.  Freddie takes refuge in an isolated village and there meets a beautiful, captivating woman.  They spend the night talking of love and loss and war.  But by daybreak, Fabrissa has vanished and Freddie realises he holds the key to an ancient mystery that leads him deep into the mountains, to a cave that has concealed an appalling secret for 700 years…

Review:

I found this book by chance when I was looking for different book to read over the Christmas period.  I am glad I did, it is the perfect time of year for a  Christmas ghost story. The main character Freddie, is well drawn and the reader can feel the hurt and grief that he has been left with since the loss of his brother who declared missing in action during the war.

After a bout of illness a doctor suggests that Freddie tour the castles and ruins of Ariege to recover his shattered nerves.  The descriptions of the Pyrenees transported me there, especially as I had traveled near that area earlier this year.  Freddie starts to hear whispering in the hills and following a car crash this leads him on and unexpected journey and discovery.

I found the book a fun light read with interesting characters and setting.

PS: The book I had intended to read over Christmas turned up today.  It wasn’t where I thought I had left it…

Omni Magazine was one of my favourite reads in my younger years.  The magazine covered exploratory science and science fiction of the day.

I read and collected the magazines for a number of years, but my collection has long since gone.  Occasionally there have been certain articles and Sci Fi stories that I have wished to re-read in respect of the world as it is today and I have regretted the loss of my magazines….

A recent post from the ‘Daily Grail‘ alerted me to the fact that all the magazines are now all available for download.

Originally published in late 1978, running through till 1995, Omni covered a lot of the same ground that we do here on TDG – interesting new science, science on the fringe, and even science ‘beyond’ the fringe through its wonderful science fiction shorts (authored by SFF giants such as Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, Robert Heinlein, Stanislaw Lem, George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Harlan Ellison, and Ben Bova, along with art by the likes of H.R.Giger and other wonderful artists).

I wonder how many of the predictions have come true…

Now Katherine Swift, one of the most acclaimed gardening writers of her generation, takes a fresh look at the garden she created over twenty years in the grounds of Dower House at Morville, meditating on everything from the terrain and its history, to the plants and trees, and the odd habits of the animals and humans who inhabit the garden.

Is everything in the landscape older than you think?  Might a flower in your hat change your life?  Can cats and cardoons cohabit?  These are just some of the topics that Katherine Swift considers in this enchanting companion volume to The Morville Hours.

With specially commissioned colour photographs of the garden by Jane Sebire and line drawing by Dawn Burford, the book follows the turning wheel of the Morville seasons, from the green shoots of spring, through summer and autumn, to the stark beauty of winter, and back to spring again.  It is a journal full of surprises and enchantments that will appeal not only to gardeners, but to all who enjoy the natural world.

Review:
This book follows on from Katherine’s very successful book The Morville Hours and is once again the book is elegantly written. The chapters in the book consist of articles from the column she wrote for the Sunday Times when she was their gardening correspondent between December 2001 and July 2005.

Katherine talks about her day to day musings as she tends to her garden throughout the year. It covers the things that that worked out well in the garden, some happy accidents and future possibilities for the various garden rooms. It is however much more than a gardening book, covering diverse subjects such as astronomy, bees, the Morville cats, past American Presidents and other historical figures. In one chapter she muses about time and the use of a garden tree to construct a sundial within a turf maze and how it was ‘initially’ in time with the church clock.

Amongst the things I learned are that there are eleven thousand species of moss worldwide, that lichens are not one organism but two living in symbiosis and that bees do not hibernate over the winter, they are in perpetual motion and continually beating their wings to keep warm.

As with the The Morville Hours it is a book that I will read again and also dip into from time to time. I am looking forward to her next book which is provisionally entitled ‘A Rose for Morville’. I am also reminded that I must visit the garden, living in Shropshire I don’t really have an excuse not to.

Synopsis (from the back cover):

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), credited as the inspiration for radio, robots, and even radar, has been called the patron saint of modern electricity.  Based on original material and previously unavailable documents, this acclaimed book is the definitive biography of the man considered by many to be the founding father of modern electrical technology.  Among Tesla’s creations were the channelling of alternating current, fluorescent and neon lighting, wireless telegraphy, and the giant turbines that harnessed the power of Niagara Falls.

Review:

Marc takes the reader on chronological journey through the life and times of Nikola Tesla.

The book explains the inventions and ideas of Tesla and puts them into context with the life and times of the day.  It explains in detail the inventor’s visionary ideas and how he gained financial backing for them and why the backing was subsequently lost.

The book also describes his character and attitude to life, and perhaps why his foresight/inventions were attributed to others.  For his ideas to be accepted and moved forward he needed a promoter rather than  a financial backer.

The vagaries of intellectual property law which allowed others to claim his inventions as theirs are explained in great detail as is the importance of corporations and their role in the funding of ideas.

I found it an excellent biography covering Tesla’s scientific ideas and inventions alongside the social and political history of the time.

I invite you to join me at Vision & Verb where I share my reading journey over the years.

The book contains a story within a story and certainly reminds me of the magic of Christmas.

If you had lived in Hamburg in the fourteenth century, or Venice in the ninth century, you might have glimpsed – just for a second – a strange procession rushing past and out of sight. There were, at different times, a little girl, a flock of sheep, shepherds, angels, a Roman governor and the Emperor Augustus, and they were hurrying to Bethlehem to see the Christ-child.

The little girl was Elisabet Hansen, who disappeared from Norway at Christmas in 1948. Years later, a young boy called Joachim opens the 24 doors of a magic Advent calendar and pieces together Elisabet’s story – how she was taken on an astonishing journey, not just from Norway to Bethlehem but back through two thousand years of history.*

Now all that remains is for me reach 24 on the church candle that I bought in York Minster. It is such a good quality candle it is taking a lot longer to get through than the book

*From inside front book flap.

Synopsis from book cover:

To discover the answers, Alan Weisman looks to areas of the world that are currently unoccupied and speaks to experts in fields ranging from nuclear physics to archaeology. He reveals how the natural world would react to our disappearance and wrestles with some of the key concerns of our existence to offer an intriguing glimpse of the real legacy of our time on the planet.

Review:
Alan Weisman spoke to various specialists to find out how the world natural world might react to our Man’s disappearance from the planet.  He spoke to specialists such as palaeontologists, structural engineers, biologists, art conservators, diamond miners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, and even Buddhist monks. They were all interesting in their own right.  The book explores which things would last, which things would disappear and the amazing ability of the earth to heal itself. The book also describes a pre-human world and what the world might have looked like if man had not been present.

Different areas of science are covered in the book so it was a very interesting read for me and I found myself learning things I didn’t know.  I found the book lived up to what it set out to do. The chapters ‘Polymers Are Forever’ and the ‘Petro Patch’ were especially interesting to me, the latter making me think even more about the gulf oil spill early last year.  It is likely I will re-read the book in the future.