With my resolution not to buy any more books until I had made an impression on the piles in my office, and next to my bed, I confidently entered the superb rural bookshop, The Village Bookshop Matakana, yesterday to have a browse around and have a chat to the personable owner Tracey Lawton. As always she was right up to date with all the latest fiction, she had a wonderful display of the Man Booker Prize shortlist titles, about which we had a great old chat, agreeing that The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser would have been on that list had we been on the judging panel. Cover image show here is the hardcover, now out in paperback. Don't miss it.After an hour I was about to leave the shop when I spotted two books I just had to own! So much for my recent resolution but what is a book man to do on finding the following two great fun books:
BITING THE WAX TADPOLEMisadventures of an armchair linguist
Elizabeth Little - Penguin - $28
L IS FOR LOLLYGAG
Quirky Words for a Clever Tongue
Chronicle Books - $25
I had again fallen in the old spontaneous purchase trap !! But they do both look like a lot of fun.
Tracey has a table filled with quirky books of this type, I must avoid it on future visits.
Seriously though, how fortunate we are to have a fine independent bookshop like this in a tiny rural village an hour north of the city. SoonVillage Bookshop Matakana will be celebrating its second year in business and on behalf of your many happy customers Tracey, most of us weekend visitors from the city, I'll extend you an early happy birthday greeting and salute you for the contribution you make to our quality of life by providing a superb, wide, and thoughtfully selected range of books including in particular the best selection of current fiction to be found in rural New Zealand.Go Tracey, go !!
I started The Lost Dog a while ago but had to put it aside due to other reading commitments. I'm looking forward to going back to it. One thing has been bugging me though. In the first few pages, the main character is staying in this old cottage and much is made of the fact it has no electricity. Then on the next page he talks about printing out his novel. Now how did he do this when there is no electricity? Have I missed something? Or am I being an overly pedantic reader?
ReplyDeleteRachael, did your copy not have the hilarious chapter where he tried to set up the generator he bought by mail order, only to find the assembly instructions were in Italian?
ReplyDeleteAh! Maybe I didn't get that far. Or had forgotten. So... he did get some electricity in the end?
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