Robin Hood and His Adventures by Paul Creswick - Illustrations by N.C. Wyeth [1903]

More English Folklore over at sacred-texts.com

I never heard of this writer, but he sounds really interesting... Wikipedia: "B. S. Johnson (Bryan Stanley Johnson) (5 February 1933 - 13 November 1973) was an English experimental novelist, poet, literary critic and film-maker. (...) Johnson wrote a series of increasingly experimental and often acutely personal novels. Travelling People (1963) and Albert Angelo (1964) were relatively conventional (though the latter became famous for the cut-through pages to enable the reader to skip forward), but The Unfortunates (1969) was published in a box with no binding (readers could assemble the book any way they liked) and House Mother Normal (1971) was written in purely chronological order such that the various characters' thoughts and experiences would cross each other and become intertwined, not just page by page, but sentence by sentence. (...) At the age of 40, increasingly depressed by his failure to succeed commercially, and beset by family problems, Johnson committed suicide. Johnson was largely unknown to the wider reading public at the time of his death, but has a growing cult following. Jonathan Coe's 2004 biography "Like a Fiery Elephant" (winner of the 2005 Samuel Johnson prize) has already led to a renewal of interest in Johnson's work."

There's a a website dedicated to the works of B. S. Johnson, but his books are impossible to get. So, if you have any on your shelf, bring'em over here!

Our book of the week! Almost as good as "Stasiland!

"Synopsis the author's homepage:

A revealing portrait of the reunified Germany told in the form of an entertaining travelogue -- an 800-mile journey along the former Iron Curtain from the Baltic Sea to the Czech border. * In recent German history, borders -- and their expansion -- have been central to the fate of Europe. When the Iron Curtain dissolved ten years ago, the faultline that divided West and East Germany also collapsed. But could the so-called 'anti-fascist protection barrier' (or 'death strip') be erased as easily as a pencil-mark on the map? Curious to find out, Oliver August set off on an 800-mile journey from the Baltic Sea to the Czech border. * In his encounters with former border guards, ex-Stasi members turned insurance salesmen, decollectivized farmers, innkeepers, nudists, car mechanics, engine-drivers, foresters, artists and dreamers, the author reveals with a delightful lightness of touch the hopes, fears and regrets of both 'Wessis' and 'Ossis', and listens to the anxieties of those who feel 'colonized' by the West. * He travels along the Elbe, observing new nature reserves in the old borderlands; visits the unique village republic where for 22 years the inhabitants lived enclosed between two fences; watches the rebuilding of the Bismarck family castle; attends an international gathering of Trabant-owners; explores museums devoted to documenting former life along the border; travels across the dark and sinister Harz mountains which once harboured an underground Nazi concentration camp; and ends his journey in Hof, where minefields have been transformed into golf courses."

Also interesting: Inside the Red Manison (Video) - This is a short film about China's most wanted man. Lai Changxing is an illiterate peasant who cheated the Chinese government out of $3.6 billion. His story is told by Oliver August, the author of "Inside the Red Mansion," a book on the seven-year search for Mr Lai.

Those would be perfect for the shop...

Pop Goes the Library - Using Pop Culture to Make Libraries Better.

Biologists Helping Bookstores - Reshelving pseudo-scientific nonsense since 2007

"Using enCompassCulture you will be able to establish links to other Reading Groups around the world.

The choices for August are "Miss Webster and Charif" by Patricia Duncker at either Ingeborg- Drewitz Bibliothek, or Hundt Hammer Stein or Buchkantine and "The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox" by Maggie O'Farrell at Saint Georges English Bookshop.

Jeremy's group will next meet will next meet at "Another Country" bookshop on August 15th to discuss "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro.

If you would like to join the reading group, please send Jeremy an E-mail (jrj_dunn@yahoo.co.uk).

Info, dates, locations, reviews and information on the authors

Synopses & Reviews for "The Remains of the Day"

Publisher Comments: The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world in postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving "a great gentleman." But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's "greatness" and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.

Reviews: "Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel depicts his adopted England with the same precision of language which painted his native Japan in An Artist of the Floating World . This is 1950's England as seen through the eyes of Stevens, one of the last remaining true butlers, who lives only to do his duty, to serve his master and humanity in the hope of preserving justice throughout the world.

But as Stevens undertakes a journey to the West Country that ultimately becomes a journey into his past we realize, as does he himself, that his view of the world is strangely double-edged, blurred by a shiny veneer of self-deception. Slowly a sterile, duty-bound life of missed opportunities and stifled emotions arises as Stevens prepares to face his old age. And, as the bastion of the English nobility, when his vision begins to waver, a whole strata of society starts to crumble and a different story emerges. Beautifully written and hauntingly poignant." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

"The novel rests firmly on the narrative sophistication and flawless control of tone...of a most impressive novelist." Julian Barnes

"Brilliant...a story both beautiful and cruel." Salman Rushdie

"A perfect novel. I couldn't put it down." Ann Beattie

"A virtuoso performance...put on with dazzling daring and aplomb." The New York Review of Books

"Brilliant and quietly devastating." Newsweek "An intricate and dazzling novel." The New York Times

"One of the best books of the decade." The Boston Globe

"One of the best books of the year." The New York Times Book Review

"There are currently five British Council reading groups in Berlin- reading and discussing books in English.

They are made up of people who love to read and discuss books. Here is how they work. Members choose a book for discussion, everyone reads it and the group then meets to talk about it. The meetings are friendly and informal and are held monthly. Each group has a facilitator who helps to guide the discussion."

The British Council has more info, contact, calendar, listings of the books discussed etc.

Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Chabon and all that

Great literary website!

More: www.potterpuppetpals.com

Video by D'Mite - www.notarapper.com

"Shelfari empowers you to show off the books you are passionate about. Build your shelf in Shelfari and then embed your shelf in your blog, website, or social networking site of choice."

Maybe we should give this a try for the "borrowing only"-books....

Great book on our "borrowing only"-shelf!

Satterthwait.com: "Satterthwait successfully brings actual historical characters (Lizzie Borden, Oscar Wilde) to life. In this intriguing puzzle, he pairs Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Harry Houdini (and who could beat that combination when it comes to a locked-room murder?). It's 1921, at a house party in an English country manor, and the host is found dead in a room from which it is seemingly impossible for the killer to have fled."

Read the first two chapters of Escapade

Kaliber38.de: Interview with the author

Become a writer the easy way...

Plug Your Book, a how-to guide to online author publicity.

Read it online

MySpace - Plug your book

John Dickson Carr - It walks by Night The first "locked room"-mystery by the master of Locked Room Puzzles is one of the best also. If you like crime, you will love it. You can find the book in our "borrowing only"-section.

Links:

• Wikipedia: John Dickson Carr
• Story at Mysterynet

Spiegel Online International has a story about my new book...

Also: big discussion over at The Scotsman.

"We are a small-press publisher devoted to the weird fiction field, in particular the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his circle." Necronomicon Press

"Free serialized audio books which are made available in podcast format."