The Pacific by steamboat

• From Manchester University Press

And definitely on my to-read list ... when it gets to New Zealand

Oceania under steam

Sea transport and the cultures of colonialism, c.1870–1914
Frances Steel

The age of steam was the age of Britain’s global maritime dominance, the age of enormous ocean liners and human mastery over the seas. The world seemed to shrink as timetabled shipping mapped out faster, more efficient and more reliable transoceanic networks. But what did this transport revolution look like at the other end of the line, at the edge of empire in the South Pacific?

Taking history offshore, Oceania under steam argues for a reinvigorated scholarship of empire and the maritime world. It places human stories at the heart of this industrial subject, unsettling smooth narratives of the transformative power of steam.

Through the historical example of the largest and most important regional maritime enterprise – the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand – Frances Steel eloquently charts the diverse and often conflicting interests, itineraries and experiences of commercial and political elites, common seamen and stewardesses, and Islander dock workers and passengers. By connecting the intimate details of shipboard life with the high politics of imperial ocean space, Oceania Under Steam presents a wealth of new insights into the significance of shipping and the sea in the everyday life of colonialism.

Drawing on a variety of sources, including shipping company archives, imperial conference proceedings, diaries, newspapers and photographs, this account is a finely researched and lively study of empire in the age of steam. It will appeal to cultural historians and geographers of British imperialism, scholars of transport and mobility studies, and historians of New Zealand and the Pacific.

Top books of 2011 -- Publishers Weekly picks

PW have named their Top 10 books of 2011:

Fiction
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (FSG)
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (HarperCollins)
After the Apocalypse by Maureen McHugh (Small Beer)
There but for the by Ali Smith (Pantheon)

Nonfiction
Bossypants by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur Books)
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie (Random)
Hemingway's Boat by Paul Hendrickson (Knopf)
One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina (Graywolf)
Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve)

"Slumdog Millionaire" plans huge library

"We're happy of course but mostly we're just really stunned."

--Sushil Kumar, a poorly paid government clerk who won 50 million rupees (about $800,000 US) on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? echoing the plot of the 2008 Oscar-winning movie.

I've been carrying this newsclipping around for so many days I have forgotten where it came from, but I have thought of it often because I found it quite inspiring, really.

Sushil Kumar, 26, used to watch Who Wants to be a Millionaire? at a neighbor's house, because he could not afford a television.  Those neighbors were so impressed by his knack at answering the questions that they persuaded him to have a go.  And lo, he made an epic journey to Mumbai -- his first ever trip in a plane.

Until his win, Kumar was earning 6500 rupees a month as a government computer worker in the northeastern state of Bihar, one of the country's most disadvantaged regions.  Now, he is an Indian millionaire.

He plans to use the money to pay debts, buy a house for his extended family (he is only recently married), and build a library.

"I love reading," he said. "Before winning this amount, I couldn't buy many books, but now I will make a huge library."

Alternatives to the Wellywood sign

The final vote is nigh

Will Wellingtonians be blown away by the winning alternative to Wellywood?

The public vote has been counted and the sign dubbed Wellington – Blown Away is the clear winner of the first stage of voting with a whopping 46 per cent of the votes.

Designed by a team from advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the sign depicts the word "Wellington", with the last few letters appearing to be whipped off the hill by the wind.

Second with 21 per cent of the votes was The Eye of the Taniwha, which shows the giant eye of the mythical beast gazing across the harbour.

These two designs will now go head-to-head with the Wellywood concept in a final vote that opens on Wednesday, and closes on November 17, with voting via dompost.co.nz.

More than 18,500 votes had been cast on the alternative options by late last night. Wellington's Lost Umbrellas was third with 16 per cent, while Taniwha gained 10 per cent and Te Capital 7 per cent.

Let's hope the interest remains intense.  And I see no reason why the international audience shouldn't vote -- after all, it is an international airport.

From the Dominion Post.  Read the full story

How many bookstores have their own cat?

Time Out Bookstore in Auckland, New Zealand, does

Time Out began 23 years ago in Auckland’s Mount Eden shopping strip with a conscious attempt to be different. One of the first boutique bookstores, it also sold music and kept daringly late hours.  While shop space is for those who are slim enough to enjoy browsing through a huge choice in a small area, above the store is an airy brick walled space used for book launches and promotions.  And owner for the past nine years, Wendy Tighe-Umbers, doesn't charge a cent.  All she wants is for those who are coming to let her know ahead, for catering purposes.

The last time I sat up there on one of the comfy couches to chat about books with Wendy's super-enthusiastic staff, I was honored with a rub about the ankles by the resident cat, Oscar.  Now, sadly, Oscar has passed on to kitty-heaven.  Lucinda, his successor, is no stray, but a pedigree Tonkinese, named after a Peter Carey novel.  And her personal taste in literature?  No one knows.  She is definitely too ladylike to reveal anything so personal ...

Spoonbill and Sugartown in Brooklyn has a cat, too.

His name is Hayes.  Hayes is an unusual cat, as unusual as his bookstore's name. 

Hayes is a tripod.  Surgery to remove a cancerous leg cost $1000, but much of it was donated by adoring bookstore patrons.  "Come for the books, and stay for the synth musik," the staff say, but it seems sure that some folk come to see the cat.

And in Madison Avenue, Manhattan, there is another

This is the Corner Bookstore, whose cat is the grandly named Hampton.

He was named after that domain of the super rich because he was rescued from there.  Appropriately, he has developed very particular tastes.  When he was small, he used to get stuck behind any old bookshelf, but now he favors the travel section.

Especially China and India.

To read more about New York City bookstore cats, try this link

Bad news from UK libraries

UK library visits fall by 7.5 million

From the BBC.

The number of visits to UK libraries dropped by more than 7.5 million to 314.55 million in 2010-2011, annual figures show.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy data, covering the year to 31 March 2011, shows a drop in the number of static and mobile public libraries from 4,612 to 4,579.

And they show a 2.9% drop in the number of book loans to 300.22 million.

Campaigners say more than 400 public libraries are threatened with closure.

A number of local councils plan to close them to save money after being given a 27% cut in central government funding over four years.

The figures show a drop of 22.77 million over five years in the number of visits to UK libraries to 314.55 million in 2010-2011.

That figure represents a 6.7% drop.

The total number of books held by libraries dropped by about a million from the previous year to 98.24 million while there was also a drop in the stock of CDs, DVDs and other materials.

There was, however, a rise of about 300,000 in the number of loans of children's fiction books - to 81.57 million.  And there was an increase of about 180,000 - to 17.65 million - in the number of children's fiction books available for loan.

But, for once, we can't blame the digital age

The number of visits to library websites fell from 120.4 million in 2009-2010 to 114.77 million in 2010-2011 despite rises in previous years.

Read more

Kindle Owners' Lending Library Launched by Amazon

A new way to borrow a book

This new service from Amazon lends out selected, mostly backlist titles, with promoted books coming from publishers including Scholastic, Norton, Bloomsbury, Grove/Atlantic, Workman/Algonquin, F+W Media, Lonely Planet, and Amazon's own publishing imprints.

Rosetta Books tells the WSJ they alone are contributing about 200 titles. None of the six largest publishers are participating.

The program is available only to Amazon Prime members, and titles can be browsed and checked out only through Amazon ereading devices. Users can "borrow" only one title at a time, and only one title a month.

While Amazon boasts the collection includes "over 100 current and former NYT bestsellers," Publishers Lunch observes that the emphasis is very much on "former." Browsing for titles on the device will be an impediment to discovery for many users (and incentive to upgrade to Fire, on which that will be easier). But general Amazon product pages prominently announce to Kindle Device Owners that they can "borrow this book for free, with no due dates."

According to publisher gossip, Amazon offered "a lot of money" to participate in the program. Amazon says in the announcement that most publishers have received "a fixed fee" for the included titles (apparently for a two-year agreement--and any additional titles added during that period would yield further licensing fees.) But "in some cases, Amazon is purchasing a title each time it is borrowed by a reader under standard wholesale terms as a no-risk trial to demonstrate to publishers the incremental growth and revenue opportunity that this new service presents."

Where Amazon leads, will Kobo follow?
Release
Kindle Owners Lending Library

Assange to face charges

 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden to answer sex crime allegations, the Associated Press reports.

In a judgment Wednesday, Judges John Thomas and Duncan Ousely said that Assange, who was in court to hear the verdict, should be sent to Sweden to be questioned over the alleged rape of one woman and the molestation of another in Stockholm last year.
The 40-year-old has denied wrongdoing, and insists the case is politically motivated by those opposed to the work of his secret-spilling organization.

Thomas Friedman scooped for 2012 NZ International Arts Festival

Renowned US writer to visit as Kennedy Fellow

Internationally renowned American author, reporter, and columnist Thomas Friedman will lead a top-shelf literary line-up at the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival’s Writers and Readers Week in March, as a John F Kennedy Memorial Fellow.

One of the planet’s most influential public intellectuals, Thomas Friedman is a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes and the author of six bestselling books. In being recognised by Fulbright New Zealand with a John F Kennedy Fellowship, he joins a list of eighteen eminent American thinkers including Thurgood Marshall, Harlan Cleveland, Paul Volcker and Joseph Stiglitz, who have visited New Zealand for speaking and teaching engagements in honour of President Kennedy since a memorial fund was established in his name following his death in 1963.

From the Fulbright New Zealand Quarterly

Read the full story

Borders metamorphoses into Whitcoulls at 226 Lambton Quay

A mysterious something has happened in Lambton Quay

Up until the last time I looked, 226-256 Lambton Quay was a big Borders store.

Lambton Quay is one of Wellington's premier shopping streets, so its situation, opposite iconic department store Kirkaldie & Stains, and cheek-by-jowl (almost) with a Farmers Department store, was enviable.

The only fly in the ointment, I guess, is that the Wellington flagship store of the Whitcoulls book chain was just a short gallop down the street.

As we all know, both chains were bought by David and Anne Norman.  I wondered what would happen to this particular Borders, and was assured by a polite young man at the checkout counter that it was going to become Whitcoulls.

And, he has been proved right.  As I passed in the bus yesterday, the store was sporting natty new signs and lots of enticing advertising.

It is now definitely a Whitcoulls store.  So far, the Whitcoulls store down the street is still intact and running.  Long may it stay that way.