The Hurricane

The Hurricane
by William Carlos Williams

The tree lay down
on the garage roof
and stretched, You
have your heaven,
it said, go to it.

Save the Travel Book Shop in London

I am not sure you are familiar with London, it's stunnig views and little secrets. But I do feel I need to write about this and do something.

There's a small bookshop in Notting Hill, London (UK), the Travel Bookshop , which is about to close down unless someone buys it. They have had problems for the past few years and have been looking for a buyer since May. Nothing happened. But it's worth talking about it and try to do something for a number of reasons. I should be 'professional' about it, write a list of reasons why it has to be saved. Truth is, I am getting way too emotional about it.

I used to live not far from there. And I used to walk to Portobello a few times a week. I spent a few good hours in the bookshop. It is a fantastic place, full of love for books and nice people. I went there the first time because the movie 'Notting Hill' (starring Julia Roberts) was partly shot there. But it was obvious, from the very first time, that the place was special itself.

Please save the Travel Bookshop!

London - W. Blake

London - William Blake

I wandered through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:

How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.

But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse.

The Great fire of London

In 1666, the first week of September, there was a fire in London, the so called Great Fire of London. It was a real disaster and destroyed so many buildings, homes to poor people.

As you all know, something similar has been going on in the past few weeks, in London. I am not here to compare the events because both break my heart into pieces. But there's a poem which describes what it is all about, or, rather, the essence of it.

The Coming of War: Actæon - by Ezra Pound

An image of Lethe, and the fields
Full of faint light but golden,
Gray cliffs, and beneath them
A sea
Harsher than granite, unstill, never ceasing;

High forms with the movement of gods,
Perilous aspect;

And one said:
"This is Actæon."
Actaeon of golden greaves!

Over fair meadows,
Over the cool face of that field,
Unstill, ever moving,
Host of an ancient people,
The silent cortège.

Fancy some crime?

I confess I am quite a curious reader. I have tried to read books from any possible genre and have probably decided (am not 100% sure of that) some books/authors were just not for me.

However, I try to keep an eye open to books in general and I have to confess I feel every single author can teach me something about books but also about myself.

Therefore, even though I would not describe myself as crime fiction fan, I want to share what I know with you (and maybe get some feedback or suggestions...)

The detective I know best from the USA is Perry Mason. If I don't get wrong his adventures were published for about 60 years. I also know of Kay Scarpetta from Patricia Cornwell.

France...I studied French Literature at university... Maigret from Gorges Simenon (I love the way he describes life in small places).

UK...I think the most representative is Hercule Poirot, from Agatha Christie. She's the best selling author of all times in the UK and I think she's just incredible. But there are also Nigel Strangeways from Cecil Day-Lewis, Adan Dangliesh (PD James) and John Rebus (Ian Rankin)

Italy: Commissario Montalbano by Andrea Camilleri. I am not very good at understanding the language spoken in Sicily but I think Camilleri portrayed the protagonist very well. He has to deal with nightmares... and women but he's fab at his job. Also, I really like the movies taken from these books. The actor who plays Montalbano is so cool!

Last but not the least (well, I decided to write these ones at the end of this entry because I think they're the starting point but also the end one: you can't understand crime fiction without having read them:

Auguste Dupin by Edgar Allan Poe. Well, Poe is quite scary from my point of view and that's why I admire him so much. He manages to make you, the reader, feel something for real just by working on your imagination.
Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: how can you not love him?

Did I forget anyone? Well I surely did but I hope not the really big ones;-)

It all started from copyright...

I wanted to write something completely different but yesterday I had a very interesting conversation with a great expert in laws. She said copyright was an America invention. Well done!

Therefore I decided to add a new content to the blog: laws. I am not a real expert therefore you won't get very many details nor something too complicated to read/understand. I think I will simply share what I know (and am sure of...)

The first to talk about copyright (well, not using this word of course) were printers from Venice. However, the one who created copyright was a British Queen, Queen Anne who, in 1710 published the British Statute of Anne. It was some sort of statement to protect authors from printers who used and abused their works without paying a single penny.

We've gone a long way since then. However, not as much as we should. In fact, there are still problems in regards to allowing blind people to access most books, also because they can only request something in the language of the country where they live. For example, if I live in Italy I can only get texts in Italian, even if my mother-tongue is not Italian. (The same in other countries with other languages)

As you already know, I am not much into e-books and all that but I think this to be quite rude and politically not correct because everyone should be given the opportunity to enjoy books, not only those of us who can see.

44 Scotland Street

One of my favourite writers is Alexander McCall Smith. It is not about anything in specific. It's just that his books (the way they're written, characters, stories etc) makes me happy. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I'm writing this post about 44 Scotland Street, a new series of adventures set in Edinburgh.

The first characters we meet are Bruce and Pat. She's looking for a new place and he's got a room to rent. From the very first pages we get to know a lot of both. For example, from the way he complains about the previous flatmate, who left everything in the room and in a very messy way. Not fair, I should say, but very intriguing considering the way Bruce goes on and on about her.
And Pat? Well, she's trying to find herself, her place in the world (in all possible ways) and changing house seems to be the first step.

Something I really liked about the book was the author's ability to make me get into things in a very natural way. For example, the feelings, memories, thoughts characters have to deal with in connection with smells. Lizzie Todd, for example. She goes 'home' to visit her parents and on her way in, just before she opens the door she smells something which is familiar but doesn't give her any positive feeling: lavender. In fact, from a very young age she learned not to love it. I think this image is quite strong. It was for me because when I read the few sentences that describe it, I tried to imagine what Lizzie felt like. Everyone should be happy, relaxed, safe at "home" but Lizzie can't.

Pat finally finds a job in a art gallery. Her boss is someone called Matthew who seems very busy reading the newspaper and who's always having a break - quite interesting way of keeping a business, don't you think? - I think she's my favourite character in the book because she's very naive and quite funny, especially when she realises she really like Bruce and somehow she gets to compare him to a statue from Michaelangelo (the David, which is the tall one, naked, very sporty). Don't ask me why but I had imagined Bruce so very different from David and all I can say about this is... love's blind.

We will miss you, Amy

Just a quick entry to announce the death of British singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse. She was a great artist. Unfortunately, as many of her predecessors, she was addicted to drug and alcohol. She was only 27 years old, the same age of Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison when they died.

Rest in peace Amy, we will miss you.

Brit Library and Google

The British Library has agreed on putting something like 40 million pages on the internet in a digital format. Books include titles from 1700-1870, in several languages. The first published are feminist pamphlets about Queen Marie-Antoinette. For example, Les droits de la femme. A la reine, [The Rights of Women. To the Queen] by Olympe de Gouges which I downloaded and read. I'd suggest you to do the same]

The files are free to download. In fact, the text no longer is under copyright laws.

I am not very keen on reading from a computer - I'd rather touch and smell the book - but I think this is a fab project we should all support because it's not about reading 'old stuff'. It is about understanding that culture, books which made history, is for us all and should be available to everyone.

A new start

Hello everyone,

welcome back to my blog. It used to be up (and running although not very often) a few years ago but then grandpa fell ill and I simply no longer had time for anything other than taking care of him. I so much wanted him to recover that I completely forgot about myself. Would I do it again? Yes! Because after a year he's now 'okay' and today it's his 92nd birthday (celebrate!;-)

Last year he was in intensive care and there was no real celebration but we're here now and it feels like we've been blessed.

However, I still have problems sleeping and relaxing (I somehow become a very anxious person which is not in my nature, not to this level). Therefore, a friend of mine bought me a book by Marianne Williamson: A course in weight loss. She says it helped her a lot accepting some of the losses in her life and giving up smoking (which we were all so worried about) because the book is not (only) about letting kilos go (apparently using the verb "to lose" is a mistake). It is also, and more importantly, about letting go of all the problems life throws at you. In fact, every single time something bad happens you tend to add weight to extra protect yourself. Is it really so? I am not sure this book can help (me) relax, but I feel like I need to get my life back on track and I feel this might be a good way to start. Therefore, I decided to get back to my blog and see what happens.

The idea is to write about lessons in the book (21. But my friend said it took her a long time to really understand the whole thing so she read it all in one go and then step by step, a couple of pages a week, which is what she suggested me to do), books I read and news about the book world I so much love. I hope you will join me on this emotional journey;-)

The first news I am going to mention is J.K. Rowling's new website. It's about Harry Potter.

I haven't seen the website yet but I did watch the last movie in the series. I think they did a brilliant job.