a novel idea

With all the recent discussions about book stores and book selling, here is a timely fictional tribute to the knowledge and helpfulness of the independent bookseller that is a novel read. In fact it is a novel about novels. Some reviewers describe the book as a mystery, some a love story, some a fairytale but all agree that it is amusing, intriguing and enchanting.

Translated from French by Alison Anderson, who also translated The elegance of the hedgehog, another book about books, The Novel Bookstore is essentially a list of the best novels ever written. How these books are selected, sourced, organised, promoted and sold to readers is fascinating reading but the descriptions and explanations of how the book world reacts provide some wonderful quotable comments on writers, readers, publishers and reviewers.

At the book's website you can peruse a list of the good novels. I'd choose this list above The torchlight list any day!

Comfort stops

A comfy chair, a view of the sea and a good book - what more could I need?

The book is the catalogue to headland Sculpture on the Gulf 2011 and worth reading from start to finish as well as using as a guide around the exhibition. An excellent collection this year. Recycling and sustainability were common themes; seen in the plastic flags along the walkway and the data cables in the bush and emphasised by the group of nesting boxes around a pond that listed New Zealand endangered bird species.

The selectors have chosen thoughtful, humourous and questioning installations that fit perfectly with the environment: the figures in Barebottomland cascading down the hillside, the Comfort Stops at viewpoints, French knitting in the pohutakawa tree, Throwaway Fix by the water's edge.

Take the ferry to Waiheke soon, the scultpures are only there for 2 more weeks.