tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post6522341818960642200..comments2024-02-06T07:57:54.467+00:00Comments on underdogs bite upwards: Jackanory.Leg-ironhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04932361799889315359noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-62454602608958610452010-12-30T23:12:32.058+00:002010-12-30T23:12:32.058+00:00Evening LI, I cannot recommend the kindle enough, ...Evening LI, I cannot recommend the kindle enough, best device I have bought in years.<br /><br />I had never heard of bookstart till this last week or so, and a well as being pointless struck me as being akin to a protection racket for government approved propaganda writers. <br /><br />As an aside I downloaded and read your short story collection, loved it, especially the realty mental hospital one, which reverses a dream I have had for years where I become to realise that I am the figment of someones imagination and that they are dying.Gordon Is a Moronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02240475263277258876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-35134790342004139952010-12-28T21:30:41.818+00:002010-12-28T21:30:41.818+00:00Dave H - you can download the PC (or Mac) version ...Dave H - you can download the PC (or Mac) version of the Kindle Reader for free. It's not the same as a real Kindle which apparently has no screen glare, but it lets you access their Kindle books.<br /><br />Yes, most of the out-of-copyright classics like Gulliver's Travels, Dracula etc are free and it's worth getting the free Kindle reader just to collect the free books ;)<br /><br />I'm seriously thinking about a Kindle. I could use it for work too - carrying a load of PDF files is far easier than carrying a load of printed papers around.Leg-ironhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04932361799889315359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-583704581163625592010-12-28T21:25:04.692+00:002010-12-28T21:25:04.692+00:00Anon 04:01 - we all pay for libraries, but we all ...Anon 04:01 - we all pay for libraries, but we all get to use them. I don't object to paying for a resource I can access that holds more books than I could ever buy, or store.<br /><br />Although as Anon 10:12 points out, more and more libraries are turning into internet cafes. That's not something taxes should pay for. That's a private sector issue.Leg-ironhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04932361799889315359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-44693045502846593252010-12-28T14:27:13.998+00:002010-12-28T14:27:13.998+00:00Even though it isn't quite the same experience...Even though it isn't quite the same experience, aren't most of 'the classics' legally downloadable for nothing anyway? Portable readers are becoming ever cheaper. Sorry if this is stating the obvous.<br /><br />(There's modern stuff from less well-known authors too. I have about 20 early Hillmans on this thing, for example.)Dave H.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-86802554643320012192010-12-28T11:23:15.820+00:002010-12-28T11:23:15.820+00:00Yes, my senior school had a library which I used e...Yes, my senior school had a library which I used extensively & from about the age of about 7 my parents & I used to go to the local library fortnightly to borrow books. In turn I used to bring my kids to the library regularly, either after school or as a Saturday morning 'treat' involving a bus ride, library visit, playing in the park (with a soft drink) and home again. It's all about choices isn't it? Not sure that I'd appreciate an unelected & unaccountable quango deciding what books my kids could/should read.biffonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-60440563421209148842010-12-28T10:12:06.850+00:002010-12-28T10:12:06.850+00:00I stopped using my local library when it sold off/...I stopped using my local library when it sold off/threw out most of what I consider to be 'classic fiction' (and quite a lot of factual books) & installed an 'internet suite' (half a dozen desktop PCs) in place of some bookshelves. Result? All I could find in a large library was large-print Mills & Boon type fiction, whilst 11-14 year olds squealed & growled incessantly amongst themselves whilst surfing in the main reading room.<br /><br />Funding local libraries is a good idea, but their function appears to have been redefined as social centres rather than (quiet) places of study, as they were when I grew up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-47153898579417248342010-12-28T09:13:45.445+00:002010-12-28T09:13:45.445+00:00I put it down to bad timing and lack of foresight;...I put it down to bad timing and lack of foresight; Christmas was not a good point to announce this as it looked mean even though it is analytically irrelevant. The sums involved are relatively small so it wasn't worth having the biff this time - they just didn't spot it coming. This government is still prone to back-of-a-fag-packet calculations, which is why they had to try to make a virtue of the child benefit balls-up. <br /><br />Had they waited until about late February and slipped it in with a tranch of other cuts, it would not have had headline potential. <br /><br />Yes, the shouting is from authors rather than consumers and yes, the scheme is irrelevant. Keeping branch libraries warm and open is far more important in terms of giving children access to books in a conducive environment, especially when they are living in villages which may lack cultural aspirations. <br /><br />I watched this at first hand in an ex-mining village in the midlands. The council blamed 'Maggie' for the cuts when they took out a branch library serving a community which, God help us, needed all the culture it could get. <br /><br />Really, it was that the central library wanted to rebuild itself in a posh new building rather than a disused department store, and never mind the customers, who were perfectly happy with the old shop. <br /><br />They lobbied to have all the money centralized on their vanity project while they had somebody handy to blame. <br /><br />Needless to say literacy dropped in the village until even the grafitti gave up having mis-spellings and settled for obscene scribbles. Getting in to town, while not impossible, was not easy unless you had a car and the money to park it. Even then, the New Library was a hideously inconvenient place to try to take children to, designed to annoy readers of all ages.Woman on a Rafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08897415591130901416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-25316226343317527852010-12-28T04:44:50.945+00:002010-12-28T04:44:50.945+00:00What george said.
It would be interesting, though...What george said.<br /><br />It would be interesting, though, to know just how much autonomy public librarians have wrt children's books. Was "Little Black Sambo" taken off the market, were librarians instructed not to hold it or did children stop borrowing it and so copies were not renewed?<br /><br />It would also be interesting to know which authors/books schools set as recommended/set reading at different ages and what differences there are between the state and private ed systems.<br /><br />JayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-70488070477476151142010-12-28T04:01:57.782+00:002010-12-28T04:01:57.782+00:00Hold on, who pays for libraries?
Book tokens like ...Hold on, who pays for libraries?<br />Book tokens like school vouchers are a good idea though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170981338945747646.post-89197220116041327942010-12-28T03:31:05.851+00:002010-12-28T03:31:05.851+00:00Yes God knows why we have to buy books for kids wh...Yes God knows why we have to buy books for kids when our libraries are crying out for investment. Thousands of choices for kids in libraries yet we have govt quangos ( ie pro EU, global warming, multiculturalism brain dead morons) deciding what books our children will get. The £15m would be better spent buying a cross section of books by librarians who are slightly less biased than govt.georgenoreply@blogger.com