Book Piles

I took a couple of books away from the book pile at the office to read while I was having a weekend in Hobart. (Is  the Salamanca market the best in Australia?  Bellingen is pretty good but I think Salamanca might be better.)

One was Fergus Hume’s The Mystery Of A Hansom Cab, published in 1886 to great acclaim, including those who believed the book superior to Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books. Whether or not that is the case, the book sold over 750,000 copies, a best seller by the standards of the day. Not bad today either, come to think of it! It’s a curious read, and is now re-published by Text Publishing. I did enjoy it, a perfect read for a short holiday in misty Hobart.

The other book I picked up for the weekend was Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book. This is a fictionalised version of the true story of the Sarajevo Haggadah.  I found the book mostly engrossing, and it certainly made me research the Sarajevo Haggadah further, I had never heard of it.

Fictionalised versions of true stories  do tend to make me a bit nervous.  It’s like watching movies of historical events.  You certainly aren’t watching them to get an educational lesson; you know it’s not a documentary.  But you still want to be able to believe that the core facts are real.  Something that Hollywood often skirts round.  Well, in the case of Braveheart, they not only skirted round the facts, they kilted round them!

The Sarajevo Haggadah has a story that almost defies fictionalising. However Geraldine Brooks has managed to add meat to its substantial bones and her suppositions and fictionalising gives the story even more resonance.

I’ve been re-reading Bill Bryson’s Mother Tongue, one of the Popular Penguin Series selling for $10.  (Love those Popular Penguins!)  It’s a fantastic resource and something I’ll read again and again I know.  Other books in my pile beside my bed are Dave Eggers, Peter Ackroyd and Niall Ferguson. It’s ironic that working for the writers festival makes time for reading fairly limited at this time of year!  Peter Ackroyd is one of my favourite authors and it’s a great shame that his inclination to travel to writers festivals has diminished making him a highly unlikely guest.  Dave Eggers was of course here in 2007 to my great personal joy.  We’re having some Dave Egger-ish authors here in 2009; some with close ties to him, so stay in touch through our e-bulletin for more information.

Helenka
Festival Manager