tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368Thu, 13 Jun 2013 22:51:47 +0000classicsMiles Franklin Awardawesome booksworkshopsbig wordsliterary listsMan Booker Prizecharactersmiscellaneachildrens booksstorytellingmovers and shakersFrancemusicnatureeventse-booksWalt Whitmanlanguagecartoonscover artphilosophythemesgraphic novelslibrariesbeat poetssecond hand booksauthorssynchronicityrare booksdreamsliterary artsymbolismmusebookstoresfestivalsLRBshort storiespoetryAfricajack kerouacliterature awardsbookshelvesRubyfire writes.....http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)Blogger320125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-7615748790574350105Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:20:00 +00002011-06-30T21:20:36.277+10:00libraries This is my kind of Bosun's Chair...! Great use of space - designer Sallie Trout turned an inaccessible stairwell into a book-heaven hideaway. Thanks to Miss Manly who sent it on from here. http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/06/reading-at-heights.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-4052541381385611221Mon, 09 May 2011 09:09:00 +00002011-05-09T19:09:39.050+10:00bookshelvesliterary art Check out the neighbours! Love the ceramic bookcase nestled into this building in Amsterdam - that's my kind of architecture. I wouldn't mind looking at that view either, beats your average brick wall. Thanks BookshelfPorn. http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/05/building-bookshelves.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-3617784817102665997Wed, 04 May 2011 10:33:00 +00002011-05-04T20:33:18.566+10:00miscellanea Somewhere in India a factory manager is turning out the lights on the last typewriter production line in the world... Godrej and Boyce, the last remaining typewriter factory on Earth has just closed down, with only a couple of hundred machines left in stock. The firm began production in the 1950s - when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru described the typewriter as a symbol of India's emerging http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/05/all-tapped-out.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-4134441432381335022Mon, 02 May 2011 10:57:00 +00002011-05-02T20:57:00.273+10:00childrens books One for the mamas and the papas out there... Go the F*ck To Sleep is described as 'a bedtime book for parents who live in the real world, where a few snoozing kitties and cutesy rhymes don't always send a toddler sailing off to dreamland. Honest, profane and affectionate, Adam Mansbach's verses and Ricardo Cortés' illustrations perfectly capture the familiar - and unspoken - tribulations of http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/05/bedtime-stories.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-1258550204674865891Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:54:00 +00002011-04-30T22:54:04.102+10:00miscellanea ... because it's funny. http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/hungarian-phrase-book.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-7553174466009176552Sat, 30 Apr 2011 11:17:00 +00002011-04-30T21:18:17.922+10:00miscellanea It seems the more reliant we become on electronic media the more people prophesy on the impending redundancy of the good old 'paper' book. So if the humble book is that undesirable, why has it become the darling of the 'designer interior' set? Pretty much every supermarket-variety interior decorating magazine sprouts carefully placed Penguin 'Classics' in photo shoots of renovated lounge http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/literary-feast.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-5308540836088689599Sat, 30 Apr 2011 10:04:00 +00002011-04-30T20:04:55.498+10:00literary art Found this on etsy - the online treasure trove where you can snap up original creations by all kinds of clever and talented people - dangerously addictive! I Think I'm In Love wood paper print by rosiemusic. http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/literary-love.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-6100972212108787713Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:47:00 +00002011-04-30T19:47:33.396+10:00childrens books The New York Public Library spelled it out to the people this month, promoting the Read Across America campaign via a 9x13m display of 25,000 Dr Seuss books. As the good doctor said: 'The more you that read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.' - I Can Read With My Eyes Shut http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/get-message.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-1532676783881439096Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:12:00 +00002011-04-14T23:13:17.756+10:00workshopsmiscellanea Bit of a laugh... Bookblog.com reckons that by analysing a sample of your writing, fiction or non-fiction, its Gender Genie can tell whether you're male or female. I tried it and lets's just say....two out of three ain't bad. How did you go? http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/gender-bender.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-8100263635050241063Sun, 10 Apr 2011 01:48:00 +00002011-04-10T11:48:00.178+10:00 Hip hip hooray! I love my birthday mug made from recycled corn plastic. Yes. Reading is totally sexy :) http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/happy-birthday-to-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-5839393603750354218Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:52:00 +00002011-04-08T08:52:00.583+10:00literary art Great gift idea for the bookophile....a beautiful boxed set of 100 classic covers from Penguin Books. Frame, them post them, use them as coasters, gift cards or just salivate over them. Love love. I found mine at Quintessential Duck Egg Blue in Balmain.http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/post-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-8939690847574676455Thu, 07 Apr 2011 08:44:00 +00002011-04-07T18:44:22.806+10:00literary lists Tired of being made to feel like an ignoramus every time you happen upon one of those 'books you must read....' lists - you know the drill - populated largely by 1980s school texts, unreadable 'classics' and generic bile-factory blockbusters? This might make you feel better: Not the 50 Books You Must Readhttp://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/reverse-psychology.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-2174787373538545334Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:10:00 +00002011-04-04T19:10:00.600+10:00Read any good books lately? The Sydney Writers Festival is calling for the public to cast their votes in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards People's Choice Award. Vote for your favourite book out of the six finalists: Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey Utopian Man by Lisa Lang Night Street by Kristel Thornell Lovesong by Alex Miller Traitor by Stephen Daisley The English Class by Ouyang http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/nsw-premiers-literary-awards.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-9069686919702720704Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:37:00 +00002011-04-01T23:37:33.227+11:00childrens booksliterary art Remember Golden Books ...Who have imagined someone would turn them into a princess gown one day...? Check out Ryan Novelline's website to see how he constructed this gown from the pages of hundreds of fairytale stories.  http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/04/golden-books-glamour.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-1524311689851219909Thu, 31 Mar 2011 06:02:00 +00002011-03-31T17:02:30.373+11:00movers and shakers One of my friends, along with her sisters, is right this minute living out a true story that is so much stranger, so much more unbelievable, more gut wrenching, more gripping than any fictional novel could be that it makes one stick in one's seat, mind boggling, and think hooley dooley who knows what? is going on behind the scenes in people's lives...  I came across another true story in The http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/sisters-in-arms.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-3500099677139184247Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:25:00 +00002011-03-30T23:25:22.179+11:00miscellanea This could be my house....! Thanks BookshelfPorn. http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/tip-of-iceberg.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-8554718965928723622Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:47:00 +00002011-03-28T23:47:10.943+11:00miscellanea Thanks to my friend the Unsung Heroine for passing this on from the Mamamia website... A confessional on the trashy reads secretly loved and cherished by bookophiles - What's your book shame? I not-so-sheepishly put my hand up for the The Thorn Birds too. Read it cover to cover on a three-day flight from Sydney to Durban via Perth, Mauritius, Harare and Johannesburg when I was 13 years old http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/guilty-sins.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-8141724707668958490Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:09:00 +00002011-03-27T20:09:10.434+11:00literary art A picture is worth a thousand words.  It's said that the modern use of this phrase originates from an article by an American, Fred R Barnyard, in an advertising trade journal in the early 1920s, promoting the use of images in ads that appeared on the sides of trams. He later used the same phrase in another ad and called it a Chinese proverb - so that 'people would take it seriously'.  So therehttp://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/art-storytelling-relief.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-9198607011956653904Sat, 26 Mar 2011 22:12:00 +00002011-03-27T09:12:48.952+11:00miscellanea Good manners are under-rated, which is why this caught my attention during the week - from AbeBooks: Courting to Duelling: Antiquated Etiquette Guides. It takes a look at old school manners manuals in the time of Queen Victoria and Abe Lincoln.  I love the look of these two by Mrs Humphrey, 'Madge of Truth', written in 1898. In A Word to Women ladies are taught how to run the household http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/age-of-etiquette.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-2173474899615296219Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:50:00 +00002011-03-23T20:50:11.149+11:00workshopsauthors From the keyboard of Australian author Max Barry comes.... 15 ways to write a novel.  He's had a few novels of his own published (Syrup, Jennifer Government, Company) so he's obviously doing something right. I like the 'Word Ceiling' - it gives me all the justification I need to only write 500 words per day! Different strokes for different folks though. As Barry says - if there was a single http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-write-novel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-8689335145991271670Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:02:00 +00002011-03-21T23:02:21.783+11:00eventsauthors Missed it by thiiiis much....! Just read about World Book Night which took place on March 5 throughout Britain and Ireland (maybe they should check a map?) with 'the largest book giveaway ever'. 20,000 volunteers took to the streets and handed out one million free books in a publicity stunt designed to promote reading among the masses.  Among the patrons, such luminaries as Margaret Atwood, http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/world-book-night.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-5336112205416150146Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:26:00 +00002011-03-18T08:27:31.054+11:00libraries Twitter has been flooded by photos of libraries across Japan this week, showing scenes of chaos repeated in schools, universities and public libraries shaken by the earthquake.  Why libraries?  The New Yorker says: 'These are images of hope, as much as of disaster, and they speak to the idea that the things most fundamental to a culture—in this case, its codified knowledge — have not been http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/hope-among-rubble.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-8707327679098631230Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:59:00 +00002011-03-17T07:59:48.936+11:00authors After finishing Freedom it was pretty much a unanimous decision among my book group last night that we need a cracker read up next to make up for it.  Not that it was a terrible book.... it was just more of a 'nothing' book to me. 550 pages of....well, not much. I realise that goes against the opinion of (quite) a few million people in the world but hey - you know a book isn't hitting home http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/freedom-falls-flat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-7832588491512149475Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:14:00 +00002011-03-16T17:49:24.561+11:00storytellingmiscellanea Haha! Saw this on my very talented friend Jo's blog Coelho Culture, photographed during her latest travels in London. As the world watches, what kind of story shall unfold? Fairytale, nightmare, rom-com, melodrama, tragedy (I hope not), epic adventure (probably), psychological drama (I'm sure)... It's a Choose Your Own Adventure in the making. Only this one has three billion people watching http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/princess-diaries.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4140661661471345368.post-5659440784406316708Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:10:00 +00002011-03-14T23:11:16.652+11:00miscellanea The last word on typewriters. Something about this pic makes me smile - not sure whether it's the cheerful aqua enamel or the quilted 'grandma' bed spread. Nevertheless, it's by Vancouver artist Tracey Ayton and I found it on UPPERCASE.  What kind of story would you punch out of this one?http://rubyfirewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/type-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Rubyfire Writes)0