Sydney Writers' Festival
It's Sydney Writers' Festival here at the moment. The reason that this was first brought to my attention, was that the festival has commandeered the dance studio for the week and so my dancing lesson was cancelled. However, I only got around to looking at the website to see what was on on Tuesday so we possibly haven't planned what we want to do well as we might have.
Yesterday I went to Sydney Theatre (also requisitioned for the festival) to see Neil Gaiman and Audrey Niffenegger talking about Graphic Novels. I am not particularly interested in graphic novels - I'll read them if they're lying around but I've never bought one - but I wanted to go and see Neil Gaiman and we missed him when he spoke solo on Tuesday. I also thought it would be interesting to see what Audrey Niffenegger was like. I've got her novel, but haven't read it yet and I saw her graphic novel in Books etc. but didn't pay it much attention as it seemed a bit gratuitous (it is called "The Three Incestuous Sisters", which just says male-oriented porn to me).
I went a little early to pick up my tickets and I thought I might have a cup of tea while I was waiting but I didn't have time! I think the theatre has been redecorated for the festival (or my memory is very poor) and a bookshop called Gleebooks has set up bookstalls all around it. On walking in my eye was immediate caught by a new Umberto Eco novel (well 2004 - but I hadn't seen it before) so I picked that up straight away. Interestingly enough it is an illustrated novel, so kind of in keeping with the talk I was going to see. All the books were really interesting and mainly hardback - let's put it this way Paul (Williams) would have been having a whale of a time. The people seemed to be interesting too, but my impression was probably affected by the fact that they were surrounded by books.
I also noticed a big sign saying that I could join the Gleebooks club and get free tickets to literary evenings and 3 free books for $25. This seemed to good to miss so I signed up when I bought my novel. One of my free books is called "McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales" and is designed like a 1940s children's book. It is absolutely brilliant just for the front cover, but has a lot of well known authors inside it too (Steven King, Michael Crichton, Nick Hornby, Neil Gaimon, Glen David Gold...). According to the Gleebooks magazine (I get sent this too now I'm a member) I should have got a copy of "The Plot against America" by Phillip Roth, which I thought might have been a bit of a laugh, but I seem to have got a book about 1968 instead.
Apparently, there was an authors' signing room upstairs but I didn't manage to find it and I was too scared to look properly in case I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to. Still upstairs was by the door to the theatre and it was nearly time to go in. So I did.
Audrey was a softly-spoken American (she said she lives in Chicago but I'm not sure if that's what her accent was, I'm not really up on regions) who came across as a bit arty. Apparently she trained as a visual artist and then wrote a novel by accident. I found Neil to be reassuringly British. It's funny, I've never been particularly nationalistic but when you live in an other country, you come to appreciate your own culture and what I consider most British (aside, of course, from tea and cricket) is wry, off-the-wall humour (c.f. Python, Douglas Adams).
Unfortunately we're playing backgammon this Sunday so we will miss the talk on speech giving and the chance to have afternoon tea with readings. (Which, by the way, is a great idea; there should be somewhere you can go and do this in the UK.) Something else we were considering was the literary walking tour of The Rocks but it is sold out. However, the people who are organising the tour for the writers' festival also organise other tours (which presumably aren't as well publicised) so I've booked us in for an architectural tour about Jørn Utzon (creator of the Opera House) instead.
I'm off now to a talk on The Politics of Poverty (in the dance studio), which promises to be interesting.
It's Sydney Writers' Festival here at the moment. The reason that this was first brought to my attention, was that the festival has commandeered the dance studio for the week and so my dancing lesson was cancelled. However, I only got around to looking at the website to see what was on on Tuesday so we possibly haven't planned what we want to do well as we might have.
Yesterday I went to Sydney Theatre (also requisitioned for the festival) to see Neil Gaiman and Audrey Niffenegger talking about Graphic Novels. I am not particularly interested in graphic novels - I'll read them if they're lying around but I've never bought one - but I wanted to go and see Neil Gaiman and we missed him when he spoke solo on Tuesday. I also thought it would be interesting to see what Audrey Niffenegger was like. I've got her novel, but haven't read it yet and I saw her graphic novel in Books etc. but didn't pay it much attention as it seemed a bit gratuitous (it is called "The Three Incestuous Sisters", which just says male-oriented porn to me).
I went a little early to pick up my tickets and I thought I might have a cup of tea while I was waiting but I didn't have time! I think the theatre has been redecorated for the festival (or my memory is very poor) and a bookshop called Gleebooks has set up bookstalls all around it. On walking in my eye was immediate caught by a new Umberto Eco novel (well 2004 - but I hadn't seen it before) so I picked that up straight away. Interestingly enough it is an illustrated novel, so kind of in keeping with the talk I was going to see. All the books were really interesting and mainly hardback - let's put it this way Paul (Williams) would have been having a whale of a time. The people seemed to be interesting too, but my impression was probably affected by the fact that they were surrounded by books.
I also noticed a big sign saying that I could join the Gleebooks club and get free tickets to literary evenings and 3 free books for $25. This seemed to good to miss so I signed up when I bought my novel. One of my free books is called "McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales" and is designed like a 1940s children's book. It is absolutely brilliant just for the front cover, but has a lot of well known authors inside it too (Steven King, Michael Crichton, Nick Hornby, Neil Gaimon, Glen David Gold...). According to the Gleebooks magazine (I get sent this too now I'm a member) I should have got a copy of "The Plot against America" by Phillip Roth, which I thought might have been a bit of a laugh, but I seem to have got a book about 1968 instead.
Apparently, there was an authors' signing room upstairs but I didn't manage to find it and I was too scared to look properly in case I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to. Still upstairs was by the door to the theatre and it was nearly time to go in. So I did.
Audrey was a softly-spoken American (she said she lives in Chicago but I'm not sure if that's what her accent was, I'm not really up on regions) who came across as a bit arty. Apparently she trained as a visual artist and then wrote a novel by accident. I found Neil to be reassuringly British. It's funny, I've never been particularly nationalistic but when you live in an other country, you come to appreciate your own culture and what I consider most British (aside, of course, from tea and cricket) is wry, off-the-wall humour (c.f. Python, Douglas Adams).
Unfortunately we're playing backgammon this Sunday so we will miss the talk on speech giving and the chance to have afternoon tea with readings. (Which, by the way, is a great idea; there should be somewhere you can go and do this in the UK.) Something else we were considering was the literary walking tour of The Rocks but it is sold out. However, the people who are organising the tour for the writers' festival also organise other tours (which presumably aren't as well publicised) so I've booked us in for an architectural tour about Jørn Utzon (creator of the Opera House) instead.
I'm off now to a talk on The Politics of Poverty (in the dance studio), which promises to be interesting.
posted by Zoe at 5:08 PM
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