Monkeying Around: A Tale of the Bilio-Mat

Most people in my social circle know that I will travel great lengths for the want of books, and the love of book shops. And when I'm unable to? Well, may the Force be with the person I select for a spot of vicarious living. When I found out two of my sisters were travelling to Toronto, I all but screamed the word Biblo-Mat at them. Every time they mentioned their holiday. For two months.

There are three absolute scenarios for my discovery of the Biblio-Mat and the place it is housed, The Monkey's Paw:

1. Timey-Wimey Potter-Pal Emma
2. Tumblr
3. An entirely eloquent google search of "cool book things."
3a. This article from The New York Times, T Magazine.

The Monkey's Paw is an antiquarian bookstore specialising in old and unusual books, and is the home of The Biblio-Mat; a coin operated vending machine that dispenses a book at random after entering a $2 coin. (It even rings when your book drops down) Heavenly, right? The sort of heavenly that's akin to a duvet day, with a cuppa and my latest read. You can't put a price on this sort of excitement, other than $2 of course. 

My sister got me two books from the Biblio-Mat, and I'm fairly certain that it has either divine powers or it secretly scanned her brain for information about me. The books that came home with her are absolutely perfect. The first was, 'Wunnerful, Wunnerful! The Autobiography of Lawrence Welk.' I have no idea who he is, but owner Stephen Fowler was surprised it had come out and told my sister that it's the same book from the video. (Expletives were used, but you know me.)
The second book is titled, 'Homes and Haunts of British Poets.' My absolute adoration of dead poets is no secret; anything that contains information about Lord Byron is a guaranteed hit in my eyes. I absolutely cannot wait to get started on it.

The only downside is not being able to go myself, I couldn't possibly comment about how amazing the store is, but for idealest reasons I can guarantee amazingness. I also bet it smells really great, the kind of smell you can only get from old books. Yum.



So if you're ever in Toronto, you know exactly where you need to go!
Happy reading!
- Kaveeta

Event: Middle-Earth Weekend

Ah, Middle-earth Weekend!

The event was held on Saturday 11th, and Sunday 12th of May at Sarehole Mill, in Birmingham. The mill is best known for its association with Tolkien, who used it and the surrounding areas as inspiration for the Shire in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It's also one of two of the only working watermills in the city. 

I've been trying to attend Middle-Earth Weekend for as long as I can remember, so yesterday I finally managed to cross it off my literature bucket-list. It is a free event that celebrates the life of J. R. R. Tolkien, and of course the the works that irrevocably changed my life when I was a young girl.

Of course when it rains, it pours. The weather nothing short of awful, but I didn't let that dampen my spirits in the slightest. I plucked up my courage, my blackest cardigan, and declared myself the Witch-king of Angmar. Of course, I had two little halflings with me- and oh the rainy fun we had. 

The outdoor festival had medieval re-enactments, craft tents, story telling, archery, barrel racing and most excitingly COSPLAYING GALORE. Not to mention: dragons. Lots and lots of dragons. I was laughed at by Gandalf the White, got attacked by a Uruk-hai from Isengard and caught some elves reading in one of the tents. Plus, there were tiny little Hobbits and far as the eye could see. I even managed to visit a Hobbit-hole. There was an opportunity to have a tour of the mill as well, but we left that for a brighter (and drier) day.  

It was so nice to see so many faces supporting such a wonderful celebration, people often forget that a lot of the inspiration from Tolkien's world is right on Birmingham's doorstep. I wish they'd taken more advantage of it, New Zealand gets ALL the credit.
I managed to speak to someone at the information desk who told us that this could be the last Middle-earth weekend due to a lack of funding, which makes me incredibly sad. I wish I'd made more of an effort to go for all these years. 

If it is the last one, I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet so many like minded people and experience the sheer amount of love and pride attached to the event. Fingers crossed for a Middle-earth weekend 2014!

- Kaveeta

Be sure to visit Sarehole Mill, and help keep it running! Information here.

Also, become part of the Tolkien Society, it's the next thing I'll be doing. 

World Book Night!

Happy World Book Night/ St. George's Day and Happy Birthday to The Bard, Mr. William Shakespeare!

I rarely need an excuse to shamelessly promote reading to as many people as I possibly can. World Book Night is one of those occasions where I take my babbling off the screen, and out on to the streets of Birmingham.

I've been lucky enough to be a giver for the second year running, and this time saw me giving out 20 copies of 'Treasure Island' by Robert Louis Stevenson. (You can find my review for it here.)
Prepping for the evening is the least exciting bit of the process, but I found myself making little gifts out of the books. Which included little skull-and-cross-bones tags* (pictured), and small handwritten notes on the wrapping paper. Not tooting my own horn, but I would have loved to receive one of my own books this evening!

4pm came far too quickly, but I found myself more than ready to spread the word of literature like pixie dust. Conclusion: The people of Birmingham believe in books! We had the most perfect weather, and I'm sure that made people far more agreeable and open to listen to me. I found myself completely out of books in just under two hours! I still had more than enough time to have a nice conversation with a few of the people I spoke with. It was a beautiful thing, and has topped up my faith in the world of first time readers. And in my city of course.

World Book Night posted an interesting request via their social media pages, asking everyone to update their statuses to, "I love reading because..." At first I found it difficult to put into words just why I love reading, and literature generally.
I feel after my giving today, I feel more would say that I love reading because it's concrete evidence that magic exists in the world.

I hope you all enjoyed your World Book Night as much as I did in whichever way you decided to celebrate. I will now conclude off my evening with some light reading, followed by some heavier reading.

Be sure to follow World Book Night on Twitter, for information about their future events and how to apply to be a giver in 2014.

Happy Reading!
- Kaveeta

* The skull tags were made by my incredibly talented crafty friend Emma. She really is brilliant, if you love these tags, I would strongly recommend checking out and liking her Facebook Pages, here and here. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Book Event: Eoin Colfer

If I had to make a book cocktail, by which I mean a cocktail that would create an ideal book- it would contain the following things:

• Magic
• A little bit of Sci-fi, not talking time travel here, but time travel helps. 
• A painfully funny/inventive author penning the works
• A character, ideally a villain who I can potentially, albeit inappropriately view as sexy and;
• Some fast paced 'I can't put this down' sort of action.
  
  Bonus ingredient:
• A potential candidate for the Severus Snape Award.

Eoin Colfer's first in his new series, seems to possess all these things (the last I won't be sure about until I actually read it). If his Artemis Fowl books are anything to go by, I found myself unable to contain my excitement. I was lucky enough this weekend to attend a Waterstones event/book signing for the promotion of 'The Reluctant Assassin' and I can honestly say I can't remember the last time I've had so much fun. 

The story starts with W.A.R.P (Witness Anonymous Relocation Programme) which is a covert FBI operation that hides witnesses in the past to protect the future.
Riley is an orphan from the Victorian era who is thrown into the 21st century. He is on the run from his
evil master Garrick, a retired magician who uses his magical abilities towards assassination. Together with FBI agent Chevie Savano, Riley attempts to dodge Garrick as they are relentlessly hunted down through time.

Colfer read an excerpt from his book, which 'brought his characters to life on stage'. Magic, fire, hilarity and gun shots came shortly thereafter. The mini-play was followed by an equally hilarious question and answer session, it warmed my heart through seeing how enthusiastic the children in the audience were. It was a great reminder that there are kids out there who are the way I was when I was their age. The event ended with a book signing, and it was needless to say that I was the oldest person getting a book signed for themselves. I HAVE NO SHAME. I relive my youth on a near constant basis, and I guess this time is no different really. Although, I guess there was a bit of embarrassment on my part when everyone thought 'Kaveeta' was my eight year old niece.

'W.A.R.P, A Reluctant Assassin' is out now if you wish to purchase the book. If you're unfamiliar with
the author's work, he is a brilliant children's writer and is the man behind Part Six of Three in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy. You can find out more about his works and the man himself, here. I absolutely cannot wait to get started with this book, and I will definitely be reviewing it as soon as I'm done so watch this space.

I don't usually get in to the habit of posting my face on my entries, but I felt like you all needed to see the sheer joy on my face after the afternoon's theatrics. 
I guess I should thank Waterstones Birmingham for getting such an amazing and hilarious man to do this for us. I'm looking forward to many hours of happy reading!

- Kaveeta.

World Book Day!

Happy World Book Day to all!
I pretty much love any book related celebration out there! Especially ones that enables me to share my love of books to anyone who is willing to listen.

What I particularly love about World Book Day is the fact that it targets children to pick up a book and really enjoy themselves. The book tokens provided in schools will allow them to read outside of school. I also happen to know a teacher or two out there who are dressing up as characters today, so the whole experience is about good, clean, wordy fun!

I was taught to enjoy reading from an incredibly early age, and couldn't imagine where my life would be without it. In an age where technology and gaming pretty much rules the world, reminding children you can have the same kind of fun whilst reading warms my heart incredibly.

In the spirit of the day I thought I'd share some of my favourite children's books, if I've reviewed them the titles will be clickable. So without further ado:

1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K Rowling: We all know the story here, 11 year-old orphaned boy discovers he has magic and is about to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Oh, and he's famous for being The-Boy-Who-Lived. So many people haven't read this series yet, and I urge you to do so, whatever age you are. There is nothing out there quite like it.

2) Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll: Young Alice finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into a very peculiar world, where nothing is quite what it seems. If you want mind-boggling imagery with beautiful splashes of colour this is certainly the book I would point you towards. If you can, procure a book with the original illustrations- they accompany the rest of the book beautifully.

3) The Twits - Roald Dahl: Probably my favourite book by Dahl, which tells the tale of the horrible couple Mr and Mrs Twit who live in a brick house with no windows, have a family of pet monkeys and who hate each other so much, all they want to do is play pranks on one another. You can get nothing but laughs out of any book by Dahl, but I'd always recommend starting off with this one.

4) Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie: One of the most wonderful magical tales out there. Peter, the boy who wouldn't grow up, befriends the Darling children and flies them off to have an adventure in Neverland. The writing is a little hard to get your head around, considering it's publication date is 1911 but once you do, you discover there is a tale that has incomparable beauty.

5) The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter: The story of a mischievous Peter Rabbit who is chased around the garden of Mr McGregor despite being warned by his mother not to go there. A book recommendation for the very young here, but it doesn't mean it can't be enjoyed by any age, if you haven't had a chance to read it you most certainly should!

There are so many others out there, but these are the ones I love very much. A special mention goes to Percy Jackson and the Olympians; The Alex Rider Series and The Jimmy Coates Series. All of which I have started (or completed) reading and have more in depth reviews already written for them.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this, I hope I've added some titles to your shopping list. Enjoy the rest of your World Book Day and remember World Book Night  is just around the corner!

Happy Reading!