January 2010
Monthly Archive
15 January 2010
Take a group of artists with a passion for the environment working to create awareness of ecological issues and you have Eco Artists New Zealand The group will be displaying and talking about their work on the Ground Floor of the Central Library from the 15th of January to the 14th of February 2010.
Their work on display includes painting, book editing, glass and wire sculptures and jewellery. I particularly liked a work by Douglas Buglass featuring a boulder with thumbprint whorls carved into it.
Artists from the Trust will be available to talk about their work on the following dates.
Julie Kennedy will speak about her writing on the 9th of February at 2pm and the 10th of February at 11 am.
Kate Spencer will speak about Eco Artists New Zealand, the Non Profit Charitable Trust, its beginning and its focus, on the 31st of January at 3 pm and the 1st of February at 6pm.
14 January 2010
The Bridge of Remembrance with Cashel Street in the background. [1930-?)
Like what you see? Contact us.
If you have any further information on any of the images, or if you would like to donate images to our collection please contact us. Want to see more? You can browse our collection here.
12 January 2010
Whether we like it or not, computers and their various applications are now a fact of life. Another fact is that as soon as you figure out how to use new technologies then they will change and update on you!
This where the library can help. Recognising the need for up to date information, the library has subscribed to 150 titles in the Safari Books Online electronic reference library for those with an interest in computer science. The information needs of amateur dabblers, IT professionals and programmers are all met here. Other areas covered include business and management.
Below is just a small sample of available titles:
This easy to use electronic library is one of the many benefits of library membership. You can access this database and its titles and many other useful databases from home with your library card number and PIN through Premium Websites, or from any of our libraries.
12 January 2010
My favourite time of the year to sit down and enjoy some really good books is when I’m on holiday. You can read uninterupted for as long as you like and you get through heaps of book (or try to). At the library we always like to encourage you to read as much as you can and these holidays we’re giving you some extra encouragement. If you’re under 12 years of age and you’ve been reading like crazy or even just taking it slow, you can tell us what you’ve been reading and go into the draw to win some awesome prizes. We’re giving away pool passes, books, and a grand prize of an I-pod! You only have to read 6 books to enter the draw but you can enter as many times as you like so get reading. You can pick up a registration form from your local library or enter online here.
If you’re not sure of what to read we have some excellent resources on the library website to help you out:
- Holiday Reading lists
- Book Buzz - kids just like you telling us which books they love
- ‘If You Like…’ lists
- Check out the blog to see what we have reviewed
11 January 2010
Holidays are the perfect time for going to the movies and I’ve certainly seen my fair share of them lately. There does seem to be a bit of a glut at the moment of movies based on books – Lovely Bones, Where the Wild Things Are, and Sherlock Holmes, just to name a few. There seems to be a fine line between getting a movie adaptation right and hashing it up completely, and even then the success of the movie in your eyes comes down to how you imagined the characters, setting and message of the book.
In my opinion, Spike Jonze did a great job of making the movie of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Although he transformed a picture book into a 2 hour movie, I think the essence of the book was definitely there and the boy that played Max (who is also called Max) was fantastic. A lot of parents took their children along thinking this was a children’s movie but was more a movie about childhood and what it means to be a kid. I’d love to know what children actually thought of the movie.
Another movie adaptation that is a children’s story but will appeal more to an adult sense of humour is Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox. It’s directed by Wes Anderson whose movies are usually great but I thought this one fell flat. I really liked the animation though and it was good to see an animated movie that wasn’t CGI like so many children’s movies lately. Unfortunately a lot of the humour in the movie would go straight over the heads of the children in the audience.
One movie that was relatively faithful to its literary origin was Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I had literally just finished reading the book an hour before I saw the movie so the story was fresh in my mind. I totally loved the book and still can’t get it out of my head, so I was a little reluctant to watch the movie but went knowing that it had been made in Stieg Larsson’s native Sweden, not in Hollywood. As with any movie they missed out lots of little details but overall it stuck to the story quite closely and the actors and scenery were amazing. It’s definitely one of those stories though that you want to read the book before you see the movie so you can enjoy both in their own right.
Do you have a favourite movie adaptation and did it live up to your expectations?
11 January 2010
Every year the best books of the year list start popping up in November. Or earlier. But 2009 was a bit of a strange one for me – I think my favourite book of the year was one I started reading on 31 December.
The elements : a visual exploration of every known atom in the universe by Theodore Gray:
Based on five years of research and photography, the pictures in this book make up the most complete, and visually arresting, representation available to the naked eye of every atom in the universe. Organized in order of appearance on the periodic table, each element is represented by a spread that includes a stunning, full-page, full-colour photograph that most closely represents it in its purest form.
This would make a wonderful coffee table book for even the least scientifically inclined amongst us. You can dip into each element. Gray’s prose style is laid back, and he has an eye for the intriguing detail that you’d expect from such an ardent collector:
- Thallium was used in a few murders.
- Element 112 Ununbium and onwards have placeholders – they have been discovered but need to be independently verified before a name is officially assigned.
- It is more prestigious to have an element named after you than to get a Nobel Prize. Rutherford has Rutherfordium. Apparently a big exercise on element naming was a bit of a tetchy exercise, more politically tricky than the United Nations.
- Fiestaware (ceramic tableware) is radioactive, uranium gave it that lovely orangey red shade.
Read the book, and also check out his web site http://www.periodictable.com/ for more fascinating elemental facts.
7 January 2010
Posted by cclblogger under
Books,
Health | Tags:
fitness |
[5] Comments
The New Year is here, and I’m looking forward to another year of exercise. Yes, this couch potato does have an exercise programme which I have followed for over two years. For many people the New Year is the time of resolutions, and the resolution to get fit is possibly the most common. There is lots of advice out there on the internet, our web site and in books, but we are all different. This is how I managed to put exercise into my life.
First it is very important to know why you want to exercise more. We all know that it is important but why is exercise important to me? Here are my reasons for exercising:
- to go tramping. Despite my official couch potato status I like tramping but was not able to enjoy it because of my lack of fitness.
- fix up my knee, which hurt while tramping and during everyday life.
- (more…)
7 January 2010
On a warm, sunny day with lots of people around in New Brighton, you may see our red wheelbarrow filled with books out and about. Librarians wearing red to match the barrow will be pushing books no longer needed at our library and giving them away. We hope you enjoy them!
New Brighton Library Team
7 January 2010
Children sailing model yachts on Victoria Lake, Hagley Park. Circa 1960.
Like what you see? Contact us.
If you have any further information on any of the images, or if you would like to donate images to our collection please contact us. Want to see more? You can browse our collection here.
6 January 2010
Having just read Ms Keenan’s very demoralising post, I realise that I have completely wasted my holiday. Not only should I have been placing reserves on all those very worthy sounding titles, I should also have been out jogging while eating celery, reorganising my stamp collection, enrolling in Magyar language classes and retraining as a camel herder.
Instead, I lolled around the house reading a vast assortment of books. All the books, in fact, that have been sitting on my reserve list and on the bedside table for weeks and weeks. And how did they measure up?
Well, I have to say it was a little of the ‘Good/Bad/Ugly’ scenario. Repeated several times.
The Good: Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry – loved loved loved it!
Stephen King’s Under the Dome ( this one has been scaring me off for weeks due both to its size and the fact that his last few have been pretty crap). Also a great read, although a little difficult to prop up one-handed, and thus not particularly portable.
A couple of great little teen ghost/horror romances called Ruined, by Paula Morris (a Kiwi!), and Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia, and a sparklingly silly horror/comedy called The Gates: A Strange Novel for Strange Young People, by John Connolly, that was everything that Eoin Colfer’s book could and should have been (see below).
And non-fiction faves X Saves the World, and Madresfield, just to keep me clever. Ooh, and graphic novel sequels Hatter M 2: Mad With Wonder and The Umbrella Academy 2: Dallas.
The Bad: Dean Koontz, you are getting lazy, and formulaic, and a bit twee. I persevered with Breathless, but only because it was too hot to move from the couch.
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters – average, and I didn’t finish it. I loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but this ‘reworking’ seems a bit more try-hard (plus, S&S isn’t one of my faves to start with, and maybe you have to love the original? ).
And The Ugly: Oh dear oh dear. I was right to be frightened by the news that someone (anyone) was going to have a go at a Hitchhikers book. And Another Thing was the most disappointing book I have read for ages: messy, overly complex, and far too pleased with itself. I made it nearly halfway through before I cried and threw it away (metaphorically, of course).
And I know this isn’t a book, but Oh. My. Goodness. Why didn’t anyone warn me? Transformers 2, Revenge of the Fallen. Officially WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN. (Copies available soon at your local library …)
Twelve books, nine days. Not too shabby, I think. Can anyone beat that? Course you can …
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Take a group of artists with a passion for the environment working to create awareness of ecological issues and you have Eco Artists New Zealand The group will be displaying and talking about their work on the Ground Floor of the Central Library from the 15th of January to the 14th of February 2010.
