Christchurch City Libraries Blog

I’m working at Lyttelton library today, on London Street. It’s a street that looks totally different than last time I worked here.

At one end, the Empire Hotel looks like it has broken its jaw. Its badly busted top teeth are fenced off by a mesh mouthguard, and wired shut with industrial strength beams. The Harbourlight Theatre’s domed shoulders are intact, but there’s a massive crack in one wall. It too, has been braced and supported.

The whole city’s a bit like an architectural hospital – it seems half the buildings are in traction, or in danger of dying in the night. Corner dairies and fish and chippers, lawnmower repair shops – like the one on Ferry Road near Aldwins Road – the older shops seem to be fast disappearing.

And if we don’t act soon, we’ll start forgetting they were there. One by one, brick and mortar places will become slippery memories – double meat and bacon burgers with half a scoop; TT2s and Toffee Milks; blue rinses and perms. These are not glamorous or flash places, they are the bread and butter, or the meat and three veg, of our suburbs and neighbourhoods.

Please donate your story, photograph or other earthquake memories to the library. At least that way there’ll be a chance to collect and curate – to capture not only photographs and documents, but memories and experiences of ordinary people and the lives they led during this landmark event.

• Donate your story now
• Send photos in to our photo hunt

Having spent much of my life assuming that any European country I visited would be FRANCE, and educating myself accordingly, I now find myself somewhat disconcertingly drawn to a different European destination (still vicariously, you understand, what with teenagers and earthquakes and life in general being so vraiment expensive).

All those years of Bonjour, and Ca va? and Ouvre la fenetre, s’il vous plait! are now being called into question, after several long conversations with well-travelled friends and relations.  Italy, not France apparently, is the place to go.  They have art there, and music, and history, and culture, and food, and coffee.  Lots and lots of coffee.

Quelle horreur! What to do? I must start all over again, learn a NEW language, find friends who speak Italian, immerse myself in a different culture, and all while staying home in Christchurch.

What luck, then, to arrive at the library and find our wee city is hosting the 15th Italian film festival. Starting on 20 October, the Rialto cinema will be showcasing 17 of the best and brightest Italian movies of recent years, thus enabling me to move past phrases like spaghetti bolognese, and on to the real Italy that awaits.  There’s even a grand opening night, with Italian beverages on offer, and the chance to show off your own language talents.

And even better, we’ve got two double passes to any of the film festival movies to give away.  All you need to do is … comment below by Friday 15 October, and tell us your favourite Italiano movie, poem or book (the competition is only open to Christchurch and Canterbury residents, and not to Christchurch City Council employees).

And for those who can’t wait, check out the library’s selection of Italian movies, Italian fiction, Italian language books, and Italian travel guides.

Winston Churchill said it, and Michael Marquet applied it after leaving school at the age of 15 unable to spell his own name. By the time he was 25 he had completed a horticulture apprenticeship, won a scholarship, travelled to Paris to receive the UNESCO Literacy Award and was the published author of Michael’s Challenge: Overcoming Illiteracy.

This first book told the story of Michael’s long struggle to learn to read and write and is one of the few personal accounts of how it feels to be on learning side of the illiteracy barrier.

“Many books have beeen written on illiteracy, but there was nothing from a student’s point of view”, says Michael. “It was then I decided to write a book about my own experiences.”

Two years later Michael wrote Literacy My Prize, a fuller account of his achievement of literacy in the Christchurch Adult Reading Scheme,  including the story of his trip to Paris to receive the UNESCO Literacy Award for 1988.

Now he has written a third book, describing how, as a young man, he built up a small property portfolio on low gardener’s wages. Michael says of his latest “the essence of the story is about perseverance with life struggles to achieve my goals and dreams, by telling a good yarn in my own quirky style, as I reminsce about the challenges I have overcome and the people who have touched me.”

The name of his latest book will be revealed when it is launched by the Honourable Anne Tolley, Minister of Education, at the Central Library on Wednesday 13th October at 6.30 pm.

Forget fuddy-duddy shushing type librarians, these guys are LOUD!

For the first time, Library Staff from nine different Libraries in Christchurch are showcasing their paintings, photographs, sculptures, pottery, and even unique upcycled furniture.

The Bookish Artists Exhibition is currently up and running at the New Brighton Library until the 31 October.

Come and have a stroll by the sea, you will certainly enjoy the art and the view at this incomparable venue!

Top this if you can - on exactly the same day that I first heard tell of David Gillespie’s books on the demon sugar, an almost perfect stranger gave me a box of chocolates. I ate the chocolates whilst reading the book. And if David Gillespie has his way, that will be the last sugar I will eat, ever again, in my life.

Gillespie has written two books  on sugar -  Sweet Poison: Why Sugar Makes Us Fat and The Sweet Poison Quit Plan. As if it isn’t enough to be sleepless from aftershocks,  Christchurch citizens – who have taken to Gillespie in a big way – are now both exhausted and dangerously sugar free.  For be warned, following the plan will not be without its little sugar-free highs and lows.

Here’s how it might shape up:

• The first week you will be very busy trying to work out what you can eat and there are thousands of  shocks to be had here. If you’ve been feeling virtuous tucking into your lunch of yoghurt, a fruit juice and some dried fruit, think again. They are fructose full. They are bad.
• After about 5 days you could hit a profound sugar low. You could be grumpy, tired, prone to volatile outbursts and have to be restrained from committing library rage whilst pushing a trolley.
• This is followed by a bad phase where you drink more caffeine and wine than ever before and  seriously consider taking up smoking, segueing  from one addiction (and make no mistake sugar is an addiction) to the next in one smooth action.

But you make it to the end of the first month of the rest of your life. Your complexion is beautiful, your hair shines, you have a waistline and surely your heart is in much better shape. But where is your partner and why are your children hardly speaking to you any more?

So far I have only read the books. They are scary enough to make me want to give up sugar immediately. I’d really like to hear from those of you who have already turned your backs on cupcakes. Forever. Is life still “sweet as”?

Mothers and babies gathered outside St. Helen's Hospital, Sydenham

And you thought we were in the midst of a baby boom! This is my new favourite historical photo from our collection – the drama of the mums’ hats, the ultra froufrou baby bonnets. Imagine what it was like being the photographer – must have been quite something to see (and hear, and smell).

And if your family has lived in Christchurch a while, the chance of one of your ancestors being in the photo must be quite high.

Explore more of our historical images

Hold on to your hats, this ball is starting to roll! Award-winning fiction writer Helen Lowe has just come out with a new book, The Heir of Night. In an amazing feat for any New Zealand writer, Helen’s first book, Thornspell was published in the U.S. and proceeded to garner multiple awards and praise. The Heir of Night - the first in a series of four - might just follow suit.

No superhero powers were needed here to acquire such accolades. Just gripping writing and engrossing tales. Helen was scheduled to attend the “Hot off the Press” session at The Press Christchurch Writers Festival last month.

When the festival was cancelled (no need to remind everyone why!) I contacted Helen for an in lieu festival interview. I asked her, among other things: If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be? Interestingly, she did not wish for flight or immortality or even laser vision. With childhood superheroes such as Robin Hood, King Arthur and Queen Elizabeth I, Helen’s longing for superhero powers came from the Old Testament’s young King Solomon. In Helen’s words, she: 

…was always struck by the Old Testament story where the young King Solomon asks for the “gift of an understanding heart.” I have always taken “understanding” in that context to be a blend of discernment and compassion, which as superpowers go, is difficult to surpass.

The “gift of an understanding heart?” What a thoughtful response and useful gift. Difficult to surpass, indeed. For more from Helen Lowe, including how Christchurch has influenced her writing, read my full interview.

If you could be a superhero, what would your ideal superpowers be?

Christchurch City Libraries has had access to OverDrive for a year now and it is proving to be very popular. For those of you not in the know yet, OverDrive is a free digital media platform which allows library customers to download audiobooks to their personal digital audio device – such as MP3 players like iPods.

By downloading and installing the free OverDrive software, customers can use their library card and PIN to:

• Download fiction and non-fiction titles from home at any time
• Transfer the titles to an iPod or other MP3 player for portable entertainment at the gym, walking or relaxing
• Burn some titles to disc and avoid late fees as they self expire!

More than 700 best-selling and classic titles form our current collection and we aim to have more titles especially in MP3 format to become available in the future – for adults, young adults and children.

We have everything from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to  Bill Bryson’s Down Under. We also have seventy-five always available titles  that are always there to check out. No waiting on holds, just instant satisfaction with titles like  Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage and Ten books that screwed up the world. Other popular titles include How To Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less and Cause of Death by Patricia Cornwell.

We have not forgotten that kids and young adults like listening to stories. There are classics from Roald Dahl and  C.S. Lewis and more recent authors such as Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Scott and the Lightning Thief’s Rick Riordan. For the Young Adults we have Tamora Pierce and the very popular Another Faust and the Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins.

You can access OverDrive and many other useful databases from home with your library card number and PIN. Unfortunately OverDrive is not available in libraries themselves but listening pleasure is available online to you 24/7. Enjoy!

Last week I planted scarlet runner beans. No big deal to some perhaps, but for me it marks a step forward. It’s Spring! This little event marked a whole new episode of growth in the garden, sunny days and barbecues and I found it to be therapeutic too. There’s something symbolic about tiny new plants putting down roots in the shaky Canterbury soil. I feel I’m declaring, ‘I’m here, I’m staying and it’s going to take more than a silly old earthquake (or 1473 at time of writing) to shift me so take that Mother Nature!’

My vege garden is a bit of a hit and miss affair. We grow great lettuces and manage to supply the family with beans, spinach and potatoes.  I’ve never had much success with carrots or courgettes but I’ve crossed my fingers, dug in some mega grow compost and will plant some seedlings later this month. Last year my tomatoes were a disaster but then, weren’t everyone’s? Apparently, we had the coldest spring since WW2. Not the best for sun-loving SuperToms.

So, while I’m a willing gardener what I lack is any real knowledge of the gardening calendar. My father is green-fingered but tends to give advice after the event (especially when he’s harvesting bucket loads of broccoli and looking amused at my paltry twigs). I need a gardening calendar to tell me what to do. I’ve found New Zealand Gardener magazine brilliant for this. The mag takes you through all the nitty gritty stuff from when to plant, how to plant and how to nurture. There is also a fab new guide Yates Garden Planner: How to plan a year in your garden. It was published this year and, if previous Yates publications are anything to go by, will become another must-have for Kiwi gardeners.

Apparently, home vege gardening is part of a nationwide swing towards self sufficiency brought on by the recession. I don’t know about that, but it is great fun. My snow peas are up and I’m feeling pretty happy with the world. Does anyone out there have some advice for the vege garden in October?

How do you plan to participate in Heritage Week (21 – 31 October)? Christchurch City Libraries is celebrating with  a whole month of free heritage-inspired activites, including ancestry and family history workshops. But the question remains: have you ever taken the plunge into genealogical research?

For her recent novel, Past Perfect, New Zealand writer Karen Zelas has done just that, travelling as far afield as Rochforte, France and as close-to-home as the Christchurch Central Library. Like the heroine in her book, Zelas ended up in the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre here at Central — a specialty family history area with genealogical research facilities.

Past Perfect weaves together two Canterbury stories — one set in 1840s Akaroa and the other in modern-day Christchurch. In my recent interview with Zelas, she discusses the “very enjoyable, even compelling” research process. Without having undertaken genealogical research before, Zelas took the plunge in an effort to make her character’s process as authentic as possible, unearthing all the relevant historical information she needed for her novel.

Zelas was scheduled to attend the “Hot off the Press” session at this year’s Press Christchurch Writers Festival. Disappointment was rampant when the festival was cancelled. So here’s a bit of a post-festival fix. Read my full interview with Karen Zelas and bring on the heritage for CCL’s Family History Month!