Book Towns: Forty-five Paradises of the Printed Word by Alex Johnson
Book of the week
Book Towns
Forty-five Paradises of the Printed Word
Author: Alex Johnson
Publisher: Frances Lincoln (UK)
Book towns are part of a growing global movement. In hamlets, villages and towns around the world, like-minded booksellers, calligraphers, bookbinders, curators, publishers and architects are coming together to create this new world. This is the first book bring all of these book towns together, offering a unique history of each one. A book town is simply a small town, usually rural and scenic, full of bookshops and book related industries.
The movement started with Richard Booth in Hay-on-Wye in Wales in 1960s. From the start, the driving force has been to encourage sustainable tourism and help regenerate communities faced with economic collapse and soaring unemployment. The results of the book town crusaders are have been impressive. They are attracting more visitors who then stay in the local hostels and guest houses, dine in the local eateries go shopping in the town shops and gradually rebuild the local economy.
Although they all operate independently, many are members of the International Organisation of Book Towns. The IOBT aims to raise interesting the book town ethos and runs a biennial festival in one of the member towns.
Inevitably not all book towns have stayed the course. But on the brighter side, new locations are in the pipeline. Indian authorise have recently begun what they hope will become a ‘book village’ network. This book documents two Indian examples namely Bhilar, Maharashtra and College Street, in Kolkata.
Simple and straightforward illustration on the cover represents the content well. Profusely printed photographs of the book towns from around the globe are spectacular. Alex has given picture credits to more than a hundred twenty photographers in the book! The paper used, the size of the book (21mm x 16mm), book design, the fonts used collectively makes the book tempting to any prospective bibliophile.
The author, Alex Johnson is a journalist and blogger. He has many interesting titles to his credit. A Book of Book Lists, Improbable libraries, Bookshelf, and Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution are to list a few. He lives in St Albans with his wife, three children, and plenty of books from all over the world.
At a time when libraries are an endangered species and independent bookshops struggle agains many odes, book towns are beacons of hope in the fight to keep the traditions book alive. Please visit them and buy a book or two.
(Adapted from the introduction)
Auswaf Ahsan
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Odisha hospital fire toll rises to 12 as 2 more succumb to burn injuries
Bhubaneswar/Cuttack (Odisha) (PTI): The toll in the devastating fire at government-run SCB Medical College and Hospital here climbed to 12 after two more patients succumbed to their burn injuries on Tuesday.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling informed the assembly that a total of 12 people died in the fire incident that took place at the trauma care ICU of the hospital early on Monday.
Terming it a "very sad accident", the minister said, "As soon as the fire broke out, the hospital staffers worked on a war footing to immediately shift 23 patients from the first floor ICU and adjacent wards of the trauma care centre. All of them were shifted to other ICUs and wards."
Seven patients of the trauma care centre died due to their critical condition while five other critically ill patients died while undergoing treatment in other wards and ICUs.
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Eleven medical staffers engaged in the rescue of the patients were also injured in the fire. The injured staff members are undergoing treatment and their lives are out of danger, he said.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Naveen Patnaik, visited the hospital on Monday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also taken stock of the situation.
The state government has constituted a judicial panel to probe the incident, and also formed a fact-finding team headed by Development Commissioner D K Singh that visited the hospital. The team will submit a report to the chief secretary.
The blaze had erupted around 2.48 am on the first floor and is suspected to have been triggered by an electrical short circuit.
SCB Medical College and Hospital is the state's premier health facility, with nearly 2,700 beds and it serves thousands daily.
