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
WhatsApp: +918089821521
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Software engineer dies after car plunges into water-filled pit in Greater Noida
Noida (PTI): A 27-year-old software engineer died after his car went out of control and fell into a 20-feet-deep water-filled pit that was dug for the basement of an under-construction building in Sector 150 of Greater Noida, police said on Sunday.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, following which a search operation was launched. The body was recovered later in the morning with the help of teams from the fire department, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the local police.
Police at the Knowledge Park police station said they received information at around 12.15 am that a car had plunged into a pit near Sector 150.
The deceased was identified as Yuvraj Mehta, a resident of Tata Eureka Park society in Sector 150. He was working as a software engineer with a reputed company in Gurugram and was returning home from work at the time of the incident, police said.
"The search operation was carried out with the help of the NDRF, SDRF, fire department and local police. The body was recovered at around 4 am on Saturday," Additional Commissioner of Police (Greater Noida) Hemant Upadhyay told PTI.
He said preliminary investigation suggested that fog and overspeeding may have led to the accident, following which the car crossed a drain and fell into the pit.
The body has been sent for post-mortem examination and further investigation is underway, police said.
Local residents staged a protest against the Noida Authority, alleging negligence. They claimed that similar accidents had occurred in the past and that authorities had been repeatedly informed about the need for proper barricading and reflectors near the drain.
"Residents had requested the Noida Authority to install barricades and reflectors, but no action was taken," a protester alleged.
