Having Words

I went to a book launch tonight at I think Nottingham's only independent bookshop called Five Leaves.

The tome called "More Raw Material" has been compiled and published by local poet Neil Fulwood and David Sillitoe, son of late Nottingham author Alan Sillitoe. It is an anthology of poetry and writing by some fifty authors including TV writer and producer Henry Normal, who helped to write The Royale Family, Gavin & Stacey and Alan Partridge.

Five Leaves is quite a small shop, but it was packed with people who had come to hear some of the writers read some of their work. David himself read a couple of his dad's poems.

I bought a copy of the book, which also includes some of David's photos and got it signed. Something to thumb through on these cold winter nights. It might also inspire me to take up the pen and do a bit myself.

Bookworm

A collection of old books that I came across on a stall recently at a vintage market.

Certainly a wide range of colours, designs and titles. And I must admit that I have never read any of the stories. Although The Master of Ballantrae is the only one that I have ever heard of.

Bookworm

When I was taking photos of the parade on Monday, I bumped into a fellow photographer that I know and who is a regular visitor to these shores. We had a chat while I was taking some pictures. I had not seen her or her husband for a while now.

I noticed that she had this rather interesting bag round her shoulder, so of course I just had to take a photo of it.

I will have to ask the next time I see her whether she is rather partial to reading.

If you didn't know (I didn't) the quote comes from one of Alcott's novels called Work, which was published in 1873.

The Reading Room

It was a lovely sunny day yesterday, which for early October must be a bit of a record breaker.

After we had been to see Tracey's exhibition, we sat out and had some lunch at the romantically named Mud Crab Diner in the town centre.

Before we left the library, I took this shot of an area that had been laid out like a reading room that you would have at home, with some comfy chairs, a good selection of books and some sun streaming through a big picture window. All that is missing is a glass of whiskey.

A Bookworm's Heaven

On Friday, Nottingham's main library held a massive book sale. There were thousands of books of all kinds for sale. All between 50p & 80p, with 3 novels for £1. They were also selling of a large quantity of classical vinyl records (remember them?) for 50p each and a few CD's at a pound a piece. It was packed with people picking over the goods on offer. I was there for over an hour & ended up buying 1 book, 2 LPs & 2CDs.

Heads or Tails?

This display is at clothing store Limeys. I wasn't really drawn to the clothes, as they don't look anything special. What interested me was the photographic heads of the manikins. The middle one is especially clever, as he can rotate his 180 degrees!

As an historical aside, this store on Wheelergate used to be a Waterstones book shop, and before that it was a well known stationers & book shop called Sisson & Parkers, which had been on the site for years.

Books and Mortar

Waterstone's on Bridalsmithgate, is the biggest bookshop in Nottingham. It houses 5 floors of books, magazines and a coffee shop. On the 6th floor is an art gallery and small lecture theatre. When I popped in the other day, there was an exhibition showing wedding photographs from different companies, which demonstrated their particular style.