A new career for an old rocker

When I was at school, being a librarian was very uncool (I was a student librarian anyway and never really got in with the cool kids). I was pleasantly surprised when I changed jobs five years ago and became a librarian, how many people commented that it was something that they would like to do.

So I couldn't resist a news item from the UK Sunday Times over the weekend. "Keith Richards, the grizzled veteran of rock’n’roll excess, has confessed to a secret longing: to be a librarian."

All is revealed in the full article which you can find on this link.

Would you like to see your name in print?

Do you know anyone at primary school who is a budding author or poet? Are you one? Then you are going to be really interested in this competition.

New Zealand Post, the major sponsor of the Children's Book Awards, wants to celebrate not just what is written for young Kiwis, but their own writing as well.

So they are creating a very special book and are asking Kiwi Kids to share their magic by contributing a story or poem. The best 50 pieces (judged by a panel of well known New Zealand authors) will be professionally illustrated and published.

This competition is open to primary school aged children and entries up to 300 words must be submitted by 30th April 2010.

Entry forms are in the Rodney Libraries or visit http://www.nzpostbookawards.co.nz/ for more information and some hints to start you off on your story.

Pirates Ahoy! School holiday programme this week

Helensville Library
Wednesday 10.30am Ahoy me hearties! I need a Spyglass!

Kumeu Library
Thursday 10:30 am Swashbuckling pirate stories and activities

Mahurangi East Library
Please note: no Storytime today

Orewa Library
Tuesday 11 am Rhymetime
Tuesday 2.30pm Shiver me timbers! Pirate stories and activities
Thursday 11 am Storytime Thursdays
Thursday 2.30pm Shiver me timbers! Pirate stories and activities

Warkworth Library
Thursday 10.30am ‘X’ marks the spot for Pirates. Bring your best Pirate jokes.

Wellsford Library
Wednesday 10.30 am Storytime
Thursday 10.30am Ahoy me hearties! I need a pirate hat

Whangaparaoa Library
Tuesday 10.30 am Storytime for preschoolers
Wednesday 10.30am Storytime for preschoolers
Wednesday 2.00 pm Come onboard for Pirate stories and fun
Thursday 10.30am Rhymetime for babies

My long weekend reading

It's a long weekend which means some solid reading time.

Here's what's on my bedside table.

We need to talk about Kelvin : what everyday things tell us about the universe by Marcus Chown.

I've had this one for a while and am about half-way through it. It needs concentration so it's no good for a lunch time read. It builds on some of Chown's other titles. I'm really starting to feel as if I understand the theory of things like the Large Hadron Collider

Summary: Look around you. The reflection of your face in a window tells you that the universe is orchestrated by chance. The iron in a spot of blood on your finger tells you that somewhere out in space there is furnace at a temperature of 4.5 billion degrees. Your TV tells you that the universe had a beginning. In fact, your very existence tells you that this may not be the only universe but merely one among an infinity of others, stacked like the pages of a never-ending book. Marcus Chown takes familiar features of the world we know and shows how they can be used to explain profound truths about the ultimate nature of reality.

Shades of grey : the road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde.

It's the latest title by the fabulous Fforde. He has written about the Nursery Crime Division (nursery rhyme/crime thriller mashup) and Thursday Next (a special operative investigating literary crimes.) This one promises to be just as weird and fun.

Summary: Eddie Russett lives in a world where fortune, career and ultimate destiny are rigidly dictated by the colours you can see, with Violet at the top, and Red at the bottom. Below the Colours are the Grey underclass who can only see tones of black and white. It is also a world of rules and regulations - a place of merits and demerits, prefects, bullies, snitches, sports days and over-boiled cabbage. Eddie is pretty happy - he thinks he can see over 70% Red, so will be able to marry up-spectrum. But then he meets Jane, a Grey: alluring, exciting - and dangerous. But she's not his only preoccupation. Eddie is awarded so many demerits his dowry is wiped out, and the only way to turn things around is to take a trip to High Saffron, an expedition from which no one has ever returned ...

Born to run : a hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen by Christopher McDougall.

I love to read about super athletic people while eating chocolate.

Summary: McDougall reveals the secrets of the world's greatest distance runners--the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico--and how he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of super-athletic Americans.

What have you got to read/watch/listen to this weekend?

Happy Easter everyone

Easter is more than just a fantastic chance for a break and lots of chocolate (although those are great bonuses to this particular holiday season). It is a religious holiday and in New Zealand it is the traditional "end of summer" break (at least most of the farmers in Rodney will be hoping that the summer dry ends soon).

To find out more about all the variety of ways people treat Easter, have a look at a subject search for Easter on our catalogue. Most of the Easter picture books and Easter cooking books are already out but you may still be able to find something on Saturday when all the Rodney Libraries will be open their usual hours (click on your local library on the map to find out what they are).

To investigate the religious nature of Easter, you may like to check out our holdings by doing a subject search for Christianity. There is everything here from history, geography of the bible, the relevance of the Church today and first bible stories. Diverse opinions and animated debate can be found on our shelves for those that want to explore religion in more detail. Religion can be found on our non-fiction shelves in the 200's.

Have an awesome Easter. Drive safe on the roads. Don't forget to put your clocks back over the weekend as Daylight saving ends. And if you are looking for something to do over the school holidays, don't forget about Rodney Libraries holiday programme.