July Newsletter

Mind’s Eye

2012

Newsletter No.2 2012

MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 Contents What’s New........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Maxwell’s word to the wise......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 New Titles .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 You Recommended ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Opinion .................................................................................................................................................................................................................10 So what have your read on your Kindle lately? ..............................................................................................................................10 Featured Book ...................................................................................................................................................................................................12 ‘Eats, shoots and leaves’ by Lynn Truss .............................................................................................................................................12 Biography: Lynne Truss ...........................................................................................................................................................................13 Works by Lynne Truss ..............................................................................................................................................................................14 From the Owl’s Archives ...............................................................................................................................................................................15 Let’s eat grandma… ....................................................................................................................................................................................15 Oh, and have you heard about the one about……. ..........................................................................................................................15 Bizarre Titles.................................................................................................................................................................................................16 Events in July / August ..................................................................................................................................................................................17 Love Books .....................................................................................................................................................................................................17 Phillip Tobias exhibition .........................................................................................................................................................................17 Troyeville hotel ............................................................................................................................................................................................18 Sunday Times ‘Bloody Book Week’ ....................................................................................................................................................18 Obituary: Ray Bradbury ................................................................................................................................................................................19 More about Ray Bradbury: ......................................................................................................................................................................19 From the Owl’s Archives ...............................................................................................................................................................................20 Did you know…..? ........................................................................................................................................................................................20 About Mind’s Eye .............................................................................................................................................................................................21 Book Catalogue ............................................................................................................................................................................................21 Ordering and Delivery...............................................................................................................................................................................21 Exchange of books ......................................................................................................................................................................................21 Donations towards literacy .....................................................................................................................................................................21 Grading ............................................................................................................................................................................................................22 Free Hand Delivery.....................................................................................................................................................................................23

EMAIL mindseye.books@yahoo.co.uk or phone 0845253872 to secure your book.

Delivery on reception of EFT payment of confirmation. Or pay cash when delivering by hand in Johannesburg environs EFT Account and other details on Pages 20-22

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What’s New

MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

Maxwell’s word to the wise

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New Titles

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 New Titles ( contd.)

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Plenty of Dick Francis Titles - both old and new - now available. Ask me if I have the titles you want!

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 You Recommended

You Recommended……..

‘April Anderson shares her thoughts about two books on the emotional life of dogs

The Hidden Life of Dogs (by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas) Elizabeth Marshall Thomas asks questions about the sometimes puzzling behaviour of her dogs and tries to answer those questions by patient and careful observation, even following the dogs through the streets at night when necessary. Sounds boring, but definitely isn't. It grabbed my interest from the first page and held on all the way, not just with the content, but because the writing itself maintained an impeccable flow from start to finish, making it a thoroughly enjoyable easy read that was at the same time informative. She writes like a good journalist.

Dogs Never Lie About Love (by Jeffrey Masson) Jeffrey Masson, like Elizabeth Marshall Thomas in The Hidden Life of Dogs, asks questions about dogs, but unlike her, asks questions that, with the best will in the world, cannot be answered, not by any amount of observation. Questions such as 'Do dogs dream?', and 'What do dogs dream about?', seem better left unasked. Nonetheless the book is full of very interesting and moving dog anecdotes, which end up telling us more about the way we treat dogs than about why dogs behave the way they do.

‘Why not share your thoughts about a favourite book with some of the other newsletter readers. Nothing elaborate.

Just a paragraph. ‘ Send all comments to mindseye@yahoo.co.uk”

“Half the fun of the travel is the aesthetic of lostness.” ― Ray Bradbury

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 From the Owl’s archives

rom the Owl’s archives

Maxwell said OK, but Peter frowns on jokes. He reckons it doesn’t fit in with the overall tone and the kind of professional image we are trying to project. I say if you can’t have fun what the Point is. Really. So Peter, bite me!

“You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.”

Ray Bradbury

‘The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies ` Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

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Opinion

MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

Opinion

So what have your read on your Kindle lately?

I’ve been spending a bit of time recently thinking about the challenge posed by the sale of digital books by mega- retailers like Amazon and, closer to home, Kalahari Books, to small

booksellers like myself.

There’s no doubt that there is a huge trend in the West for people to buy digital books, with Amazon recently announcing that sales of these products finally overtook sales of conventional print books. Sales of Kindle and other ereaders are also exploding and the trend seems set to continue and grow.

Blogs and social media sites are abuzz with discussions about whether the book is on the way out, while technoevangelists trumpet the message that a new era has dawned and that e-readers have ‘revolutionised’ reading. Some tech-friendly ‘conservationist-types’ exult in the forests that are and will be saved when books become obsolescent and point to the low carbon footprint that is created by using electronic media compared to books ‘The future’s so bright we have to wear shades’ as an old IBM adage goes. Or is it?

I began to think that maybe the wave of the future is e-publishing’ and to research the possibilities of reselling e-books Then I began to hear faint dissenting voices amidst the triumphal clamour, and the more I probed, the more insistent those voices became. My sense of unease towards the techno-hype grew.

I realized that the issue was not merely one of choice or preference. In a fundamental way the freedoms people have taken for granted since the invention of printing are being curtailed as people in their millions make seemingly innocuous choices - based on progress and efficiency - that might very well prove short-sighted and have global consequences tomorrow and far into the future.

Look at the fundamental right to own the book you bought. You will find that ownership no longer has the same meaning it used to have when it comes to digital books like those stored on a Kindle.

Yes, you can keep up to 200 books on your Kindle at any one time but the rest are on Amazon servers. If possession is nine tenths of the law Kindle then still owns all those books. If you ‘de-register’ a particular kindle you lose all the books you paid for on Amazon. So your possession of that content is tied to your relationship with Amazon. When was the last time you had a book which you owned depending on your relationship to the publisher or the person/store you bought the book from?

And consider this: if your Kindle is out of warranty and you drop it and break it, you have to buy another Kindle to have those books again, or at least possess a computer, ipod or similar device which has a special application loaded that then allows you to read Kindle books. This device must also have been be registered with Amazon before you can get hold of your books. Oh, and not all of your books can be read as a matter of course on all the other devices either. That also depends on the publisher.

Do you begin, as I do, to detect the faintest whiff of brimstone here?

Again, e-books and their readers are changing the way we share information and not necessarily in wonderful ways either.

Well yes, you can share an e-book provided the other person has a Kindle or compatible device too AND the publisher allows you to lend it out. Yes, that’s right, the publisher It’s on loan for fourteen days and not a day more.

In the same way you can also make books on your online library available to others but they have a compatible device and they have to have ‘registered’ that device under your account. Oh and the publishers have decided that once you loan a book, you will never be able to loan it out again. Say what?

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 So what have your read on your Kindle lately?

Intuitively we think that e-books must be ‘greener’ than printed books because fewer trees are chopped down in the process, and, if you look at the research done there does seem to be some merit in the argument that the more e-books you buy the smaller the carbon footprint associated with e-books compared to printed matter.

But as Kendra Pierre-Louis points out in her article “Why I hate the ipod….and the Kindle…and the Nook” , the carbon footprint in not the only metric when it comes to how we mess up the planet.

Or as the blogger Katy expresses it so vividly in ‘Books – The New literary battle. The Non-consumer advocate’ : “The Kindle takes a recyclable and virtually indestructible product – a book — and replaces it with a fragile, toxic device that will be obsolesced in a few years. Drop a book and it can get bent pages. Drop a Kindle and you’ve just made a nasty piece of electronic garbage.”

The environmental cost of recycling those Kindles and other e-readers cannot at this point be gauged, nor can the impact on human lives in only places where crude recycling is cost-efficient – the Third World. That’s if any recycling takes place and the gadgets don’t end up in toxic dumps in the poorer districts of Asia and Africa. And with modern trends in technological obsolescence how long do you reckon the average life span of a Kindle will be and how many will the average middle-class person own within their lifetimes?

If, as the enthusiasts breathlessly proclaim, e-readers herald the end of “printed word” and usher in all the benefits of whizz-bang technology applied to the act of reading (searchable text, zero storage space, ease of transmission of information, zero delivery costs etc.) we must then also accept that as most of the world’s population will not benefit from this because of the digital divide.

And this does not only apply to people who own ‘less than two dollars a day’ either. Anyone who may be in any way technologically challenged or disinterested may also experience difficulty accessing information. Since when did the act of reading and sharing a book become a test of whether you were technologically astute or not? And why should your ownership of or skill at operating, an e-book be a measure of intellectual prowess?

Perhaps the problems mentioned above will prove temporary but one fact is indisputable; digital reading is here to stay.

It remains for us as consumers to make as wise a choice as we and, for those of use to whom it is important, preserve and promote the printed word for the generations to come.

I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it.’

Ray Bradbury Bibliography 

  

“Does the brain like e-books”. New York Times ‘Room for Debate”.

October 18, 2009. (www.roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.c om/2009/10/14/does-the-brain-likee-books) Kendra Piere-Louis .“Why I hate the ipad”. April 29, 2010.

Katy. “Kindle vs. Books – The New literary battle”. The Non-consumer advocate. January 29, 2010 Antman, Michael. I’ll give you a free Kindle. When Falls the Coliseum.October 6, 2009.

“I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can't really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, 'If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we'll talk.' All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don't want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom.

You can carry it in your pocket.” ― Ray Bradbury

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Featured Book

MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

Featured author ‘Eats,

shoots and leaves’ by Lynn Truss “A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons. 'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

'Well, I'm a panda,' he says, at the door. 'Look it up.'

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 'Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China.Eats, shoots and leaves.'” “….the comma became a kind of scary grammatical sheep If only we had been taught English dog……it tears about on the punctuation at school by Lynne Truss. We all may well have grown up hillside of language, endlessly to more adept, more erudite and a whole lot more light-hearted about organising words into sensible life. groups and making them stay put….darting off with a The quote above and to the right are from Lynne Truss’ 2004 award peremptory “woof” to round up winning book on punctuation “Eats, shoots and leaves”. The very fact any wayward subordinate that a book dealing with punctuation and the maintenance of standards clause that makes a futile bolt in the English language could be a best seller bears testimony to Lynne Truss extraordinary wit and ability to entertain. The book is a wonderful for semantic freedom.”

Lynne Truss “Eats, shoots and leaves” combination of gag-book and manual; all at once, combining surprising historical and biographical titbits with side-splitting anecdotes and eye-watering drollery

It is also a ‘clarion call’ not so much to maintain standards as to re-introduce them to an increasingly technological adept but lexically lax society. In this respect Lynne comes across as part Don Quixote and part Boadicea, part crusader and part candidate for strong medication. As a self-proclaimed ‘stickler’ (for standards of pronunciation) she [mention some of her recommendations here].

‘In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy and the comma is mummy and the semicolon quietly practices the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit brother who gets over-excited and breaks things and laughs too loudly’ Lynne Truss “Eats, shoots and leaves”

No sooner had she published her book than she came in for some criticism, notably from a Times Reviewer. He accused her of not practicing what she preached and pointed out a few punctuation mistakes that she had made in her book. However on reading the book I understand that the point is never oneupmanship or infallibility only an attempt at best to maintain a few common standards of linguistic decency in the face of a blatant disregard for the basic rules of grammar and punctuation.

While agreeing that this is not everyone’s crusade she nevertheless urges those of amongst us for whom it matters – the hide–bound obsessive, anal-retentive she refers to as

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 ‘Eats, shoots and leaves’ by Lynn Truss ‘sticklers’ – to gird up their loins and fight the good fight against the decay of the language. She is the first to admit that she is not a grammarian, only someone who wishes to maintain basic norms and standards. There is also something very British in her view that by using punctuation correctly we extend a courtesy to others by communicating with them unambiguously, an attitude which seems foreign to that bloodless fellow from the Times who seems to value technical correctness above all else.

Part of the appeal of the book for me is the way in which punctuation marks are presented as a gallery of long-suffering, eccentric yet sympathetic beings.

Each with their own personality, woes and peculiar crosses to bear. I have already alluded to her characterisation of the comma as a hyperactive sheep dog but listen to what she says about some of the other ‘characters’ in this anthropomorphic universe: “In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy and the comma is mummy and the semicolon quietly practices the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit brother who gets over-excited and breaks things and laughs too loudly.”

The book leaves one feeling both entertained and intellectually stimulated and curiously – virtuous; as if one had been taken on a refresher course by one’s old driving instructor. A good and enlightening read

Biography: Lynne Truss Lynne Truss is a writer, journalist and radio personality who attracted worldwide attention for her book “Eats, shoots and Leaves”.The book was arose from the popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation she hosted called ‘Cutting a dash’..

This was followed by a less successful yet nevertheless funny book entitled ‘Talk to the Hand: the utter bloody rudeness of the world today’ in 2005.

She is a well-known personality on BBC Radio 4, having delivered humorous monologues in the ‘Fourth Column’ and ‘A Certain Age’ series of broadcasts; the latter collected and published in a book in 2007.She has written three novels, and authored numerous radio comedy dramas including her series ‘Inspector Steine’, about an incompetent police detective in Brighton and the droll sounding ‘Acropolis Now’.

She has variously been a freelance writer, sports columnist (about which work she recently wrote the book ‘Get her off the pitch!”), a television critic, the Literary Editor for The Listener, and an arts and book reviewer for The Independent on Sunday.

She currently reviews books for The Sunday Times

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 Works by Lynne Truss Fiction         

With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed – Hamish Hamilton (1994); Penguin (1995) Tennyson's Gift – Hamish Hamilton (1996) ISBN 0-241-13521-4; Penguin (1997) ISBN 0-14-024671-1; Profile Books (2004) ISBN 1-86197-733-6 Going Loco – Review (Hodder Headline) (1999) ISBN 0-7472-5965-8; Profile Books (2004) ISBN 1-86197-733-6 A Certain Age (BBC Audio Collection, 2 vols) – BBC Audiobooks (2005, 2007) ISBN 0-563-51052-8, ISBN 1-4056-7687-6 A Certain Age: twelve monologues from the classic radio series – Profile Books (2007) ISBN 1-86197-879-0 Tennyson's Gift – Hamish Hamilton (1996) Going Loco – Review (Hodder Headline) (1999) A Certain Age (BBC Audio Collection, 2 vols) – BBC Audiobooks (2005, 2007) A Certain Age: twelve monologues from the classic radio series – Profile Books (2007) It used to be just CIA agents with ISBN 1-86197-879-0

Non-fiction      

Making the Cat Laugh – Hamish Hamilton (1995) ISBN 0-241-13542-7; Penguin (1996) ISBN 0-14-026300-4; Profile Books (2004) ISBN 1-86197-754-9 Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation – Profile Books (2003) ISBN 1-86197-612-7 Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life (or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door) – Profile Books (2005) ISBN 1-86197-933-9 The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage Without Apostrophes!, illustrated

by Bonnie Timmons – Profile Books (2007) ISBN 1-86197-168-0 Twenty-Odd Ducks: Why, Every Punctuation Mark Counts!, Putnam Publishing Group (2008) ISBN 0-399-25058-1 Get Her Off the Pitch!: How Sport Took Over My Life, Fourth Estate Ltd (2009) ISBN 0-00-730574-5

ear-pieces who walked round with preoccupied, faraway expressions, and consequently regarded all the little people as irrelevant scum.

Now, understandably, it's nearly everybody.

[Lynne Truss][Good Manners]

“To some people, the fact that I am not married, or don't have children, would be the reason I have written a book on punctuation,”

Thurber [a famous journalist\writer] was asked by a correspondent: "Why did you have a comma in the sentence, 'After dinner, the men

Lynne Truss. New York Times November 20, 2005

went into the living-room'?" And his answer was probably one of the

“I think about death sometimes.

Analytically, of course.”

loveliest things ever said about punctuation. "This particular

― Lynne Truss, Making the Cat Laugh

comma," Thurber explained, "was Ross's way of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up ― Lynne Truss, Eats, shoots and leaves

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 From the Owl’s archives While we are on the subject of punctuation ever thought of the trouble we get into because we don’t punctuate properly From the Owl’s Archives and what a useful job those punctuation marks do? Look at the kinds of mayhem that ensues when they are misused or abused.

Let’s eat grandma…

Here are a few examples

Who would rather not hear: “Let’s eat, grandma” Version 1 Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful.

People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy—will you let me be yours?

than “Let’s eat grandma”?

I wager grandma for one….

Oh, and have you heard about the one about…….

1. A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.

2. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.

3. A question mark walks into a bar?

4. Two quotation marks “walk into” a bar.

5. A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.

Gloria

6. The bar was walked into by the passive voice.

Version 2

7. Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink.

They leave.

(Acknowledgments Eric K Auld on Timothy McSweeney’s Page

Dear John:

1. THE FATAL COMMA Czarina Maria jFyodorovna once saved the life of a man by transposing a I want a man who knows what single comma in a warrant signed by her husband, Alexander III, which love is. All about you are exiled a criminal to imprisonment and death in Siberia. On the bottom of generous, kind, thoughtful the warrant the czar had written: `Pardon impossible, to be sent to people, who are not like you.

Siberia.’ The Czarina changed the punctuation so that her husband’s Admit to being useless and instructions read: `Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.’ The man was inferior. You have ruined me. set free.

For other men, I yearn. For 2. THE BLASPHEMOUS COMMA you, I have no feelings In several editions of the King James Bible, Luke 23:32 is changed entirely whatsoever. When we’re apart, by the absence of a comma. In the passage that describes the other men I can be forever happy. Will crucified with Christ, the erroneous editions read: `And there were also you let me be? two other malefactors.’ Instead of counting Christ as a malefactor, the passage should read: `And there were also two other, malefactors.’

3. THE MILLION-DOLLAR COMMA The US government lost at least a million dollars through the slip of a comma. In the tariff act passed on June 6, 1872, a list of duty-free items included: `Fruit plants, tropical and semitropical’. A government clerk accidentally altered the line to read: `Fruit, plants tropical and semitropical’.

Importers successfully contended that the passage, as written, exempted all tropical and semitropical plants from duty fees. This cost the US a fortune until May 9, 1874, when the passage was amended to plug the hole.

Cited in Writinginthewild.com

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

From the Owl’s archves Sometimes book titles just don’t come out ‘right’. They appear bizarre or even silly, even when the subject could be legitimate and the author presumably to be taken seriously. And then, of course, there are those books; the title quite accurately reflecting the questionable or daft content of the book. Look at the titles below and see if you can tell which is which – and if some of books seem too improbable take my word for it, they do exist. Click on the links and see them on Amazon if you don’t believe me. (With acknowledgements to www.oddee.com

Bizarre Titles               

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Improving Your IQ Richard Pellegrino How to Date a White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men Adam Quan Do-It-Yourself Coffins: For Pets and People Dale Power , Jeffrey B. Snyder (Author, Photographer) You're Dead and You Don't Even Know It Alicia Rocco Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names Claude Neuffer , Irene Neuffer Lightweight Sandwich Construction J. M. Davies Pooh Gets Stuck How to Avoid Huge Ships John W. Trimmer Bombproof Your Horse: Teach Your Horse to Be Confident, Obedient, and Safe, No Matter What You Encounter Rick Pelicano , Lauren Tjaden Anybody Can Be Cool-- But Awesome Takes Practice Lorraine Peterson Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir Shalom Auslander Don't Tell Mom I Work on the Rigs: She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse Paul Carter How to Good-bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way? Hiroyuki Nishigaki Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them: How to Keep Your Tractors Happy and Your Family Running Roger Welsch Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre Tim W Lieder (Editor), C.C. Parker (Contributor), Jenifer Jourdanne (Contributor)

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Events in July / August

MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

Events in July / August Love Books Love Books is the destination these days for interesting book-club get-togethers, book readings and other literary events. Book club members looking for a night out, are fully catered for with book recommendations and a sit down dinner at the Service Station restaurant next door. Check it out at http://www.lovebooks.co.za/bookclub-dinners/

Here’s a taste of other fare at Love Books in July: Wednesday 4 July, 7:00 for 7:30 pm – Troyeville Hotel Book Club hosts activist Terry Crawford-Browne, author of Eye on the Diamonds, an enlightening book that deals with yet another fascinating chapter in the continuing arms deal saga.

Booking essential on laurence@troyevillehotel.co.za or 011 402 7709.

Thursday 26 July, 7:00 pm – the first Moema’s Dinner with the Author. We are delighted to be hosting these small, intimate evenings with Moemas Patisserie and Food Shop in Parktown North and for our first evening, dinner will be with the incorrigable Eric Miyeni talking about his latest book, The Release. Booking essential on 011 788 7725 or email moemasfood@gmail.com (Information pasted from Love Books website at http://www.lovebooks.co.za)

Contact Details: [The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg. 011 726 7408 info@lovebooks.co.za Opening hours:8-5 on Weekdays, 9-4 on Saturdays and 9-2 on Sundays.]

Phillip Tobias exhibition “Go and celebrate Phillip Tobias's life at the Wits Medical School with an exhibition entitled "Of Hominids and Humankind". It covers his life from his troubled childhood in Durban and Bloemfontein, to his long tenure at Wits, his growing involvement in the fight against apartheid for academic freedom and the use of his extensive research to counter the arguments used by the apartheid government to explain its racial policies. It is at the Adler Museum of Medicine, 7 York Road, Parktown. The museum is open from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 4pm. The exhibition runs until the end of July.” Read more.

(Source: Lucille Davie’s column ‘A week in Johannesburg’ at http://www.joburg.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=325&catid=104&Itemid=174#ixzz1yEAvLd Bl

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

Troyeville hotel

Troyeville Hotel is perhaps one of Johannesburg’s best kept secrets. They have a wonderful pub, good grub at the Flamingo Restaurant that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg , live jazz and the Troyeville Book Club regularly hosts book readings, discussions and other interesting fare. It often attracts the best and brightest of South Africa’s literati and they outdid themselves last month when they held a dinner for all the short listees for the Sunday Times Literary Awards and whoever else was able to grab a seat:

Pasted from <http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2012/06/08/dinner-with-the-sunday-times-literary-awards-shortlistees-at-the-troyeville-hotel/>

To ensure that you don’t miss out on any of the events, subscribe to the newsletter at www.troyevillehotel.co.za.

Sunday Times ‘Bloody Book Week’ Following the success of Jenny Crwys-Williams’ inaugural Bloody Book Week last year, a week of literary events dedicated to the rising art of crime writing, a second Bloody Book Week will be held in Joburg this year from 1 to 5 August, co-hosted by the Sunday Times.

As part of The Bloody Book Week, join Jeffrey Deaver at The Country Club of Johannesburg on Saturday, August 4 as he speaks to books editor Tymon Smith about XO his latest novel of stalking in the world of country music.

When: Saturday, August 4 at 7pm.

Where: The Country Club of Johannesburg, 1 Napier Road, Auckland Park Cost: R350 including welcome drink, three courses and gratuity. All other drinks for your own account.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/SundayTimesGoodTimes

Join the Sunday Times for reader events at The Country Club Johannesburg on 2, 3 and 4 August with authors from Mark Gimenez and Jeffrey Deaver to Andrew Brown and Rudolf Zinn.

[Source: http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2012/06/28/bloody-book-week-returns-to-joburg-1-5-august-2012/]

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

Obituary: Ray Bradbury

Obituary: Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated among 20th century American writers of speculative fiction. Many of Bradbury's works have been adapted into television shows or films.

Wikipedia “Among his more influential admirers were the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who read his stories in Russian translations of the 1950s, and JG Ballard, whose introduction to his own volume of Complete Short Stories (2001) stated: "At its best, in Borges, Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allan Poe, the short story is coined from precious metal, a glint of gold that will glow for ever in the deep purse of your imagination."

“I “have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

“Sci-Fi stylist feared technology”. The Australian

More about Ray Bradbury:     

Ray Bradbury, writer who captivated a generation of sci-fi fans, dies at 91.

The Gaurdian Official web-site. (www.raybradbury.com) “Sci-fi stylist feared technology”. The Australian Interview with Sam Weller in 2010. Paris Review Ray Bradbury Throughout The Years, And A Final Work Blog tribute by “The Angry Luddite”

‘Touch a scientist and you touch a child’ Ray Bradbury

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

Ray Bradbury

“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012

From the Owl’s Archives

From the Owl’s archves Did you know…..?

Before The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown was a pop singer and song writer. His second solo album was titled, Angels and Demons. http://www.lenasledgeblog.com/2011/12/interesting-facts-about-authors-and.html>

Sidney Sheldon didn't start writing novels until he was in his fifties. Before then he was creating television hit shows like I Dream of Jeannie and The Patty Duke Show. <http://www.lenasledgeblog.com/2011/12/interesting-facts-about-authors-and.html>

Roald Dahl made up the name of Willy Wonka from his brother’s childhood boomerang called a Skilly Wonka. He was surprised when a postman from Blue Hill, Nebraska, USA, wrote to him claiming that Dahl had not been first. The postman’s real-life name was Willy Wonka!

Pasted from <http://www.clivegifford.co.uk/fun.asp>

Agatha Christie is the top-selling English-language author of all time. She wrote 78 mystery novels that have sold an estimated 2,000,000,000 copies. (source) Pasted from <http://www.allfunandgames.ca/facts/literature.shtml>

Ray Bradbury never got his driver's licence According to an interview, Bradbury said he preferred taking public transit. This is partly due to his seeing a fatal crash in Los Angeles. He also had poor vision.

Pasted from <http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/06/06/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-ray-bradbury/>

A Short history of ISBN [1][2]

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity [3] [4] College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W. H. Smith and others in 1966.

The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was published in [4] 1970 as international standard ISO 2108. (However, the 9-digit SBN code was used in the United Kingdom until 1974.)

[5] Currently, the ISO's TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the ISBN. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978.

Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland EAN-13s.

[6]

Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual [7] ISBN procedure; however, this can be rectified later.

A similar numeric identifier, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), identifies periodical publications such as magazines.

Bookworm and Silverfish Bookworm & Silverfish

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MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 About Mind’s Eye

About Mind’s Eye

Mind’s Eye is a mail order business that sells “gently-used” books and has aspirations to be a great online presence.

Mind’s Eye is more than a repository of good books and titles ,however, it is an expression of the desire to make books available to all, to stimulate literacy and a culture of reading while conserving the printed word and reducing the need to reprint books.

We do this by selling well preserved gently-used books at very reasonable prices. We strive to be competitive and provide the most reasonable prices around. We also source titles worldwide and will import a books if that is the only way to get hold of a copy. We are continually searching for ways to reduce those exorbitant delivery costs of imported books and pass the savings on to you. We often beat local used-book prices and of course we are miles ahead when it comes to retail prices.

Just because we are in a recession doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of a good read.

Book Catalogue You can choose a book from our catalogue (which comes with the newsletter) or by emailing us. We are in the process of constructing a website and getting a Facebook page and you will be able to order from there as well. The website is taking longer than expected, with Peter virtually doing all the work himself. So please be patient.

Ordering and Delivery You order over the phone (011 4873872 or 0845253872) or by e-mail (mindseye.books@yahoo.co.uk) and then we send your book to you. At present we deliver free of charge to Central and Eastern Johannesburg (up to a 10k radius from the Town Hall) and we try to deliver within two days Anywhere else in South Africa and you will need to pay a flat fee of R15.00 per book, to have it delivered via the Post Office. From time to time we might have to increase that fee because of the book’s volumetric size. We will let you know when you contact us. But in most cases you just pay R15.00.

Postal delivery takes up to a week depending on how the South African Post Office is performing at the time and the parcel is insured and tracked. Pick it up at a Post Office counter near you. (Before the last postal strike you would only wait from four to six days to receive a parcel anywhere in South Africa

Exchange of books As our stock builds up we will let you know when we start giving you credit for up to 30% on returns on selected titles bought from us and on books that you return in ‘good nick’. This keeps books in circulation for longer and reduces the need for endless reprinting.

Donations towards literacy We donate 1.5% into a fund to buy books for cash-strapped public and school libraries. We also intend partnering with charities to sell books on their behalf so that they get a better prices than they would if they sold their books from thrift shops or at markets. We are always available to search for that elusive book that you simply must have. And if you choose to be on our mailing list, we will keep you informed about new acquisitions, while keeping a lookout for books in the areas you tell us you are interested in.

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Please Note!

MIND’S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 “We try to help you as expeditiously as is possible, finding those elusive titles and striving to provide you with a reliable and efficient service and a wide variety of literature for all ages and tastes” Maxwell the Cat

At various times we may also suggest books that are particularly interesting or popular with reviews by those who have already read the books

Grading New

Self Explanatory

As New

Second Hand but you wouldn’t know the difference

Excellent

Wouldn’t be embarrassed to have it in your library Up to three of the following  Very light creases or marks on the cover  Pages lightly scuffed  Minor marks on, or fraying of, the jacket

V. Good

Still ‘neat looking’.

At most two of the following:  Minor creases or marks on the cover/spine  A few pages may be lightly scuffed or ‘earmarked’.  slight discoloration of pages due to ‘aging’.  Previous owners name on title page or a few minor marks on other pages,  Minor fraying of jacket, however binding is still tight

Good

Workable copy Up to four of the following:  Minor to more pronounced creases or marks on the cover/spine  More pages scuffed or earmarked.  Discoloration of pages due to ‘aging’. Light stains.  Previous owners name on title page more marks on other pages  Greater fraying of jacket, maybe a small tear

Fair

A ‘well read book’ . Acceptable if rare or in high demand , but rarely something you want to keep on your shelves. Read it, pass it on or bury it with honours.

Poor or Very Poor

Books we don’t usually sell. Only consider if rare or repairable

Please Note!

In the future we hope to offer a range of delivery options including expedited delivery.

So please bear with us as we work at making This a great resource for you Maxwell the Cat

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MINDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EYE NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 Banking Details EFT PAYMENTS TO:

Maxwell First National Bank Account Number: 62350009207 Branch Code: 250655 Confirmation email: mindseye.books@yahoo.co.uk

Free Hand Delivery

Free Hand Delivery

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