Regional library book sale: Excited? I am
“Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in,” said German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, and added, “But as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.”
Some of us still buy books anyway, thinking we’re buying the time to read them and can absorb their contents as if through osmosis by having them nearby.
That will be the rationalization in my mind when I line up for the Cape Breton Regional Library Semi-Annual Used Book Sale beginning this Thursday, Nov. 28, 5 p.m., at the McConnell branch in Sydney.
The sale will run during regular library hours to Saturday, Dec. 7 and offers thousands of good, used books for adults and children in paperback and hardcover. It also serves as a fundraiser for the various programs and services of the CBRL.
Because of the quantity of books to sell, the library is “rolling back prices to pre-2010 sale prices.” To which I say, “Woo.” Verily.
Last week, the double launch of Boularderie Island Press’s two new releases, “Seeds,” the new novel by Douglas Arthur Brown, and “Thirteen Ways From Sunday,” an anthology of work from the master class writing workshop Brown leads, attracted over 120 people to the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavillion.
Four of the contributing authors to the anthology, Bill Conall, Meg Horne, Russell Colman and Mona Anderson, will read at the Baddeck Library on Friday, Dec. 6, 2013, 6:30 p.m., followed by a panel discussion.
Publisher Brown will also be at the launch and tea, coffee and refreshments will be served.
The performances for “Unity: 1918” continue at the Cape Breton University Boardmore Theatre tonight, Saturday, Nov. 23, at 7 pm, and next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 29 and 30 (at 7 p.m. both nights), and Sunday, Dec. 1, at 2 p.m.
The powerful script by Governor-General award winner, Kevin Kerr, about the flu epidemic that ravaged the entire world after the First World War, is brought to life with an eager young cast (and a few older folk like myself) aided by striking visual projections and an evocative live performance acclaimed bandurist Julian Kytasy.
On Thursday, Nov. 28, 7:30 p.m., Charles Burke will give a talk on aviatrix Beryl Markham at the next meeting of the Old Sydney Society at the Centre for Heriyage and Science (the Lyceum), George Street, Sydney.
Markham was the first woman to fly the dangerous westward route from England to North America solo before she banged into a bog in Baliene on September 4, 1936.