Sunday, March 30, 2008

Lisa Shanahan — nice to meet you!

On Friday 28 I visited The King School in Parramatta to sit on a panel for the NSW ASLA Conference. I have said it before and will again — librarians rock. They are passionate about books — not URLs or gigabytes or thumb drives — but honest to goodness, feel them in your hands, smell the pages books. I finally got to meet author Lisa Shanahan who is a thoughtful, passionate, warm person based in Sydney. We were able to spend a little time talking covers and it was interesting to see the difference between her Australian and American versions of the same book — My Big Birkett. You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but it sure can make the difference between picking up a book and bypassing it in a bookstore. So many good books are left on the shelf as shoppers pass over them for something flashier, more beautiful, more sophisticated. Sometimes it's worth while dipping into the book or at least taking time to read the blurb. Don't we all deserve that much of a chance?

1 comment:

limeywesty said...

yes, we should, but blurbs ruin books most of the time... well, I think so anyways. They ruined Valiant (Holly Black) for me. I put off reading it until it was the only book left in my pile, and now, WOW! It's a great book.

So is my Big Birkett.
and Chasing Boys... :P