Professor Raymond Tallis (Visiting Professor, School of English)  will give a lecture entitled ‘Literature, Language and Human Consciousness: One Reader’s Report’ on Wednesday 10th March at 2.30 p.m. in the Leggate Theatre, Victoria Gallery and Museum, University of Liverpool (followed by a drinks reception).

Raymond Tallis is a philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic, and until recently was a physician and clinical scientist.  He was listed in the Economist’s Intelligent Life magazine  (Autumn 2009) as one of the top living polymaths in the world.

ALL WELCOME. Please contact Cathy Rees, School of English (reescm@liverpool.ac.uk) if you plan to attend the lecture.

You can listen to the show by clicking here and view Jane’s list of reading suggestions.

The Mourning Tree: an autobiography and a memoir of prison, by Mohamed Barud Ali

Kayd Somali Arts and Culture in collaboration with redsea-online.com is proudly inviting you to the presentation of new book: Weerane (The Mourning Tree), autobiography by Mohamed Barud Ali. Join them to discuss this new autobiography with the author and also mark and commemorate with us, the students protest (20 Feb 1982, erupted 28 years ago in Hargeysa) demanding justice and the release of UFFO members.

This prison memoir will not only give first-hand information of the experience of the brutalities of Siyad Barre’s Somalia but also of the life of a nomad child who is brought to the city to live with his aunt because there was no work for him due to the fact that his father did not own any camels to be looked after. In the city while growing up, hunger was never far away. That motivated Mahamed to perform well at school which gave him the opportunity to go to the United Kingdom.  After he earned his university degree, he went back to his home town Hargeysa where he met young professionals’ like him. They decided to volunteer for their community, what became to be known by the international community as Hargeysa Self-help group and locally as UFFO. For their noble acts, Mahamed and his colleagues were imprisoned and what followed were eight long lonely years, where the studying of insects was the main entertainment of the day.  The reasons why they were freed, while at the same time the rest of their community had been destroyed, were as strange and surprising as the reasons why they were jailed in the first place were bizarre. There was no time in Mohamed’s life to get depressed or discouraged when he and his group were freed as the reconstruction of the country had to start immediately.

The other speakers are Jama Musse Jama; director of Red Sea online (publisher of The Mourning Tree), Rashiid Sheikh Abdullahi; Author  and expert on Somali culture,  Martin Hill; the former director of Amnesty International Somalia desk and researcher who was involved in this case, Judith Gardner; author Somalia–the Untold Story: The War through the Eyes of Somali Women, Adan Warsame Said; the author’s friend and fellow prisoner, Fawzia Yousuf H Adam; The Director of Raad, I.M Lewis; Emeritus  professor at The London School of Economics and Political Science (TBC) and others…

The Mourning Tree: an autobiography and a memoir of prison, by Mohamed Barud Ali is the first of “Rag & Dumar” series, which is a selected list of biography books, published and distributed by Ponte Invisibile Ed.

Mahamed Barud Ali is civil right activist, Hero to some, the prisoner of conscience under the brutal regime of Somalia; he lives in Hargeysa, with his wife and children and works on issues relating to human rights and civil liberties.

Join us to discuss this new autobiography with the author and also mark and commemorate with us on Saturday, 20 Feb. 2010, 4pm at Oxford House, Derby Shire Street, E2 6GH. For more information call 07903712949; or email: ayan_mahamoud@kayd.org; website: www.kayd.org

Three Score and Ten is an intriguing take on a literary blog, charting quite literally a life through literature. The idea is simple enough; for every year of a near average lifespan (if you were wondering where the name originated from), quotes from two fictional characters – one male, one female – are picked out to illustrate a particular age, the physical markings or psychological whirrings that accompany a stage in the journey of an individual. Even those events we could hardly know or remember anything about – conception and birth – are covered, as well as that unchartered territory, the final destination – death itself.

The man on this literary mission is Wayne Gooderham, whose ideas for Three Score and Ten and general fascination with the relationship between ages and literature can be perused in this article for The Guardian. As well as being a fun project and the product of what some might call a slight obsession, the aims of Three Score and Ten are more far-reaching – in his pursuit, Wayne is reading every book he selects quotes from in their entirety, stretching his own literary comfort zone in the process. Readers of the blog are also encouraged to read something they perhaps wouldn’t usually choose; if they’ve just turned a certain age and want to chart their own year with that of a character, or simply just like a particular quote, then the information is all there to allow them to do so.

What I like about Three Score and Ten, aside from its interactive potential, is that it taps into the notion that we can use literature to identify with ourselves and others. In my opinion, books are a great tool for doing this. And to match yourself with a fictional character can be informative, even if you find your own trials and tribulations don’t quite measure up with that of the literary figure you share your age with. Also, it’s quite interesting to discover whether certain characters that stand as timeless representations of a particular period in life really are just that, or whether they change with time and new perspectives as we do ourselves.

As my 24^th birthday is approaching, I think I will definitely have to make an appointment to read The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford – one of the latest additions to the anthology – in the next twelve months. Three Score and Ten is updated with quotes for a new age on a weekly basis.

A survey conducted by the supermarket chain Asda has indicated that the younger generation in particular are turning away from classic literature, with modern novels taking precedence in their reading habits. What is perhaps more worrying is the lack of knowledge a number of children have about the classics – 60% of the children surveyed had not heard of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea and a combined 80% believed that the title character of Moby Dick was either a pop star or an explorer, whereas nearly half could correctly give the name of David Beckham’s autobiography. It would seem that celebrity culture is king, giving the potential for the future to be less about Jane Eyre and more about celebrity airheads who put their names to ghost-written novels.

However it’s not all bad news – the research clearly shows young people do have a definite taste for literature and reading, with the Harry Potter and Twilight series proving especially popular. That young readers connect so closely to these books is encouraging, and they can be a stepping stone to the classics; the stories of modern novels can be traced back to their predecessors, be they love stories complete with dark and brooding heroes and heroines or those all about the fantastical, supernatural and mystical. If a girl is in love with Twilight, it’s just as likely she’ll love Wuthering Heights if it’s given a chance. Those of us at The Reader Organisation who work closely with young people can testify that not all of the younger generations are losing interest in classic literature.

Perhaps the most obvious reason for the classics’ lack of appeal is the perception a number of young and older people alike have of them somehow being ‘stuffy’ and meant only for certain types of people. To attempt to help dismiss this myth, Asda launched their Big Read campaign at the end of January which offered a range of classic novels, as well as newer books for both children and adults, at a snip for a mere £3 each or a ‘mix and match’ 2 for £5 offer, meaning that customers could pick up books and put them in their shopping baskets along with their groceries and essentials. Dewi Williams, Papershop Category Marketing Manager at Asda said about the campaign:

“Asda’s Big Read campaign is reducing the cost of these classic books to encourage children big and small to indulge in classic literature before it literally dies out. But it’s not just kids these books will appeal to but adults too after all, you’re never too old to enjoy Dickens or Bronte.”

By making a large number of classic books available for the first time in the supermarket, there is little doubt that The Big Read will go some way to help reclassify the classics for modern readers, namely by removing the ‘class’ aspect in terms of making them affordable and readily available to all.

The Big Read promotion has recently come to a close in Asda stores, yet the fact that it garnered high-profile support from Carol Vorderman, as well as a range of stores holding special in-store storytelling sessions to highlight the joys of reading, indicates that the campaign had a positive outcome. The cause is also set to continue as six stores are introducing what they are terming ‘learning bays’ on a trial basis until May. If deemed a success, there is a possibility that they could be in every store nationwide – and as the initial signs are reported to be ‘promising’ by Asda book buyer Steph Bateson, things are certainly looking good for the promotion of literature in the down-to-earth environment of supermarkets.

Poetry, “a kind of medicine divinely bestowed upon man” (John Keble).

I am currently at the beginning of a doctoral research project that will look at and aim to test the value of the foundations of bibliotherapy that are to be found within the literary tradition. Writers and thinkers such as the Victorian John Keble will be key to this research. Their work provides an existing tradition of thinking around the question of the use of reading to health. In this sense it is an ideal starting point for research.

As I am beginning to discover, current research on reading’s relationship to health covers a broad spectrum of interests. At present research in this area is growing, but is often carried out by individuals scattered across different disciplines, organisations and institutions. We would like to encourage and develop connections between these in order to enable a sharing and learning from each other’s research (and difficulties encountered along the way). If you are engaged in related research, or interested in developing a related research project, it would be really helpful if you could email me some basic details such as your name, how we can contact you, institutional affiliation and your specific research focus.

You can contact me by email (gracefarrington@thereader.org.uk). I look forward to hearing from you.

This is part of an international movement to increase understanding. Unison have trained a number of their members to be able to tell an interesting story based on their lives so they become a ‘living book’. On the day people will have a chance to borrow them so they can listen to their story for about 20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions and discussion at the end.

This is a great way to chat to interesting people that you wouldn’t normally meet and promises to be a great way to spend an afternoon. Andy Johnson, Lifelong Learning Services Manager for Liverpool Libraries tells us of his experience:

I went to one in Blackpool and met a woman who is a refugee from Lebanon, heard her story as to why she cane to this country plus fascinating information about her culture plus heard the story of a young man who is involved in Burmese politics. I learned so much that would have been difficult to do in another way.

You can just turn up at the Hornby Library in Central Library on Thursday afternoon – everyone is welcome. If you would like to find out further details, please contact Helen M Titherington at Unison on 0161 661 6731 or email h.titherington@unison.co.uk.

A traditional red phone box has been recycled into one of the country’s smallest lending libraries – stocking 100 books.

Another thing that will make you feel better today? Share a favourite book or poem with someone you know: a friend, a relative, a colleague and talk about it… you’ll banish those blues in no time.

In the NY Times, the speech has been qu0ted:

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage … Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize–Schweitzer and King, Marshall and Mandela–my accomplishments are slight.

In addition to writing his own memoir, Obama has never been shy about sharing his literary recommendations or summer reading list.

Watch Geir Lundestad explain why the Nobel Committee chose Barack Obama for 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

I do wish that it could be brought back in the form that it used to be, with someone sitting one-to-one with a camera. It’s like you are talking to your children at bedtime, they look at you and don’t see anything else – they don’t see flashing lights and CGI and all the rest of it.