Ray Bradbury Dies at 91

Just before the summer holidays, as we were all busy with final exams, legendary science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury died at the age of 91. Author or 27 novels and more than 600 short stories, he was one of the most popular writers in the world. Many of his works have been adapted into television shows or films, including Farenheit 451 by François Truffaut in 1966, and The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories - both available in our library. Among many other awards, Bradbury received the National Medal of Arts, presented by President George W Bush, and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was also given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and this year's landing site of NASA's Mars Rover was named Bradbury's Landing.
The Martian Chronicles is about the colonisation of Mars by humans escaping a devastated Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the colonists. First published in 1950, it is curious to see how the future - now - was imagined more than half a century ago. As an example, see this prune advertisement featuring Mr Bradbury. You can read a short excerpt here.
 
Farenheit 451 presents a future USA where books are outlawed and firemen burn any house that contains them. Read this short article describing the circumstances in which it was written - on a rented typewriter at a public library. Also, here's the film trailer.

Welcome back!

I hope you all had a good summer. I'm back to the grind and I found this article: why should you go to your public library? The answer may seem obvious, but if you had to list 10 reasons what would you say? Just to brush up on your English you can follow the link and see if it mentions your ideas (you might be surprised by the webpage).

Why should you go to your public library?

¡Hasta pronto!

Llegadas estas fechas de exámenes nos despedimos hasta el próximo curso. Buena suerte con los exámenes y no olvidéis leer durante el verano.

Maurice Sendak dies at 83

Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche, died on May 8 in Danbury, Conn. He was 83.

Mr. Sendak’s books were essential ingredients of childhood for the generation born after 1960 or thereabouts, and in turn for their children. He was known in particular for more than a dozen picture books he wrote and illustrated himself, most famously “Where the Wild Things Are,” which was simultaneously genre-breaking and career-making when it was published by Harper & Row in 1963.

(read the whole New York Times article)

Watch the trailer for the film directed by Spike Jonze in 2009.

Herman Hesse

Am 9. August 2012 wird der Todestag des deutschen Schriftstellers und Dichters Hermann Hesse gefeiert. Hesse ist weit hinaus über die deutschen bzw. europäischen Grenzen bekannt.

Seine Bücher, Romane, Erzählungen, Betrachtungen, Gedichte und Schriften sind in aller Wert verbreitet.

Der am 2.7. 1877 in Calw (Würtemberg) geborene Autor, ausgezeichnet 1946 mit dem Nobelpreis für Literatur, starb am 9. August 1962 in Montagnola bei Lugano.

Wenn Sie mehr über sein Leben bzw. sein Werk wissen möchten, klicken Sie einfach hier:

http://www.hermann-hesse.de

Organizing the bookcase

How do you organise your books? By size? Alphabetically? Watch this video: wouldn't it be cool if this happened at home?

On a larger scale, by the same authors:

Swedish noir

You have probably heard about Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy or seen one of the films. Nordic crime fiction is pretty popular these days and you can easily find Assa Larson or Camilla Lackberg's books at the hypermarket. If you are into Scandinavian noir, you're not alone: the trend seems universal. As an example, you can read this article from the Los Angeles Times, and learn about more authors:

Mysterious Sweden