Around Town
Hit
THE BEST EVENTS, TALKS & SPORT
* The Opening of Holyrood It’s hard to believe, but the moment‘s finally here. Yes, after millions and squillions of pounds, tonnes of materials. tomes of inquiry evidence, Scotland’s very own parliament building is officially open. A ‘riding' will be followed by Queenie herself doing the honours. Royal Mile, 473 2000. Sat 9 Oct, 72.75pm, free. * Being Alive The poetry anthology — Staying Alive - has proved massiver successful and the launch of this sequel should make an affirming companion. Editor Neil Astley and poet Helen Ivory are here to share the wisdom. Street Level Gallery, Glasgow, 552 2757. 7hu 14 Oct, 7pm, free.
* Look Who’s Talking: Jon Snow It’s the man who has carried Channel 4 News with authority, wit. intelligence and ties. Where would we be without him? He’s written a book called Shooting History about his life and is here to discuss it. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 332 9000. Wed 13 Oct, 7.30pm, £5.50 (E4).
3|: Hispanic Festival Shake off the autumnal blues with this effervescent celebration of Spain and Latin America. See listings for full details. Roxy Art House, Edinburgh, 0871 750 0077. Sat Q-Tue 12 Oct, times vary.
>l<
he bookjunqle
Hidden, hunted and found throughout our cities, books are cropping up in the strangest of places as part of a new phenomenon known as BOOK CROSSING. Katy McAulay investigates this migratory library.
e shall leave them on the beaches: we shall
leave them in the lields and in the streets:
we shall leave them in the hills. We shall
leave them in l‘rance. To avoid confusion. some ol' the
books will be labelled with notes saying ‘l‘m not lost:
I‘m free ‘l‘m a travelling book’. or ‘Read me’ to tempt people to pick them up and take them home.
It's called book crossing and is slowly btit surely
taking hold. It's tree. has a random mystery about it
that proves strangely addictive. brings a whole new
meaning to the term ‘travel literature’ and. as founder
of bookcrossing.com. Ron Hornbaker. says. it has the aim and the potential to ‘turn the whole world into a library".
The idea is simple. (‘rossers decide on a book that they want to share with other people. register it at www.bookcrossing.com and are given a unique tracking number with which to label it. Stickers with the code can be printed from the website or you can simply write a message including the number inside the front cover. Finally. the book is ‘released' into the ‘wild'. The wild can be a park bench. underground train. phone box or coffee shop. The hope is that someone will 'catch' the book. read it. ‘journal’ it online using the instructions and labelled code and then set it free in a public place once more. By watching for new journal entries on their releases.
book crosscrs can follow the path (it their books as they wind a journey l'rom person to person. ev en country to country. And with participants spanning countries from America to l'/.bekistan. and around 200- 500 new members signing tip every day. international hops are becoming more (it a possibility.
('anadian Hornbaker founded the site in April 300] with only a 8500 press release. He says that press release proved to be the only paid-l'or promotion necessary for the site. Since then. biiokcrossingcom has spread by word (it mouth and now boasts over 286.000 members across the world.
Locally. it seems that book crossing is going strong; lidinburgh and (ilasgow have almost equal numbers of crossers: around 370 and 360 respectively.
According to the site. book crossing is all about serendipity or good karma and not about expecting a book back. It is still rare to have immediate success. .»\pparently. only around 20’} of released books are
journalled and there are currently over I00 floating
around the streets of (ilasgow and lidinburgh as yet un-journalled. However. with the most travelled book at the time of writing having passed through the hands of no fewer than 86 people. it seems that many are willing to indulge in what are essentially the urban equivalents of a message in a bottle.
" 2‘ "/3 233.1 THE LIST 27