Feb 5th 2009

My guests this week are Maggie Perkovic, Brian Lowen & Barbara Simpson.
The books they are reviewing are: Paul O’Grady’s autobiography, Mary Ann Shaffer – The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society and
Robert Harris - The Ghost.
Listening to Paul O’Gradys autobiography you could see where he got the idea for his character ‘Lily Savage’.

I forgot last week to give a mention to the Chinese New Year as it began 26th January & goes on until 10th Feb. This year is the year of the Ox. Kung Hei Fat Choy means 'happy new year' in Chinese language (I said this with my best chinese accent). It is also referred to as the Lunar new year because it uses the Lunar calendar for their festivals. The Lunar calendar is based on the time the moon takes to go around the Earth (as opposed to Western calendar which is based on time it takes for Earth to go around the sun). As we know every year has an animal related to it; It is said that "The animal hides in your heart". I am a 'dragon' so watch out! Poor Maggie pipes up in a squeaky voice that she is a 'rat'.

I also mentioned that World Book Day is coming up on the 5th March & wondered if any bookshops/cafes library or school were doing anything to celebrate?
World book Day is all about getting people interested in books. Publishers, booksellers and interested parties work together to promote books & reading for enrichment & enjoyment of all.
The origins of this day come from Catalonia, where roses and books were given as gifts to loved ones on St George’s Day – a tradition started over 80 years ago.

We also read & talked about the top 10 paperbacks & hardbacks from an international source and asked why do books come out in hardback first?
Hardcovers are called "front list titles" & are submitted in to award committees. If the book wins an award it pushes its sales, very rare to find an original paperback that was an award winner.
Paperbacks are released between 12-18 months after the hardcover. To allow the hardcover to sell(they are dearer than a paperback) also they use it to 'seed' the market (kind of push cheaper version of book out if the author has another on the stove)then is the reader is hooked on the author they will buy their next novel.