To all of our loyal Centre for the Book fans, we are sorry to have to report that Covid is yet again complicating life for all of us.  We’ve agreed to postpone the World Book Lecture until Wednesday, 19 October, in hopes that all will be well enough for us to gather and enjoy the intellectual stimulation of hearing Professor Harry Ricketts on what books have meant in his life, followed by the social stimulation of a convivial dinner at the Staff Club.

So please stay tuned for updates later in the year, and keep on reading.

READING ALLOWED 

@ THE CUBE — City Library (ground floor)

 

Come along to our inaugural monthly Reading Allowed event next Wednesday, 9 Feb. at 5.30pm and listen to our two wonderful volunteer readers.

Every month, we will present two or three c. 30-minute extracts from well-known literary works.  This month it’s

A Study in Scarlet (A Sherlock Holmes story, by Conan Doyle)

The Waste Land (great modernist poem, by T.S. Eliot)

Tell friends and family about this event as we would love to have a nice audience (socially distanced of course) for it. It is free (no need to RSVP) and should be fun.

Lorraine Johnston will read from A Study in Scarlet – find out how Watson met Sherlock Holmes. Paul Tankard from the University’s English Department has a passion for reading aloud. He will read from T. S. Eliot’s ground-breaking modernist poem, The Waste Land— this year is its centenary. It is a poem full of voices and is great to hear aloud.

Those interested in NZ print history may be delighted to learn that the Bible Society of NZ has issued a facsimile of the 1827 Pukapuka Karaipiture Tuatahi, the fifth book to be published in Māori and the first to translate portions of the Christian scriptures.  The new issue has been published with a facing-page modern Māori translation of the same texts.

The book is available to download for free, or you may order print copies.  For full details, see https://biblesociety.org.nz/1827-booklet/