Matches & matchboxes (not the toys)
Match Tricks: Fun with Matches and Matchboxes
by Zodiastar
This intriguing little book is full of puzzles, tricks, games and clever stunts, all using those little old matches and matchboxes. Whether you are sitting comfortably by your log burner on a winter evening or socialising with friends or waiting for a train, make sure you have a box or two of matches and you will be able to entertain yourself and others for many a happy hour.
Get yourself a copy of this book and you may be surprised at what you can do with such everyday items.
As a bonus, you can find the answer to these questions:
- How many matches in an average box?
- Who invented matches and when?
- Which wood are matches most commonly made of?
- How many matches are made per year?
Urban myths
Good Luck, Mr Gorsky: Exploring Urban Myths
by Robert Pollock
In this book Robert Pollock looks at various extraordinary, amusing, and occasionally frightening urban myths which are repeated all over the world. He asks where they come from and why they continue to be so popularly and enthusiastically repeated generation after generation.
We've all been in situations where conversations begin with the ubiquitous "They say that...." or "Did you hear that..." or "Everyone knows....". Perhaps we've all been responsible for starting that way ourselves when going on to add:
- a local restaurant was serving cooked pet dogs...
- there was a babysitter in Australia who boiled the baby...
- she was so furious with him that she superglued it to his stomach while he was asleep...
- Adolph Hitler designed the VW Beetle.... and many many more.
Revamped!
Today a new-ish (well, new to us anyway) carpet was laid and so the salubrious ambience has been restored to our lovely room packed with sheet music, LPs, CDs, and of course books - plenty of them.
Divided into classical, opera, country&western, jazz & blues, and rock & pop, it's a pleasant place to while away a few hours, a lunchbreak or a rainy weekend day. Come on in and forget the flood (as we are trying to).
Middle-Earth
Just being added to our catalogue are many titles in the series 'The History of Middle Earth'. Many of these are UK first editions and would be the perfect addition to any dedicated Tolkien fan's collection.
There are twelve books in the series, which was editied by JRR Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien. They are each around 400 pages long and packed with information - after reading this series you're bound to know more about the history of Middle Earth than the average person knows about the history of our Earth!
Extinct birds
Extinct Birds of New Zealand
In New Zealand’s lush rainforests, isolated from the outside world for 80 million years, many extraordinary birds evolved. They included the giant moa, the beautiful huia, and the largest eagle the earth has ever seen. Before human settlement, the islands were completely dominated by birds. Within a few hundred years, a quarter of those birds disappeared forever.
This book brings all these lost birds to life. In rich colour, celebrated painter Paul Martinson depicts each bird in its original habitat. Te Papa palaeontologist Alan Tennyson provides detailed information on the birds as well as a compelling overview of their tragic extinction.
This book is essential reading for experts, students, and anyone interested in this country’s natural history.
Rugby's Strangest Matches
Rugby's Strangest Matches: Extraordinary but True Stories from over a Century of Rugby
by John Griffiths
Whether you play, referee, coach, write about, film or just watch rugby, you will love this book; the remaining 2% of the popuation who don't fit into any of the above categories will not!
The book covers unusual moments, strange incidents, outstanding performances and occasional violence from 140 years of rugby. It is a fascinating assembly of good, bad and utterly bizarre events. For example:
- 111 line-outs in one game
- All Blacks beaten by schoolboys
- Injured running onto the field
- Irish team with three pairs of brothers in it
- An unknown amateur in an England XV (selectors' cock-up)
Confessions of a Book Addict
A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict
by John Baxter
John Baxter is an Australian novelist, broadcaster and film critic. This book is his story of growing up in 1950s rural Australia when reading books was regarded with suspicion and owning or collecting them was an unheard of eccentricity.
His tales of scouring junk shops, market stalls and auctions will make you smile and his journey from the back of beyond to a penthouse in Paris kitted out with a book collection worth millions will impress you.
His mania for collecting took him all over the world and brought him (and therefore you) into contact with Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis and Ray Bradbury, to name but a few.
Get yourself a copy - it's amusing, well written, very readable and irresistible for anyone who likes books.
New arrivals
We also have a "Mark Two" new arrivals trolley in the science fiction room so it's a good place to start before you begin scouring the shelves. You may alight upon a real treasure before someone else spots it.
Because Warwick buys a book collection pretty much every week (sometimes more often), there is a constant supply of new arrivals for the trolley.
Warwick tends to sort through the books and either send them for us to cataologue to the online stock or he dumps them onto the new arrivals trolley for us to shelve (hopefuy in the appropriate section).
If you haven't visited the shop or the trolleys, come on in and have a look. There is nothing more satisfying than finding exactly what you've been looking for before anyone else has seen it - or indeed, finding something you had no idea you wanted but now you have to have it.
