First of all, I wanted to let you all know that I’ll be in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK from tomorrow until Monday. I don’t know how frequent my internet connection will be, so there will be only sporadic blogging for the next few days.
To tide you over, here are some links:
The 2011 Man Booker Prize goes to Julian Barnes for his novel The Sense of an Ending.
This will probably please the traditionalists who were unhappy with this year’s shortlist and the jury. And it’s certainly nice for Julian Barnes to finally win on his fourth nomination. Nonetheless, I can’t shake the feeling that the least interesting book won.
Meanwhile, the fashion for one word titles in young adult publishing has caused an embarrassing mix-up in the YA category of the National Book Awards, when a novel called Shine by Lauren Myracle was mistakenly announced as a nominee rather than a novel called Chime by Fanny Billingsley. Chime was eventually given an extra slot on the shortlist, while Shine was supposed to remain on the list as well, until Lauren Myracle decided to withdraw. Still a very embarrassing situation.
oh, Newcastle, I wish I could travel with you. I did my PhD in Newcastle and still have friends there. Since I have returned to Germany, I suffer from nostalgia quite often, remembering the town and its very friendly sort of people. In a way, it is very annoying: when I arrived there in 2006 there hasn’t been a decent cafe which didn’t close at five p.m. – and now that there are so many nice places to sit, eat, listen to music and drink tea/coffee/cocoa I am not there anymore!
Well I hope you’ll have a nice trip!
It’s a small world indeed. Where did you do your PhD, at the University of Newcastle or Northumberland? I just visited the Blackwell’s store near the university today?
Luckily, there are plenty of nice cafés and restaurants now.
University of Newcastle, School of historical studies. Strange, I know that Blackwell very well indeed…
You might want to try the Scrumpy Willow and the Singing Kettle, 89 Clayton Street.
Have fun!
Thanks for the tip.