Happy holidays
from your friendly librarians
There are many benefits to taking a book with
you when you are off on holiday or heading to
the beach. Helps you to relax. Lose yourself in
a thoroughly engrossing book and escape from
the worries and stresses of the everyday world.
Put your brain to work. Regular reading helps
make you smarter, increases your brain power
and improves memory function.
Looking for a book to read when
you are on leave? Then check
out the informal book collection at
Tauranga Hospital Library. Take
a book, bring back 2 books. Book
donations gratefully received.
As Dr. Seuss once wrote, “The
more that you read, the more
things you will know. The more
that you learn, the more places
you’ll go.”
Merry Christmas and happy
holidays from Lynley.
Seasons of mists and mellow
fruitfulness.......
It is often said that if you want to write
well, read poetry.
This Christmas, I encourage you to
be inspired by the delicate journey of
poetry. It doesn’t matter what you read,
be adventurous. Poetry doesn’t have to
be sombre or navel contemplating. It can
be funny, beguiling, surreal and sad. It
can express how people feel, think and
interpret the world as much as any great
works of art. It elicits connection.
Some of my favourite poems are from the Metaphysical Poets.
John Donne (No man is an island) and Andrew Marvell (Had we
but world enough and time) are probably remembered more for
their oft quoted lines than their poetry. I also like some of the
naturalism of the Romantic poets but have a weakness for the
ethereal quality of Tennyson’s Arthurian theme captivated by “The
Lady of Shalott”. By contrast, twentieth century poets are full of
charge and diversity, reflective of the times in which they wrote,
from the quietitude of A.E. Houseman to the poignancy of the First
World War Poets moving to more modernist contributions from
T.S. Elliot and Sylvia Plath.
22
Enjoy the journey this festive season from Carol.
New Year’s resolution
– write a book
In 2012 I took my librarian’s view of the publishing process a
step further and self-published my first book, followed by four
more with plans for more to come. The project began with
learning about the birds I was photographing and providing a
purpose for those photos. I chose the print format for the books
because, in spite of the mumbling about the print book being
about to die out, the online world has made publishing so easy
that there are more paper books being produced than ever.
Selling work to a commercial publisher means that they will do
all the marketing and selling, but the risk is unachievable time
commitments, so I decided to self-publish. This also makes
the sense of achievement much more personal. To avoid the
risk of the garage full of books that comes with paying for a
local print run I used an online print on demand service.
In choosing a service provider, I looked at things such as
how sales profits versus royalties are handled, the availability
of trade versus private publishing services, whether I could
use my own New Zealand ISBN, and of course the final
cost versus quality of output. I settled on Lulu as being the
best balance for me at that time, but there are a number of
companies providing these services.
The process of publication was probably the fastest and
easiest part of the whole project. After completing the online
form on the website, the files were uploaded and a draft copy
ordered. Because it was to be a trade publication I then had
to upload the corrected files, check a new draft copy, work out
pricing and finalise the book ready for its release to the world.
And it was done.
So for all of those people who plan to write a book “one day”,
let 2019 bring you your “one day”.
Raewyn Adams Librarian.