Results tagged “books”

"I probably don't even need this microphone, to be honest!" Frontman Odario Williams and the rest of his genre-bending hip-hop group Grand Analog launched the Toronto Public Library's current Make Some Noise series straight from the kids' section of the College/Shaw branch last night, and the alternative venue proved a somehow very fitting setting for an affair that's typically relegated to dark clubs at late hours that no adorable two-year-old would ever be able to attend.

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Twelve thousand dollars. That’s the budget the organizers of the first edition of the International Festival of Authors (or Harbourfront International Authors' Festival, as it was called then) had to work with in 1980 to showcase twenty-two writers of varying infamy. Capacity crowds throughout the six-day event proved to organizers and potential sponsors that Toronto could support a literary festival.

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Book season is well and firmly upon us. Like the changing colours of the leaves and the rediscovery of the scarves in the back of your closet, the sudden surge of literary prizes and the annual return of the International Festival of Authors signal that autumn is decidedly here. And it makes sense, really: what better way to combat the chill than with a pile of books that keep you safely indoors?

The internet, many people like to remark offhand, is killing print. With a twenty-four-hour news cycle better served by the instant response times of broadcast and online outlets (including the online arms of print publications who will run those same stories in the next morning's paper), e-books finally taking off, and shortening attention spans that prize bells and whistles over the sedate pleasures of slow perusal, the old-fashioned printed word is facing hard times. Or so this line of thought goes.

With the closure of Pages Books a couple of months ago, Toronto lost one of its great literary institutions. As we reported at the time, however, the news wasn't entirely grim: "There is, fortunately," we said, "the silveriest of silver linings, which is that Pages' much-loved programming, run under the banner This Is Not A Reading Series (TINARS), will continue."

The contenders for Canada's most prestigious literary award, the Giller Prize, were announced a few minutes ago. On the shortlist this year are: Kim Echlin for The Disappeared (Hamish Hamilton); Annabel Lyon for The Golden Mean (Random House); Linden MacIntyre for The Bishop's Man (Random House); Colin McAdam for Fall (Hamish Hamilton); Anne Michaels for The Winter Vault (McClelland & Stewart). This is one of those times when just being nominated really is a boon—shortlisted authors routinely see a significant spike in sales and exposure. The winner of the Giller almost inevitably becomes a national bestseller, in addition to claiming the fifty-thousand-dollar prize.

Remember The NeverEnding Story? That 1984 film about some kid who gets lost in a magic book and ends up having an excellent adventure involving a giant, flying, luckdragon?

This year's edition of TIFF marks the first time in quite a while that the opening film—Creation—isn't a "Toronto film" in some sense. But don't think that that's an indicator the festival has forgotten its hometown roots.

       

So you have Gossip Girl seasons one and two on DVD and no one likes the show more than you. But have you ever laid awake at night wondering, "How many husbands has Lily van der Woodsen had? What song do Blair and Chuck make out to in the back of the limo? Who designed the dress Serena wore in 'Seventeen Candles'?" Sure you have.

For most city students, this week marks the start of another year of hitting the textbooks or reasonable facsimiles of. Back in 1929, local department stores such as Simpson's did their part to further the education of their future customer base by offering texts alongside the normal range of school supplies. Of the subjects listed, note that it was slightly cheaper for students to study British history than Canada’s past, which demonstrates the societal ties that remained between Ontario and “the mother country” (unless the publisher simply charged less). Also note how perilously the texts float above each student’s head—we hope this wasn’t a hint that knowledge should literally be fed to student brains.

Finally! We've been to a few disappointing Luminato displays of late, and a few disappointing "marquee" literary events, and so it is with great pleasure and relief that we can report that last week, both fiction lovers and Luminato-goers got exactly what they've been craving: well-executed programming that was as warm and inviting as it was ambitious. World Voices in Fiction brought four of the brightest new luminaries in contemporary fiction to the Al Green theatre Thursday night, to read from and discuss their recent works, and did so in a most satisfying fashion. The authors were brilliant and also, happily, comfortable in front of an audience. The space was welcoming and the pace relaxed, just right for a reading on a lazy summer night. (Organizers of all literary events take note: acoustics matter. So do lighting and sightlines. Please book your venues accordingly.) In short, it was just what a book-ish night should be.

Last February, when three of the four major publishers in Canada pulled out of Toronto's annual book industry trade show, BookExpo sadly bit the dust. The collective feeling, particularly amongst small press publishers and indie booksellers, was “where do we meet now?” The book industry is in trouble, and even major publishers are scared stiff by spiralling sales and the rise of ebooks. And so, with a need for real discussion, BookCamp was born.

Book readings are, in a certain way, transgressive. In bridging the usual remove between author and audience, and in reinstantiating the written word as performance, they breach the boundaries which usually govern our experience as readers. Book readings rely on that transgressive quality for their success: a good book reading is one in which listeners feel genuinely connected to the author they are hearing, and in which the performance conveys something more than whatever is contained in the written work alone.

This upcoming weekend is the inaugural Open House Festival, the Globe and Mail's new celebration of books and the people who write them. We have a bit of a thing for words and wordsmiths around here, and so will be attending in force to report on how the festival fares in its first year out. Organizers have pulled together an all-star line-up and kept ticket prices for most events reasonable ($15 for McInerney, Rakoff, Toews, and Trillin is a pretty sweet deal), so with any luck this will turn out to be the first installment of a new annual tradition.

Does your Canadianness matter to you? And what does it even mean to be Canadian? The old joke, of course, is that Canada is NotTheUnitedStates, that we define ourselves as America's inverse, or perhaps her kinder, gentler cousin, but have no substantive notion of what our identity is absent that contrast. On the other hand, lots of us vehemently reject that trope, arguing that Canada does have a distinct sense of itself. Just what that identity consists in though (Multiculturalism? Socialized medicine, or a broader concern for social welfare? Our climate and geography? The sheer course of historical events?) isn't always entirely clear.

Globe and Mail music critic turned 33⅓ media darling Carl Wilson has posted a full roundup of his experience as a guest on The Colbert Report. Hard-hitting highlights include: A fruit plate in the green room! Colbert's voice = a half-octave deeper than his television affectation! But really, a pretty interesting read if you've ever wondered how the show works or what the reach of the post-airdate "Colbert Bump" really is. Kudos to Wilson for holding his own during the interview despite appearing suitably nervous and seemingly falling for Colbert's made-up hipster pop band Ogre Milk. And handclaps to whoever whipped up the Ogre Milk MySpace moments after the show aired, giving Wilson tons of early adopter cred.

Toronto celebrates its 175th birthday today, which provides an opportunity to look back at its accomplishments, determine what makes it work in the present, assess why we like living here, and ponder where its future lies. Past anniversaries have combined these elements in commemorative books, with two standing out from the pack (advance apologies to those who produced the 150th anniversary book—our blue-ribbon book selection committee couldn't get past the sax-playing clown balanced on a unicycle in front of Union Station).

"Feminist." "Ex-neo-Nazi." "Teenager."

Once a week, Vandalist features the best street art and graffiti from around Toronto. You should contribute.

In news that prompted every Toronto-area music journalist we know to pump fists on becoming one or two degrees removed from Stephen Colbert, Globe and Mail music critic and Trampoline Hall co-founder Carl Wilson is scheduled to be a guest on The Colbert Report. Why? Because of James Franco's sweet l'il (read: completely random bananas) red carpet shout out to Wilson's 33⅓ book. Now everybody wants a piece.