The Dublin Community Blog

This year’s Dublin Writers Festival kicks off on June 1st, and I have to say that this year the list of featured authors is impressive: Ian McEwan, Anthony Beevor, Joseph O’Connor, Anne Enright, Hanif Kureishi, Yann Martel a. m. m. mark this year’s edition a festival not too miss. You’ll find the full programme here, and you can follow the festival both on Twitter and Facebook as well.

I’m really disappointed to miss it, as I’ll be on holidays at the time, but if you’re into books, please give it a go – tickets are between 12 and 20 €, and events take place at different venues throughout town, such as the Project Arts Centre, the Sugar Club and the Dublin Writers Museum. Go bookworms!

As Christmas is virtually around the corner, and as books always make the best presents (at least in my personal opinion), Dublinblog would like to give you an overview of the top bookstores in Dublin. And no, Eason’s will not be featured in this list. And also I think that Amazon and Co. are not comparable when it comes to browsing through dusty encyclopedias, holding a book in your hand and chatting to knowledgeable staff and with regulars while standing amongst hundreds of old and new books. Go away, Kindle. So, to help support active reading and distribution of real books, why not buy a book (or 5 – one in each store) in one of these shops instead of purchasing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at Gamestop this Christmas.

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Our friends at The Dubliner magazine are at it again (you know, that sassy, satirical, ‘progressive’ publication that occasionally gets into some controversy with golfers’ wives) with Old City, New Dreams. This year finds an expanded list of events and venues to play host to the lively debates involving various Dublin luminaries.

Only problem is, if you haven’t ordered your free tickets by now, you’ve only got a few choices left. Most of the events next week are all booked, leaving only two left, as of this afternoon. I’m hoping to get to the ‘Fluffy Capitalism’ event myself. But only after I convince a friend who works in finance to come with me so he can feed me questions to throw out that make me sound like I know what I’m talking about.

And while you’re looking through The Dubliner blog, be sure to check out the ‘Dublin’s 10 New Commandments’ posts. After walking through the city centre in the rain today, I can really appreciate this one: Thou shalt not carry a golf umbrella through the city.

Happy Bloomsday everyone. Bloomsday, the day when the people of Dublin commemorate and relive the events in the novel Ulysses. I’m sure the papers and the media this evening and tomorrow will be full with coverage of Bloomsday events but I have to ask, how many people have actually read the book Ulysses? I’ll admit I haven’t and I’m unlikely to read it anytime soon. Does it represent Dublin? Did it ever? Does anyone who is not currently wearing a funny hat, standing outside a Georgian house and reading quotes from the book actually care? On the other hand should we all be wearing hats and quoting Bloom?

From June 2nd to June 7th, this year’s Dublin Writers Festival will be “celebrating the very best of Irish and International Writers”. The programme will feature many renowned Irish and international writers such as Val McDermid, Colm Toibin, Seamus Heaney and Melvyn Bragg in readings, talks and discussions. As our Lord Major says:

We’ll agree and argue, we’ll compliment and dissect the works brought before us but most of all we’ll value our writers and their contribution to our communities. Our Writers Festival allows Dublin to celebrate a living heritage of the written word.

You can find the official festival website here, the Facebook-group here and can listen to some podcasts as well. Unfortunately no more volunteers were needed when I applied last month, so I’ll be only there as a spectator this year…

The former James Bond will visit Easons on Saturday 17th at 2pm to meet fans and sign his autobiography My Word is Bond. For many of us Moore was the bond we grew up with and while now we may or may not prefer other Bond actors Moore will always be the Bond who drove the under water Lotus car, fought Jaws, went into space, and saved Silicon Valley allowing us to have blogs

Any Bond fans might want to pick up a signed autobiography, or even pick up one as a really early Christmas present for someone else.

I JUST noticed today that Dublin City Libraries have a Flickr account thats been in operation since January. What a great way to show people all the different kinds of work they are doing. You’ll see pics of libraries everywhere, pics of their launches, all sorts of stuff. Do check it out here. And if you are on Flickr add them as a friend.

One of the advantages of working in Temple Bar for me is being able to pop into a bookshop and unwind for a few minutes. One of my favourites at the moment is the Winding Stair Bookshop, just at the Halfpenny Bridge. It carries a great range of Childrens books, Arts books, Irish interest books and second hand books. Today I came across a gem – Living in Dublin by Robert O’Byrne. The book is pictoral (Alex Ramsay), with detailed commentry (Robert O’Byrne) and includes sections on Georgian, literary, social and contemporary Dublin. Although published in 2003, the helpful visitors guide at the back appears mostly up-to-date. A book I’m happy to add to my ever expanding coffee table collection!