2012 Year of Reading Australia

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » October 9th, 2011, 7:10 am

I had an idea for the Year of Reading, which is a -huge- event which Australian libraries are going to roll out next year. (Really! Little known fact: per head of population Australians buy the most books of anyone on Earth. I know how unlikely it sounds, but remember: we send the beer soaked adolescent ones overseas to dry out and have adventures. It's all rather more sane here.)

So, my idea is this!

Create a blog which highlights one Librivox reading per week for the year. The readings should have some sort of Australian hook. So they can be by an Australian author, or about Australia, or just have a prominent bit of Australianess in the plot. Failing that: performed by Australians will do! 8)

NYR runs from Library Lovers Day (which is 14 February) to 1 Jan 2013, which is 46 weeks gives or take.

I'm trying to hook into three concepts:

* reading aloud as a way of enjoying reading.
* supported reading (which is where you read the text while hearing the words)
* an hour a week. NYR says the universe owes you an hour of reading a week at minimum. I'm going to try and do one hour of LV a week for that time (although I -know- I'll fail since (maniacal chuckle) Linda and I have our first baby due Aprilish).

So, for this, what we'd need is:

* recordings to highlight which are PD legal in Oz. Librivox has about a dozen, which I can list out at the end of this mail (yes, I did read the enitre catalogue. My "to be listened to" file now contains 302 works and I stoped adding to it on authors starting with L.)
* people to tell me what recordings I've missed. I know I've missed everything in Short Works.
* people who would consider, for the sake of the project, recording something a bit Australian. Even if its a shorter work, that's fine. I'm not going to suggest a single poem as the thing for the week, but something like the Jerildere Letter, which is a half hour seems fine to me. I'm not saying -what- you should record, but basically for the next year, just keep your eyes open for something a bit Australian and if you happen to want to record it, then please tell me by PM so I can add it to the project.
* advice for how to do things better. Should I just do "read by Australians" as a category, because then I already have 42 candidates? Should I do 1 per 2 weeks, so I only need 23?
* Social media support when this goes live. You know, when I have a blog and facebookand google and that, +1 it and so on.
* anything else you can think of that I need.

So, what do people think? Advice, please?

Added later:

Oh, the list!

Librivox has 32 recordings I can find which are Australian in subject, or by author. Some of these are not in Australian PD, but here's the list:

Books which seem fine based on PD:
The Book of the Bush by George Dunderdale (d 1903)
Robert O'Hara Burke by Andrew Jackson (published in 1861, so let's assujme he died in time)
The Glugs of Gosh by CJ Denis
Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by CJ Denis
The Amatuer Cracksman by EW Hornung (d 1921)
Dead Men Tell No Tales by Ernest William Hornung
Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amatuer Cracksman by EW Hornung (d 1921)
The Shadow of the Rope, by E. W. Hornung
A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53 by Ellen Clacy
Dot and the Kangaroo, by Ethel C. Pedley (d 1898)
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume (d 1923)
The Secret Passage by Fergus Hume
The Silent House by Fergus Hume
Madam Midas by Fergus Hume
Voyage Round the World in His Majesty's Frigate Pandora, by George Hamilton (it was wrecked in 1791, so...)
Australian Legendary Tales Folk-Lore of the Noongahburrahs As Told To The Piccaninnies by K. Langloh Parker (d 1940)
For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke (published in the 1870s)
My Brilliant Career, by Miles Franklin (d 1954)
The Man from Snowy River and other Verses, by Andrew Barton 'Banjo" Paterson (d 1941)
Tours of the South Coast District by Queensland Rail (no idea but I checked it at the time...)
Robbery Under Arms, by Rolf Boldrewood (d 1915)
The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause and Consequences by Sir John Barrow (no idea, but he'd have to have been ancient)
Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria by Willima Westgarth (d 1889)
A Voyage to the South Sea, by William Bligh
A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany-Bay, by Watkin Tench
Five Months at Anzac, by Joseph Lievesly Beeston (d 1921)
So, actually, quite a few there, particularly if you like mystery novels and you accept that EW Hornung counts. 8)

I have not listed The Jerildere Letter here, but think it's fine as well, which brings this list to 26, which is a fun number of weeks if we go the full 52. It's possible to lay these out, and just switch out some of them if people record stuff we like more. I mean, you might cut out the fourth Hume, or the last Raffles (since we don't seem to have the middle ones? I'm sure I've listened to them.) or just fill in the other 26 weeks. If peopel think this a good idea, I'll start looking for birthdays, or the days of the mutiny on the Bounty, or whatever.

LV titles not suited to the project seem to include:
The Publisher by CJ Denis: weekly poetry project
Seven Little Australians: not PD in Australia.
Australian Sunrise: weekly poetry project
Captain Jim by Mary Grant Bruce died after the D+70 cutoff.
A Little Bush Maid by Mary Grant Bruce
The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay died after the D+70 cutoff.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » October 9th, 2011, 8:50 am

but remember: we send the beer soaked adolescent ones overseas to dry out and have adventures.

We have enough of our own, thank you. But presumably we send them back as book-lovers?

http://librivox.org/five-months-at-anzac-by-joseph-lievesley-beeston/
Author, Beeston, Joseph Lievesley, 1859-1921.

EDITED TO ADD: Though he must have been pretty old to be "the Officer Commanding the 4th Field Ambulance, Australian Imperial Force from his leaving Australia December 1914 till his evacuation due to illness after 5 months at Gallipoli. " But that is what PG says.

Ruth

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » October 9th, 2011, 9:23 am

RuthieG wrote:
but remember: we send the beer soaked adolescent ones overseas to dry out and have adventures.
We have enough of our own, thank you. But presumably we send them back as book-lovers?

http://librivox.org/five-months-at-anzac-by-joseph-lievesley-beeston/
Author, Beeston, Joseph Lievesley, 1859-1921.

EDITED TO ADD: Though he must have been pretty old to be "the Officer Commanding the 4th Field Ambulance, Australian Imperial Force from his leaving Australia December 1914 till his evacuation due to illness after 5 months at Gallipoli. " But that is what PG says.

Ruth

Yes: they tend your pubs, and burn out their wild oats, and come back with backpacks filled with Thomas Hardy novels. True story. 8)

I can accept that he was ridiculously senior to be a front-line commander. If he had Boer War experience, he might have stayed around, and the officers were kind of blindsided by this idea that they might be sent to the other side of the world to save the Empire.

Post by **annise** » October 17th, 2011, 1:52 am

Hi Timothy
Give Linda my best wishes

- but I think you had better have this organised well in advance.

Would you accept something in a short works collection ? I know there are a few around - and I am sitting on a William Buckley piece of about 1 hour which I had thought of adding to Short Non Fiction some time

Ultima Thule has been done -

What about New Guinea - does it count ? There is a kids book with Australian boys 1 white 1 black looking for white boys father - and there are some Antartica stories also

Anne

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » October 17th, 2011, 3:00 am

annise wrote:Hi Timothy
Give Linda my best wishes - but I think you had better have this organised well in advance.

Would you accept something in a short works collection ? I know there are a few around - and I am sitting on a William Buckley piece of about 1 hour which I had thought of adding to Short Non Fiction some time

Ultima Thule has been done -

What about New Guinea - does it count ? There is a kids book with Australian boys 1 white 1 black looking for white boys father - and there are some Antartica stories also

Anne

I'm -very- happy to accept short works: I just can't -find- them without looking through the table of contents of every collection. 8)

As to New Guinea, well that book has an Australian lead character, so sure...

New Guinea fits, particularly if its in the period of the Australian protectorate (um...1918 to 1973?) when Queensland / Australia was the Imperial overloard / UN sanctioned supervisory state in PNG. Antarctica probably fits (half of it is Australian territory).

So, please, suggest away.

Post by **annise** » October 17th, 2011, 7:25 pm

Starlite · Post by **Starlite** » October 17th, 2011, 8:26 pm

You have a new eager Aussie reader: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=36337

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=36339

Esther

malleechick · Post by **malleechick** » October 21st, 2011, 9:12 pm

I'm happy to be part of it and will assist - sure!

I haven't looked at the lists here yet, but I know that Project Gutenberg has the dairies of William John Wills, Charles Sturt and John Oxely's exploration of the Lachlan River and finding Griffith (and Oxley's botanist Cunningham). I used some of these for another project or read them out of interest.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » October 22nd, 2011, 3:45 am

I would heartily welcome some Australian contributions in this year's Christmas Short Works Collection.

I found An Australian Christmas collection: stories, sketches, essays by James Francis Hogan (1855 - 1924)
http://www.archive.org/details/anaustralianchr00hogagoog

Or how about A Christmas Eve in the Far South Seas by Louis Becke from Rídan The Devil And Other Stories http://www.archive.org/details/rdanthedevilando24835gut

Or Julius Adolphus Jenkin's Christmas Alligator by Louis Becke from Neath Austral Skies http://www.archive.org/details/neathaustralskie00beck

I will add those to the list of suggested works in the project thread, and hope that some of my Antipodean cousins will come to visit.

Ruth

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » October 23rd, 2011, 5:44 am

RuthieG wrote:I would heartily welcome some Australian contributions in this year's Christmas Short Works Collection.

I found An Australian Christmas collection: stories, sketches, essays by James Francis Hogan (1855 - 1924)
http://www.archive.org/details/anaustralianchr00hogagoog

[snip]

I will add those to the list of suggested works in the project thread, and hope that some of my Antipodean cousins will come to visit.

Ruth

I'm up for some of that...is it over in launchpad?

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » October 23rd, 2011, 7:27 am

Christmas Short Works Collection

I shall welcome you with metaphorical open arms. It's in Short Works.

Ruth

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » October 28th, 2011, 6:37 pm

Ah, RuthieG, there's an excellent little piece in the Australian Christmas collection about the Melbourne Cup (which is going to run in two days time) which I intend to record if none of you beats me to it. It's not all that Christmassy, though. 8)

So, thanks for pointing it out. I will try to find something a bit more festive for your own collection.

Post by **annise** » October 28th, 2011, 7:57 pm

It is a struggle finding Christmas Australian things I found when I hunted last year.
Do you think we could put the Melbourne cup into a small short collection of Australian things - I have a piece about William Buckley that I thought was interesting ( he lived around Port Philip for about 30 years with the aboriginals) ?
They wouldn't have to be read by Australians - just obey Librivoxox and Australin PD rules.
Something from On our selection - without little Joe in it

Some poetry
Something Queenslandy
etc
If you are interested I could set it up -

Anne

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » October 28th, 2011, 8:26 pm

Yes, I think we could do this...another of the suggestions for Ruthie contains a long whinge about Native Sons and their stupid love of sport. I'd like to record that!

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » October 30th, 2011, 3:06 am

a long whinge about Native Sons and their stupid love of sport

Hah! Plus ça change, eh?

Ruth