Just read this and thought what else could be put in with it. An intelligent comment from a politician, and Prime Minister at that. Kind of ruins your faith in them to be a useless pack of self serving incompetents, doesn't it.


<>
Rudd says bookshops temples of the soul
02:31 AEST Sat Dec 6 2008
10 hours 29 minutes ago


Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described bookshops as "temples of the Australian soul" that provide ritualistic escapes from modern life.

At the official launch of Century of Pictures - Celebrating 100 Years of Herald Photography on Friday, Mr Rudd praised bookshops for successfully overcoming the assault of the digital age and finding new ways of marketing books through technology.

"Ten years ago at the height of the dot com revolution we were told about the death of books," he said.

"It hasn't quite worked out that way.

"Australians are actively buying more books than they did 10 years ago."

Mr Rudd told the audience at the launch, at Berklelouw Books in Sydney's Newtown, that as a child in the small town of Eumundi on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, he had little chance to discover the joy of books.

There was no bookstore and the school library was nothing more than a "little room at the end of the verandah", he said.

"In the Queensland that I grew up in, reading was not always encouraged, books were not always encouraged (and) intellectual pursuits were not always encouraged."

"It's good that we have today a spread of these wonderful oases of enjoyment, celebration of literature and learning spread right across the country, including my own home town," he added.

"It's good to see."

Just spending time in bookstores had become an Australian pursuit, he said, citing his family's own ritual of heading to their local Brisbane bookstore every Sunday morning.

"Having paid our respects to the Sunday morning, we would then retreat to Bulimba to Riverbend Books and spend some time there," he said.

"(It was) a place to nourish the soul ... a place where the mind can roam free and find fresh nourishment."

"It was a good ritual."

He added that he hoped that some of the federal government's $10.4 billion economic recovery strategy would find its way to Australian authors through Australian bookshops.

Century of Pictures, edited by chief photographer of The Sydney Morning Herald Mike Bowers, showcases some of the best photos published by the newspaper over the last 100 years


<>

But it was at a newspaper function, so any truth to the comment awaits verification as to both substance and bias. Politicians may fail in the general disregard of them, but newspapers are forever when it comes to bias, self service, deceit, and general untrustworthiness.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A picture is worth a thousand words. A chocolate is worth a thousand pictures.

I am not usually complimentary about ANY politician, but

"WELL DONE SIR!"





[i]edited to put "I am not usually comp" back which I accidentally removed during first edit to remove a stray grammasite



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2008 01:39PM by SkidMarks.

<Points out that it was a blind>

<Thinks that praising bookshops for "finding new ways of marketing books through technology" would only lead on those like our dear friends at Bu*** books and their unsolicited E-mail scheme. I still find them every week in my trash folder.>

Skids,

I cannot read the first word clearly. Is it 'complimentary' or 'ailimentary'?

As for praising bookshops my Dymocks card has got me some @#$%& books. Then my wife went and bought a complete set of novels in a series about a patchwork group in the US and used up all my credits. I believe the stories are quite good, both from a storytelling aspect as well as from the descriptions of patchwork groups and their outputs.


I will have to go and have some more cancers out next year and I hope Jasper's new book is available by then as that is my current justification for buying new books. If I can justify one book per cancer then I can get Terry's latest as well. But the way I am going it seems that I will be able to buy the entire Perry Rhodan set and still have some credit.

The cancers are not serious. Just skin cancers of odd types - melanomas, basal cells, some squidgy thing that get ice burned out of my skin and a couple of dubious spots where I have undergone a weight loss program with surgical precision. The surgeon couldn't operate last year as he had broken his leg in China. I've got the locale, and the cast. Now all I need is a plot.

I have repaired to post, Bunyip.

Melanoma sucks (hugs)

The thing that I find most frustrating is that none of these things can I see.

They are either in my back or around the curve of my body so that I get a tantalising glimpse of something.

I have requested that they find the next one on my forearm so that I can see it.

Just have a look when they cut it out, like I did!

(but it's really not as interesting as you'd think)

So, what sounds better at this point? Toasted tea cakes or Chelsea buns?

I'm just hoping it isn't spotted dick.

<Adds Geg to the 'difficult' list>

Promises to become difficult unless removed from difficult list,immediately.

Okay, I'll put you on the other list.

Starboard list?

If I tell you what the other list is then you'll threaten to become whatever's it's built for.

<Pauses for thought>

Actually it's the Liszt list.

Egon.

If placed on the "people who are always nice to EgonSpengler no matter what" list - will insist on being put back on difficult list.

<puts Geg back on 'difficult' list.

If 'list' follow the same pattern as low, lower, lowest; less, lesser, least - hence: liss, lisser, list - then could I please go on the 'difficult' lisser?
I've always wanted to be on someone's liss but the chance to jump straight onto a middle rung is too good to pass (passer/ past) up.

Places robert on lissom list as is closest to his desire that spell-check will allow.
Places EgonSpengler on the "people who have lists for no apparent reason" list.