A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. I hope all goes well for you and that Abbey’s will see another Fifty Years contributing to the culture in Sydney.
Consider this new big book on an everlasting topic. It is Rome: Eternal City by Ferdinand Addis who studied Classics at Oxford and was a film-maker and journalist before he decided to be a historian. He chooses significant moments in Rome’s 3000 years of history and links these with a lively narrative so that he presents a history of Rome for a new generation of readers. When I tell you that the final scene is the opening of Fellini’s movie La Dolce Vita in1960 you will see he writes about both High Art and Low Life.
Put aside (for now) Edward Gibbons’ famous Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, available in Penguin Classics in various volumes or the 1 volume Abridgement. Addis' book is an easier companion if you are planning to visit the exhibition Rome and Empire in Canberra at the National Museum, which is on until 3rd February 2019. There is also an audio version of the Gibbon abridgement of Decline and Fall read by David Timson.
I think there are still fans around for the George Johnston and Charmian Clift saga. They will like a new book by Paul Genoni and Tanya Dalziell. It is called Half the Perfect World: Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964. Enjoy - and you can still buy a copy of My Brother Jack or Charmian Clift’s Mermaids Singing & Peel Me a Lotus at Abbey’s.
I hope you are able to visit the shop, which is near the Town Hall, during the holidays. There are so many interesting books for you to choose from, not just the latest best sellers. Remember, if you are looking at Abbey’s lively database online, that you can choose to show only those books currently in stock if you click down the side.
Upstairs on the First Floor, Language Book Centre has DVD’s and both fiction and non-fiction in other languages as well as the usual 'teach yourself' text books. GALAXY Bookshop, also upstairs has an amazing array of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Paranormal Romance. They also have lots of puzzles, games, cards and POP! figurines. Ask a bookseller for advice if you are not a Sci-Fi reader yourself. There’s a lift in the foyer if you want to avoid the stairs.
Enjoy yourself, make book-buying your best good deed at Christmas,
Since 1968 ~ Abbey's 131 York Street Sydney ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers
