Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Each year, as the holiday season comes around and news becomes thin on the ground, we look back into history for a snapshot of the news in centuries past .....

1708 was a rather dull year for literature, at least from the perspective of modern-day readers looking for works by authors still well known today, but it was an important year for three historians who used their retirement to produce notable works:

The first volume of Theologian Joseph Bingham's 10 volume Antiquities of the Christian Church was published; on its completion in 1722 it provided an exhaustive and methodical account of the antiquities of the Christian Church.

Theater critic and theologian Jeremy Collier published the first volume of his Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain - which, while controversial, became widely used.

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Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Each year, as the holiday season comes around and the news stories start to dry up, we look back into history for a snapshot of the news in centuries past. This year, we start in 1608 ....

While the early settlers at Jamestown struggled for survival, London was a hive of dramatic endeavor:

Ben Jonson's The Masque of Beauty and The Hue and Cry After Cupid were both published and performed for the first time. Thomas Heywood published The Rape of Lucrece; Thomas Middleton published The Family of Love, A Mad World, My Masters and A Trick to Catch the Old One; and William Shakespeare published King Lear - to name but a few.

Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, Thomas Dekker, was also in fine voice, publishing two tracts: The Dead Term and The Bellman of London; and considering that he claimed credit for 240 plays during his 60-year lifetime, it seems likely that he turned out a few plays as well.

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Guest blogger: Jonathan Evison, author of 'All About Lulu'

For thirteen years I've been stocking the shelves at The Book Cathedral, and it is my love story. You will probably not remember me by my name, but call me Ishmael. Or Tom Jones, or Tom Sawyer, or Elmer Gantry, or McTeague, or The Idiot, if you like. You may not remember me for my wispy hair, or brick-shaped loafers, nor for the wealth of cat hair clinging to the seat of my faded dockers. I distinguish myself by my love of books, and by never using the search function--I've no need of it.

Ask me who's between Allende and Sherwood Anderson, and I shall tell you without pause, Martin Amis, between Sarte and Schulberg, Saunders, and at the end of the line, you'll find Zusak, unless of course we're out, in which case you'll find Zafon. Blindfold me and spin me around in circles, then set me straight and run my fingers down the spines, and I'll tell you when we get to Proust, or the shorter novels of Melville. Ask me where to find Silas Wegg and I shall point you to Dickens. Ask me where is Oskar and I'll tell you he's banging his tin drum between Golding and Graves. And if it's Sancho Panza you're after, you'll find him chasing windmills with Quixote just to the left of Chaucer.

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Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

Booklovers - mark your calendars for the impending arrival of the first novel by a masterful storyteller! Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese will be published in the USA by Knopf in February 3, 2009 and in the UK by Chatto & Windus in April. 

I was fortunate to be given a copy of Cutting For Stone last month and gorged myself on all 534 pages in less than two days.  Since then, I have passed my copy on to two friends (a difficult feat as it took some wrestling to separate the book from the first friend in order to pass it to the second!)

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Davina Morgan-Witts, BookBrowse editor

A Living Library event looks much like a conventional library - tables and chairs are set out for study, librarians staff the check out desk and borrowers can browse a catalog of books.  The difference is that what's on loan are not books but people!  The heart of The Living Library are Living Books - people that, for one reason or another, are subjected to stereotyping and prejudices. All are unpaid volunteers.

The concept is simple; interested participants check out a Living Book on a topic of interest and spend 30 minutes in discussion with the particular Book. 

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Kim Kovacs, BookBrowse reviewer

I have to admit I've become something of a Christmas Grinch. I don't have children, and my two cats have always shunned any gift I've purchased for them (apparently preferring toys of their own devising, like twist ties and the plastic rings off milk jugs). I'm also at that stage in my life where I have everything I need, as do my friends, so we end up exchanging gift cards: No fuss, no muss, no long lines at the store, but also not very festive. Over the years it's become too much of a chore to dig out the ornaments and set up a tree, so "decorating for Christmas" has come to mean that I've changed the wallpaper on my Blackberry to something holiday-appropriate.

I used to shop carefully for my nieces and nephew, choosing toys that I thought were both educational and fun (and, preferably, noisy, to drive my sister crazy). I'd also pick out a book for each of them, hoping that at least one would develop a love of reading (so far, no luck). I'd wrap each gift with great care and pack them into boxes, then trek over to the post office to stand in line for hours to spend a relatively large sum to get the presents across country in a timely manner. Then one Christmas my sister decided to videotape the kids unwrapping the gifts I'd so lovingly sent them. It's hard to imagine four children looking more bored and unimpressed then this quartet. "Say thank-you to Aunt Kim!" I heard my sister chirp in the background. "Thanks, Aunt Kim..." the four replied in an unconvincing monotone. It's been cash ever since.

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