Preparing for the 150th
A mass release takes a lot of preparation to be successful, so I spent a large chunk of the weekend getting ready for next weekend’s 150th birthday celebrations, registering and labelling books the books I got at last weekend’s booksale. (And that’s how you fit far too many weekends into one sentence). I even created my own labels for the books, with a bit of a Christchurch theme (just a stylised picture of the Cathedral pinched from the Council’s website and recoloured, and some red and black text) and the note at the bottom “Released by FutureCat in honour of Christchurch’s 150th Birthday”.
I managed to find 32 books that, to me anyway, fit the theme, in various categories:
Books actually about Christchurch:
Building Christchurch (an incredibly dry technical report that nobody would ever want, but it fits the theme perfectly, so who cares)
Hay Days by Sir Hamish Hay (autobiography of a former mayor of Christchurch)
Books by Christchurch authors:
Oracles and Miracles by Stevan Eldred-Grigg
Then Again by Sue McCauley
And then there’s all the books that have nothing at all to do with Christchurch, but whose titles seemed appropriate:
Because it’s the 150th birthday of Christchurch becoming a city, books with the word “city” or “town” or similar in their title:
The Strong City by Taylor Caldwell
Soft City by Jonathan Raban
Dollarville by Pete Davies
The Desert in the City by Carlo Carretto
Love in Another Town by Barbara Taylor Bradford
More Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
A City Out of Sight by Ivan Southall
Christchurch was declared a city when a bishop was appointed, so books with church-related titles:
Hallelujah Now by T Davies
The Religion by Nicholas Conde
The Warden by Anthony Trollope (and another copy, both of which feature a painting of a church on their covers that looks remarkably like Christchurch’s cathedral)
Books with titles reminiscent of the early settlers who travelled so far to come to Christchurch:
The First to Land by Douglas Reeman
How Far Can You Go? by David Lodge
Another Time, Another Place by Jessie Kesson
To the Ends of the Earth by Thomas Locke
In a Far Country by Adam Kennedy
Rule Britannia by Daphne Du Maurier
Virgin Territory by Marilyn Todd
The Farther Shore by Jack Couffer
Books with words like “anniversary” in the title:
The Killing Anniversary by Ian St James
Jubilee by Nepi Solomon
Centennial by James A Michener
Books with titles that are reminiscent of history, looking back at the past, etc:
Remember by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Ancestors by Robyn Davidson
Don’t Look Back by Jahnna N Malcolm
Joan Makes History by Kate Grenville
And finally, because we’ll be releasing most of the books around Cathedral Square:
Cathedral by Nelson DeMille
Soho Square by Claire Rayner (stretching things a bit, but it was the only book I could find with “Square” in the title – lytteltonwitch nabbed Window on the Square before I could get to it)
Currently reading: Press Send by John McLaren
I’ve read a whole *one* of the books on that list 🙂 "Oracles and Miracles". I’ve also heard it as a radio serial, and even seen it as live theatre, so perhaps I can claim extra points.