even books

You may have been too busy dancing, or smashing pinatas, to notice last Friday night at the Brautigan party - but DJ Jack Shit was busily spinning songs with a bookish-bent. Here’s the playlist you can revisit at your own leisure, courtesy of Ginny and Jude.

Librarian — My Morning Jacket

Read it in Books — Kelley Stoltz

Picture Book — The Kinks

Book of Love — The Monotones

The Bare Necessities — Jungle Book

The Word — The Beatles

Postcards from Italy — Beirut

For all the Headline — Benjamin Wetherill

Wordy Rappinghood — Tom Tom Club and Chicks on Speed

Everyday I Write the Book — Elvis Costello

Writers write, readers read. But do we ever get festivals dedicated to us? No! We do half the work, don’t we? And by work, we mean lounge about in bed with a cup of hot chocolate. Le First Ever* Sydney Readers’ Festival will put you centre stage instead of Stephen King or the guy who wrote the Bible, in a series of events dedicated to the art of reading.

*not necessarily a historical fact, what are we, Google?

FRIDAY 21 MAY: THE LIBRARY OF UNWRITTEN BOOKS – a night in honour of Richard Brautigan’s The Abortion, or, library lovers and amateur writers unite!

From 7pm-11pm, ClubHouse @ Performance Space, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh.

Don’t be put off by the title; you only need to be willing to expel stories, not babies! This swinging sixties classic is a parody of the romance genre in which a librarian falls in love with a traffic-stopping beauty. Love leads to sex, sex leads to babies, babies lead to Tijuana … but the real point is the sweet library that Brautigan invents, to which anyone can submit a story; sketched in crayon, daubed with jam, heaving with mathematical calculations. Anything goes! We’ll have a real-live librarian on hand to accept your manuscripts, along with the psychedelic strains of local shoegazers SISTER JANE, THE PRAYER CIRCLE, plus DJ SMOKEY LA BEEF and JACK SHIT a listening corner, Tijuana times, human dioramas and more.

SATURDAY 22 MAY: READ THIS SCREEN! Movies that make love to books that don’t star Harry Potter. Or Edward Cullen.

From 7pm, CuriousWorks Studio, 402/11 Randle St, Surry Hills.

A gentle night-time soiree of celluloid curated by the lady who knows Too Much about movies, Saturday morning FBi host Kate Jinx. Think soft cushions, strange visions and a Saturday night you can actually tell your Nana about (maybe). Think also Parker Posey and some threesomes. Need something more to look at? And potentially touch? We’ll be joined by New Planes, a venture promising to fill neglected spaces and open minds with native ideas and independent businesses - everything from art periodicals and cult pamphlets to punk recipe books and vinyl. Plus, there will be some delicious food aromas - can’t say any more. Donation entry, for CuriousWorks fundraising efforts.

SUNDAY 23 MAY: READING RECLAIMS REDFERN – a roving readathon with prizes per station around the streets of Redfern.

Meet at 2pm @ the big red letters in Redfern Park.

Hey, you, sport-lovers! Look at us read! What up, beer swillers! Watch me skol this Sartre! BYO butt-pillows, blankets and of course books, as we move en masse around various venues in Redfern, reading as we go. We will be accompanied by an acoustic set by THE UNDERSTUDY, some impromptu readings, and hopefully visited by pastry-makers, latte trucks and kindly beer eskies.

ONGOING: READ THIS ZINE! A special one-off publication with reader profiles, how-tos, best places to read in Sydney, lofty excerpts and ruminations on readings. Have your Reader Profile included by sending these questions and answers + JPEG of you to sydneyreadersfestival@gmail.com

NAME & LOCATION:
FAST OR SLOW:
ONE BOOK AT A TIME, OR MANY:
FIRST BOOK YOU EVER READ:
LAST BOOK YOU READ:
WHAT DO YOU NORMALLY SPILL ON YOUR BOOKS:
WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE UP (a date? a rugby match?) IF YOU WERE NECK-DEEP IN A GOOD BOOK:
WHY DO YOU READ (cos your mamma made you?):
WAIT A SECOND, THIS IS BOOKSIST! TELL US WHAT ELSE YOU READ:

ONGOING: READER INSTALLATIONS – find yourself reading somewhere? Of course you do, it’s an excellent pastime. Send a picture + brief description to sydneyreadersfestival@gmail.com and we’ll include it on our blog, where people can read about it. Geddit?