COVID-19 Musings - Books and Reading

Week 15 of the State Library of Victoria #SLV Memory Bank asks how people in Melbourne are filling in their time during our second Lockdown.

Lockdown Content:

Whether your preferred content amplifies the outside world or diverts you from it, we'd love to know what's got your attention.

This week: tell us about the books you're reading and sites you're bookmarking, the shows you're binge-watching and music playlists you're creating, the podcasts you're queueing and online festivals you're attending.

An earlier post, Stay at Home, listed many of my activities including online jigsaw puzzles, doing Future Learn courses and, of course reading and book related activities.

This lockdown as a result of COVID-19 restrictions has provided me with more time for reading. 

Libraries still worked to provide services to members, although it was not possible to be open to the public, by promoting their online services as well as finding new ways to continue activities online including activities and sessions for children and adults.

 

Author Talks

Libraries are not the only organisations to be making author talks available online.

Since the beginning of April Dymocks has set up a collection of author talks - Chapter One.

There is now a wide range of author talks and virtual book launches that can be watched via Youtube or Facebook. (I have found that on my computer the sound is sometimes out of sync with the video on Facebook but watching the same clip on Youtube was OK.)

Better Reading also has made a number of author talks available online on Facebook plus some podcasts.

There is also a weekly session - What are You Reading? - where recent books are discussed and readers provide titles of books that they are reading.

Courses

During June Dervla McTiernan is running a series of workshops - #Writing  Studio - each Friday on Facebook for Better Reading.

Each session runs for half an hour covering the topics: Session One Ideas, Session 2 Characters, Session Three Structure & Outlining and Session Four Self Editing - Getting Published. Worksheets for each session are available from Better Reading as well as Delvra McTiernan's website.

During the past couple of months I have also participated in some literature based online courses on Future Learn:

Shakespeare in Print and Performance (Kings College London),

Penshurst Place and the Sidney Family of Writers (Lancaster University) and

Understanding English Dictionaries (Coventry University).

Consequently I have enjoyed having the time to explore more about books and reading.

See also all posts relating to COVID-19 including

COVID-19 Musings - Libraries

COVID-19 Musings - Stay at Home

Future Learn website