The Battle for the Reader

Speakers: Swapan Chakravorty; Shirley Dent; Philip Hensher; Nicolette Jones; Honor Wilson-Fletcher Chair: Angus Kennedy More people are literate than ever before, buying books hand over fist, while circulations of magazines and newspapers are up too. People join book clubs in droves, Richard and Judy and Oprah promote new books on TV, and new technology is apparently about to Kindle a new love affair with e-books. So do we really need a National Year of Reading sponsored by the government and a host of other organisations? At the same time as we celebrate books and reading, however, we wonder if we are reading the right things, with celebrity chefs and Harry Potter topping the bestseller lists. Are we making enough time for Cervantes, Milton and Joyce? Is it elitist to distinguish between good and bad literature, or have we simply lost the confidence to tell the difference? Meanwhile, some observers worry that while women can't get enough, young men have little interest in reading, and debates still rage about the right age to get children started. What is at stake in debates about reading today?

Best Buy PS3 Panasonic VIERA Hdtv

The best agitated battle on the planet back the Second World War

Please visit www.simonreeve.co.uk for more information. While making his BBC TV series Equator, Simon Reeve learns more about the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the most violent conflict on the planet since the Second World War. InEquator, Simon followed the equator through troubled areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America, including Colombia and the Congo. The Radio Times said Equator was an extraordinary journeyrevelatorythrilling and thought-provokinghits us with jaw-dropping factseye-openingdelivers a string of revealing snapshots. The Sunday Times said You cannot expect much more from a documentary, frankly. And the Daily Mail said it was: Unmissablespectacular and thought-provoking. ---- Simon Reeve is a bestselling author and broadcaster. In recent years hes travelled to scores of countries around the world for a series of BBC television documentaries. The 2008 BBC TV series Tropic of Capricorn took Simon around the line marking the southern border of the tropics. His accompanying book, also called Tropic of Capricorn, is published by BBC Books. In his Places That Dont Exist series Simon travelled to a group of unrecognised nations countries so obscure they dont officially exist, including Somaliland, South Ossetia, Transdniestria and Nagorno-Karabakh. And in the series Meet the Stans, Simon visited the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Simons book The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of ...

LG LCD HDTV Proxima Projector