BOOK LAUNCH.

BOOK LAUNCH”

In this day of e-Books and other forms of electronic information there is a danger of the book launch being consigned to history. However, the other day I had the pleasure of attending the book launch of a local author at the Hobart Book Shop. The mere fact that an eighty year old could find the energy and dedication to write a first time novel at that age was a marvel in itself.

 

The author Paddy Burges Watson, has set down a wonderful tale of a young poor Irish girl from Connemara, who through misfortune finds herself transported to Van Diemen’s Land. The tale embraces years of social observation about the emotional and physical reactions of our human kind. Set in the 1820’s it offers an insight into the early years of Hobart from a humble perspective.

 

Sitting in the bookshop listening to various speakers endorse Paddy’s tale, my eye wondered around the shelves alighting on volumes of diverse subjects. Books on the romance of travel, how to cook exotic dishes, latest novels , philosophy and on. Some occupying their allotted space, while others had managed to arrange themselves randomly on top of shelves or on the floor. What a great loss to mankind would result from the disappearance of that physical entity called a book and the bookshop itself. Feeling their weight, the smell of printed paper as you turn the pages with a real expectation of what is to follow.

 

Watching the crowd eagerly line up to have their new found friend endorsed by its author, sitting patiently at his table. That sense of comradely life  as they joke and laugh among themselves. These experiences cannot be replicated in a computer world, and our world would be a poorer place. As for the book’s title “Moving On”, This reminds me of anough friend who claimed ther was no need to worry about the world as eventually we simply move on.