reading your way there

A lot of my students are talking about travel plans at the moment, and a couple of them have also asked me about finding novels to read that are London books.

The combination reminded me that a novel with a strong sense of place often gives me at least as much of a sense of a city as any guide book could do. Sure, when you're standing on a street corner, looking for a place for dinner, a traditional guide is useful, but I often read books set somewhere before I get there, and I find that helps me connect to the life of the city. (Not always the contemporary life, though - Venice may be Commissario Brunett's beat, but I must confess that, for me, parts of Rome are Falco's)

Not everybody realises that, as well as the default setting of 'search by emotion', Whichbook also offers the option to search by setting . (There's also a text-based version if you're not quite sure where your destination is on the map.)

Whichbook is closely related to the UK's public library network, so you can expect to find the books recommended there in your local public library, along with the more traditional guide books.

I'm juggling day and night.

I'm on a lot of mailing lists - the kind you actively choose to sign up for - venues, promoters, bands, clubs, galleries, museums. It's an easy way to get information about things I'm interested in delivered to my inbox without me needing to hunt through listings guides.

Just about the only down side to signing up for them is that we have not yet invented 28 hour days and time travel!

This month's Wellcome Collection Events update is tempting me with several things, including Anatomies of London, which is next Thursday in the middle of the afternoon when I'm at work.

On the other hand, the collection of events looking at the science and sociology of various circus skills (juggling, contortion, sword swallowing) are all evening based, so I see some free e-ticket booking in immediate future.

I just need to check what else they might clash with!

Domine Deus / Creator coeli et terrae

I haven't sung in a choir since I was 17. I haven't sung in a choir since I was 17 and every single time I've been scheduled to be part of a major performance I've come down with laryngitis on the day, and yet I still see details of the Tallis Festival and think shiny!! .

Signing up for the choir is clearly off the cards, but attending the free final concert in the beautiful Union Chapel - that's going on the calender...

These boots are made for walking

London Walks - a generally useful source of info about waking routes in and around London* - are organising a slew of guided (or 'led') walks over the last weekend of the month.

Unfortunately, I'll be out of town, but I recommend them as a way of getting out there and seeing parts of London tourists don't get to interact with, and/or learning more about your local area.


(Although *why* there is no map of the Greenway out in east London I still don't know. I'm also not sure why none of the 'Led Walks' cover the bit of said Greenway that cuts through the 2012 Olympic site. I'd have thought there'd be plenty to say there! That section's worth exploring in it's own right, I'd say.)