Sadbh got a slight jolt this week when she opened a large bulky envelope and something orange bounced out and started flashing. Jokes quite aside, opening envelopes these days in a media organisation is to feel just a wee bit on edge. Anyway, the object which hopped out of the envelope was a clear rubber ball. When it bounced, it flashed orange, lighting up a little Penguin logo and its website address. So Sadbh upped and logged onto www.penguin.co.uk to try and discover a bit more about these e-books. However, the e-book element of the site is not at all clear: you can, apparently, buy an e-book version of some new novels. You need to download the appropriate software to read the books, for a start, so like the ball, Sadbh bounced between various pages before giving up in exasperation. But for those who prefer reading their screen than the printed page, Penguin is now offering the option to buy the e-version of a selection of titles such as Lisa Jewell's new novel, One Hit Wonder, and Toby Litt's deadkidsongs. The e-versions come with either "exclusive" introductions or afterwords . . . but Sadbh wonders if e-books will ever engage readers in the way honest-to-god hard copies do.
This week saw publication of The Rising, a first novel from Wexford woman Bairbre T≤ib∅n, sister of writer Colm T≤ib∅n. The book, which focuses on the years between the death of Parnell in 1891 and the 1916 Rising, follows the fortunes of a couple in Enniscorthy and is reviewed elsewhere on this page. Rightly or wrongly, the book is bound to be read by some who are curious to see if the writing gift is contained in shared genes. One way or another, Bairbre's well-known brother was on hand to do the honours at the launch on Thursday night, which, appropriately, was held in the National 1798 Centre on Millpark Road in Enniscorthy. The book comes with a blessing from Nuala O'Faolain on its cover; the novel, which O'Faolain says revives the ideal of an uncorrupted Ireland, is published by New Island.
Among TownHouse's autumn titles is a collection of some of the recent contributions to that early-morning RT╔ pre-news sliver of a broadcast, the wonderfully escoteric A Living Word, in which the week's writer talks about - well, anything. Paul Durcan has five reflections from a bath in San Francisco; Dick Warner meditates on the declining demand for fishing tackle; Mary Rieke Murphy has a story about the last bus conductor in Dublin; Rita Ann Higgins swops recipes with a stranger on the train from Tullamore to Galway; Mary O'Malley eschews directions on ┴rainn and thus finds the path she really wants. Eclectic and odd, this collection, edited by Jacqui Corcoran, is thought-provoking and the best possible incentive to tune in for the weekday broadcasts for yet more new stories.
This Bank Holiday Monday sees Seamus Heaney opening the splendidly titled Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster. The new centre joins the existing Celtic School at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies as a major research institute in the humanities in Ireland. The new academy has eight permanent staff, including three chairs: director Brian Graham, cultural geographer; Mairead MacCraith, who has come from the Institute of Irish Studies in the University of Liverpool; and Patrick Crotty, who was formerly at St Patrick's College in Dublin. The creation of the academy is timely, since it is placed to make an ongoing contribution to the interpretation of Irish culture in the context of the evolving political situation. To celebrate the opening of the academy, there will be a series of concerts and readings at all four of the University of Ulster's campuses.