Ninety years ago an English author named Aldous Huxley wrote his masterpiece, Brave New World. Later this month, that prophetic novel will be one of the focuses of Book Week 2021.
This year the Children’s Book Council of Australia is celebrating the 76th year of Book Week with the theme “Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other Worlds”.
Book Week in Australia runs from August 21 to 27 and while there is often a new-age focus through our schools, this year’s theme lends itself to a nostalgic feel.
Brave New World was banned from schools in many countries, depicting a society of beautiful and happy people. In Australia, the book was required reading on high school curriculums for many years.
Legendary French writer Jules Verne wrote a novel that will also regain its notoriety during the celebrations, Around the World in Eighty Days.
Modern big screen adaptations of his character Phileas Fogg will mean many of us are quite familiar with the story, which first went to print in 1872.
While dressing up as book characters and parading on the basketball courts of Campaspe’s primary schools will be the modern salute to books, many avid readers will dig deeper into the week of celebrations.
Some 2000 years after the alleged first novel was written in Japan, people are still gleaning a lifetime of pleasure from reading, or nowadays, listening.
Researchers suggest reading increases brain connectivity. The process of reading involves complex signals to the brain, which increases its activity.
According to these same researchers, people who read fiction have a heightened sense of empathy for others, a result of exploring the inner lives of characters.
And the earlier you start the better. A 2013 study suggesting those engaged in mentally stimulating activities all their lives (such as reading) were less likely to develop lesions and protein tangles — the main ingredients for dementia.
Echuca book enthusiast David Engstrom, who operates Read Heeler Bookshop, spoke to us last week to explain his literary journey.
David Engstrom dodged recess and lunchtime interaction at school by hiding in the library.
It is how his passion for reading, and by extension book collecting, started.
It grew beyond an interest and into a business 23 years ago.
“My old man was a Jehovah's Witness and he was a school teacher. So it was a double whammy,” David said.
“The kids who he had taught would come looking for me to even the score and I wasn’t allowed to fight, so I found refuge in the library.
“I went from class to library for years, trying to keep out of trouble and I just started reading.”
David found it impossible to put a number on how many books he had read, but a half-hour conversation suggested it was almost infinite.
He has offset his sedentary pastime of reading by straddling a Harley Davidson for most of his adult life and following the Melbourne Storm.
His story-telling, and entertaining interaction, is just part of the experience for people who wander into his Read Heeler book store.
Oh, and you will definitely find something to interest you in his extensive library.
David grew up in Shepparton and worked on properties in three states, before spending two decades at a mill in Gunbower.
He used a redundancy payment from that job to set up his store, originally in a shop not far from his current High St location, but a third of the size.
“Ideally I wanted a gun shop, I wanted to take people pig hunting,” David said.
“Eventually I worked out it wasn’t going to work and was only an idea because I wanted to do it.
“The next thing I was interested in was books.”
And that idea stuck.
Midway through our interview, a mother of a Grade 3 child brought a smile to my face and reminded me of the fun books could bring into your life.
She explained that her son had read Footrot Flats, Asterix and Garfield and she was purchasing half-a-dozen copies or more of the titles I would consider essential reading.
The shop now houses between 16,000 and 18,000 books.
“In the smaller store I thought, ‘how am I going to fill this?’,” David said.
“Eighteen months later I was thinking, ‘where am I going to put these books?'
“We knew nothing about running a business. I poured my redundancy into buying bookshelves and what was left went on books.”
David’s wife teaches a Prep class at Twin Rivers Primary School and is also an avid reader.
The public’s response to the shop opening was immediate.
“People just started walking in off the street and we were selling the books as we were stacking them,” David said.
“There was a book exchange across the road then and whatever I didn’t have I was sending people across to him.
“After a little while I started looking for titles and authors people were asking for and that was a much better idea.”
It’s hardly the Dewey Decimal System, but the categories range from A to Z.
“There are books about dogs, birds, movie stars or people who think they are movie stars, sport and war,” David said.
“I have signs up saying stuff that doesn’t have a place, stuff you should read before you die, good stuff, another sign saying better stuff and even one that says stuff that doesn’t have a place.”
David’s favourite author, Ion Idriess, is slotted in nice and close to the front counter.
“I’ve collected his stuff for 25 years,” he said.
“He wrote 52 books, was a magazine editor, served in the Fifth Lighthorse in World War I and was a sniper.
“His first book was published in 1927 and laid dormant for a while. Then Angus and Robertson got a hold of him in 1938.
“His last book was 1969 and he died 10 years later, three months short of his 90th birthday.”
David said his business clientele varied greatly.
“You’ve got your bread and butter readers, then there’s your novel readers who come in every day and keep the place going,” he said.
“In the school holidays this place is filled with children in search of the next title of a series they are collecting.”
David said business dropped off slightly between 2008 to 2010, which he put down to things like the introduction of e-book provider Kindle.
He said books were still appealing to the Campaspe community and his teenage readers kept his faith in the business.
“People want to read in bed at night, but don’t want to be on a computer screen,” David said.
David said things had changed a bit in his bookshop life.
“You used to be able to sell Max Walker,” David said.
“He’s written seven or eight books (allegedly Australia’s most popular author for a time), but you couldn’t give them away now.”
The most valuable book on the floor is worth $3500 — number 254 of 500 of Charles Dickens’ masterpiece A Christmas Carol.
It was illustrated by a famous American, Arthur Rackham.
David’s son Jordan also has a book shop in Geelong and the pair regularly swap titles between their stores.
When you walk into the Echuca shop you will immediately be struck not by the amount of books, but by the 1200 plaster, ceramic and metal dogs that adorn the shelves.
The dogs range from a couple of bucks to the $500 life-size bulldog from an antique shop in Merbein and a Royal Daulton sausage dog that David paid $700 for years ago.
“I was always into dogs as a kid. I lose one every now and then (the statues), someone light-fingered grabs one,” he said.
The store itself was named in honour of his red heeler, Margaret (Meggie).
“She is gone now,” David said.
“There are plenty of books that I don’t know, but if people can tell me what it’s about or who wrote it, I’ll know if I have it or not.”
David will regularly have people coming into the store in search of a title, something that means something to them.
And by hook, or by crook, he will go out of his way to find it. If it’s not already on the shelves.
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