Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive's Tour of the Bookshops of Britain

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The Infinite Monkey Cage, the legendary BBC Radio 4 programme, brings you this irreverent celebration of scientific marvels. Join us on a hectic leap through the grand and bizarre ideas conjured up by human imagination, from dark matter to consciousness via neutrinos and earthworms. Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince muse on multifaceted subjects involved in building a universe, with pearls of wisdom from leading scientists and comedians peppered throughout. Recorded at the Z-arts centre in Hulme, Manchester, the material draws from his his 2018 book I'm a Joke and So Are You: Reflections on Humour and Humanity and his 2015 live show, Robin Ince's Reality Tunnel. I think I love books more than I love reading. Their company means there is always the possibility of something to be discovered, waiting for me between the covers, which hasn't even entered my imagination yet. A small but pleasing change in my reality is waiting on every shelf.” I am extremely jealous of Robin's year. Can you imagine anything better than this being your job, to read books, visit lovely bookshops in lovely towns, accumulating wonderful books, and then talking to people about science, books and art? And being fed cake? I get to do a tiny bit of all this, but no, not to this level of perfection.

BIBLIOMANIAC | Kirkus Reviews

For sociologist Kahn-Harris, the warning message inside Kinder Surprise eggs – that tiny slip of paper covered in 37 languages and eight different scripts – is nothing short of revelatory. “The Manuscript”, as he’s soon dubbing it, inspires a quest to repurpose the myth of Babel as a metaphor not for conflict and division but unity. A true languages buff, he delights in his own incomprehension, finding individuality and invention in geeky translations of the Kinder egg message into Cornish, Klingon and ancient Sumerian, and musing on topics from linguistic evolution to endangered tongues. It’s gloriously eccentric – enlightening, funny and full of the human yearning to connect with others. I know that I have a tendency towards melancholy, social anxiety, and self-loathing, and books form a great part of my prescription medication. When I say that books are my drugs, I don't mean that in a throwaway manner; they really do calm me, they really do shut off some of the voices for a while. I enjoyed this book, but feel it has a relatively narrow audience that would have the same connection to it, hence the three star rating. Robin Ince is quite clearly addicted to buying books with an almost random enthusiasm, and this book is arguably more about that addiction than about the hundred bookstore tour he did that is the hook the book is hung on.I think I love books more than I love reading. Their company means there is always the possibility of something to be discovered, waiting for me between the covers, which hasn't even entered my imagination yet. A small but pleasing change in my reality is waiting on every shelf. Robin Ince's Reality Tunnel is split into two 30-minute episodes, Inside Robin Ince and Outside Robin Ince. In the second, he talks about undergoing a brain scan, muses on what sleep and dreams reveal about our reality and remembers a moment of transcendence at the Callanish Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis. This is the story of an addict! Robin Ince is addicted to books - seriously! I thought I love books - and I do - but this man cannot say no to any book! To celebrate to launch of Robin’s new book, Bibliomaniac, he will once again be visiting bookshops all across the UK.

Robin Ince: Bibliomaniac Tickets, Tue 4 Oct 2022 at 19:30 Robin Ince: Bibliomaniac Tickets, Tue 4 Oct 2022 at 19:30

Bibliomaniac follows him in his quest to discover why he can never own enough books. It is the story of an addiction and romance, published October 10th by Atlantic Books, who previously put out I'm A Joke and his 2021 appreciation of the wonders of science, The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity.

So what is the bibliomaniac currently reading? “The first one is Invisible Painting ,” says Robin. “It’s about the great British-Mexican surrealist painter and author Leonora Carrington, and was written by her son, Gabriel Weisz Carrington. I’m also reading Myths of Gender: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality by Anne Fausto Sterling, who’s a very interesting biologist and kind of activist. And I’ve just started re-reading Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys, because I think I might choose it for the book club. Plus, I’m reading Anna Minton’s Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21 st Century .” Robin’s first solo show was a disaster, but a disaster that ended with him punching a melon with Vernon Kay’s face drawn on it before singing Mustang Sally (still no cruise ship bookings). Despite this, actually, because of this, Robin ended up playing to arenas with Professor Brian Cox. This is the story of how he fell in love with comedy thanks to The Goodies and Rik Mayall and how after 30 years he started to find his voice. Winner: Rose D’Or, Sony Gold and The Arthur C Clarke Award. One day Bookish will be an acceptable nationality for your passport. It is not about where you are born; it’s about which books you are living in. When his autumn 2021 stadium tour with Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to coronavirus, the comic set off on a tour of more than a hundred independent bookshops instead, journeying from Wigtown to Penzance, Swansea to Margate. You may think you have a book problem but, as likely as not, comedian Ince’s will dwarf it. Incapable of exiting a bookshop with just one volume, he ran out of shelf space long ago – and that’s after he donated 6,000 books to charity. In 2021, when Covid nixed a tour he’d planned with Prof Brian Cox, Ince hit on the idea of visiting 100 bookshops around the UK in just two months, notionally promoting his last book, The Importance of Being Interested. There’s some nice travel writing here as he wends his way from Wigtown to Penzance, along with cosy anecdotes about the folk he encounters and some madcap tangents, invariably prompted by his eclectic reading habits. She and Her Cat