Literary Clothing

I've previously mentioned in other gift guides places to buy literature related clothing, and I've just found another one to add to the list:- The Affair. This company takes a more abstract approach rather than bog-standard book covers printed on t-shirts.

George Orwell, Animal Farm

The t-shirts retail for £29.90, which is quite responsible considering that they only produced in small runs. Also at the moment they're doing a really good deal of 3 mystery t-shirts for £44.8

If these aren't your style, but you still fancy some novel clobber, have a browse on these sites:-

• TruffleShuffle: for Roald Dahl, Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter t-shirts and hoodies
• Out of Print Clothing: literature related apparel, bags and accessories- I can't decide if my favourite is the 1984 t-shirt, or the Great Gatsby jumper. If you want to buy Out of Print Clothing in the UK have a look on amazon
• The Literary Gift Company: so many great titles to choose from, including children and adults books
• Litograph: These are really clever, the entire book it printed on the t-shirt with an illustration. For example Bullfinch's mythology is illustrated with a picture of Medusa. 
• Skreened: 'I party with Jay Gatsby' is my favourite t-shirt slogan, they also have Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mocking Bird and The Perks of Being a Wallflower items.
• Red Molotov. This Atticus Finch one is my favourite.
• Rupert and Buckley. This t-shirts include funny literary puns, 'Annoy me and you'll get the Bronte of my sisters', 'I'm no plain Jane I'm Austentatious! 

"Libraries have had their day"

I stumbled on an article today on The Guardian website, it was published in February, but I disagree so strongly I felt compelled to write a post. You can read the article here, but the basic gist is that Terry Deary, author of the Horrible History series, argues that libraries are a drain on council budgets and are detrimental to the book industry. Deary is quoted as saying;

 "We can't give everything away under the public purse. Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more. This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses. People expect to pay for entertainment."    

To be honest he comes across in the article as very money grabbing, his main issue with libraries seems to be that he isn't given enough royalties when people check out his books from a library, authors are given 6.2p every time one of their books is borrowed. I agree that authors should receive a decent percentage of royalties for their intellectual property, and Deary does still receive financial compensation for library loans, so I don't understand his complaint. Besides it's not like he's some starving author holed up in garret, struggling to write as his body shakes from consumption, unable to eat due to the wicked Public Lending Right Scheme limiting his earnings, he has sold over 25 million books in over 40 languages.

I believe passionately that literature should be accessible to everyone and libraries are vital in achieving this. When I was growing up my family was on a low income, buying books was rare treat even though we were all keen readers. My mum, two sisters and me are all massive Harry Potter fans, we had one copy of the book that we shared between the four of us using a  timer to make sure everyone got a fair go. Having more than one copy per household seemed like a huge luxury, that was not available to us.

"He who writes badly, thinks badly"

- William Cobbett