cread | read & see

On Tuesday, November 28, 1786 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge presented the First Fleet chaplain, Rev Richard Johnson, with about 4000 books and tracts, effectively establishing the first library on Australian shores. It's unclear what the original Australians would have made of this collection of white pages and humans, with their very different approach to collating knowledge and ideas. Now the story has come full circle (some painful detours along the way) with the biography of an Aboriginal leader winning the 2012 Australian Christian Book of the Year, presented this month by SPCKA at the Australian Christian Literature Awards in Melbourne. Murray Seiffert's Gumbuli of Ngukurr: Aboriginal elder in Arnhem Land ( Acorn Press ) was announced the winner ahead of 40 titles and was joined by runner-up A Short History of Christianity ( Viking-Penguin ) by Geoffrey Blainey and third placed Love, Tears and Autism: An Australian mother's journey from heart

At Cread we are just getting started in our attempt to be a lively, accessible and interesting website about everything books and reading. Our latest addition is a slight nod to that other medium, video. On our page Creadeo (sorry, we cant help ourselves squeezing every last drop from the whole play on words thing) you'll find regularly updated, bookish videos - author interview, book readings, literary lunches and the like. First up, Samantha Shannon who is being touted, prematurely she feels, as the next JK Rowlings. See what she has to say and what she likes to read

It's book launchin' season - books are being launched willy-nilly with Father's Day closing in and Christmas only 123 sleeps away - so here's a few to look out for. MasterChef 2011 contestant Billy Law has – would you believe – written a cookbook. Have You Eaten? will hit book stores on September 1. Billy is a food-blogger at atablefortwo.com, where he details a competition and a couple of events surrounding the book's launch. Check it out at A Table for Two . Mistaken Identity: The Trials of Joe Windred by Stephen Dando-Collins launches tomorrow. The book details the adventures of bush identity Joe Windred, from twice being mistaken for a bushranger to becoming Orange City mayor while technically still a fugitive from American justice. The book is being launched at Orange Library tomorrow . Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon became available yesterday. “Set in New York, this gorgeous picture book by Gus Gordon is a story about friendship, life in the big city,

'If you don't have cancer, cherish life. If you do, cherish it even more.' – Jim Stynes, My Journey Jim Stynes, AFL Brownlow Medalist and former president of Melbourne Football Club, endured a tough and public fight with cancer after being diagnosed three years ago at the age of 43. My Journey is his autobiography, in which he recalls his football career from recruitment as a young Irishman and including winning the Brownlow Medal in 1991. It also discusses his co-founding of Reach, a community outreach organisation that works with troubled youth, and his cancer diagnosis and the subsequent battle. At the book's launch in Melbourne yesterday, his wife Sam spoke of how the prospect of Jim never seeing his kids grow up was one of the most upsetting aspects, but at the book will offer some comfort: "So just knowing that they will always have that book with that beautiful sparkly spine sitting on their bookshelf that they can grab at any time, it takes the pres

When Peter Norman died of a heart attack on October 3, 2006, the US Track and Field Federation named the day of his funeral, October 9, as Peter Norman Day. This week Australian politicians  finally recognised Norman's brave stand and officially apologised for the delay. They were honouring his solidarity with black athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos who gave the Black Power salute during the medal ceremony for the men's 200 metres at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Howard won the silver medal, making him one of Australia's most successful male sprinters to date (consider how far we were from sprint medals in the London Olympics). When he was told by gold medalist Smith and bronze medalist Carlos that they intended to do during the ceremony, he famously told them, "I'll stand with you." Martin Flanagan of The Age tells the story in an article printed at the time of Norman's death: "They asked Norman if he believed in human rights. He sai

Creview is a weekly feature on Cread that will provide a quick summary of what literary and book sections from leading mastheads around the globe are reviewing each week – a collative exercise in reviewing the reviewer. This week it's The Sydney Morning Herald , The Guardian and The New York Times . Love Shy by Lili Wilkinson, published April 1, was reviewed by Aleesah Darlison of the SMH with the review little more than a synopsis of the protagonist's journey of self-discovery and a thumbs up from the reviewer. Also from the SMH , novelist Paul Auster's autobiography Winter Journal was reviewed by Thornton McCamish, who tells us that, “exactly who Auster is turns out to have very little to do with his career as a celebrated novelist and nothing to do with nostalgia.” Interesting to note: while this book got the attention of SMH on the weekend, where it was painted in a positive light, J Robert Lennon of The Guardian reviewed it last Wednesday and considered it

You would not be surprised to find Catcher in the Rye , Gone with the Wind , Huckleberry Finn or even Catch 22 on a definitive list of books that shaped America but the "Big Book" of Alcoholic's Anonymous would probably not have easily come to mind. The Books that Shaped America list was developed by the US Library of Congress for an on-site exhibition it is holding as part of its multi-year "Celebration of the Book". Alcoholics Anonymous, on reflection a very apt choice considering the devastation of addiction in US (and human) existence, was written by co-founders Bill Wilson and Dr Bob Smith to help people recover from alcoholism. It has spawned many other 12-step programs but they all can be traced to the original inspiration for Wilson and Smith - the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 5 . Other interesting inclusions Christopher Colles' A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America (1789) and Amelia Simmons' American C