New Zealand Thingamabrarians Message Board

Welcome to the NZ thingamabrarian's group - I look forward to this new feature of LibraryThing growing and taking off.

I've left this board open for discussions at present, for those new to NZ, the following may be of assistance: The Penguin History of New Zealand, Lonely Planet New Zealand (Lonely Planet New Zealand), and this looks interesting too Slipping into Paradise : Why I Live in New Zealand.

Hello. I hope more people will come, I've enjoyed trying to identify NZ thingamabrarians from their collections before now.

The top three books tagged with 'new zealand' are:
The bone people
The Penguin history of New Zealand The whale rider

Is The Bone People also the most owned LT book by a kiwi writer do you think?

Yes well when I checked The Bone People had 173 members, which is quite a bit for a NZ author I would think. It would be interesting to have a wiki-type setup on LT to expand on the information available about an author. For example: their DOB, country of residence/citizenship etc...

I recognise 'agoo' from her TradeMe username.

Yes, I recognised yours too. *g* I think my friend invited you!

Well we have one New Zealand book in common. Of course it's because it's the only book agoo has catalogued so far *nudges her* - time you got a move on with that.

Where are all the other Kiwis?

I'm a kiwi currently living in Melbourne so have joined both the NZ and the Aussie group. Hope that's still within the boundaries!
What tags are people using to identify books that are set in NZ, or which have NZ authors?

I differentiate setting, but not author's origins, so I use "new zealand" for that, and that's been combined with nz.

I'm amused by the list of most commonly shared books. Clearly what NZ Thingamabrarians have in common is an interest in Greek prose, the campaigns of Alexander, and cult movies ...

I don't have a big 'NZ' collection, but - having just acquired a scanner - I'm doing my bit to scan in the covers of my NZ books.

You can nab a lot of covers off Trade Me as well, though I'm sure you probably have some that don't show up there often.

I have a bunch of books tagged 'wrong cover' because I've only found the american editions online.

I got The Cult Movie Stars book from a Uni Bookshop sale, and it is a cool book. My parents buy a lot of NZ authors so I don't tend to, I just read theirs. Most of the ones I do have are children/YA authors.

But looking closely I see we actually have four NZ authors there now, as well as Under the Mountain there is the Lord of the Rings location guidebook *g*, Elizabeth Knox, who I really must read something by sometime, and Clare Mallory, who wrote girl's school stories set in Dunedin, and pretty good ones at that.

*argh* I went and used 'there' for 'their'. I can't wait for post editing!

Ah, TradeMe is a good idea, hadn't thought of that! Cover-scanning can get addictive, though (just *one* more...).

On Elizabeth Knox: I really liked Daylight, her vampire novel. Haven't read Dreamhunter yet - since it's part 1 of the story maybe it's better to wait till part 2 is out?

Looking over my collection, (which I haven't fully entered yet) I realised the only book I have by a New Zealander or relating to New Zealand is Prehistoric New Zealand by Graeme Stevens. Considering I've lived here all my life I guess I've been a bit remiss!!

Jerry - where did you find the two books you referred to in Ancient History? Good finds btw :)

Jeremy

Fastred- John Quilters on Lambton Quay, a wonderful store by the way, certainly the best in Wellington

I notice I have no books with New Zealand authors or location in my catalogue but then my catalogue is about my reading, not my library. (Always one swimming against the tide, huh?) Though I can add myself to agoo and Aquila as a Clare Mallory reader. I enjoyed most of the ones I read - with the exception of Tony Against the Prefects. That was when I decided I had better uses for the Clare Mallory shelf space. My long-time favourite New Zealand books are children's books - as would be expected from my reading and collecting habits; The Hole in the Hill by Ruth Park and The Boys of Puhawai by Kim. Latest and much enjoyed read with a New Zealand connection is Kotuku by Deborah Savage.

I've been living in London for a couple of years, and am a bit out of touch with what is going on in NZ fiction at the moment. Can anyone recommend a couple of the "must reads" from the last few years?

Elizabeth Knox maybe? (*blushes* I still haven't read anything of hers, but my mother has).

This might be useful too:
http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/events/awards/montanalatest.html

Just thought i'd restart this thread - i'm a (half)Kiwi, now living in Scotland, and have a few good NZ books in my collection. Just read Plumb, by Maurice Gee, while on holiday and think it's amazing. Another favourite writer is CK Stead. What are your favourite NZ books?

One of my favourites is Wednesday's Children by Robin Hyde, and I recently read Mansfield by C. K. Stead which I also enjoyed. I'm currently reading Book Book by Fiona Farrell, which is "cozy" sort of reading (in bed with a good book and a hot chocolate).

I've got The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knoxand The Changeover by Margaret Mahy in my TBR pile, but it's pretty hard to come by much NZ fiction in the UK (unless you resort to Amazon).

(Sorry, touchstones not loading.)

I have many NZ books for which I am not finding Librarything records. I am wondering how many others have the same problem. Sometimes it is just an edition thing, but I have a large pile where there are no edition records of any sort. As a once-upon-a-time cataloguer (for far too short a time) I would love to see good records of NZ books on Librarything and for my collection. So, at the moment I am building a large pile of books behind my computer, to be manually catalogued (I could do it, but I am hoping to persuade some cataloguer colleagues to help).

I find the National Library of Scotland the most useful record source - surprising - as I would have thought the Australian National Library would be a better source (Nat Lib Scotland - you rock!).

Should we try to get National Library of NZ as a record source for Librarything?

According to http://tepuna.natlib.govt.nz/support/faq.htm#z3950, the National Library supports Z39.50 access and wants to “test and allow such access from libraries on a case by case basis.” Hopefully Librarything is close enough to a library to count.

The Christchurch City Libraries have a Z39.50 interface too.

So who do we ask?

I'm not really a Kiwi, but my father-in-law is, and we have a bunch of family in New Zealand. Thus I find myself visiting New Zealand and piling up New Zealand children's books (they post well, and thus are the favoured present for my now-3-year-old). But cataloging them! AARGH! I actually have some luck with amazon.com (who'd have thunk it, they have The Adventures of Hutu and Kawa?)

Of course, since I can't resist a bookstore, I pile up my own small pile... at least the Maurice Gee's are easy to find the wrong edition of.

Do you think a post on the improvements board would get somebody to ask the National Library?

Oh, in the US, to get hold of international books in English, including NZ books, the best source is bookcloseouts.com I have no idea *why* they have closeout books from New Zealand, but they do...