key words: accompany, alongside, bookshop, bookstore, commercial, common space, café, concept, delve into, deserve, divide, downtown, draw sth in, evoke, facility, founder, homier, lure, one-off, privacy, publisher, renowned, session, sip, staging post, unite, winning piece
INTRO:
1, What kind of books or literature do you read?
2, What do you usually eat or drink while reading?
3, What makes a bookshop attractive for the people?
4, Where do you usually read: at home, while travelling, at school, in a bookshop...?
Read the text Cafés now natural part of bookshops and complete the following tasks.
I, Each of the following statements is TRUE. Just find the evidence in the text that proves them.
1, Martinus used to work with Shtoor.
2, When people read deep into a book, they are more likely to buy it.
3, The bookshops with cafés create a connection between home and shop.
4, Gorilla.sk doesn't work on a concept invented in Slovakia.
5, The Christmas Market reading was not planned as a regular event.
6, The inspiration for bookshops + cafés came from the foreign countries.
7, The cafe at Artforum is very suitable for workshops.
8, Inclusion of cafés encouraged more visitors to the bookshops and they also buy more books.
II, In the text, find:
1, One example where the entrepreneurs use Slovak history & popular, 'anglicised' culture to create a catchy name for a cafe house.
Is it a good way how to spread our culture or do you see it as derogation?
Should we anglicise original names?
2, There is also one event that used British tradition to create a catchy phrase in Slovak. Find it!
How would you translate it into English?
How would you translate into English: Drak sa Vracia, Tri Gaštanové Koňe, hádzať hrach na stenu,
3, People (ab)use the atmosphere of festivals or holidays to promote their own business. Can you spot such tendencies in the text?
ACTIVITIES With the BOX ARTICLE
Slovaks mostly download detective stories
DETECTIVE stories, especially by Scandinavian authors, were the e-books most downloaded by Slovaks via the Wooky platform in December 2014.
The most sold book, according to the platform, became the criminal novel “Police” by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, the TASR newswire reported.
“This densely plotted story, is one of Nesbo’s darkest and most disturbing ... The chills are palpable in this nerve-racking thriller,” The New York Times wrote about the book.
The novelist also ranked sixth in the list with his book “The Son”.
The Scandinavians also filled other ranks in the top 10 list: number two became “The Crow Girl” by Erik Axl Sund, a pen name of Swedish author duo Jerker Eriksson and Håkan Sundquist, and number eight is “Derailed” by Danish novelist Michael Katz Krefeld.
The third most sold book was Dan Brown’s “Inferno”, followed by “A Fort of Nine Towers” by Afghani writer Qais Akbar Omar and “This Man” by British writer Jodi Ellen Malpas. Seventh ranked “The Longest Ride” by American writer Nicholas Sparks.
Only one Slovak author made it to the top 10 list: Mária Mikitová Janošková and her novel for women called “Vyhorená Dúha” (Burnt-Out Rainbow), a story about Kaja, who is in her forties, and the men in her life, which placed ninth.
Tenth on the list was Lisa Gardner’s (US) thriller “Fear Nothing”.
Wooky collects data about sales from e-shops which run on the platform, like Rajknih.sk, iBux.sk, Klobook.sk, Gorila.sk and oKnihe.sk, as reported by TASR.
BOX: Answer the following questions according to the text:
1, Who are the most frequently downloaded authors of 2014?
2, Are any Slovak books amongst the top ranked ones?
3, What is the name of the famous author who ranked 3rd?
4, Was there any writer from an Islamic country?
5, What is the real name of Erik Axl Sund?
1, What is your list of top three books ever?
Why have you chosen those books?
Can we learn something important from the chosen stories?
2, Who are the most popular Slovak writers? What do they write about?
Can you see any parallel between a Slovak and a global literary hero?
3, What is the masterpiece of Dan Brown?
What is it about? Who is the main hero?
Do you thing that his future books will have similar success?
4, What is the biggest problem with Islam?
Do you know any stories or movies that take place in Islamic or Arabic countries?
Why is it good to read Islamic writers? Can it help us to understand different cultures?
5, Do you know any famous writers who used a pen name? Why do they choose a pen name?
ANSWERS
I, 1, Martinus used to work with Shtoor.
Shtoor Home Made Café, with which the bookshop [ref. Martinus] had cooperated before
2, When people read deep into a book, they are more likely to buy it.
[Customers] often take the book to the café and buy it after they delve into it, delve into something = immerse, deeply engaged
3, The bookshops with cafés create a connection between home and shop.
“It is kind of a staging post between bookshop and privacy of home,” staging point = any place serving as a point of assembly or preparation, originally used as a checkpoint for military formations
4, Gorilla.sk doesn't work on a concept invented in Slovakia.
was inspired by similar concepts in New York or London
5, The Christmas Market reading was not planned as a regular event.
I originally thought it would be a one-off action and that the bookstore will then run as a commercial space, one-off = one-time event
6, The inspiration for bookshops + cafés came from the foreign countries.
took the concept from abroad where various big as well as small networks of shops work in this way
7, Cafe at Artforum is very suitable for workshops.
presentations, debates and concerts for which the café offers “excellent facilities, facility = capacities, equipment
8, Inclusion of cafés encouraged more visitors to the bookshops and they also buy more books.
The bookshops agree that the combination with cafés contributes to increase the number of visitors and the purchase of books.
II, In the text, find:
1, One example where the entrepreneurs use Slovak history & popular, 'anglicized' culture to create a catchy name for a cafe house.
Is it a good way how to spread our culture or do you see it as derogation?
Should we anglicize original names?
Answer: Shtoor
2, There is also one event that used British tradition to create a catchy phrase in Slovak. Find it!
How would you translate it into English?
How would you translate into English: Drak sa Vracia, Tri Gaštanové Koňe, hádzať hrach na stenu,
Answer: Čau o Piatej (See You at Five)
3, People (ab)use the atmosphere of festivals or holidays to promote their own business. Can you spot such tendencies in the text?
Answer: the autograph sessions at the Christmas Markets, introducing different authors every day
This exercise is published as part of Spectator College, a programme created by The Slovak Spectator with the support of Petit Academy Foundation and Orange Foundation .
