It has come to our attention that some unsavoury characters have attempted an assault on our website! They have now been foiled in their plans and our website is as safe as ever – it was actually never unsafe, but just looked that way. It will take the search robots about 1 week to come back and re-index the site and remove warnings, but everything should be fine now. So many things to understand – so little time!

…….but just for a little while. We thought it might be fun to start the year “upside down”.

As we greet the new year with a sense of renewal – yet another chance at a fresh start – we can’t help but take a quick look in the rear view mirror to make sure we haven’t forgotten the most important events and experiences, thoughts and perhaps even revelations of the past year.

As 2011 came to an end we said goodbye to one oppressor and two strong – albeit very different – dissidents.

While North Korea buried one dictator only to bring in another, the Czech Republic bid farewell to Vaclav Havel, the man who as the New York Times described it “led a revolution that overturned four decades of communism in his native Czechoslovakia, languished for years in prison, wrote 19 plays, survived nearly drowning and served 14 years as president — all the while remaining one of his generation’s most nonconformist writers.”

Surely there are few political legacies more noteworthy than that of the man who would come to personify  “the velvet revolution”.

Having the courage, the will and the energy to speak up, to challenge not only authority (here on earth and beyond), but any and all ideas, people, actions or beliefs, also became the hallmark of British writer Christopher Hitchens. Whether you agreed with the man or not – and many did not – whether you liked the man or not – and many did not – there is something essential about having a person among us who will question anything and everything and perhaps even, once in a while, sow the seeds of doubt within even the surest of minds. The day Christopher Hitchens died National Public Radio’s Scott Simon shared his perspective inspired by the writer on the air in Christopher Hitchens’ Legacy Of Defying Labels.

……..”We often seem to treat consistency of thought as a sign of character. Politicians and pundits are applauded for repeating themselves. Observers and activists say, “Aha!” if they discover a distance between what some public figure believed five years or five months ago, and what they say today. Compromise is difficult when changing your beliefs is taken to be a moral cave-in instead of the sign of a curious, lively mind.

But I wonder if always making consistency into a virtue is wise for anyone. Why strive to enjoy a rich life, filled with the deep, transforming experiences of family, travel, learning, love, daring, triumph and loss if you’re determined just to cling to the same ideas that you’ve always had?”

What better way to embark on the year 2012 than to carry forward the words of a man who had to leave life itself behind in 2011: “…..leave hold of the doctrinaire and allow your chainless mind to do its own thinking.”

At Books & Company we will be kicking off the new year with a trio of events spanning a wide range of topics such as expat life in Living it Abroad to the brave new world of our children’s lives online in Our Kids on the Web and finally to what media training does or does not do to – and for – politicians, celebrities and others in The sense and nonsense about Media Training. For more on these events, the speakers and sign up information please go toWorkshops, Talks and Events.

Finally, a huge thank you to all our wonderful customers for your invaluable support in helping us build a warm and welcoming community around great books, delicious coffee and the mere enjoyment of being together with friends – present and future.

Happy New Year!

On Sunday we had a very special opening for a special guest reading from her second book, ‘The Bedmas Conspiracy’. Deborah Sherman is a Canadian who has lived here in Denmark for 7 years and when she isn’t being a classroom assistant with the reception class at Rygaards International School or busy with her young family, she writes children’s books.

Her first book, ‘The Triple Chocolate Brownie Genius’, tells the story of how a lazy and unmotivated school boy’s worst nightmare comes true when he eats a nano-chip buried in his mother’s triple chocolate brownies and instantly becomes a ‘know-it-all’. It was published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside in 2007 and was a finalist in the ForeWord Magazine Juvenile Fiction Book of the Year and a nominee for the Diamond Willow readers’ choice award.

Deborah’s second book, ‘The Bedmas Conspiracy’, follows the trials and tribulations of a school band, Sick on Snow Day, and its lead, Adam. The books are aimed at 8-13 year olds and it was a very lively group of youngsters that gathered in Books & Company on Sunday morning to hear Deborah read. All was quiet and cosy as we were invited into the world of Sick on Snow Day and heard how they triumphed over the adversity of their lead singer having an acute attack of stage fright at the prospect of singing in front of the whole school – or, as it was so perfectly described, when her ‘vocal chords were paralysed with fear’!