Books

The Bouquinistes-Book Sellers along the Seine River

Bouquinistes, a trade that goes back to the Middle-Ages and is unique to Paris

The story has it that a boat transporting loads of books sunk near Notre-Dame Cathedral.

The sailors swam ashore taking with them as many books as they could and sold them to the passersby to make up for the wages they had lost. They certainly found the sale lucrative enough to start making a regular living from it.

Since then, we are used to seeing the booksellers along the Seine and they have become one of the many iconic symbols of Paris.

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A long long way: Irish history in popular media

Working on a project aimed at German tourists for the Irish Tourism Board this May, I realised that people still come to Ireland to enjoy the stereotypes: green fields, dramatic cliffs and the merry fiddler in the pub. Only few visitors seem to realise that Ireland has, like all other countries, a very interesting (and quite bloodstained) history.

From the Irish regiments that fought in the First World War, the Easter Rising 1916 to both the Anglo-Irish War 1919-1921 and the Irish Civil War 1921-22, these events formed Ireland as it is today, and learning about it offers a much broader picture of the island and a deeper understanding of why there are actually two countries on it. (more…)

Picture Postcards: Markets in The Netherlands and China

Happy Monday to you! We have a double offering for you this week as two people have sent in their market photos.

The first photo is from Sandra and was taken at Luilabloemenmarkt in Almere, The Netherlands. It was snapped during Pentacost weekend and she says, “Pentecost occurs seven weeks (50 days) after Easter Sunday and comemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection. It is celebrated on Sunday and Monday, the first and the second day of Pentecost.” She explained that people buy all these lovely flowers to put in their houses and gardens.

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Twelve reasons to love Kyrgyzstan

I have many foreign friends, and one of them wrote this letter to his friends from all over the world, describing why he loves Kyrgyzstan. I read it and understood that there are so many things that I don’t even notice, simply because it’s my country and many things are too obvious to me. So with his permission I am presenting you the following essay.

Why do I love Kyrgyzstan?

By Frieder Shlecht from Germany.

Photo credit

Many people ask: Why Kyrgyzstan? When I arrived, I had only three answers

• The love for the Russian language
• The love for mountains
• The love for Chingiz Aitmatov’s books

Now I could write thousands of pages about why I love this country and in particular its people. Here is an utterly incomplete document with some colorful aspects. I promise I didn’t exaggerate:

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Children's games writing contest – you can be in our book!

Our Children’s games book is taking shape. We made a survey about what you’d like to see in the book, and all your great suggestions will help to make it better and more fun to use. At the moment, PocketCultures contributors from different parts of the world are writing about games played in their countries.

We know that PocketCultures readers live all over the world too, so we decided to hold a competition for you to tell us about favourite games in your country. Write about a game played by children where you live and your entry could be featured in our book!

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Help design our book

At PocketCultures we’re very excited about a project that we’ve been working on together: a book about Children’s games around the world.

As well as having fun writing the book, we hope you’ll have fun reading it too. So we’ve put together a short survey to find out more about what you’d like us to include.

We’d love to hear your feedback on the idea – the survey should take 5-10 minutes to complete. Thanks!

Take the survey here.

Read more:
Kiss, hug or shake hands? Greeting people around the world
What is a global citizen? We asked, you answered
World travel bloggers and Lonely Planet