Our new art books look at the photographic portrait, art crime, organic architecture, the symbolism in Renaissance art, legends of NZ design and more. In ‘Things I didn’t know’, critic Robert Hughes looks back on his life.
A boy dressed in silks and white wigs; hard-case Nail in his dodgy van; a weird, black, oily substance is oozing from fire hydrants and faucets; raving cannibals; a hacker extraordinaire; forcible recruitment by the M16; a headstrong who doesn’t want to be rescued; a boring seaside town; skincare made from porridge. Check out our hype page for new teen books.
In our latest hype survey, would you pick Naruto Uzumaki, Holden Caulfield, Draco Malfoy, R2-D2, or ??? as your best friend?
Seasons greetings to our senior library users, from our Housebound and Talking Book Services. For Christmas book, film and music recommendations, New Year’s picks, recommended websites and information on our services, visit our seniors page.
Our holiday hours are up on the website. Ones to remember – all WCL libraries are closed Sunday 24th to Tuesday 26th December and Sunday 31st December to Tuesday 2nd January. Check the site for our reduced opening hours. On 3rd January, all libraries resume normal hours.
The PlayStation Portable, Jiu-jitsu, serious mountain biking, marathons and trout fishing are among our sport, recreation and fitness recent picks. The ‘Know the game’ series of short books give good intros to various sports.
WCL is pleased to welcome Redmer Yska, the author of Wellington: Biography of a City, who will be at Central Library on 13 December (5pm) to talk about his book. This is in conjunction with Reed Publishers.
Our staff DVD picks include a perennial Christmas favourite, the best B-movie ever made, lots of cigarettes, an idiotic dinner party guest, a dashing vagabond and an elaborate heist of a shipment of Swiss gold.
If you want to hear the frenzied guitar solo in Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’ played on the tuba, explore 30 years of Rough Trade, experience a strange and intoxicating mix of traditional and psychedelic folk, push the boundaries of drones, dance around the living room to Noel Coward gone techno, celebrate Christmas with the dour Aimee Mann or hear the best jazz pianist of the moment, visit our staff CD picks for December.
Gather round me hearties for a pirate storytime. Solve the treasure map, and make pirate hats, parrots and swords. Dress up as a pirate or have your face painted! Any naughty children may have to walk the plank… Come to our holiday programmes and become a pirate, play Playdough Pictionary, make some funky fridge magnets, meet a friendly fireman and celebrate Christmas.
WCL has over 600,000 books, 450,000 magazines, and 85,000 CDs, DVDs, videos and other items at our central library and 11 branches. We are located in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Looking for your local branch? Have a look at our Library Locations page.