For those in dismay at the prospect of wet, dark evenings and social isolation this fall, a luxury desert island resort in the Maldives is looking for a live-in bookseller to start working next month.
The eco-resort of Soneva Fushi, on Kunfunadhoo Island in the Maldives, has played host to three “barefoot booksellers” since 2018: The most recent occupant, Chrissy Ryan, left in April as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world.
TOURISM REOPENING
With the Maldives now reopening to international tourists, Soneva Fushi is in need of a bookseller to run a small shop on the private island, with the working contract set to run from the end of next month until April next year.
“The Maldives is pretty much COVID-free and the resort that we operate with has its own medical center, and strict and rigorous testing procedures, so it’s a very safe place to be,”said Philip Blackwell, the chief executive of Ultimate Library, which runs the bookshop and provides library collections for holiday destinations around the world.
“They’re expecting people to come, and we are minded to take the punt to reopen our bookshop and see what passing trade comes our way,” he added.
When the position of “barefoot bookseller” was previously advertised, Blackwell received thousands of applications from people desperate to escape the grind of daily life.
“Last time, we had everybody from the White House press corps to film directors, lawyers, IT managers, beach poets, retired librarians,” said Blackwell, who is a member of the British family of booksellers that sold their chain in 2006.
“What works best is somebody with bookselling experience. They’ve got to love people and selling books, and they’ve got to know about books,” Blackwell said.
ADVENTURER NEEDED
“They’ve also got to be adventurous because this is not for somebody to sit in a bookshop eight hours a day, this is for people to get out there, engage with the guests and help people on their reading journey, because reading for pleasure is a muscle that, like any other muscle in the body, is traditionally underused until people go on holiday,” Blackwell added.
The job application calls for “excellent written and verbal English skills; a lively tone of voice to write entertaining blogs and newsletters that capture the exhilarating life of a desert island bookseller; and the skills to host workshops and events.”
Job applicants would also need “a can-do attitude with a strong understanding of working independently,” the job description says.
TRAINING FIRST
Whoever is selected is to undergo job training remotely before flying to the Maldives.
“They’ll have sand between their toes rather than slush between their feet, and the chance to really test themselves,” Blackwell said.
Writing on the Barefoot Bookseller blog, Ryan said that her time in the Maldives had been “a whirlwind of adventure where I have developed new passions, discovered new skills and built new friendships.”
“I’ve moved 6,000 miles [9,656km] across the planet, left my friends and family behind me and found a whole new community on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I’ve tested my boundaries and rediscovered my sense of self,” Ryan wrote.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
RSS