Melbourne Athenaeum Library

Did you know we've been posting these challenges for over two years now? To celebrate we have one that harks back to our very first connections challenge in 2024!

Great work if you knew that these four years are the four times when there have been joint Nobel Laureates in Literature.

Today is Bloomsday, a celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce. The day is named after Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses, the events of which take place on Thursday, 16 June 1904. Celebrations take in Dublin and around the world, and organisation Bloomsday in Melbourne holds theatrical productions each year to mark the day.

If you found the anagrams in our last challenge difficult we have good news for you, there are only numbers this time so there's no wordplay at all!
Will you find the literary connection and claim the prize of bragging rights, or will you be waiting until we share the answer next week to see the connection?

Did you know that we host over 15 music events each year for our members? With a mix of classical, jazz and contemporary artists, there's something for everyone's musical taste buds🎶

Image: Wattleseed Ensemble play the Melbourne Athenaeum Library, February 2026

This may well have been the most challenging of our challenges so far, so if you worked out that they were all anagrams of authors' names well done - but if you managed to work out the anagrams themselves then absolutely phenomenal work!

A view from the shelves.
An autumn night a few Fridays ago with Tulliah🎶

Don't worry, we haven't got this challenge mixed up with something else, but we understand if you're a bit confused by it.
If you need a hint you might think about the workshops David Astle has run in the library about cryptic crosswords...

Mechanics Institutes’ Milestone💙

In 1827 Australia’s first mechanics’ institute opened in Hobart. In 2027, 200 years later, we will celebrate the bicentenary of the mechanics’ institute movement in Australia.

'Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future' will be a conference bringing together the mechanics’ institute community from across Australia. The conference will be held at the Melbourne Athenaeum on Saturday 13 March, followed by a bus tour of selected Melbourne and regional mechanics’ institutes on March 14.

A website has been launched for the celebration and a call has gone out for papers. For more information visit the website here: https://www.mechanicsinaus.org

It can be hard enough to remember the actual titles of books, let alone titles that were changed prior to publication. Well done if you worked this one out!