Genealogy for Novels

This year our bookclub read The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter. Kirsten is a Sydney girl who spent quite a few years in New York and other parts of the US where she undertook a PhD in Renaissance Poetry.

At the Sydney Writers' Festival Fairlie and I saw Colm Toibin (my aide-memoir for the pronunciation is Column Toe-Bean) and Kirsten speak about how both of these books are a re-imagining of the story in this famous novel:

Which in turn is apparently a re-imagining of the story in this famous novel:

So what's a girl to do but consult the gurus at www.bookdepository.co.uk and have The Portrait of a Lady plus Middlemarch delivered to my door for a total combined cost of $10 with a plan to read them in their correct genealogical order.

Who knew books had relatives hidden in their past too?

Wolf Hall

Just finished. Loved it.

What's not to love about the dastardly Tudors? I've been quite fascinated by the Tudors ever since I saw The Six Wives of Henry VIII on the ABC all.those.years.ago. Hard to believe it first aired in 1970...

I haven't read The Other Boleyn Girl but I did watch the movie the other day. It made me mad. Mainly because I found that version of the Boleyn Girls not at all believable. As a result I don't want to read the other books, or that one, in fact.

History, they say, is written by the victors so we may never know what really went on except what we can interpret from diaries that have survived and stories written after the fact. However, I found that Hillary Mantel's version painted a sumptuous picture of Tudor times that made me want to believe her story over the other stories.

Ms Mantel questioned the general view of the main characters in the Tudor drama: How could a man who rose from being a Blacksmith's son to the right hand of Henry VIII and who could just as make a pair of fairy wings for his daughter as draft legislation for parliament be all bad (Thomas Cromwell)? And how could a man who put to the fire, the block and the rack men and women who believed the bible should be able to be read by the average Englishman or woman be all good (Thomas More)?

Wolf Hall is a fictional treatment of Henry VIII's separation from Rome, divorce from Katherine of Aragon and marriage to Anne Boleyn from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell a commoner who rose to be the second most powerful man in England after the King.

This is not a book to read when tired. It is important to read every word and the character guide at the beginning is a helpful addition. Half the time it is difficult to dissect who is talking. Ms Mantel writes sparsely but not at all neatly. A style which, in fact, helps to convey the complexity of the times.

I read this accompanied by my A-Z of London Streets. Some sort of encyclopedia of British Royalty would also have helped.

I am very much looking forward to the next installment.

Favourite Books

This month my bookgroup has decided not to review a book. Instead we will talk about our favourite book or books. Members can bring their favourite book, or give a list of 5 or 10 favourites or simply talk about a book that influenced their thinking or that made an impact of some kind.

Some years ago my Melbourne bookgroup did this. It was fascinating to hear about the books that made it to each member's favourite pile and the reasons for it.

Over the last week I've been thinking about the books that make it to my current top 10. I say current because my top 10 changes regularly, and this top 10 is vastly different from the top 10 I presented all those years back in Melbourne.

This month my top 10 represents books I loved at the time and which I would both recommend to others and want to read again.

In no particular order

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke

How do Humans react when they first encounter an object floating in space that has clearly not been made on Earth?

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Such a toss up between this and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. One a rise in social position, the other a fall from grace. I chose the fall from grace.

Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells

The prequel to Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. And, oh, so much better. I so hope you didn't bother with the movie...

The Long Ships by Frans G Bengtssen

A rollicking saga of the viking age. Published in 1952 this is both hillarious and illuminating.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

A group of scientists seek to preserve knowledge as the civilizations around them start to regress.

Cautionary Verses by Hillaire Belloc

The story of Jim who ran away from his Nurse and was eaten by a Lion and other fabulous verses are a staple from my childhood and best read with an English accent. I hear Stephen Fry has recorded the verses. He would be excellent.

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein

Hobbits on a mission to destroy a ring. Seriously, this hardly needs an introduction. A complete classic which the movies, while excellent, hardly touched in any meaningful way.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

The story of Kate's convict ancestor, Sam Wiseman, disguised as William Thornhill. The story of convict settlement on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney at the very beginning of white settlement in Australia. Does not pull punches.

Jonathon Strange & Mr Norell by Sussanah Clarke

An alternate reality where magicians really existed as a once-respectable profession in 18th and 19th century England. No cloaks and wands in this one. But at over 1000 pages leave it for the holidays.

Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

Oh man, this book is so amazing. A saga of indigenous Australia set in the Gulf of Carpentaria and starring the North of Australia. Written in the style of indigenous story telling this book took me 240 of its 520 pages to 'get' but once I got it I loved it and then re-read it straight away. It's one of the few books I have full of yellow post-it notes.

I always worry when I put together such a list that I have forgotten a long lost book that I love. But no matter, it can always go on next year's list.

How about you? Anyone else want to share a favourite book?

Books of the Year 2008

A quick flip through my bookcase this morning reminded me which books I got the most out of in 2008.


In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan - After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver in 2007 and then seeing Michael Pollan at the Sydney Writers Festival in early 2008 I started getting interested in real food books. This was the first I picked up in 2008. I challenge you to pick up another Yoghurt Gogurt tube from the supermarket after reading this book.

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan - again, a real food book. Looking at food from the plant's point of view. I don't think I could eat a mass-produced Idaho Potato ever again.

The 100-mile diet by Alisa Smith and J B MacKinnon - yes, more food books. Drawing on the theme that we are best to eat things that come from close to where we live. Also debunks some of the rubbish being touted about the exactness of the 100 mile/160km radius requirement. This was an experiment, not a mantra.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville - didn't like the last book I read by Kate (The Idea of Perfection), all too small town for me. However, this book, set in early NSW was fabulous. The story of fictional convict William Thornhill and his family making a life for themselves on the Hawkesbury River.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks - I find Geraldine a dependable read. Story of a book conservator that reveals the history of a book while repairing it. That this is in my top 9 books (or series) for 2008 is more a reflection on the quality of the books I read this year rather than the quality of this book in particular. Do like the story premise 'though.

A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts - the story of the Blind Traveller, James Holman, a naval lieutenant who went blind at 25 but continued to travel the world 'seeing' it with his feet, his ears, his nose and his sense of taste. Amazing story.

Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - a truly fabulous book that at 1000 pages should probably be attempted while on holiday. I am a sucker for the sort of fantasy which creates alternative realities within the very real world we live in. This book goes further than that by creating a fantasy world within 19th century England (and Europe).

The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullmann - as I said above I am a sucker for Fantasy novels involving alternate realities. As much as I loved this trilogy, the first book was the best and got a little weird towards the end. I'm not keen on being told what to think in a book (hence my detestation of Blindness by Jose Saramago) and I think Mr Pullmann gets a little preachy towards the end.

The Twilight series by Stephenie Myer - simply the best series for teenage girls I have read. This book is engaging enough for adults (female only I suspect) because it reminds us what it is like to be a teenager as well as creating an alternate reality (which I'm a sucker for). This is Harry Potter for teenage girls. I seem to be one of the few who believe it is a shame to read this book too early. I'm sure the average 10-11 year old will get something from the series but I can't see that they will feel the emotional pull as a 12-18 year old would and that is the magic and the fantasy of the book. I have told my 10yo that I don't mind if she reads the series (it is certainly very moral and chaste - to a point (lots of sexual tension) - until the fourth book) but I have said that if she waits until she is 12 she will get so.much.more from it.

How about you? What have you read in 2008 that is worth sharing?

The good ole days when a girl would not expect her pony to follow her over the jumps

Earlier this week a little package arrived in the mail for the kids from their Grandpa.

These are the Thelwell cartoon books I used to read as a child. I think they were originally at my grandmother's house. They are, in any case, well thumbed and were the source of much mirth to me as a child. I suspect these are not so funny if you (a) have never owned a horse and/or (b) know nothing of the English brand of 'horsiness'.

You see, while not a great horsewoman by any sense, I did once own one of these ponies. His name was Luke Skywalker and he was a trifle wide in the barrel. He would puff out his tummy when I did up the girth and was terribly amused when the saddle, and me with it, slid off him during a ride.

I never did have much control over this animal. He being more interested in food than taking me for a ride.

And as for showjumping...well, lets just say that Luke and I were the entertainment at pony club as he would canter up to a jump, screech to a halt and send me careering between his ears over the jump. By myself.

Love these little books. And now my kids are getting a laugh out of them too. Thanks Dad!

The Book Tourist's Guide to Australia

I asked and you delivered. Here are your choices for the books that would give a visitor an insight into the social fabric of your Australia.

Sydney Suburbs:

Cronulla beach culture: Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey
Surry Hills before it was gentrified: The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
Western Suburbs: Ten Things I Hate about Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah (young fiction)
North Sydney, Lane Cove (plus Canberra & Malvern, Vic): Dead Set by Kel Robertson (crime fiction)
Eastern Suburbs, esp. Bondi: The Les Norton books by R G Barrett (popular fiction)
Early Urban Settlers plus a glimpse of boarding school in the Blue Mountains: Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner (written 1894)

Melbourne Suburbs:

Bayside: Sunnyside by Joanna Murray-Smith
Northern: The Murrary Whelan Novels by Shane Maloney (crime fiction)
St Kilda Road, Inner City in the 1920s: The Phryne Fisher Novels by Kerry Greenwood
Brunswick Street in the 90s: The Crocodile Club by Kaz Cooke
Suburban share house (poss. set Carlton, Fitzroy? Williamstown?) 1960s/70s: Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
Acland St, St Kilda: Cafe Sheherazade by Arnold Zable
St Kilda and the seedier side of life: Candy by Luke Davies
Williamstown & Kensington: The Watcher on the Cast Iron Balcony by Hal Porter
Suburban professionals: Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman, Three Dollars by Elliot Perlman

Perth:
1950s suburbia: The Shark Net by Robert Drewe
1960s suburbia: Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
The 'iron ore state' from 1950s-1990s: Floodtide by Judy Nunn

Central and Remote Australia:

Malaya, Alice Springs, Burketown Qld: A Town Like Alice by Nevile Shute (set late 1940s)
An epic of Aboriginal Australia in the Gulf Country: Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

Other Rural Australia:

Rural WA (Narrogin): A Fortunate Life by Albert Facey (memoir set around late WWI)
Rural WA (Albany? Lancelin?): Dirt Music by Tim Winton
Goulburn, NSW: My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (1901)
Mt Macedon area, Victoria: Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (early 1900s)
Beachside country towns near Melbourne: The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

Queensland:

Apart from Carpentaria above, the recommendations we have are to listen to Jimmy Barnes and Shannon Noll (for Townsville) and to watch Muriel's Wedding. Oh man, did I have to type that?

Although there was also a suggestion to read the Nick Earls novels for a taste of 1980s Brisbane.

One International Entry:

Melinda suggests that Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns gives an insight into small town Georgia.

Thanks for your entries! If you have thought of any more books that give an insight into your local social fabric let me know.

*photos by me from our trip to the amazing red centre in 2007

What is "the book" for your town?

John Berendt's masterpiece of social interpretation "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is simply known as "the book" in Savannah, Georgia. It is full of descriptions not only of the famous city but of some of the more interesting characters that live, or lived, there. If you haven't read it I recommend you do. If you have any questions I'm sure Melinda, our bloggy-friend and Georgia native, won't mind answering them (isn't that right, Melinda?)

Reading this book made me wonder what book/s give an insight into the social fabric of the town I live in. I came up with the following:

For southern suburbs beach culture: Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette & Gabrielle Carey

For an insight into the history of the once slum, but now gentrified, Surry Hills: The Harp in the South by Ruth Park* (actually, anything by Ruth Park)

Actually, I'm struggling here. Perhaps longer-term Sydney-siders would have a better insight.

What book says the most about the social fabric of your town, city or suburb?

(Leave your suggestions in the comments below or email me at doyouspeakamylanguage[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll post a list in a few days, you know, as a service to prospective visitors to your place.)

*pic from here

Beauty Circa. 1982

It may amuse you to learn that, in 1982, I was awarded a prize for being the "overall top student" in my school's Grooming & Deportment class. Some of you may need a moment to pick yourselves off the floor and stop laughing. Ha ha yes, very funny.

The prize was the above book. A bible for those young women who were about to go out into the world. Women who were encouraged to choose the largest shoulder-pad available and break through the glass ceiling.

But not before being passed a few time-honoured messages:

Start thinking thin early. Obviously we are not bombarded with dieting books early enough. Kindergarten is clearly the go. Perhaps there should be home readers on the subject?

Oh, and by dieting we mean constant dieting lest we allow a single "fat cell" to be born.

And, of course, the most important message. Put down that strawberry sundae, there's a size 6 dress waiting for me. In an alternate universe.

I imagine I was reading this while lying on my dorm room bed eating a bag of mixed lollies from the corner shop.

Page 123, sentences 5,6 & 7

Frogdancer is quite confident that I can read. However, she didn't consider whether I can count. Numbers and I just don't mix. So when Frogdancer tagged me for a book meme that required me to count I was a little nervous but here goes.

The deal is I grab the book closest to me (with more than 123 pages), go to page 123 and write out sentences 5,6 and 7. Then, as is meme lore, tag 5 people.

I'm warning you, this is not going to be pretty. Not just because of the counting challenge but because the closest book to me is my current bookclub read Love Life by R. Kluun. This book can really be described as a racy book about breast cancer. Yep, racy.

The author is a monophobe that beds a wide range of women while his wife is dying from an extremely severe form breast cancer. So far he's not endearing himself to me. The quoted section takes place just after his wife has a mastectomy. The author is talking to a work colleague:

'I held her head up with one of those little containers under
it, you know, one of those foetus-shaped egg-boxes.'

Maud hugs me. 'Has she - has she seen what it looks
like?'

That's the 3 sentences allowed, but so you are not left in the lurch here are the next two:

'No. The doctor recommends we take the bandage off together'.

I tag Fairlie, S from TeamSAK (when she's feeling up to it), ArmyWife, and anyone else who wants to join in (Fe, are you reading this?).

Milestone

Padawan Learner is not keen on home readers. Last year he brought home four home readers in the first week of first term and took the same ones back in the last week of school*. Nevertheless he seems to have learnt to read. A secret he likes to keep from his teachers.

I know he can read because at night-time he can be found reading (aloud) Dr Seuss books, Captain Underpants, Tashi or some movie tie-in book about Transformers, Dr Who, or Star Wars. He also understands all instructions in video games and reads stories out of the newspaper.

However, in my view, the real milestone in reading is when a child chooses a book, then disappears and doesn't re-appear until it's finished.

That happened yesterday.

After a visit to one of our favourite bookshops, Padawan Learner sat at the kitchen table and read until his new book was finished. I know he was reading because he still reads out aloud. I know he was "getting it" because he was laughing and telling me what was going on while I was cooking dinner.

This is the book that has started this next phase in his reading life:

Whatever takes his fancy. If he's reading, I'm cool with it.

*BTW I don't blame him, they are tragically boring and I never pushed it.

The Northern Lights

Loved it. This is Book I of the His Dark Materials trilogy. I'll delve straight into the second book - The Subtle Knife.

It's billed as teen fiction but my guess is that many a 9-12 year old will be getting this book for Christmas with the movie version, The Golden Compass, opening in cinemas very soon.

My advice to kids is leave it until you are 11, the same age as the strong independent female protagonist in the story. I do think it is a shame to read some stories too young.

Warning to Fairlie: this book may contain Fantasy elements.

Fractured Holidays

Aaah holidays. I don't know why I should feel different when the kids are on holidays. I mean during term time the kids are at school for five hours a day. Isn't that a holiday? But no; term time means hurried breakfasts, the dreaded packed lunch, homework and horror of all horrors - after-school activities. And that's without the Last Minute Project, the School-Play Costume and We Need a Parent Volunteer for [add activity here]. No holidays are bliss.

What is it with all the Play Dates? I have mentioned before that I deliberately planned a quiet, in Sydney, holiday. No major events planned, no over-scheduling, just wake up and lie around in jammies until lunchtime. Ha! I didn't plan on the kids being invited on play date after play date. It's not that I mind them disappearing for several hours, and the kids love them, it's just that I feel that I should reciprocate - and I JUST DON'T WANT TO (for the Jammies Until Lunchtime reason). So I will be Bad Reciprocator this holidays.

Still, apart from the play dates it has been quite relaxing. The kids have been trying out a new swim school by doing their SwimVac program and I'm REALLY IMPRESSED. This school (Carlile Swimming) actually focuses on stroke correction; the last two schools I've tried just pump out the laps.

I get to read books, yay! I finished Carpentaria just before the holidays started and have since finished March by Geraldine Brooks (which had being laying unfinished for some months) and Theft by Peter Carey. All good reads so far.

Now I am onto Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough. This is the eighth book in the Masters of Rome series and is definitely up to Colleen's usual standards (Although she has annoyed me with her apostrophe use eg. Octavianus's - I prefer Octavianus'). Colleen is one of the world's great experts on the Roman Republic and her point of view on this stuff is really worth reading.

Here's the bit about the fracture. Yesterday the kids went to a Baseball clinic - Baseball being their chosen summer sport this year (Hilariously, Firegazer is their Match Coach! I think he may have once watched a game of baseball). During catching practice (without a mitt), where balls were fired rapidly from a machine, KelpieBlossom sustained a green stick fracture to her Pinky and now has it strapped up. Great look for her upcoming ballet exam...

What is a holiday without some sort of fracture anyway?

Writers' Rooms

Mark Haddon's study

I just had to share this fabulous site from the Guardian Newspaper showing Writers' Rooms. A lovely reminder that we don't need a grand oak desk, or a room designed within an inch of it's life to be creative.

I call my study "the office". As I look around at the moment it has a fabulous newish built-in storage unit teamed artistically with an ironing table, huge pile of un-ironed clothes, an old Officeworks student desk and an untidy pile of soon to be overdue bills. My view, however, is excellent and makes up for my office's lack of designer cred.

PS HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUEENIE!

Books, The Parent Race and YAY Holidays.

I still can't believe what can be achieved when I don't blog all the time. Not monumental life-changing things, just everyday things which usually get put on the "do-sometime-else pile".


I finished reading Carpentaria by Alexis Wright on Wednesday night. It's 520 pages long and written in the voice of a male Australian Aboriginal elder. It is also written in an indigenous storytelling style blending astonishingly frank depictions of life in the Australian Gulf Country with magic realism.

I apologise to all those potential readers who I may have put off reading the book while I was trudging through at the 250page mark - please continue reading, as the last 270 pages are just reward for the difficulties of the first 250. In fact I am re-reading the book - the first 250 pages now appear light, funny and well paced with my head in the 'right place' and my mind used to the language and feel that it could become a great classic of Australian literature.

Yesterday our school held the annual K-2 sports carnival. The day consists of each child competing in a flat race, a novelty race and group novelty relays. Ribbons are handed out generously and there can often be more than one "first" ribbon given out in a race depending on how excited the parent judges get.

There is no such generosity in the parent races however. Oh no, this is a HIGHLY COMPETIVE event for which I am sure some parents train hard. After last year's debacle when I made the mistake of wearing jeans and Birkenstocks and came 4th in my heat - this year I made sure I wore runners so as to be better prepared. And came second last in a field of about 8. At least I think I came second last. When I asked Padawan Learner whether mummy came last he said "no mummy, you just didn't some last, just". I have mentally noted all the fast mums and will make sure I am not in their heat next year...


Who loves school holidays? ME! Today was the last day of school for two weeks. YAY. I know after a while you wish the kids were back at school and you have peace and quiet again, but I can't wait because I HATE making school lunches. I am looking forward to waking up knowing I don't HAVE to be anywhere soon, I don't have to make school lunches, there is no homework to cajole the kids into doing and no after school activities to rush to and from.

We are not going anywhere. The kids have Swimvac for half-an-hour a day in the first week and KelpieBlossom has ballet workshop for an hour a day in the second week. A couple of playdates planned but that's it. Aaaah.

In preparation for the holidays, and for breaking out the skirts and brand new Birkenstocks (the new red & white paisley ones), I have de-forested the legs, had a facial (!) and painted my toenails red (to match the Birks). Now I am all ready and just need to find a sunny spot in the garden with a cup of tea (or glass of wine after 5pm) and read my books.

Poll: Reading Habits

After you finish a book do you:

(a) immediately pick up the next on on your TBR pile and start reading
(b) take a day's/week's/month's break
(c) what? finish a book? wouldn't know what that was like (Firegazer, and others who lack book commitment should tick here)

Check out my poll. Closes next Sat.

Dear Diary: I cannot adequately account for myself I'm afraid

Monday: Back to real life with thud after weekend away at Melbourne Writers Festival. Day starts early with whipping KelpieBlossom off to doctor to look at weird rash developing all over her trunk. Looks like chicken pox but luckily is non-infectious thing. Take reading groups in Padawan Learner's class. He "sings" his reader again. Excellent.

Tuesday: Canteen Duty at the kids' school. This is the one day per term I must make small talk with the Canteen Supervisor and whichever other mum is on duty. Our usual hot-seller at recess is the Rice Cup (hot rice, with/without soy sauce); however, the committee has decided that it must now include vegetables stirred into the rice. Sales down by more than 50%. Sales of hot cheese rolls go through the roof. One kid came back for his fourth and we had to say "no more until you've eaten some fruit". Recess is only 20mins, where do they put all that food?

Padawan Learner had to give a talk on something to do with the water cycle. Talk hastily pieced together late the night before. He talked about snow. He ended his talk with "facts about snow"; the last of which was "Don't eat yellow snow". Wanted to be a fly on the wall in that one.

Wednesday: A blur. Cannot account for myself in any substantial way. Agonizing Pilates session involved. Resolve never to go at 9am Wed with the Elite Pilates Crowd again. If you do Pilates and are ever asked to do something called The Orangutan quietly pick up your shoes and make a quiet, yet quick, exit.

Day also involved taxiing kids to various activities and kids frantically completing homework tasks as Thursday is last day of school for the week. I think I might have done some grocery shopping. Hate Supermarkets. I shop on an emergency basis only.

Thursday: I went to the dentist; and for the first time in my memory I came away with a clean set of teeth but NO dental work to be done. Quite pleasant really after the (quadruple) wisdom teeth extraction (in the chair) I had earlier in the year. Kids go to dentist after school. Luckily they too just came away with new toothbrushes but no extra appointments.

APEC in full swing. Firegazer gets to work at 6.30am to avoid traffic on the Bridge.

Friday: APEC holiday. Living near the harbour sounds like we are in the middle of a Vietnam movie with all those helicopters whirring overhead.

Most of Sydney goes away for the weekend, we have the remaining two families over for dinner. I want to cook Fairlie's Blueberry Cheesecake Tart but remember that my Mixmaster is dead and decide to cook FarmDad's Apple Crumble instead (with homemade custard of course). Over dinner we try to remember the songs on the 1979 Australian compilation album "Screamer" but can't. I know one of them is "Sky Pilot" and also "Curiosity Killed the Cat". Couldn't even find them via Google. Does anyone still have this album?

Saturday: Finished The Time Traveller's Wife this morning. Loved it. M and Firegazer are taxi service taking kids to Ballet, Swimming and Ballet again. Almost forgot that KelpieBlossom has a party this arvo. Rush out to buy gift. Notice that the Wisteria is about to burst with flower. Must remember to photograph.

As much as I love the Driza-bone I can't help giggling at the picture of the APEC leaders on the steps of the Sydney Opera House wearing theirs.

Note to self: must get a "real" job.

Sunning it at the Egremont Writers Festival

There’s nothing like a writers festival to make you feel uneducated and poorly read. Quite apart from being unable to laugh at the subtle references to Proust or Kafka I am challenged, from day one, to draw a grammatical line in the sand by having to take sides on the Great Apostrophe Debate. Is it a Writer’s, or Writers’ Festival? I usually give up and leave the apostrophe out altogether. The MSWord grammar checker, BTW, wants it to be “Writer’s”.

Apart from this, writers festivals are not the preserve of the literary elite. They are one of the best ways to expand the range of books you read because there is nothing like hearing an author read from his or own book, or listening to them talk about why they write like they do.

This weekend I flew down to attend the last weekend of the Melbourne Writers Festival. I stayed with Fairlie and attended a total of nine sessions with Fairlie and, on Sunday, with Fairlie and Domestic Goddess. I was curious about how I would view this festival after four years away replacing it with the Sydney version. Fairlie has covered the sessions we attended in depth so here is my overall summary:

• The layout was much better than previous years. Setting up the bookshop in a marquee outside was a master stroke.


• The MWF is a much more intimate event than Sydney but has much less of a festival atmosphere. I wonder how this will change when it moves to Fed Square next year.


• It’s very tempting to buy the sausage sandwich for lunch but much kinder to your fellow attendees if you don’t.


• I’m sorry GossipPop but I just don’t get you. Perhaps if I read Kafka or Proust I would. But I doubt it.


• Alexis Wright has written Carpentaria in the voice of a male aboriginal elder; Adrian Hyland has written Diamond Dove in the voice of a 26yo female aboriginal woman and Gail Jones just has a squeaky voice. All seek to give voice to our indigenous people.


• Mark Crick wrote in 14 famous voices in Kafka’s Soup and did a great job at all of them.


• I thought there was going to be fisty cuffs on stage during the “Politics of Atheism” discussion between Val Noone and A C Grayling. But Grayling didn’t bite. Shame.


• The mob from Victoria University who were supposed to talk about creating identities in an online world had no idea what they were talking about.


• Visa Dockets are a perfectly rational source of notepaper. As are the backs of invitations to Quaker meetings.


• Alexander McCall Smith, Michael Robotham and Adrian Hyland all live surrounded by females and assume female personae in their books. AMS does, however, have a male cat.


• Katie Hickman was fascinating on the subject of Courtesans. She tells us that Lord William Melbourne, from whom Melbourne gets its name, is widely rumoured to have been the product of an affair between Lady Melbourne and Lord Egremont. So in a parallel universe we may in fact have attended the Egremont Writers Festival.
  

So what books did I think I might put on my TBR pile:

Courtesans by Katie Hickman
The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham
Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

And perhaps

Caravan Story by Wayne Macauley


and finally, only readers of Kafka will find this funny:

“All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers is contained in this blog”

Don’t get it? Don’t blame you. See the original quote here.

24 CDs in 128 hours

Last night at 9pm (just in time for Lights Out) KelpieBlossom finished the last of the 24 Harry Potter 5 Audio CDs (see earlier post). That's 24 CDs in 128 hours or an average of 4.6hours of listening a day. Yes, she went to school. Yes, she went to all her afterschool activities.


Back to a noisy house this morning.

Harry Potter Bookpile

HP BookPile with flash
Originally uploaded by Colette8765

Book cataloguing website, Library Thing is experiencing downtime at the moment.

While they are fixing whatever needs fixing they are having a competition for a new "bookpile" photo to be placed on their home page. Entrants upload their entries to flickr. com

If you're interested in seeing the other bookpiles, entries are tagged "LTDown".

I loved this one. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in many different languages.

If I didn't have to do my assignment...

If I wasn't such a dedicated student I would be at the Sydney Writers' Festival. If I was more of a recalcitrant I would've gone to see

Sophie Gee talk about her new book The Rape of the Lock in a session called Plundering History.

Richard E Grant in conversation with Jennifer Byrne.

PLUS

The Future of English; William Dalrymple in conversation with Christopher Kremmer; The Writers Life: Don Watson; Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Conversation; Lionel Shriver in Conversation and Laugh Out Loud. And that's without really looking that hard. Next year I've resolved to go to both the Sydney and Melbourne Writers'/Writer's Festivals.

But, alas, right now I am sitting at home avoiding my assignment in other countless ways - like writing to this blog.

Only 10 days to go until I finish....