new friends and new bookshops
An acquaintance I've made has her own business doing childrens book illustrations, portraits and the like. She is very talented. We went book shopping on Thursday night at about 8pm when all the shops just wanted to close. But I wanted to buy books!
Bought Microserfs-Douglas Coupland; something or other by Siri Hustevdt and another nameless book that I bought because it was English and I liked the vivid red and green cover... they had a large amount of contemporary literature, a wide range of novelists and even offered to design a book order form just for me (to make it easier to select books and remember what I want to read). This is the only disadvantage in migrating from a city of 1 million to 200,000 to less than 100,000. The public libraries aren't so well stocked, and that's not surprising, I have fairly intense literary tastes.
Other things I've been reading:
Charles Perkins biography (inspired by the documentary on the 1967 referendum anniversary and hearing the talk by one of the local Aboriginal guys about his experience going to Sydney University in the 60s and being welcomed by Charles; the foundation that was set up on George Street running all kinds of social and entertainment support as well as Saturday night dances, the rise of black consciousness that developed in Sydney and led to the tent embassies and so forth-also interesting reading about the beginning of the campaign to overturn discriminatory legislations state by state, including getting Don Dustan to put forward bills whilst he was Shadow Attorney General).
The year of yes-Maria Headley. a playwright student at NYU decides to say yes to anyone that asks her out, including handymen and taxi drivers (borrowed this inspired by an entry by seagreen, which in term reminded me of being asked out on a date by a taxi driver that had treated me coffee and baklakva on the journey out to the airport, from the northcote kebab shop, apparently has good baklava to all those melburnite dwellers). This book isnt bad but suffers from not being edited enough, there was a bit of narcissitic filler that is FINE on a blog (?!?) but I coudl have done without in a book.
Some chick lit book by Melanie Da'Brooy-same, she needs to be edited better (there is chicklit and there is chicklit. Good chicklit is mindlessly uplifting and written by well read people-this book references some serious literary romantic heroes that I totally agreed with).
Have borrowed, but not yet read, Black Dog by Ian McEwan, something by Hanif Kureishi (I've only read Buddha of Suburbia, which I love).
Have been recommended, but not able to acquire yet, The Bluebird Cafe by Rebecca Smith, and stuff by Susie Boyt, Tim Parks and Rachel Cusk.
See why I don't have any spare time?
Bought Microserfs-Douglas Coupland; something or other by Siri Hustevdt and another nameless book that I bought because it was English and I liked the vivid red and green cover... they had a large amount of contemporary literature, a wide range of novelists and even offered to design a book order form just for me (to make it easier to select books and remember what I want to read). This is the only disadvantage in migrating from a city of 1 million to 200,000 to less than 100,000. The public libraries aren't so well stocked, and that's not surprising, I have fairly intense literary tastes.
Other things I've been reading:
Charles Perkins biography (inspired by the documentary on the 1967 referendum anniversary and hearing the talk by one of the local Aboriginal guys about his experience going to Sydney University in the 60s and being welcomed by Charles; the foundation that was set up on George Street running all kinds of social and entertainment support as well as Saturday night dances, the rise of black consciousness that developed in Sydney and led to the tent embassies and so forth-also interesting reading about the beginning of the campaign to overturn discriminatory legislations state by state, including getting Don Dustan to put forward bills whilst he was Shadow Attorney General).
The year of yes-Maria Headley. a playwright student at NYU decides to say yes to anyone that asks her out, including handymen and taxi drivers (borrowed this inspired by an entry by seagreen, which in term reminded me of being asked out on a date by a taxi driver that had treated me coffee and baklakva on the journey out to the airport, from the northcote kebab shop, apparently has good baklava to all those melburnite dwellers). This book isnt bad but suffers from not being edited enough, there was a bit of narcissitic filler that is FINE on a blog (?!?) but I coudl have done without in a book.
Some chick lit book by Melanie Da'Brooy-same, she needs to be edited better (there is chicklit and there is chicklit. Good chicklit is mindlessly uplifting and written by well read people-this book references some serious literary romantic heroes that I totally agreed with).
Have borrowed, but not yet read, Black Dog by Ian McEwan, something by Hanif Kureishi (I've only read Buddha of Suburbia, which I love).
Have been recommended, but not able to acquire yet, The Bluebird Cafe by Rebecca Smith, and stuff by Susie Boyt, Tim Parks and Rachel Cusk.
See why I don't have any spare time?
Comments
Re Kureishi: 'Buddha' and 'The Black Album' are rather ace. He gets progressively less ace from there, until he vanishes up his own bum.
By the way, the instructions on your comments box are appearing in German. Very strange.
Love,
James