Something a little less serious

A catch-up post in dot points:

• Lily is completely obsessed with the Faraway Tree series. She has had it read to her (and listened to it) so many times now that she is talking in Faraway Tree language: "It was simply marvelous." "No, that's just horrid." etc... She is also making up "Saucepan's silly songs." They are quite funny.

• Lil's also been sick for over a week now. She's been up and down in that time and seems to be properly on the mend now, but it's been a long week. Poor kid.

• I am heading up to Sydney on Thursday to do a faculty presentation on my thesis and meet with my supervisors. It will be very useful, but I am sort of dreading it. I know that the list of things that I still need to do will be long and daunting...

• A lovely friend of mine gave us a pressure cooker as a present for leaving her our house to sit while we were in Mexico (they were moving to NZ and needed somewhere to be after their stuff had gone on ahead). It was ridiculously generous since it was just as beneficial to us to have people staying in our place and taking care of the garden etc. But, it has also been a revelation. I LOVE IT. I really like cooking, but it can be quite stressful to try making dinner when Lil is already hungry and is getting impatient and demanding. The pressure cooker means that everything is so quick to make and I can do other things while dinner is cooking. Win, win, win. It also makes cooking dried beans so very much easier, which means that I am resorting to far less cans.

• Lily and I finally planted our bulbs last week. I am hoping that it wasn't too late, as I love seeing the daffodils and tulips popping up in the Spring. I helped Lily to make little labels for the pots, but we didn't make them water-proof enough and they are fading already. Fortunately it will be fairly obvious what they are (if they survive).

• Winter has really arrived here in Canberra. It is cold. It has also been raining quite a lot, which is very un-Canberran. The absence of blue skies is starting to get me down a little - though, of course, the garden is very happy.

• My pregnancy is progressing well. We had a 20 week scan a little while ago and found out that we are having a boy. A new adventure! We are planning to call him Charlie. He is a very active little munchkin - especially in the early hours of the morning and whenever he can hear his big sister's voice.

• I made this banana bread with choc-chips on Saturday morning. It was truly delicious. I can highly recommend the recipe. (But, of course, you can rarely go wrong with anything from Molly).

• That's all for now, I think. I hope that you are well. I plan to get back on tops of things when Lil is back on her feet. Expect some Wintery photos and maybe even a few lunchboxes.
  

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I have to admit that I was drawn to this novel solely because of the title. I love the idea of someone loving books so much that they would steal them. And, I should say upfront, that it delivered far beyond my expectations.

What I didn't realise was that this book is set in Nazi Germany during the Second World War and that it was sad. Really sad. I'm quite glad that I didn't know either of these things, because they would have put me off reading such a brilliant book. I'm really struggling these days with coping with sadness in books, and there really are so very many books and films about the holocaust, aren't there?

Of course, my ignorance didn't last very long. Within the first few paragraphs our narrator, death, is fairly explicit about the emotional roller coaster that we are about to board and the historical context in which it will take place. But, you see, by then I was hooked. That's how long it took: one paragraph, maybe two.

The book is the story of a young German girl, Liesel (or "the Book Thief"), who is traveling by train to Munich with her mother when she watches her younger brother die. This is when Death first encounters her and hangs around long enough to watch her steal her first book, The Gravedigger's Handbook, from the cemetery where they bury her brother.

Liesel continues on to Munich where she is left with a new foster family, the kindly Hans Hubermann, who plays the accordion and occasionally paints houses, and tough-as-nails Rosa Hubermann, who calls her Saumensch or pig (which we will come to understand is a term of endearment). She begins school at the age of 10, unable to read, meets her neighbour, soon-to-be-bestfriend, Rudy Steiner, and plays football in the street. Every night she wakes up screaming after dreaming about her brother's death and Hans is there to comfort her and, soon enough, to teach her to read.

Things take a darker turn when the family takes in Max Vandenburg, a young Jewish man, and hide him in their basement. The tension created by that courageous act is then increased as bombs begin to fall on Munich.

Despite the grim subject matter, this is such a beautiful story. At its heart it is the story of a young girl coming of age and learning the power of words and of love. Her relationships with Hans, Rudy, Max and even Rosa are so carefully developed and feel so utterly real that it is impossible to distance yourself from emotional vulnerability that is part and parcel of such strong friendships.

As for the sadness, well I'm not giving anything away when I say that I cried myself to sleep after finishing this book. Our kindly narrator essentially gives it all away in the first few pages. But that is what makes this book so wonderful. It is not held together with the suspense of wondering what is going to happen, it is held together with the story of why we should care.

Getting organised

[image credit]

As a child I was intensely disorganised. My room was a mess. (Once, we had mice in the house and discovered that their nest was at the bottom of my cupboard - ewww!). I struggled to submit my homework, not because I found it difficult, but because I (a) forgot it was due; (b) had misplaced it; (c) had left it until the last last minute and didn't have everything I needed on hand; or (d) some combination of the above, etc. 

I also lost my jacket at the beginning of every winter and froze for the remainder of the season because I was too scared to tell my parents (scared of their disappointment in me, not of punishment - I can't really remember being 'punished' as a child unless you count being sent to your room to calm down for a few minutes). The "lost property" box at school was full of my possessions, but not all of them made their way to it. I remember one time I was given a super cute umbrella by my aunt and uncle. It was bright blue and had a wooden head with soft fluffy hair. It was cool. I loved it. The first day that it rained I was so excited to take it to school with me, but it never came home. I am still sad about this.

[I should mention here that the fact that I moved house every weekend (and, later, every second weekend) between my Mum and Dad's houses probably didn't help me out very much. However, it didn't have the same effect on my brother and so there was clearly more to it than that.]

Anyway, I think that you probably get the picture. Being disorganised was actually a real problem in my life. It plagued me.

For some reason all this changed when I moved to the States with my Dad (aged 14). The change of country, school, living arrangements, (and maybe just the age that I was at?) all seemed to effect me and I suddenly found that I was really organised. My room was clean (aided, no doubt by my lack of stuff and the fact that I didn't have to move every second weekend). I always knew where everything was. I handed in everything on time. In fact, I often completed things early.

The thing is: it was great. Instead of constantly feeling stressed about the chaos that I was creating around me - instead of rolling from crisis to crisis - I was, actually, in control of my life. I even became a bit of a control freak, if I'm going to be honest.

I think that I have found a bit of a happy balance now, which is good. But the interesting thing is that this loss of control that I did experience when I was so disorganised now comes back to haunt me in my dreams. I frequently dream that I am back at school (usually some conglomerate of all of my past schools mixed together) and have suddenly realised that I haven't done an assignment that is due. Often these dreams spiral into the realisation that I haven't actually attended a class that I've been enrolled in all semester and now have to sit the exam... Or that I have actually managed to miss school altogether for the whole semester without realising and now have to sort it out without FAILING. These dreams never fail to stress me out.

Anyway, lately P and I have been trying to organise our house. We have been de-cluttering like maniacs, attempting to institute a bit of order on our stuff - including our paper. (Argh, why does paper seem to breed in our house?) It's been very satisfying. 

We went through our bookshelves the other week and culled every novel that we had read and didn't want to read again, and books that we were never planning to actually read. We also culled all of our out-of-date reference books. Those books filled many boxes. It felt so good.

We also cleared our closet of clothing that we no longer wear, and even went through all the stuff that has been accumulating in our garage. So good.

To celebrate all this de-cluttering we decided to host a swap party yesterday. Friends came over with all their unwanted stuff and we all got to rummage through the piles and take whatever we wanted.

It was fun. Everyone left with less stuff than they brought - we is a good thing for all of our clutter-free home aspirations - but everyone still picked up a few things that they were really happy with: a funky watering can, a wooden glockenspiel, new novels to read, a new green cardigan...

I had a short frenzied moment gathering myself some (more) kitchen utensils (I have a kitchen utensil problem), including a cute cookie cuter, a wire whisk, and a fancy grater thingy. I also picked up two books. But I got rid of far far more stuff than I took, so it was OK.

We also ate cupcakes, rock buns, pide, hummus, crackers, fruit and some scrumptious brownies - and drank some 'sparkly' drinks (as Lily calls them).

Like I said: it was fun.

The best part is that Zoe is coming back around today to pick up all the left over stuff for her son's school fete. Goodbye clutter!

Card making fun with 'Handmade Hellos'

I have always loved the idea of making my own cards. I have even attempted it on a number of occasions.

Sadly each time I have come hard up against the sad reality that I really didn't have a lot of inspiration. Once I moved past the age at which it was acceptable to hand draw a dodgy Santa on the front of Christmas cards I got a little stuck (although some may argue that this is always acceptable they clearly have not witnessed my lack of artistic skill firsthand). I think that a lot of this had to do with not having the right equipment on hand, but that was partly because I really didn't know what the right equipment would even look like. I had no real vision for what my handmade cards would like either.

Enter Handmade Hellos. This book contains 25 projects for making cards for (almost) every occasion. It's great. In addition to providing clear instructions and a list of all of the equipment that you will need to make them, it's packed full of inspiration. Some of the projects do require fairly special equipment, such as a gocco machine or lino blocks & tools, but most of them just rely on cardboard, scissors & glue, which is great.

Here are a couple of sample pages from the publisher's site


I like this thumbprint Humpty Dumpty. Actually , fingerprint pictures are a great idea in general.


These little accordion books are cute too. They'd be a lot of work though. You'd want them to be for someone special wouldn't you?

Anyway, I hope to make lots of these cards in the next few months in preparation for Christmas. Yep, I'm still thinking about Christmas. Mad, I know.

Loving : Alabama Stitch Book

I got this book in the mail yesterday morning and managed to wrangle enough snippets of time out of the day to read it cover to cover by nightfall. This was no easy feat, but it really was that good. Natalie Channin has put together a stunning book, filled with beautiful projects that I genuinely wanted to make immediately.

Her style is so appealing to me. She bases all of her projects on recycled t-shirts, which is cool in addition to being sustainable. But most of all I love the detailing that she incorporates into all of the projects - the beading, the stenciling and, especially, the reverse applique, which I had never seen before.


I really really want to make this skirt. In fact, I found myself dreaming about it all night last night.


These journals are gorgeous too. They would make great Christmas presents, wouldn't they?

Is anyone else starting to get worried about Christmas?

No? Just me?

Image credits: from the book, but specifically borrowed from the editor's site.

I must say, Melanie Falick has a bit of a magic touch with craft books. Every book of hers that I have seen is utterly gorgeous.

Guess who

When we got our Rudd-bucks earlier this year P and I agreed that we could each spend a bit of it on some books. We have been really good over the last couple of years at borrowing all of our books from the library instead of buying them, but there are some books that you just want to own - either because you'll use them a lot or because they aren't available at the library...

Anyway, a couple of the books that I was keen to get were due to be published this month and so I decided to wait. It was a good strategy methinks, because as I waited I noticed that my wishlist kept changing. I added a lot of titles to it, but I also found it easy to go back and delete titles that I realised I really didn't want all that much or that I would only read once.

So yesterday I finally got around to actually placing my order at the Book Depository. (Do you use this site? It's bad that we are getting books shipped from the UK, I know, but damn it is so cheap!), and I then I got P to add his titles to it and send it off last night.

When I received the confirmation order this morning I laughed. I think that the titles that we have chosen say a lot about us... Can you guess which ones belong to me?

• 	The Earthscan Reader on Adaptation to Climate Change Edited by Lisa Schipper Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£16.19 - Save £3.80 - £19.99
  	Handmade Hellos By (author) Eunice Moyle Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£10.52 - Save £1.47 - £11.99
  	Alabama Stitch Book Photographs by Robert Rausch Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£14.08 - Save £5.91 - £19.99
  	Climate Change and Global Poverty Edited by Abigail Jones Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£15.29 - Save £1.70 - £16.99
  	Bend the Rules with Fabric By (author) Amy Karol Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£12.04 - Save £1.28 - £13.32
  	Handmade Home By (author) Amanda Blake Soule Qty: 1 Item status: Processing	£12.04 - Save £1.28 - £13.32

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Oh, I am so excited to for the post to arrive this week!

The library, creativity and writing

I went to the library the other day to pick up a lovely pile of books that I had requested. It still amazes me that I can just borrow so many fabulous books for free and then go back and do it all over again.

Anyway, the highlights of my big haul were:
Sewing Green, Betz White
Sew Pretty Homestyle, Tone Finnangar
How I Write - The Secret Lives of Authors, Dan Crowe (ed.)
Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose


In amongst the pages of these books I have been finding so much inspiration.

First, Sewing Green is lovely. It is a Melanie Falick book (like Weekend Sewing) and it is really nicely styled and clearly laid out. The writing style is also very readable and a lot of the projects look really lovely.

[UPDATED] I was initially sad that my favourite (6) projects all involved felted wool, because I had yet to find any instructions for felting without a clothes dryer (and we do not own one). However, several people have now informed me that you can felt wool just by washing it on the hot cycle of your washing machine. So, now I am sad that I want to buy yet another sewing book (despite my complete absence of free time in which to sew). You can see some of the felted wool projects that I am referring to on WhipUp, where Betz shares some applique tips.

Another cool project is the lunchbag and sandwich wrap (neither of which use felted wool). Betz has kindly shared the sandwich wrap tutorial for everyone on her blog, so you can try that one for nothing.

In addition to the project, I was so excited to read a little section of the book that featured Wendy Tremayne and her swap-o-rama-rama concept. Put simply, she started up this concept where people attend a clothing-swap-with-a-difference. People rock up with a bag of clothes to swap and pay a small entry fee and then inside the venue there are a range of project areas set up where they can learn to alter, embellish and personalise their newly acquired clothes (the swapped ones from other people's bags) by sewing, embroidery, applique, screen printing etc... Then at the end of the day they hold a fashion show for everyone to show off their new creations. How cool is that?

I actually spent a good portion of that night plotting and scheming about how I could possibly get something similar started up here in Canberra.

The section on Natalie Chanin also made me want to get her book: Alabama Stitch.


Sew Pretty Homestyle has also been fun to flick through, although I must admit that it is really not my style. It is very pink, if you know what I mean, and I would never put a fabric cover on my coffee plunger or place heart-shaped cushions in my entryway. However, there are still some nice projects tucked away inside and I could use fabric in any colour to make them and so I may still draw some inspiration from this book.

How I Write is a collection of passages from writers about how they write - accompanied by a photo or two. It has Will Self's wall of post-it notes and quite a number of talismans from other writers.
I am enjoying reading it - in much the same way that I enjoy flicking through the Guardian's Writers' Room series (which, randomly, popped up on Loobylu yesterday). However, I don't think that I would buy it either. It is not sufficiently practical to want to use over and over again. (That said, it would make a fabulous 'coffee table book' if I had a coffee table!)

Finally, Reading Like a Writer is probably the most useful book of the lot. It is not as pretty or fun as the others, but I am finding it really really instructive. Prose focuses on the art of close reading and the importance of really getting to know the basic tools of the writing trade: words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. To illustrate her point(s) she uses lots of short exerts from other (very skilled) authors and her explanations of what they have done and why it works is incredibly clear and helpful. I think (hope?) that this book is going to help me write a better thesis and may even help me write other pieces of work in the future. AND, I think that I also may end up buying this one (with no guilt!), because I think that it is a book that I will turn back to over and over again throughout my life.

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Wondering about my photos for the last few (May) days?

Well, my camera battery died on Wednesday and then I kind of ran out of steam. This may have something to do with P. still being completely out of action (he has injured his back quite badly) and me being a little overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for Lily, Midnight, P. and the house... I may get back to my photography soon though. Perhaps tomorrow?

In the meantime, I hope that you have a lovely weekend.

Journaling

I recently finished reading "Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art" and got all inspired about starting a new journal. I have kept a journal for most of my life, but they have always been the wordy, angsty kind of journal that doesn't serve me very well as a source of inspiration. After reading this book I am very keen to try something completely different.
I had just bought Lily a big spiral bound sketchbook to draw in and so I stole it (yes, I am bad - I'll get her another one though) and made it my own. Then I set out a bunch of lovely coloured pencils, a sharp lead pencil and gave myself permission to paste in stuff and generally collect bits of daily life that might serve to inspire me in the future or remind me of moments in time that I found particularly significant. I am really quite excited about it.

Another inspiring pathway that this book opened up for me was its mention of the 1000 Journals Project. I had never heard of it before, although it has been around since 2000. Essentially Brian Singer (or Someguy, as he calls himself on his website) spent a few years sending 1000 journals out into the world with the following instructions pasted on the inside front page:

"Take this journal and add something to it. Stories, photographs, drawings, opinions. Anything goes."

They are then supposed to be passed on to someone else to continue their journey. People have scanned pages of the journals and posted them on the 1000journals site and the location of each journal is also tracked on this site whenever it is spotted. At least one completed journal has made it back to Brian Singer and two have gone completely missing in action.

A documentary film has been made about the project and there is a touring art show of some of the pages that have been contributed. A book has also been published.


How cool is that?

Naturally I wanted to join in the fun, but it is nigh-on impossible to get a hold of one of the original 1000 journals and so I signed up to the 1001 journals site. I'll let you know if I ever receive one of the journals to contribute to - or if I get up the motivation to send one out into the world myself.

The first page of my new journal is covered in toadstools and birds. I'm not very deep.

How about you - do you keep a journal? Do you consider your blog to be your journal?

On my desk...

On my desk this Wednesday: Three new books (received for my birthday) - Printing by hand (So inspiring! I just want to go out and stock up on printing supplies and get started NOW), Drawing from Life (Haven't really gotten into this one yet) & Eat, Drink & Be Vegan (Oh So Good. Must cook everything that I have seen so far and probably will); A pocket for another 'vintage' apron (I am thinking of putting it on a chocolate brown apron with a cream waistband & tie - what do you think?); some fabric and patterns laid out to make a couple of mini tote bags for Christmas; the beginnings of an 'artsy clutch' also for Christmas (yes, it is from the same fabrics as my last apron - I really like the combination and I had just a little of each left over); and poor Mamma bear's apron still waiting to be completed (sorry little bear!).

More desks here.

Books, books, books

The other week I went along to a Scholastic book fair to see if I could find any good books to buy for Lily. And, well, I did.

You see books are my weakness (one of many, but a big one really) and I seem to lose all rational sense when book shopping (which, incidentally, is almost the only kind of shopping that I enjoy). So, at a sale where all books were 40% off and many were $3 and $5, I managed to spend $122. Oops.

Anyway, in amongst my precious bundle I bought a couple of really fantastic books that I wanted to recommend to you.

First, up is George Saves the World By Lunchtime.
In this gorgeous book a little boy (George) wakes up and declares to his Grandfather that he would like to save the world today. Ok, says his Grandfather. Let's do it by lunchtime. So George dons his cape and sets off to do superhero-like maneuvers.
However, his Grandfather has taken him at his word and starts to show him how he can really save the world. They go through the morning sorting out the recycling, composting food scraps in the garden, cycling to a charity store to donate old toys and clothing and shopping at the local farmers' market.
This is a seriously cute book and it has a great, upbeat message for kids about what they can do to make the world a better place

The Peace Book is a little more light on than George Saves the World By Lunchtime. Each page contains an almost glib statement about Peace - like Peace is travelling to different places. Peace is listening to different music, etc, but the over-all message is great, the illustrations are bright and happy, and Lily just loves it.

The author, Todd Parr, has a range of these books and we have picked up a couple of others - The Daddy Book and Reading Makes You Feel Good - which also have nice messages and beautiful bright illustrations.

Now I must stop buying books and start budgeting. We just looked at our credit card bill for the month and I am feeling a little nauseous.

Vegan Lunch Box

OK, so I mentioned this in my last post, but it was somewhat buried in all the ranting about hormones etc. so I thought that I would mention it again - just in case you missed it.




Jennifer McCann, author of the fabulous blog Vegan Lunch Box, has been writing a recipe book based on those amazing lunches that she put together for her little one every school day last year. I, like many other people, have spent the year drooling over the photos and feeling very inspired by her creativity. Anyway, her book is finally ready for sale and will be available for to be posted out from 15 Nov.

Australian fans will be pleased to know that you can order it locally from an Australian site - Lunchmatters. [I was actually so pleased, well excited really, that I ordered two copies...]

I have to admit that I find this book particularly exciting because P and I are planning to bring up our little one as a vegan and anything that will make that easier for us is a real blessing. This book will ensure that we can give our little one the coolest lunches at school rather than having them feel left out because they aren't eating dead flesh or drinking another mammal's milk. However, I really think that this book will appeal to people who are omnivores or vegetarians, because the lunches are really so fun that they would suit any child.

Of course, I am well aware of the fact that our little one is actually not yet born and thus won't be eating school lunches for quite some time. I have a couple of things to say about this:

• P and I eat lunch too. [Yes, I do work from home, but still...]
• HORMONES!

Actually, on the subject of lunch. It is worth checking out these great images of vegan bento lunches on this flixr group. [Thank you to Kristy for the link]

Above image, obviously, from veganlunchbox.blogspot.com.

Google launches book search, publishers sweat

As part of its bid to “organise the world’s information” Google has launched its latest tailored search engine, this one for books. Google Book Search does just that, it searches the entire text of books Google has scanned and stored online. You can download entire books and print to your heart’s content, but, according to a London Times article, you’d be a bit stupid if you did.

It seems Google is being very careful to steer clear of picking a large fight with major publishers by only making out of copyright publications available on the website. They’ve been scouring the shelves of several libraries in the US and UK, scanning the text and sticking them online. They haven’t scanned anything more recent than the mid-19th century to avoid violating any copyright laws, anywhere.

This sounds great, but there is a bit of a hitch. You might think that downloading and printing out, say, the complete works of Shakespeare might be a fun way to spend an evening and a cheap way to get hold the master’s words, but, according to the Times:

At present home download and printer speeds, it could end up being more expensive to get hold of a free copy of a classic work.

An 1825 complete works of Shakespeare, found by the Google book search, runs to 908 pages and takes 56.6 megabytes of data.

Downloading the tome would take up to five minutes on a broadband fast internet link, and could take approaching an hour on a traditional dial-up connection. But the determined reader would have to endure reading the plays on a backlit screen.

Printing out, though, adds to the complexity. Using a cheap home printer working at 12 pages a minute, it would take 75 minutes to produce the entire book for bedtime reading.

The exercise could easily consume an entire ink cartridge, which costs between £35 and £40.

On Amazon it is possible to buy a paperback Complete Works of Shakespeare for £4.79.

Well, that puts a hole smack bang in the middle of that theory...

Even though only crazy people (or those seeking to really abuse work stationery) are going to bother printing out entire books, publishers are up in arms, talking about the death of their field. Not quite yet, I’d venture.

I think it’s great. I could really have done with digital copies of some novels during my undergrad degree. Cutting and pasting quotes into essays rather than re-typing them would really have cut down needless typing in my honours thesis, and having the ability to perform word searches (looking for that half-remembered line) would have cut out tons of flicking and needless re-reading.

Now, if only digital readers would become more readable…

My turn on the book meme

1. One book you have read more than once

I've read Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children more times than I care to count. I love the way Rushdie plays with language, sending you through twists and turns before spitting you back out pretty much where you started – so much for the progression of character... Same goes for Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, for pretty much the same reasons (but you do end up coming out somewhere different, which is nice).

2. One book you would want on a desert island

I'd have to say Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, I've read it a couple of times and figure I could spend the rest of my life re-reading it over and over without getting close to understanding all of it. I'd also want to take Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia for pretty much the same reasons (also apparently you are supposed to read it while listening to very loud music, so I figure it might be able to take the place of music eventually...)

3. One book that made you laugh

I remember when I was a teenager discovering the Red Dwarf Omnibus by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. It made me laugh so much I'd cry. There was a period of a few months when I'd finish reading it, put it down, get something to eat and start reading it again – and find it just as funny!

4. One book that made you cry

I'm not much of a book crier, I must admit. The Da Vinci Code brought me close to tears, but not for the right reasons (and we'll get to it in a minute). I was deeply troubled by Jose Saramago's Blindness, and, if I'd been a crier I'd have cried a lot.

5. One book you wish you had written

Umm, anything good on the effects of globalisation and the problems of development. Maybe, Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom or Thomas Pogge's World Poverty and Human Rights. On the fiction front, I'd be pretty happy to have my name on the cover of Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace.

6. One book you wish had never been written

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is a clear winner in this category. If the choice was between having people never read a book or reading that one, I'd be hard pressed not to suggest the illiteracy path. That book made me want to poke my eyes out just so I wouldn't have to finish it. I'd also hasten to say the Christian bible (few other books have caused so much angst and violence in their various interpretations) but by that token I'd have to add the Qur'an and Mein Kampf, just to name a couple, so let's stick with Dan Brown for now.

7. One book you are currently reading

I'm slowly making my way through a friend's copy of William Easterly's White Man's Burden and am flicking through Francis Wheen's How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions, which is particularly entertaining.

8. One book you have been meaning to read

There's a growing pile next to my side of the bed, which includes (and this is by no means an exhaustive list)

Hardt and Negri's Multitude;
Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilization;
Clive Hamilton's Growth Fetish;
John Banville's The Sea;
Jared Diamond's Collapse (sorry Chris, I'll return it soon, I promise...); and
Public Citizen's Whose Trade Organization;

I'm sure that's not all of them, but it'll do for now.

9. One book that changed your life

That's a tough one. I'd have to say that, intellectually, at least, the two books that I stumbled across at pivotal moments were Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism and Chomsky and Herman's Manufacturing Consent.

The book that really got me reading as a young teen was Raymond Feist's Magician, I think I had an unhealthy obsession with that book (and the dozens that came after it) for a few years.

Who to tag? Aww, I hate this bit, it shows how much I've been neglecting reading other blogs of late... Let's just pretend that there wasn't a 10, okay.

Books, books, books

As C mentioned yesterday, we're off to the Sydney Writer's Festival this weekend. C's already in Sydney catching the first couple of events today and I'll head up after work and tomorrow we'll really get into it.

Among many, many other writers we're planning on seeing speak (not that you can actually see someone speak, but you know what I mean) are Christopher Kremmer, whose new book Inhaling the Mahatma, about India - part memoir, part history, part analysis - will probably soon be adding dangerous weight to my bedside table. We're also planning to see/listen to Clive Hamilton discuss that scourge of the rich world, affluenza.

The session that we're most looking forward to, however, is Peter Singer - Australia's most famous, and notorious, philosopher.

There is no philosopher, whom I've read, with whom I find myself in more alignment than Peter Singer (it also helps that he, unlike many, practices what he preaches - tithing and veganism, to name but two examples).

Singer's new book (there's a blurb on the Australian publisher's website here - you'll have to scroll down a little), which I will soon be fighting a pitch battle over with C, is on the ethics of food production and consumption. Something that C and I are intimately interested in. We've been meaning to write a post on the ethical position that is coming to be known as ecotarianism - a "big picture" way of looking at food. I'm keen to hear what Singer has to say along these lines.

Stand by for lots of preaching next week...

*Oh, and the books above, aren't ours, we just wish they were.*

Sydney Writers' Festival

I am off to Sydney to attend the Writers' Festival and can't wait.

Back Monday.

Have a lovely weekend.

I am not usually a pedant

But, I am getting more and more concerned that people cannot seem to tell the difference between these two words:

pacifically
adv : in a peaceable manner; "the tenant paying the rent hereby reserved and performing the several covenants herein on his part contained shall peaceably hold and enjoy the demised premises" [syn: peaceably]

specifically
adv : in distinction from others; "a program specifically for teenagers"; "he is interested specifically in poisonous snakes" [ant: generally]

Thank you, that is all I wanted to say.