Get Reading! The Government says so...

First up, to my lovely, supportive encouraging friends: THANK YOU. I did try to enter the book review comp on The Book Depository but all my reviews hover around the 1,000 word mark and the limit was 200 words. And after a while of heavy handed editing (which was like choosing which of your limbs to cut off, I might add), I realised that the competition closed at 5:00pm today. *Sigh, ah well! Next time (hee hee, secretly pleased! It's one thing to do a blog because you want an outlet, and you know that friends will read it, it's another to put it out there in the big bad literary world).

Review: A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

One of Charles Dickens' best known books is certainly also one of his most memorable, poignant and best loved works. I am, of course, referring to 'A Christmas Carol'. Its influence is easily seen throughout modern Western culture in one form or another (particularly during the festive season); in dozens of theatre productions, in silver-screen movies, as an opera, and most prolifically in film including adaptations such as 'The Muppet Christmas Carol', 'Mickey's Christmas Carol', 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past', and most recently 'A Christmas Carol' starring Jim Carrey.

What impact does this extensive media exposure have for the first-time reader?

Boo ya! (Got your attention)

There have been very few times in my life where I have been able to say this with any sincerity: I have nothing to say. No new news! 


I finished book two of George R.R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series - an epic fantasy series, compelling reading - but I can't bring myself to read book three. I literally feel sick at the graphic descriptions of wounded/maimed characters, and the inclusion of a character who is known for his penchant for 'flaying' his victims (ie: skinning them alive) makes me feel woozy. 
I'm reading 'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White, which is immensely enjoyable! But I can only read it

Eh heh heh...Ooops?

It's been two weeks since I last wrote anything, and although I can legitimately plead a hectic schedule the truth is...I have nothing much to say. I'm supposed to be reading 'The Life of Pi', and I do (sometimes), but I seem to inexplicably be consumed by George R.R. Martin's 'A Clash of Kings'. I can't put it down. I keep thinking about it. I've dreamt about it (well, more truthfully, I've dreamt that I was a dragon in it). What is wrong with this picture? It's a brilliant book, but it's not pleasant reading. 
In fact, I am at an impasse with all of the books I have in my bedside table

Printed books, wherefore art thou?

ARRRGH! Book lovers, to arms! Kindle and its kin are taking over the universe! Well, okay, maybe not. But it's just a matter of time before the practical appeal of e-book readers conquers the romantic notions of the printed word. 
So what if an e-book saves space? I love bookshelves crammed with tomes. So what if they'll save us heaps of money when, for example, we travel to Tasmania to buy vintage volumes by the dozen and have to spend almost as much money shipping them back home to Victoria (hypothetically speaking, of course)? I don't care if downloading books onto an e-reader spares me the expense of shipping, or worse, the extra baggage fee at the airport. So what if you can download thousands of out-of-print books for free? I'm sure buying and shipping the book itself wouldn't be that expensive...hmm. And so what if it saves the trees from being cut down to make paper to print books? What have trees ever done for us? Except, you know, give us oxygen and wood and shade...totally beside the point!
The point is,

Questions, questions and congratulations

On my bedside table at the moment is 'The Life of Pi' (chosen via the last poll, by my husband who voted twice), the second book in George R. Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' series 'A Clash of Kings', and the sequel to 'Assassin's Apprentice' (by Robin Hobbs) 'Royal Assassin'. All of these books are engaging and interesting in their own right, and yet which fourth tome trumps them all in the bid for my attention? Yup, 'Jane Eyre'. Still! I've put it back on the bookshelf several times, and somehow, miraculously, it appears by my bed each night, my own personal loaves and fishes miracle! That, or I keep retrieving it. One or the other. 

Get Your Heart Pumping...with a book?

I LOVE 'JANE EYRE'! With both my sick hubby and our littlie in bed early tonight, I thought I'd have a minute to myself for a cuppa and a quick skim through an old lit fave, 'Jane Eyre' (by Charlotte Brontë, for those not yet in the know). It never disappoints. Every time I open the cover, I swear my heart starts beating a little bit faster, my little hands tremble and my veins glow with the anticipation! It's not just the quality of the writing that has me all aflutter, but the story is so damn good! And I mean, Mr. Rochester? The chemistry between him and Jane? Wow. Electric!