judgement day

Look I have to draw your attention to www.judgeabook.blogspot.com.au for their outstanding contribution to the discovery of WTF books.

I mean with such gems as...

...you can see my argument here, right? I mean this is A1-quality weirdness. Bravo.

it's the end of the BookTARDIS as we know it

BUT! It will be back! My wonderful spaceship full of books is off the road for the ENTIRE MONTH OF JANUARY (I don't know how I'll cope, honestly) to get a massive facelift.

Look at it, booklovers. Look at it - as it was - for one final time.

Looooook at iiiittt. No more scratches, no more vintage black cockatoos, no more peeling letters for school kids to gleefully pick off. It's going to be a whole new incarnation! Cant wait to see it...

Watch this space...

naaawwww x)

Cutest thing found in a book today :)

i feel smarter already

Well, you are what you eat, so they say... :S

2012 eclectic reader challenge: december - classic

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my last book for the Challenge, and I chose it as my classic because I really wanted to finish with something good. And really, there was no way I was not going to like this book.

Anne of Green Gables is one of my all-time favourites - but since I had read it before, in the spirit of the challenge, I decided to read Anne of Avonlea. LM Montgomery didn't let me down.

This book instantly transports me back to girlhood, when my "bosom-friend" Emily and I used to re-enact Anne and Diana's adventures as 12 year olds. We were BESOTTED with this story. We had all the movies. We made raspberry cordial (non-alcoholic! Readers of the book will get this!) and we pretended to have puffed-sleeves and picnics.

Needless to say, as I read this, I could see perfectly in my mind every scene played out. The characters to me are as familiar as old friends.

I loved every minute, and I still have an image of Anne stuck in a storm, having fallen through a hen-house roof, balancing on a barrel with an umbrella over her head!

Anne of The Island is already beside my bed!

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go to your room! (and read this.)

You may or may not know that I collect old girl's pony books. I remember my mum promising me a box of her old books if I helped clean out my grandparent's garage one weekend, and when the old carboard box tumbled down and out poured all these old pony stories - I was IN HEAVEN. It was all my christmases at once as a 10 year old pony-mad booklover! I still have them all to this day, and have now accumulated more over the years from Vinnies, and garage sales, and 2nd hand book shops. I Can NEVER resist them (as my husband will attest to!)
Doesn't everyone want their children to follow in their footsteps? A little? I try to foster a love of books and reading in my daughter, and luckily, she seems to be catching on! Hubby and I are both avid booklovers, and always have been.

So in saying this, there are a few books that have made their way onto my daughter's bookshelf for the furture, and I desperatley hope they become as good a friends to her as they have been to me. :)

1) Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
2) The Secret Garden - Francis Hodgenson-Burnett
3) National Velvet - Enid Bagnold
4) The Naughtiest Girl in the School - Enid Blyton
5) The Jinny Series - Patricia Leitch
6) Charlotte's Web - EB White
7) Pippi Longstocking - EM Longfield
8) Matilda - Roald Dahl
9) Anything by Josephine, Christine or Diana Pullein-Thompson!
10) The Jill Series - Ruby Ferguson (Yeah I was a bit of a pony-mad girl!)
11) Grandma Cadbury's Trucking Tales - Di Bates
12) Hairy MacLairy From Donaldson's Dairy - Lynley Dodd

What are your favourite childhood books?

come up here and take a bow

awfullibrarybooks.net !!!

This is a truly worthy find! I mean, owl-headed naked women and breast balloons: What more could you ask for?

save my place

As a librarian, we see some really beautiful bookmarks. Occasionally they get left behind in library books, and there's always a designated box/container in every library around of lost and unclaimed bookmarks. Some are precious and detailed, some are hand made by children or friends, some are yellowing dog-eared pictures of relatives or far away places...

However, sometimes, mid-book, a book mark is just not handy, so readers need to improvise. And here's the rub. Sometimes we find things in books that are just down right weird, gross and unsuitable bookmarks.

So I've compiled a list of clever improvised bookmarks I've seen, and WTF bookmarks, that I definitely never want to see again.

CLEVER:
reciept
fourleaf clover (pressed & dry)
paper clip
tea bag (unused! Of course!)
elastic band
train ticket
hair pin
photo
postcard
gumleaf

EEEEW WTF?! NO!
sultana
slice bacon
toilet paper (where were you reading???)
wet wipe
hair (human. I think.)
orange rind
condom (unopened, but still! :S )
needle (Ow! oh, where did that go...?)
band aid (nope, not in packet.)

(Yep - that's a real book.)

2012 eclectic reader challenge: november - your favourite genre (general fiction)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was such a surprise! It just looks so unassuming, I never expected to be so charmed by it! It is based on a collection of correspondences between characters with one Elizabeth McKenna in common in the aftermath of World War 2. But it's so much more than that! It's a love story, a story of heroism, a historical tale, a tragedy, and a work of charming humour all in one! And it is the only book written by 70 year old librarian Mary Ann Shaffer! It's a little gem of a book; rare, precious, delicate and beautiful.

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Recapping the Challenge...

Genres

1. Literary Fiction - Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
2. Crime/Mystery Fiction - Truth, Peter Temple 
3. Romantic Fiction - A Good Indian Wife, Anne Cherian
4. Historical Fiction - Wild Lavender, Belinda Alexandra
5. Young Adult - Catching Fire, Suzanna Collins
6. Fantasy - Angel's Blood, Nalini Singh
7. Science Fiction - Adjustment Team, Philip K Dick
8. Non Fiction - Pole to Pole, Pat Farmer
9. Horror - The Turn Of the Screw, Henry James
10. Thriller /Suspense - Bold Blood, Lindy Kelly
11. Classic - Anne of Avonlea, L M Montgomery (Currently reading for December)
12. Your favourite genre - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer

2012 eclectic reader challenge: october(got a bit ahead!) - horror

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Okay - lemme start by saying that I am a wuss. Of the first degree. So I really REALLY didn't wanna read a horror book. I don't 'do' scary. So I thought maybe if I chose a historical book, I might be less scared...
Couldn't have been less-scared if I tried.
I think this book is meant to be all about creating suspense and atmosphere, but really... I mean NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS. You wait for it to happen, and it never does. Hmm.
Too subtle even for me.

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