February 2019
As I wrote would happen in the last blog entry, my time has been heavily devoted to getting a dog yard built in the last week and a half. We hadn't planned on getting a dog quite so soon. I wouldn't normally write about home life here except that the sudden need for a dog yard has meant I have barely read or done anything for this website in the last week and a half. I managed to read another chapter of The Count of Monte Cristo this morning for one of the three ongoing reading projects for this site. I'm now hoping to give Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger more attention. I managed to get 100 pages of that read in the last week and a half. I've been enjoying it so far and am looking forward to a more dedicated reading of the book.
We've just posted our second review for an audiobook this evening, Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina. Toriaz, whose time is often quite limited, has decided to experiment with the format, since she can listen to it in her car. I tried audiobooks a few years ago when I had a severe eye infection and couldn't read. I have to admit, I didn't enjoy it as much and found I sometimes fell asleep while listening. Nevertheless, I think audiobooks have their place. I found reading George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo along with the audiobook to be very helpful, as it brought the many voices of the narrative to life. There are only a few of us reviewing for this site, but audiobooks seem a logical addition, given that over time we want to have a broad selection of texts represented.
It’s not the purpose of this website to promote commercial brands, but Dymocks, a large bookseller here in Australia, runs a poll each year - Dymocks Top 101 - to determine what is currently most popular among readers, so it’s a good indication as to what people are reading and enjoying Down Under. I checked and found that we have reviewed 11 books from the list (although we’ve read more from it prior to beginning this website in 2017). There was also a couple of books listed which we have put aside to read later, including the book at number 1, Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara at 29 and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt in the 95th position. If you’re interested in seeing the 2019 list on the Dymocks website click here. If you’re interested in reading any of our reviews from the Top 101, make a choice from the list below (the numbers refer to each book's position in the Top 101, of course):
I picked up this box set today while I was out. I've had my eye on it for a while. I read a few Famous Five when I was a kid, but my real love had been The Three Investigators. Unfortunately, they're out of print and the effort to gather a collection again second hand - I got rid of my set years ago in a cleanup, much to my regret - seems like too much effort. I called a pet after Timmy the dog from the Famous Five when I was a kid. Now the question is, what am I going to do with these books? I feel a new project forming in my head.
