Blog Archive

March 2019

February 2019
April 2019

5 March 2019

Yesterday was the second anniversary for this site using the current URL. We actually began the site on Neocities on New Year's Day, 2017. However, I wanted to change the URL to reflect what the website was about, but didn't know at the time I could just change it in the settings. So, I created a new website and transfered everything over. It was a long task, even then, since I had used absolute references to link everything. It's been a learning process.

So, we've managed to keep going with the website. But two years later we have another distraction which caused my last review to be three days coming. We got a puppy over the weekend, so all my time has been taken up with her, as well as building her a dog yard for when we're out. As a result, I'll probably get little read or reviewed for the next fortnight. But she's worth it. Her name is Lucy.

14 March 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.

16 March 2019

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.

26 March 2019

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):

  1. Fight Like a Girl Clementine Ford
  2. Burial Rites Hannah Kent
  3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
  4. The Happiest Refugee Anh Do
  5. Ready Player One Ernest Cline
  6. Working Class Man Jimmy Barnes
  7. 1984 George Orwell
  8. Lion: A Long Way Home Saroo Brierley
  9. Home Fire Kamila Shamsie
  10. A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman
  11. Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold Stephen Fry

28 March 2019

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.