Wednesday, January 18, 2017

It's A Heat Wave!

The heat is on here in Australia and I've been trying to get back into my reading; but I'm not. It's just too darn hot. 

So, instead, I've been working on cleaning out the home office where my book collection is instead. So far, I've gotten rid of two 'green' bags and brought the square pine coffee table upstairs into the room. This is a good thing as the living room now has more space than it did last year. 

And it took me about twenty minutes to get it up the stairs because a) it was heavy as hell and b) it was stinking hot that day; almost 40 degrees Celsius (104F). So, it took me a while to get just that done on its own. But it's not just that which has been taking me a while to get done... just cleaning the house has been taking a long time in itself. 

So, reading has become a task more than a pleasure; and the weather bureau says it'll be a little while longer before we come into cooler weather. 

I'm still struggling to write in my everyday journal - I'm starting posts, but finishing them is another thing. I hope you're all working better than I am in this heat... or if you're in the other side of the world and dealing with the other extreme (the freezing cold and that dreadful flu that's striking everyone down), I hope you're going okay there too. Until my next post, happy reading. 

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Opshop Goodies

I went out to drop off some bags of goods to the local Vinnies when I found out they were having a half-price sale.

What a great thing to stumble upon!

So, I walked around, had a good look at things and found the book section was well-stocked. I found 'The Stone & The Flute' by Hans Bemmann, 'Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks' by John Curran and 'To The Nines' by Janet Evanovich.
Three great books on three totally different subjects; I can't wait to read them. But I don't know when that'll be. 

However, when I was at the coast, I didn't get to go to any opshops, because they were all closed over the New Year period. This was kind of boring because where I was staying, the township lived off second-hand things - nobody bought brand new furnishings; not unless you drive some distance to one of the bigger towns. So, it was a very quiet time over the few days I was at Brunswick Heads.

Anyway, when I came home, I was right into the cleaning out, donating and looking at my garden again. And it's making such a difference. I'll be going through my house again to make it better this year too... as well as my book collection... until my next post, happy reading!

Saturday, January 7, 2017

A New Year of Reading!

It's a New Year and I'm back!

I hope you're all back here too. 

Well, I was hoping to write here over the New Year period on Mum's laptop at Brunswick Heads, but Dad kept walking past and asking: 'You still on that?' Well, yeah... that's what a writer does after 3 days of reading a book, writing poetry and sleeping in: we jump online to see what's been going on in the world.

I did have a great time down the coast. I got in and did some reading. I read over 82 pages of 'Life After Life' by Kate Atkinson in about 3 days. So far, it's a great book. I'm looking forward to reading more of it as this author is fantastic with her descriptions.
Then, I started Chapter 4  (page 98)of 'The Haunted Bookshop' by Christopher Morley; and only got to page 108 because I really need to concentrate to read this book - and it's such an old-fashioned book that I can't just sit and read a few pages and be done with it. I have to have a couple of hours to read a good 15 pages and really get into it.

Oh well. It doesn't matter how much I got read of that, so long I got something read of it. 

I also started a poetry book I titled 'Vertical Thoughts' and got a few poems written. I also got back into journaling again - which I'm happy about. It's nice to get back into the long-winded way of writing after a year of keeping things really short. The 'Day-by-Day, Page-by-Page' journal was interesting, but I did find it very restrictive. So, to get back into writing longer posts was a relief. 

So, do tell, what have you been reading - or writing - over the Christmas and New Year period? Did you get more than one book read? Or was is all family time and no reading done at all? Until my next post, happy reading!