Isolation Reading Time

As the world goes into lockdown, it seems that Australia is way behind in doing what is right.

But a lot of us are voluntarily staying home - and I'm one of them. I have a medical condition which would make it easy for that virus to enjoy itself in my system; and it would do some real damage to me.

The libraries are empty of books because the government closed them all on Monday - and gave members up to 3 months to read them all. I have my own home library and it's all the books I'd ever want to read in my lifetime; which is a great thing, seeing I now have the time to do all the reading I want to do.

But I also want to do some writing and editing as well; as I wrote a book while I was house sitting at my brother's house. And it really needs a good look at... and seeing the virus is spreading quickly, it's advisable to stay at home.

It'd be great to know which books you've been reading since January - when the virus broke out - and which books you're up to. So far, I've read:

'David Boring' by David Clowes - Graphic novel.

I'm working my way through other books right now, and I'm also writing books as well. Until my next post, happy reading.

Social Impact On LIbraries

As the impact of the Corona Virus hits home for all of us, we have to really feel awful for the workers around the world who have been told to stay home - or have been laid off from workplaces; in particular, libraries which are closing up around the globe.

For some of these libraries, it's the first time in over a century - and for others, it's the first time ever. 

I used to frequent libraries on a regular basis, however, over the past decade I became a germaphobe and just can't stand the places - which caused me to form my own library at home of over 2,000 books. I'm pleased to say that all of my books are either brand new or second-hand (which are wiped clean with sanitiser when I arrive home before being added to the collection) and it does feel great to have a collection of what I want to read here in my house. Do you have a collection of books where you are? 
I do think that if you have your own library at home, it keeps your sanity? I most certainly do! It's something in a way of keeping in contact with the mind of other people through the written word. Music does the same thing - and that's why I have an extensive music collection as well.

Well, if you wish, please do drop a comment below and tell us all how you're doing in this global crisis. We'd love to hear about your reading commitments right now. How many books have you read so far? Are you well? Are you self-isolating? And most of all: are you okay? Until my next post, happy reading.

50,000 Words Blasted!

Yes! 

I finished NaNoWriMo! Woohoo!

Did you finish your book in the allotted amount of time, or did you come up short? Or... did you blast through the 50,000 words and keep going to 60,000 or 70,000? Well, if you did, way to go!

I only just made it with 8 words to spare, and that included an epilogue... to show there's going to be a second book.

Now, to enjoy Christmas and clean the house. And yesterday, I did just that! I concentrated on cleaning out my art area, and threw out a huge amount of things I didn't need.

And today, I'm hoping to get back into the office and put the children's books away and some other things away too... thus giving me space to put up the Christmas Tree and decorations. 
I'm looking forward to working on getting in and sorting through more books and other things in the office as well today; if I get the time to, as I have other housework to get done. I do have other ideas for the office before the year is out. 

Well, that's all for today. I hope your NaNoWriMo was as successful as mine has been. Until my next post, happy reading!

It's Been A While

Yep, it's been a while, and there's a good reason for that. My internet was cut off. 

Now, it's not because I didn't pay the bill, it was because in my area, the National Broadband thing was going through and they switch everyone off so you can either join or make your phone a hot spot and make life harder for yourself.... I chose to be normal and join the Broadband system.

Today it came all together and I'm all hooked up on the system and now back onto my computer! Yay!

My home office has undergone the first of its renovations: the tall bookcase and Grandpa's home made desk swapped places. That took a day to do on Friday - after much swearing, cursing and needing to be patient.

Well, now, I'm going through a 2-drawer filing cabinet and shredding anything I no longer need - and believe me, there's a lot in that drawer! I've already filled 2 garbage bags to the brim with unwanted paper; all shredded and ready for the bin! It's a great thing that I've also finally decided to get rid of the filing cabinet too. Dad said he wants it - so there's a home for it as well. 

Now all I have to do is save up for a new desk and two bookcases... there's around $300 right there I have to save for in the next 2 months. It's not going to take long, I know it.

Grandpa's journals are going really well... and I've found some photos of the family when they were living out at Allora and Warwick and the work he used to do out there too. So, it's getting a lot easier seeing what he used to do as well. 

So, what kind of work are you doing in writing or reading? Are you reading any good books lately? Until my next post, happy reading!

Home Office Update

Seeing I'm not writing that much at the moment, I thought you'd like to know what's going on with the home office. 

I've tossed out two big bags of rubbish into the wheelie bin, have sorted out bills and other things into a pile to be filed and still haven't found my large, hard cover copy of 'Black House' by Stephen King. I loaned it to a friend and he insists he gave it back - but nope, I haven't found it.

Still I'll look seeing he said he gave it back.

Anyway, the office is being cleaned out slowly; and I'm also looking around for a newish desk and a just as newish bookcase. 

Grandpa's desk has writing stationery in it which I will use in due time - along with the other stationery I have collected over time. Then, I've got to collect more boxes to box up the things I have. 

The good thing about doing this big thing to the home office is that I'll be cleaning out a lot of things which will be sorted out in a big way... and this will help me work out what to take with me when I do move to my next place.

My books will still be with me, but I'm hoping to work out how they're sorted out and stored. I just want my office to be a place I want to be in, instead of a junk room to dump things. And seeing I'm not writing at the moment, cleaning my office out is a good starting point for me. 

So, what do you do when you're not writing or reading? Do you clean out things, or do you do something else? Until my next post, happy reading.

Even Better!

I'm doing the next best thing with the home office! I'm doing a big clean out and revamping the room to the next degree!

This is going to be fun! 

This means I will be cleaning it out completely and getting rid of my old corner desk I've had for over 10 years (and it's so unstable it rocks when you lean on it and the front laminated piece is rotting and falling off) and replacing it with a nice op-shopped desk. The saggy, brown bookcase I've also had for years will be tossed out at the dump - simply because the shelves are so bowed they are unusable; and the whole bookcase itself is not plum (aka: square). 

The great thing is that I'll be working on a lot of things in this room and be as brutal with the crap in my home office as I am with the rest of the house. And once I have enough of my things sorted out in this room, and everything organised and enough money put to one side, I'll be asking a few of my family and friends to help me out with pulling apart the desk, and the bookcase and tossing them away.

Then, I have to get in and clean the room, vacuum and dust and make it useable for the next upgrade and then put in the new-ish desk and bookcase and move what needs to be moved back in... and then put in the books again. Oh, that's going to be a big thing to do! But seeing the library was cleaned out recently, I'll have a good lot of work to get done here in the room, right?

So, have you got a reading - or writing - room you've had to update? If so, have you done it successfully? And how did it go? Did it cost you much? How long did it take? Until my next post, happy reading!

Library Clean-Out Time!

Woohoo!

Yes!

It's that time of year where I've looked at my library and thought: 'OMG! I've got too many books; and I don't know if I'm going to read this one, or that one, or any of those! I seriously need to clean this library out!'

So, I grabbed a couple of boxes from Bunnings (a big gardening store which leaves their boxes out for anyone to grab) and today, I'm cleaning out my home library.

I usually have a lot of fun doing this because I come across a lot of books I haven't seen in a long time, and usually I wonder how long they've been there and why I never read them. And, if I'm doing this clean-out, it means I'm never going to read them.

So, with the books I'm getting rid of, I'm hoping to sell the good ones off to new homes and give away the other ones in a Big Book Giveaway on Bookcrossing... this will be fun! 

Have you done this to your library over the years? It's very cleansing isn't it? I do it every year to keep my library fresh and know what's there. Until my next post, happy reading!

Home Office Clean-out

I'm cleaning out the home office again... and I'm going to be giving away a lot more of my books. This is a painful thing for me to do, but I have to be realistic about them. I just don't have the room for them.

So, the ones I can't shelve are going to be sent away to a second-hand store and others which are from Bookcrossing are going to be sent off to other Bookcrossers. I think this is a good and fair thing to do... plus they're going to people who want them. 

Also, I've got to clean up the home office and make it a useable space. I've made a start on it, and it's looking great; and I'm looking forward to doing more on it tomorrow - Friday - and getting in and throwing out more junk from this room soon.

I'm hoping to have this room all sorted out and finished soon... how many books do you have in your collection? Is it a library like mine? Or do you have only enough room for a small lot of book cases in a corner? Until my next post, happy reading!

Organising Mt To Be Read

I'm getting into the big organising kick right now; and the biggest area of my house which is being looked into is my home office - where all the books live. 

The Mt TBR is a major thing I've been eying off and it's actually looking pretty good - but it's not getting any smaller; as I have read any of the books on it lately, and this is a worry. 

Now, I'm still buying books, but I've been reading articles on The Huffington Post and other online sites which say you have to cut the mountain of books down then build it back up again. But that seems an awful lot of stuffing around to do with one 'little' pile of books - or is it? 

Have you gone in and done this to your Mt TBR? Has it worked out for you? And if it has, what about the secondary pile - you know, the 'Mt I'll Read That In My Life' pile? Does that get any smaller or even get a look into? 

Yeah, this is starting to look like it's going to be a bigger job than it will start out to be. But if I don't do it, I'll end up staring at the Mt TBR again tonight wondering why I didn't do it today. 

So, how about it? Why don't we get into this together and reorganise our Mt TBR's and see how we go? We might be very surprised at what is hiding in that teetering mountain of promised reading which we may not even want to read, or even worse, we've lost interest in. Until my next post, happy reading!

Big Book Clean-Out!

I'm currently in the throws of a big book cull... and loving it! A few weeks ago, I told you guys I went to a friend's place to help her out and scored a great many books to read and add to my collection - well, this made me sort through my books and sent off some of my own unwanted - not to mention unread - books to another place across the country.

So far, I've already sent off two 5kg bags across Australia. One has arrived in Melbourne and one in the Northern Territory... and now another is going to the Northern Territory again; this time filled with a certain author's books. 

There's going to be one more book bag to be sent off before I approach a prison or an retirement village and see if they'd like the books I can't send away. I might try out the former and see if the inmates of one of Queensland's prisons would like to have some leftover books to add to their library. After all, everyone reads no matter where they are.

Anyway, I'm getting through these books and will be looking at the new lot of books to read soon as I'm working on new artworks as the year progresses.

So, do you do book culls - much like I do? You know, to get rid of books you're no longer interested in or want to read? Or are you a keep-them-all-no-matter-what kinda person? Until my next post, happy reading!

A Designer's Eye on Books

There's a craze going around people's private libraries at the moment, and I'm not liking it one little bit!

Well, okay, there's two crazes - but I'm not counting.

One of them is pulling the books in your library together in all the colours of the spines and making your library look like a crazy colour wheel. It doesn't matter if the books are sorted into fiction or non-fiction, romance or action... so long it looks pretty - right?

Um, no, I don't think so. I have to have my horror with horror. Romance with romance, non-fiction with non-fiction... otherwise there's just no point to having a library if there's no real order.

That's how I've seen some people sort out their library.

Then, there's the other end of the scale completely... the people who don't like looking at the titles of the books and would much prefer to look at the disgusting, whites and sand colour stylings of the pages instead. Yep, these idiots face their books with the pages outward and think it looks 'fashionable' and 'stylish'. 

One little question: how do you know what the title is if you can't see it? 

Yeah didn't think this one through did ya?

I like my crazy-coloured library with everything in its place and a place for everything. I like my Stephen King where his work's supposed to be, my non-fiction over there near the window, and my biographies all sandwiched there in the shelf... which really does need to be cleaned out, moved around and, yes, I need more room here.

And to think, I just did out the collection yesterday. Well, until my next post, happy reading!

Decluttering

I'm in decluttering mode - and it's great!

A good part of the townhouse has been decluttered - from the kitchen to the art area and the bedroom and bathroom - but I've left the home office until last because, well, it's normally the hardest one to do.

And in all honesty it really is.

I do find it difficult to get my head around my books and other crap in my home office, mainly because the computer is also here. 

But in the last few weeks, I've done the greatest thing: I've bought two 5kg bags and posted them off to two people across Australia, after advertising on Bookcrossing.com. Any books which were sitting on the floor and unread by me ended up in those bags and were off in the post!

And you know something? 

I felt so much better getting rid of them! 

I've got so much more space now and I don't feel as though my floor is cluttered up with all those books sitting there staring at me and tripping me up. 

At the end of the year, I'll be doing it again - but then, it depends where I'll be living by that time. I might not be where I am right now... so I may have more shelf space and have the others off the floor by that time...

...you never know!

Until my next post, happy reading!

Anti-Libraries

I've learned a new word!

Yes... this isn't a bad thing - anti-libraries - it's something that turns out to be quite handy to have more books than you can possibly read in your lifetime.

You see, I have more books than I could possibly read in my lifetime; but I don't worry about reading the, because I find comfort in them. I miss seeing them when I go on holidays and enjoy being around them when I return.

It's not a matter whether I read them or not.

It's a matter of having them around me.

I came across this article on My Reading List on Facebook (yes, I've designed a FB group named after this blog to pull in more readership... didn't work out the way I planned, but anyway, that's not the point of this post), that James Mapes put up and I loved it. 

What a great way to keep us all from wondering if we're keeping too many books in our homes... the answer is no, we're not. It's always nice to be able to walk into our home offices, living rooms or spare bedrooms and peruse the shelves and find at great title to read on any old day or late at night just when it's raining outside or we're snowed in or it's too hot to go out... or when the library is shut. This is why I have a library of my very own filled with every book I'd ever want to read - my own anti-library - just in case I feel like reading an autobiography, or a thriller, or a sweet little romance, a YA, a Paranormal Romance or Time Travelling book filled with short stories... and isn't that the point of having a home library? Until my next post, Happy reading!