Ray Bradbury's House Demolition

I read recently that the famed - and one of my favourite writers of all time - Ray Bradbury's house has been demolished.  It was bought last year for over one million dollars and the person who bought his lovely yellow home had demolished it over the last few days.

I'm astonished that the fan of the writer didn't really care about what happened to the house, he just wanted to change the whole thing.  He said wasn't anything he expected and so went ahead and changed it... not expecting any backlash.

However, the people of the neighbourhood were astonished to find Ray's former home being pulled down was the most dreadful thing to have happened; as the writer lived in the house for over 50 years.

Find the whole article below.

The Rest of Ray Bradbury's Home

Rainy Day Reading

I love reading on a rainy day.  The skies are grey, the gutters fill up with rain water, trickling down to the gardens, storm water drains and underground where it all travels out to streams, rivers and finally out to the sea... 

...but no matter where you are, you can sit and watch it from your cosy little spot while you curl up with a good book - or a movie, whichever is your poison.

For me, it's normally a book.  I love to either read a book or write one.  And it's something else completely different to write a book than to read the completed object.  You see, when you're writing a book, you're continuously watching out for your characters before your reader is - or your First Reader anyway.  Then, your first time writing a chapter, you throw out all the rules and it's a matter of making sure everything sounds great, looks like fun and the story is 'vomited' onto the page as fast as possible - then, once you've done that, you save it, leave it alone for a few days and come back to it.  It's then you look at what you've written and wonder what the hell you were thinking!  

Or better still, say quietly: 'This isn't bad shit.'

But in all honesty, it's the first thing you're muttering to yourself.

I do enjoy writing a book more than writing a book though.  I think it's the mechanics of it that I enjoy as it's just wonderful to get into it all, instead of reading a book, knowing there may be a part of it that will piss you off grammatically.

And believe me there are such books.

So, on wet old days, which do you love?  Curling up with a book to read?  Or curling up with a book to write and edit?  For me, it's the one to write most of the time.  Other times, I'll jump in and read a book, and have the joy of letting my brain relax just enough to enjoy a book, but then, I'll end up proofreading it as well.  Until my next post, happy reading!

Which Ones Have You Read?

Occasionally, a list of books come out which makes you think about how many books you really have gotten in and read... and you wonder why you haven't read the ones mentioned on this list or another.

Now, I'm wondering why I haven't read these ones, seeing I have good number of them in my bookcases.

100 Books Everyone Should Read In Their Lifetime

So, the question is posed... how many have you read, and how many have you got in your possession and have yet to read?  Until my next post, happy reading.

'Death by Didgeridoo' by Barbara Venkataramann

Spike from 'The Screaming Zombies' is dead.  He was found in the studio of his music store of the same name by one of his students, Adam, who is being charged for his murder.

But are the police right in doing this?  

Jamie Quinn - a lawyer, and Adam's cousin - thinks they're wrong.  The main reason is that Adam couldn't possibly have done it.  Just because he was at the scene of the crime saying he was wrong and he had done it, didn't necessarily mean it was the murder he was talking about. 

Jamie's cousin is Autistic and he's a talented musician who loved Spike; they were the best of friends and Jamie knew this.  She just has to prove this the police before it went to court.

So, she hires a private detective:  Duke Broussard.  And just as his name sounds, he's from The South.  He's a charmingly sweet, womanising kinda man, but he also knows how to get the right kind of information about Spike and the rest of the band he played with - even if none of them got along offstage, and Spike himself wasn't very well-like by anyone around him.

Duke digs up a lot of things about Spike that could get him harmed or killed by just about anyone in the band - along with their spouses - but he is confident that Adam is the least of their worries, and he can prove that too; but can they find the murderer in time and catch them before this whole thing goes to court and Jamie's cousin is charged for a crime he didn't commit?

This is the first of the series of books written by Barbara Venkataramann.  Even though it's a good, old love-triangle murder, with all the usual twists and turns, those twists and turns weren't in the places I expected them to be; and this is a good thing.

I also didn't know something about America:  there are two Hollywood's.  There's the one we all know well on the west coast in L.A.  And there's one in Miami, just north of Miami Beach where Hollywood has built an entire suburb to the movie industry so movies can be made on the east coast as well!  This is something I had to Google; it totally threw me a total curve ball in the first three chapters... otherwise, after I knew this, it was fine.  I jumped straight in and listened to the rest of the book!  I'd love to read more books along this line.  

However, the characters do need more fleshing out.  I'd love to know more about their backgrounds, their lives, what they look like more, what their houses look like and family histories better.  But this, I trust, will be filled out more as the series goes on.  Well worth a read or a listen to on audio-book through Audible.  Until my next post, happy reading!

To Plan Or Not To Plan - That Is The Question...

Being a writer, I've tried to make my books and stories as good as they're ever going to get - before I hand them to another set of eyes (or two) and get somebody else's opinions and ideas of what I can do to improve - or remove - to make my work better.

However, have you ever wondered if a writer plans their work?  Can you see it in their books if they plan it or does it look and feel as effortless as a bird flying, a fish swimming?  Sometimes, I can see where a writer plans a book; and it kind of wrecks it for me... as I can see where the changes and moves are going to be in the writing.  However, when I come across a writer who doesn't plan, it's fun and I don't have expect anything from them.  It's enjoyable to jump in and just read their material and be surprised in the most unexpected ways, at the most unusual times with the most interestingly wonderful ways.

I don't plan my work.  What I do is that I get an idea for something.  This could take me weeks to get my head around from the moment I get the idea to actually sitting down and writing it.  My characters start out as ordinary, everyday looking and working people... they are just like your next door neighbours.  They've been selected already, have lives, likes, loves, hates, flaws and are all different from each other in all kinds ways.  Some of them like each other, some of them hate each other, but I gather them together in the one spot, tell them the plot, throw them into a situation and then close the door to their reality on them and watch them from a distance.  They normally turn on me first... telling me I'm nuts.  I tell them to show me how they're going to get out of their first situation - then I wait. 

They don't have a choice.  They are being told what to do and that there is a way out (I know the way out, but I'm not telling them the easy way) and usually, I find that one of them knows the easy way and the others let him go to find the easy way out and he/she gets killed/kidnapped/disappears/gets out... while the others are stuck there still on the starting blocks trying to figure a way out.  
As they go through their own trials and tribulations, I get into their heads, work on their problems and they learn a few lessons on what it's like to be who they are in my story.  And they come out the other side of this whole thing with new skills, new ideas and new feelings about each other and themselves.  They all learn new things about how to be around the place I had created too.

That's me not planning my stories.

I have tried planning my books and it all falls apart within about 3 pages.  

So, what do you do as a writer - if you do write? - and how does it affect your overall work?  I love to not plan as it keeps my writing fresh, and helps my characters grow naturally into who they are.  Well, until my next post, keep reading & writing!

For The Writers of the World

Now, I know some of you guys'n'gals are writers and have been lurking around here reading my posts happily.  

Hey, I don't mind that... I do that too.  Yep, it's a guilty pleasure to just hang out on somebody's blog, read their posts and not say anything in the comments.  

So, I thought to jump online this arvo and do some hunting around for some hardcore writers blogs.  And you wouldn't believe it!  I found a list of The 100 Best Writer's Blogs & Websites for everyone to have a look at, bookmark some, or better still, subscribe to if you'd like.

Enjoy!

Happy Reading!

Children's Books From Yesterday to Today.

We all have a collection of children's books - each of us - and some are our favourites, some aren't.  But we keep them anyway as not all of them are still in print.  I have all my Children's Books and love them even now as they are real classics - even my 'Debbie' books where they're so gorgeously illustrated in a dreamlike manner and the author based them on his daughter of the same name.

However, I have found a link to a site of 50 Classic Children's Picture Books.  I've read 11 of them, and own around the same number of them... very cool!

How many of them do you remember reading?  

And How many do you still own?

Until my next post, happy reading.

Flash Fiction Fridays For Terrible Minds

Now, for all of you who know, I love to write as well as read and collect books.  So, this makes for an interesting way of talking about books, and being interested in publishing too.

So, if you've got more than on blog on the go - like I do - you can start this year with a good challenge and take up writing Flash Fictions.  Chuck Wendig is a Canadian writer who has 'Terrible Minds' as a blog and he challenges his followers each Friday to a prompt to write a story consisting of pretty much anything from Fantasy, Romance, Adventure, Off-Planet workings to Steampunk and average everyday stuff with a twist... but it must be within a certain word limit.  

Most times he gives us 1,000 words and gets us to link it back to his blog so we can all dip in and read each other's works.  I love to do this as it gets me in touch with other writers and I've made some pretty good friends from across the miles through his blog.  And the best thing about this is that you can put up just about any kind of story and you probably won't shock anyone - well, you might, but you won't know until you have a go.

I have shocked a few people, but it's been fun letting my imagination go wild.

I'm on my 3rd year of writing through the 'Terrible Minds' blog and I love it.  I'm actually going to work on getting my stories edited and published so people can download them as an e-book or buy them as real books to own in a series.  I'll keep them on the blog, but it'll be better to have them as proper books.

So, if you go onto the sidebar, you'll find a link to his site - which I put there last year - and before you know it, you'll be enjoying the prompts he comes up with.  And today, he put up the first one for 2015... so why don't you guys give it a go?  You never know what you might come up with.  Besides, you have a week to get your story together, put it up onto your own blog and link it back to his blog... and it's all for fun and to improve our writing skills.  Until my next post, happy reading!

And... happy writing too!

New Reads For This Year

I've totally enjoyed reading over the Christmas Holidays, and at the Brunswick Markets just last weekend, I scored a couple of lovely books to add to my collection... yes, the growing collection I really should be reading more of.

First off, I found 'The Portable Dorothy Parker' with an introduction by Brendan Gill.  This book has a collection of her stories and poetry, very much a book to have of her works in one.  I haven't read her work before, but do look forward to reading this one.  Then, I scored 'Iggy Pop: Open Up And Bleed' by Paul Trynka.  I haven't heard much of his music, but do know he's an amazing musician; so thus, I must know more about him.  I also found a book on how to grow Bromiliads and that's all it's about; so I bought that too.  

So, what have you bought recently you're hoping to get your nose into the pages of this year?  I have a large range of books to read this year - nothing to promise myself, you know what I'm like, if I promise myself a pile, I'll never read it.  Anyway, until my next post, happy reading.

Back Home, But No Computer

Hey there, readers and lovers of books, I'm back home and safely in the place I enjoy to read, collect my books and love to watch my dvds of 'Supernatural'... however, I'm not currently on my own computer.

My computer has been in the hands of my next door neighbour who I asked to look it over and it turned into a mammoth task of trying to figure out why it won't start up again - once he told me that I was hacked! So, this post is being written on their computer while they're out and about as they offered up their internet while my computer is dismembered in my home... hmmm, sounds kinda sad to hear about that; and looks it too.

Well, I had a safe drive back up the coast in my little green car.  I do miss Brunswick Heads very much, but I got so much reading done there!  As you can see from the posts I've written, I've read all the books I had planned to - and have yet to write a review on my last audio book from the last day or so of my holidays.  But worry not, it will be written over the next day or so.

So, what did you get to read over the holidays and NYE period?  Me?  Well, it was raining at the coast for a good lot of the time, so reading was called for.  And when it wasn't raining, it was boiling hot and sticky, and too boiling to go outside.  So, I was stuck inside reading.  Not bad if you ask me.  So, do tell us all, what did you read, what did you buy?  What bookstores did you discover?  Until my next post, happy reading!

'Breeders': Book One - by Ashley Quigley

Ariet lives in a protected world free from diseases, free from abnormalities and free from anything from the outside world - better known as the Old World, which was destroyed by the Great Illness.  She lives in a world where her every movement is carefully monitored, measured and manipulated to the smallest degree - even what she eats and how much food is permitted to each family is carefully shared out.  Her very existence has been tested and scanned by the Creators of the New World so she and her family works at their best.
In this New World, the people must pick out their breeding partners - and their life partners - by the age of 21 so they can procreate at the best time in their lives and have the right amount of genetically healthy offspring to keep their families going.  However, Ariet has reached 20 and she has yet to find a partner; so one will be picked out for her by the Creators.  Not only is this a creepy thing to do in her eyes,but it's something she hates; seeing her parents were picked for each other.  But the Creators have been watching her carefully and have found her a perfect match - Mason Black; a Creator.  This stuns and horrifies her as she is told she will never see her family again and she is to procreate within the month of meeting him.  
At first, she goes into mourning and shock as Mason tries to help her adjust to her new life in his home.  He makes her meals, takes her out and talks to her, but she hates him, hates what's happened and wants to go back home.  He also wants to go home, as he was ordered away from his girlfriend and given Ariet as a mate instead.
As their new lives together continues over the next month, both Ariet and Mason find out that not only her name replaced by a number for the first fortnight, but her family has been told Ariet is dead. Ariet finds out that he's the grandson of the head Creator of the New World; and she hand picked Ariet to be his mate for him.  
Almost as soon as they have been ordered to, Ariet falls pregnant.  However, on their second visit to the medical centre, they are told there are problems with the fetus and it must be terminated; and a date is set for termination within a week or so.  Once home, Mason lets Ariet in on a secret about the termination - that it's not only the fetus which is killed, it's also the mother who is also killed, as she is seen as defective too.  
By this time, Mason and Ariet have begun to have serious feelings for each other, and they start to put together a plan to get her out of the New World (which doesn't sound like such a great place to live after all) and into the Old World - which they have all be told is empty, filled with disease and has nothing to live on in it.  So, the plan is hatched between Mason, Ariet and Thor (Mason's best friend) to get her and Mason out of the New World... but when Mason volunteers to stay behind to make sure no more mother's are terminated with their 'defective' babies, Ariet wonders if she will ever see him again... and will Thor and her survive in this strange Old World they really know nothing about?

This book is a first of a trilogy.  I'm looking forward to reading the other two when I find them.  The 'Breeders' Trilogy is her published set of novels, and I'm impressed with how wonderful the prose is and now, I want to read the others when they are available.

Rainy Day Activities

Well, it's been raining since I arrived here in Brunswick Heads yesterday.  And so, I've been reading and listening to a book on Audible.  However, I'm also editing books too while I'm here.

I hope to get a lot done of the latter while I'm here.  

Also while I'm here, I hope to get my little green car out onto the roads and out to Mullumbimby to see The Book Barn to have a gander at some bookstores out that way too... to see what I can get my hands on in the way of second-hand books.  There's also some stores here in town which have old book instore as well I'll be looking at too.

Well!  I just thought to pop in here and let you all know that I have arrived safe and well in damp old Brunswick Heads.  I'm reading Frida Kahlo's Diary and another few books on my tablet too.  
So, do tell, what are you all up to?  Seeing I'm stuck inside due to the weather, and so are some of you, what are the usual activities you do to while away the hours - do let us know in the comments below.  Until my next post, happy reading!

Packing Light

In a few days, I'm off to Brunswick Heads for a week of relaxing by the sea.  Aaahhh... yes, it's going to be nice and lovely and cool.

Well, I've checked out the weather bureau and it's told us that it's going to pour rain all week... oh well... it happens.

But that's great reading weather too.

So, I'll be packing some light reading of Frida Kahlo's journal from the last decade of her life, my tablet (which has an Audible book on it and an e-book I have to finish) and then, I'll be taking along my journal and my Writer's Journal too as well as my 'Good Reading' Magazine.

Yep, all that should keep me occupied on a wet week of being at the coast without a television set in a caravan.

Otherwise, I'll be taking off to Mullumbimby to 'The Book Barn' to see what they have in store there - and to see if they're online yet.  The owner is a lovely man who loves books, and plays the piano there too.  The Book Barn used to be a bank and still has the old main vault in the back of the place - but they took the door off it and put a light inside it (due to how dark it is inside the room, as it's a walk-in vault; yep it's a really old bank).  But the place is amazing!  It has so many books, you'd never want to leave; well not too soon in any case.  

Well, if it does pour rain and I'm out of reading material, I'll just walk up to Re Sould up the road and buy myself a book or two to keep myself occupied... not a problem.  Otherwise, watching the rain while in a caravan is always a nice way to pass the time.  Until my next post, happy reading! 

'Hand Psychology: A New Insight into Solving Your Problems' by Andrew Fitzherbert

Reading the lines on the palms of another is a tricky business.  But this book makes it easier and better to read them for you.  With easy-to-follow diagrams, knowing the difference between a straight Heart Line and a Simian Line is a cinch!  Andrew Fitzherbert covers not only lines but also finger prints, hand sizes - and their meanings - and also the length of fingers and how they can mean the smallest of differences in your personality or your life.

I have had this book since I was 17 years old, and it's been a great source book for me.  No matter how many other palmistry books I've looked into, this one is the one I have come back to each time.  It's how it's written that has appealed to me; it's easy to follow and in a uncomplicated language.  But I have found how the book is set out doesn't make it easy to find what I'm looking for when I really need it.  The other day, I was looking for hand sizes and couldn't find it - not until I wasn't looking for it - and it really annoyed me that this happens in such a thin book.  There's no index and the contents don't give much away in what each chapter contains.  So, if it could be fixed up to contain those two things, that'd be great; and make it easier to get into.  

Stuff I've Written & Read In 2014

This year has been a big year for me... bigger than most.  And now I've got my own car, it's even more fun to get out and go places.  

But I've been busily reading and writing and enjoying being creative too.  Over the year, I've read only 9 books:

'The Wastelands' by Stephen King
'The Naughty Book for Girls' by Candice Hill
'Pet's Letters to God'
'Nelson Mandela: The Authorised Book of Quotes' by Himself
'Unexpected Zodiac' by Sasha Fenton
'The Watcher' by Jo Robertson
'Her Christmas Earl' by Anna Campbell
'Body Rentals' by Mark Gardner
'The Legend of the Blue Bonnets' retold by Tomie DePaola

Yeah, they don't look much, but two of those books were pretty big and one of the big ones was an audio book.  Two of the others were e-books and really good.  I'm currently getting into two books right now - one traditional and one an e-book:

'The Turning' by Tim Winton (traditional)
'Breeders' by Ashley Quigley (e-book)

Then, there's my written work!  Woah!  I've been working on my 'Fry Nelson: Bounty Hunter' trilogy for 5 years now and just about 3 months ago, it came to an end... I finally finished the third book and it was fantastic!  I collapsed into my bed, went straight to sleep and didn't have my brain telling me to edit anything - well not yet.
And then, there was my 'Angel Love' book.  I wrote that one in record time of around 3 months and totally enjoyed the researching of it and the characters.  They were so brilliantly different from each other and seem to just fall out of the woodwork that it felt like this book was one big jigsaw puzzle I tossed out onto the table and it almost put itself together... but it took time for me to work on it; and it worked out so well!  I'm still going to wait until the New Year before I do anything about editing it.

And then?  Well, there's my Flash Fiction I've had on my 'You Can't Go Back: And Other Impossibilities' Blog... yeah, I want to get them sorted out and into a traditional and an e-book.  They are stories that are funny, interesting, weird, creepy and well, you wonder what the hell I was thinking when I wrote them too.  And I want to get them published.

So, this really has been a busy year for me as a reader and a writer... very busy.  How about you?  Have you written much and read many books?  Please do let us know.  Until my next post, happy reading.

Her Christmas Earl by Anna Campbell

Phillippa Sanders has really done it this time.  She sneaks into a man's room on Christmas Eve to collect a note her silly-brained sister, Amelia, has written to him to save her reputation.

The things she does for her!

But as she turns around, she finds there's somebody coming into the room!  With no way out, she hides in the wardrobe, only to be discovered by Blair Hume, the Earl of Erskine.  He's tall, Scottish and very much the ladies man - and he has a reputation - and he finds Phillippa in his wardrobe hiding from him.

After an embarrassing moment or two of trying to explain herself, she goes to leave, only to find the door to his room is locked.

No, not locked - stuck!

Not even Blair can budge the darned thing!

So, the two are stuck in the room together.  In the times of being single and young - and yet to be married - this isn't a good thing.  And so, the two of them sit on the floor to wait out the night until Blair's man comes to unstick the door the next morning - as he was given the night off.

Then, Blair kisses Phillippa.

Blair's kisses switch on passions in Phillippa she didn't know she had.  She saw him in a totally different way - a way she never thought she'd see a man, especially this man.  However, the door opens and her mother is standing there, screaming at her!
Her mother makes sure her reputation is in tatters unless something is done... and Blair must make a decision about whether to save Phillippa's reputation or leave her to her family's destructive ways... ways of which she would most probably never recover from.

The Watcher by Jo Robertson

Kate Myers is tracking a serial killer - well, she thinks he's a serial killer.  Kate is a psychiatrist who has been tracking this guy since her twin sister was killed when she was 17 years old... when it should have been her... when she knew she should have walked their dog instead of Kassie that cold afternoon in Ohio; and their dog came home dragging its lead without her sister.

Kate Myers blames herself completely for her sister's death - simply because Kate could have fought off the killer.  Kate could have done something different to survive... 

It's been years and Kate Myers is in Northern California and she's still tracking the same killer.  He's killed another teenager and it's dredged up memories of Kassie's murder for Kate again.  This time it's in a small town where everyone know each other and the police station is smaller than it should be.
From the moment Kate walks through the doors, she's judged by all the cops - particularly Ben Slater, who doesn't like her at all.  She up tight, pushy and believes there is something out there - somebody out there - when he thinks there's no connection at all... well, that's until she gets him to read up on her files, what she had pulled together and they go and look at the files from the past where markings have been missed on the bodies and not noted down in the files but noticed in the photos.

However, the MO of the killer shows that he takes years to plan and plot his kills - that he picks his prey carefully so he doesn't stuff up.  This is until Kate and the killer cross paths by accident at a petrol station and he recognises her as Kassie, and he panics!  Did he kill her?  Did she survive?  If she did, he had to set the record straight and make sure he caught her again and ...and ... 

The sheriff goes missing - on a holiday, he said - for a few weeks suddenly from the station.  But he doesn't give a return date and leaves his office a total pig sty.  Kate notices and goes snooping around... and she starts putting things together about the sheriff - who was around at the times of the first murders years ago.  She finds cryptic notes around his office and shoves them into her handbag to look at later...

In between all this, Ben and Kate work long hours in the office and at her place over the case.  They talk well into the nights and over coffee, takeaway food and in bed in each other's arms; not expecting to fall for each other this way... harboring secrets of their own - painful, terrible secrets from their own lives - which could either make their relationship stronger or break it, shattering what they've discovered between them and within the manila file folders before the next victim is taken ... but who will that next person be?

The Sheriff?

Kate?

Another high school student?

Or...

All three...? 

40 Famous Authors On Reading

I was surfing the net today when I found this link to a great site where it's shown these great authors - from now and the our past - of what they thought about reading and writing.  I think this is an absolute must to look at because they are words of wisdom to keep us reading and writing what we are working on in our lives... and to pass it onto our children as well to keep the passion of books in their lives too.

40 Famous Authors On Reading

Frida Kahlo's Diary

For Christmas, I normally buy myself some things - special things - because I don't have a husband or boyfriend or girlfriend - in my life.  Yep, I'm single.  It's difficult to be single when this time of year comes around, and when it does, us single people either accept it and buy ourselves those presents we've been eyeing off all year, or become very bitter and despise it.

Either way, this time of year isn't easy.

Especially seeing it's the second year since Little Miss Stevie died... yeah, that was today.  Those two years have zoomed by, right?

Well, this year, I've improved greatly!  This year, I thought to get myself something off Amazon for Christmas; and that something is Frida Kahlo's Diary.  Yeah, it's on its way right now to my PO Box.  I can't wait to get it on Christmas Day and take the wrappings off it. 

I read the review and found it's a diary of her writings, water colours and poetry from her last decade of her life.  What a book it ought to be!  I can't wait to read it!  

And this gave me an idea... yeah, when doesn't a writer get a good idea from another's?  I thought to start my own writer's journal; and seeing I'm an artist too, I'll use my journal as that too.  Very cool, eh?  Well, I hope mine is as good as Frida's; but I doubt it, hers will be better.  So, what have you collected from an artist or a writer where you've been inspired to do the same or similar in your life?  Until my next post, happy reading.

Scored!

My last post was going to be about music I found at the Book Cafe.  However, it turned into a rant about language and how much it's changed over the last 25 years... must apologise about that (or not).

Well, this post is what I was going to write about: music score.  I went to the Book Cafe at Garden City and found myself some music for a fife I have owned for years.  However, I have never had any music for it before.  So, how pleased was I when I found it sitting there for 2/6?  Yeah, it's that old it didn't have a price which was in the metric system.  Very cool!

This music book wasn't for my Scout Fife, but for another brand; but they all look the same and are made from similar materials.  So, I thought it would be good to have some music for my fife to learn how to play it at least.  So, $5.00 later, I had it in my possession; and I'm looking forward to having a go at it in the New Year.

Then, I found some flute music.  I have lost my original flute music from when I was in primary and high school, so I'm slowly getting together my music books for my flute again.  It's expensive, but it will keep me playing and reading the music for years to come.  The book I bought is one I don't have and so it's all new to me from when I was in high school; so it'll be good to play other works.  This book was also $5.00.

So, I scored two books for $10 on musical score.  Very cool.  Not bad for a day's hunting in a second-hand book store, if I do say so.  So, what have you found musically recently which you never thought you'd find?  Until my next post, happy reading.