Sydney Writer’s Festival

The Sydney Writer’s Festival is on in May and according to the SMH’s Spectrum (can’t find link sorry) there is some hush-hush action happening over who is going to appear. Alan Hollinghurst has been confirmed and speaking of hushing, the only librarian who has her own doll, Nancy Pearl, will be making an appearance. The [...]

The Nash Cap

I have just spent the weekend in Canberra, visiting my sister. Every time I go to Canberra I find myself desperately wanting to love it, to take it to my heart and appreciate it.
Once we get out of Campbelltown on the freeway the space starts to open up, it becomes flatter and browner. The hill [...]

My idea of heaven right now

Sitting outside Fisher Library, drinking coffee and making use of the wireless access to check my email while killing time before a meeting (and telling you lot about it).

The critic from hell

Stephen Elliot has been receiving consistently good reviews on Amazon (not that that is any indication of brilliance but anyway) except for one reviewer, his father. His father is, in the words of Boing Boing, "crazy and abusive". The reviews have been taken down but via Boing Boing, a quote:
The book has scenes like the
one [...]

Writer’s block?

Via Bookslut, the cure for writer’s block, a really good head injury.

Bedside piles

Over at Troppo they’re discussing the books we pile up beside our bed and may or may not read. You know the ones, we may dip in and out of them, sometimes we even finish them, generally you can be guaranteed an eclectic mix. My mother is a great bedside piler. My parents stayed here [...]

Still here

I am still here but have not been posting as I have been organising my son’s second birthday. It went off yesterday quite well, the family have now left and I have time to blog. Not that I don’t miss my family when they leave…hopefully will be posting and answering comments by this evening.
Just a [...]

Once was vandalism

This is a story that upsets me in a number of ways, but the outcome is triumphant, a real up yours.
In early 2001, San Francisco Public Library staff began finding vandalized books shoved under shelves, hidden throughout the Main Library. Ultimately over 600 torn and sliced books, on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender topics, women’s [...]

Dashiell

And one more lazy post for this evening, this month January magazine features a tribute to Dashiell Hammett.
(For those who don’t know – my son’s name is Dashiell, hence the significance).

Collecting prizes

Ok, we all know that awards are given out to people who write books but what about a prize for collecting books?