This will hurt me...

Looking back to Manarola, the path from Manarola to Corniglia, Cinque Terre National Park, April 2017. So I managed to read 112 books for 2019. Somewhat ahead of my goal of 80 , and about 110 more than TV shows that I saw. The highlights? Well, I gave five stars to the following: Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones (dogfighting and Hurricane Katrina) Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett (a wonderfully dark 1980s Aussie suburban coming of age novel) Jarett Kobek's blistering I Hate the Internet (Vonnegut for the post-ironic age) Andreï Makine's dreamlike The Archipelago of Another Life (a chase across the Siberian taiga at the tail-end of Stalin's rule);  Żanna Słoniowska's complex The House with the Stained-Glass Window (a wonderfully translated cross-cultural, multi-generational tale of the women in one particular family in Lviv);  This Is Not a Novel by Jennifer Johnston (an original novel framed around fragments of memory and the ways with which parent...

Lunch. Geilston Bay. September 2016. So, as part of the 2016 Goodreads Challenge , it turns out that I read a total of 128 books In the interest of sharing good novels, here are the best books that I read in 2016! Absent without Leave , Heinrich Böll All the Pretty Horses , Cormac McCarthy Coraline , Neil Gaiman Days Without End , Sebastian Barry Grief Is the Thing with Feathers , Max Porter How I Escaped My Certain Fate , Stewart Lee Mothering Sunday , Graham Swift Pop. 1280 , Jim Thompson Roseanna , Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö The Dig , Cynan Jones The Iron Man , Ted Hughes The Man Who Went Up in Smoke , Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö The North Water , Ian McGuire The Search Warrant , Patrick Modiano

Words on a page. Battery Point (walking to work). June 2013. The best thing about reading books while walking is reading books. And walking. The Wombat , Ogden Nash The wombat lives across the seas, Among the far Antipodes. He may exist on nuts and berries, Or then again, on missionaries; His distant habitat precludes Conclusive knowledge of his moods, But I would not engage the wombat In any form of mortal combat.

Sunrise at Elizabeth Street Pier. May 2010. So, the intention is for Friday to become Book Club Day . I am thinking that it will usually mean just talking about whatever it is I’ve just finished, but I thought that I’d open up by answering this questionnaire. If you are so inclined, try it yourself. It should give you an idea of what kind of reader I am, and whether or not our tastes may concur. If you’ve any specific queries about books or recommendations, as ever I am open to suggestion! What have you just read? In the past fortnight, I have read George Orwell’s mediation on the theme of poverty in the two cities Down and Out in Paris and London , Muriel Spark’s wicked little Loitering With Intent , Evelyn Waugh’s short history of Mussolini's imperial adventure Waugh in Abyssinia , and the darkly comic Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse. What are you reading now? I’m currently re-reading Graham Greene’s magnum opus, The Power and the Glory . My current ‘go to book’ – the book that I...

Tall ship is Sullivan's Cove as viewed through the window of a water taxi, March 2010. I've just finished reading the blackly comic (and unremittingly bleak) The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills on the bus in this morning. By golly if there was ever a book to explore the notion of work as a domineering force in the lives of workers, this is it! Check it out, even if your headspace is akin to mine at the moment.

Here you can see a damp Henry with a dry Jennifer reading Sleepy Time Olie , featuring the famous robot "Rolie Polie Olie". Now, I quite like Sleepy Time Olie , as it affords a great wind down into bed time through the course of what is admittedly a gripping text (I won't spoil it for you). The thing is though, in order for the text to properly scan, I have to affect a slight Maine accent. How I have managed to pick up the accent of an east Bangor primary school teacher, I am not sure. I think that it must have something to do with a Stephen King book or two...

Concrete, bricks, leaves, grass, trees... We've got the makings of a town here! This photo was taken down near the blubber pots here on Salamanca Lawns. As canny readers will have already noted (see the "Currently Reading" section on the side bar), I am very much enjoying Chinua Achebe's thoroughly excellent Things Fall Apart , years later than I first intended! If you've not already, pick it up. Aside from a general Molly Meldrum-esque "do yourself a favour" [and doesn't that pinpoint me in cultural, geographical and temporal place?] I thought it would be nice to share a thought that resonated with me from the text: "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man. He was like the man in the song who had ten and one wives and not enough soup for his foo-foo ." On that score, it shames me to say that I am not much a man! It's a great read thoug...

Two photos featuring moi in less than a week, what a lucky lot you are! This here is a self portrait taken a couple of days ago as I traipsed into work, reflecting upon the dreary world of the wage slave and went about imagining a far more interesting existence, as is my wont these days. This is notion of self reflection and imagination leads me to today’s Theme Thursday theme, one close to my heart: the blessed Library . Now come on, give me a chance, the segue is not as tenuous as you might think. As I have noted time and time again of this very blog, my entire family – even dear little Ezra – is equipped with a well worn library card. Not a week goes by when we’re not returning back twenty or so books to our local branch, only to ferry twenty or so more home. It’s a pleasure you see. As you can see in my sidebar, I’ve just about finished Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn. It’s a clever little satire detailing the struggle against encroaching entropy of a few i...

I couldn't decide between these two pictures, so I've posted both. Henry and Ezra are already book addicts . In fact, Henry churns through no less than ten a day, usually far more . Indeed, I am starting to worry that we will run out of books to read at the State Library. I'm even trying to get Henry into the Russians, as some of those weighty tomes should slow him down long enough to allow all those authors out there to rush out more books .

If you've noticed the header on the blog here, you'll no doubt be shocked to hear that I'm a big time Peanuts fan. Actually, you won't as I've blogged on it before and I know everyone takes a lot of notice of , and puts a lot of stock in , what I have to say. I’m like Moses in that regard. So yesterday evening I discovered that the entire catalogue of Charles M. Schulz's incomparable Peanuts is now available online through Comics.com . How very apt, thought I, as I am currently knee deep in David Michaelis' meticulous (not to mention awfully weighty tome, Schulz and Peanuts: a biography . Delving into every aspect of Sparky Schulz's life – and I do mean every aspect, wink wink , nudge nudge – Michaelis has delivered a must read for any Peanut nut (see what I did there? I don’t even try, it just happens. Genius!) Needless to say, do yourself a favour and get your grubby little hands on this book and set aside some time, at 650+ pages, you'll n...

I had to explain the concept of a 'catch-22 situation' to someone the other day (and wishing that I could devise such a rule for my own benefit), I was reminded just how much I love this book. So I thought I that I would post Yossarian's full explanation on the blog. So I have: "There was only one catch and that was catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle." "That's some ...

Here is a shot taken this afternoon right outside my building. I liked the mix of colour in the sky, the iron work of the lamp and the sandstone building. So I have posted it for your ocular gratification. On another tangent, I have been reading a remarkable little book from the late 1970s titled The Meaning of Hitler , by the terribly interesting Sebastian Haffner . It is a brisk read and offers a broad analysis of the life, work and meaning of Adolf Hitler in a calm, rational and neutral manner. This is not something always associated with work around such a notorious figure. Without wanting to make a song and dance about it, I would recommend it to anyone interested in a first-class, accessible exploration upon a theme not easily entered into. In the words of David Beckham, “It makes you fink, ya know?”

To celebrate Henry’s upcoming appearance on WIN News tonight, and the forthcoming expansion of TEAM MCCRACKEN/FITZGERALD , I have decided to utilise the Photo of the day slot as a feature on the little bloke himself and how he fits into the TEAM . Think of it as a This is Your Life (thus far). So here is the first picture. Here we can see Henry at ten months. I remember this day well, because it was at this point that he really started to get his act together with the crawling. I have a video of the act that can be viewed here . Next up, we have Henry sort some our many excess books with Jen early last summer. Here he showcased his literary worth and selected those texts to go, and those to stay. True to form, he piled up the Hemingway in the MUST KEEP stack, and turfed most of the literary criticism, post-modernist theory and pretentious art wank out the door. Good boy Henry. Here you can see Henry and me on his first birthday. For some reason he was trying to slip away unnoticed, bu...

A new meme crossed my path last week, and I have been compiling my answers until I had completed them to post them up here. You might have seen it already as it has been going around for a while now . The bibliographical theme is what has drawn my eye, and I was interested to see how I ‘stacked up’. So, it involves the top 106 (?) books marked ‘unread’ on LibraryThing.com . My understanding of it is that these books are collated from people tagging the books that they one day intend to read, but have not read. Therefore, we are talking the ‘most popular’ books that people intend to read one day. Anyway, the rules are basic: mark the books that you have read; note those that you have read more than once; record those you have started but could not finish; and note those that you either loved or hated. I have also decided to note those that I am unfamiliar with. I thought that by posting it up, I might be able to aid anyone in choosing future books to read, as well as give you all a guid...

For the first time ever I have been tagged in one of these internet games of catch 'n kiss. I'm not sure of the etiquette here, do I thank "Tara A. Rowe" of The Political Game , if I do, I'll say thank you Tara from Idaho. I really, really hope that you stumbled across my meagre little blog because I posted something on the wonderful potato a while back ! I know that Idahoans must get awfully sick of hearing about potatoes, but as a Tasmanian, I say that we should be proud of the humble spud! Apparently I am to do five things: Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages). Open the book to page 123. Find the fifth sentence. Post the next three sentences. Tag five people. All right then, to the book! "He is from a large local family of Sicilian policemen, and he and I have often passed words on street corners or chatted reticently over coffee at the Coffee Spot, though we've actually never "met." I have tried to talk him out of a half-dozen pa...