Bedside Reading...

This is the pile of books currently sitting beside my bed waiting to be read...

Even at my current rate of 2 books a week, thats still about 2 months worth of reading!!!

More shameless self promotion...

The following article appears in this months Incite Magazine. For those not in the know, that's the ALIA, or Australian Libraries and Information Association magazine.

A weekend full of treasure!!!

In between Castlemaine and Harcourt is a little 'blink and you miss it' place called Barkers Creek, In Barkers Creek is a wonderfully crazy lady called 'Apple Annie'. 'Apple Annie' makes her living selling stuff out of her shed and surrounding yards. 'Apple Annie's' shed is so chockablock full of secondhand clothes and stuff that you can hardly move.
Here are some of the treasures I Found this weekend:

A Safari Suit Jacket
A genuine 70's Vintage Denim Cowboy Shirt
A Wooden Rocking Horse For Anouk
A Heavy Duty Wooden Block Trolley (with some wooden blocks - also for Miss A)
Probably the Best Sarsaparilla Bottle in my dad's collection of Sarsaparilla bottles (and he has quite a collection!)
An Old Flour Sifter (with an Australian bush painting around it)
A few Super Cute Tops for me
Several Retro 50's pini aprons (which I Love!)
A Purple Lace Jackety thing
A Red and White Check Shirt
An old Corset
A Beautiful Gold Chinese Silk Dressing gown thing...

and I only spent $60!

If your ever up that way, you have to check out 'Apple Annie's', it's certainly an experience, just make sure you have plenty of time and get ready to dig!!!

This weeks reading... just for something light!

I've not long finished Head Case by Dennis Cass. I'm not sure whether to call this one a memoir or a scientific experiment, or maybe a scientific memoir??? He started off trying to understand his brain and ended up dragging up his painful childhood and exploring his relationship with his Bipolar stepfather.

I don't think my own brain was there enough this week to really appreciate it, but it was pretty good, he's got a really dry sense of humour which I love. This book has a touch of Running with Scissors to it in a kind of memoir as therapy kind of way.

Library Quilt...

This gorgeous quilt (not normally my kind of thing so it must be good!) is hanging in my home town library...

(that's Castlemaine folks...)

Do you recognise this returns chute?

A night on the town with The Librarians series 2.

Is this KD's outfit for stereotypical librarian day

on Friday 13th March?

Check out this gorgeous image by my new favourite artist Isobel Von Finklestein

She's called Little Nasties

A Mole is a Mole is a Mole...

I love the Adrian Mole books... So much so that when I saw someone reading The Cappuccino Years on the train just after it had been released I went straight up to them and said "oh my god is that a new Adrian Mole book" and instead of thinking I was a psycho they were just as excited as me. I was on my way into the city so I went to the nearest bookshop and bought it. When The Weapons of Mass Destruction was released I was working in the 'Giant Arsehole Bookstore' and instructed the stockroom staff to call me immediately when they unpacked the box with it in. So it was with great excitement that I was walking through a bookstore the other day and I happened to see Adrian Mole: The Lost Diaries staring at me from the shelves. I immediately picked it up and started to head to the counter, but something made me stop. It could have been the $33 price tag for a paperback (the rest of my collection is in hardback) Something told me to stop and wait. The library had it and remarkably it had no reserves. I devoured it in a day but am glad I didn't buy it. Frankly, it was a letdown. I was set in between the two books I have previously mentioned (which were among the better of the novels.) I got the feeling this was either a contractual agreement thing or a money making scheme or something because it didn't read with the humour and empathy of the other books (and I had heard that Sue Townsend wasn't going to write anymore AM books). The other thing about it is that this book is not even listed on the official Adrian Mole Website... there is something funny going on here! There were parts of the storyline that I thought didn't seem right (and when I read back over the WMD book I was right, there were inconsistencies) I am disappointed, but this doesn't spoil the rest of the books for me.

C is for...

Cowgirls!

I have had a fascination with these women all my life. Check me out when I was 5!

The latest issue of the greatest magazine in the world has an article on them, describing them as trail blazers for today's feminism. They were among the first women in the US to own land, and up until recently, cowgirls were one of the few heroines little girls could look up to.

I also think they are pretty Hot!

One of my top 5 all time favourite books is Even cowgirls get the blues by Tom Robbins.

I trekked all over New York City just to have lunch at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

What to say?

I feel the need to write about the horrible happenings of the last few days, Its hard to think about much else when its basically happening in your own backyard. I had a little cry at the news last night, I feel so helpless. What can I do? I can give blood and money but I feel like I should be out there offering some sort of practical support.
I got an email last night telling me that a friends mum lost her house and pets. Another person told me the story about someone losing their house on their wedding day. Its all just too much to fathom and what makes things even worse is the fact most of the fires were deliberately lit. I feel lucky and at the same time a little guilty for having it all when some people have lost it all.

Sex meets Tales... of the City that is!

I just finished reading Candice Bushnell's One Fifth Ave and have to say...
it was OK!!

I am a not so closeted Sex and the City fan, and I did enjoy her S+TC book that started it all, but the rest of her books have left me disappointed, so I didn't have high expectations of this one.

I really enjoyed the inter-woven stories of the residences of the building, but then I realised why I was enjoying it so much, it reminded me of one
of my favourite series of books the Tales of the City series by Armstead Maupin. But instead of the sweet, lovable characters living in 70's San Francisco of Tales, One's residences are money hungry, self obsessed, status chasing, lets face it, horrible people... But it works somehow! But it's not bad for a light trashy read! It's still no Tales of the City though!

Look I know it's been hot but come on...

OK so I know everybody thinks there Ex-Boyfriend has psychological issues... But today a friend told me that an Ex of mine is actually saying, like out loud and stuff, that because of climate change the world is going to end within 20 years... Next he's going to be walking around the streets of the home town with one of those sandwich board signs that says "THE END IS NIGH"!!!

I want you...

TO FINISH THE

WEBOLUTION!

And this is Why...

At great expense to the Managment, my new best friend, Comedian and fellow Librarian, Josh Earl is going to be appearing at the Webolution closing ceremony on Friday the 13th March... Be there... If your Square!

I told you she was a Hot Rodder in training!

E is for...

Ebay!!!

OK so lets talk about one of my all time favourite Web 2.0 applications... none other than the ultimate shopping experience that is Ebay!

I just listed some items for sale which you can see here.

It's been a while since I've listed anything, lets just say a little intervention had to take place... I did have withdrawals for a while but I think I can handle it this time...

You see...

Ebay is VERY addictive, not just the buying part and the bidding wars, but the selling part too. No sooner have you listed your first item, then your running around the house looking for anything not nailed down just to see what some poor sucker... whoops I mean Valued Customer will pay for it!!

May I recommend two fun Ebay books for when you start to get into it...

I married and Ebay Maniac By Jayne Perry
and
All my life for sale by John Freyer

Both of which are available from Hobsons Bay Libraries!!!