a new leaf

hellooooo my pretties!

i have been a crap blogger lately. i don't apologise, but i do say...

i got a laptop!

so now i can be a blogging dynamo, churning out witty, fabulous missives to my minions* and furthering my career as a dugong lady.

also, the laptop is shiny.

and the * is to explain that i do not consider you, my dear reader, to be a minion. i just really like the word and thought it sounded nice with missives.

ps.

i have been reading a little bit in amongst the frenzy of not blogging, but you can leave that bit to your imagination and instead hear about the picture book i bought today because i had been eyeing it off for weeks and could resist no longer.

the vegetable ark by kim kane and sue degennaro

allen and unwin

it is so so so lovely. and funny. and i love neil- he reminds of neil from the young ones except more productive.

i went to the european masters exhibition yesterday and found.... diagon alley! look here . hagrid is the one in the middle.

people find me when they ask for...

silverfish pee- i didn't even know they could pee, silly i know, but while i didn't give it that much thought, i just sort of imagined them letting it out in the form of a steam that evaporated upon hitting the atmosphere.

collier the bottom billion positive review- who is collier the bottom and why does he need a positive review?

silverfish in laptop- who let them in there? that was silly.

and

impossible challenges to do with food

impossible food things

things that are impossible with food

why do so many people want to do impossible things with food?

steph bowe, fiona wood and mr magnolia are also popular.

the ins and outs of what this particular dugong lady is reading right now...

freedom by jonathan franzen: by golly. this guy writes sexy sentences. by this i meant he has these hugely long and detailed pieces of story covered in commas and semi colons in between full stops and capital letters, and it still all flows beautifully and is generally just fantastically detailed, subtle yet punchy writing. as someone that frequently gets overexcited with commas and splashes them into her writing on a whim, or cos she thinks they look pretty, this kind of classy comma usage really appeals to me. also the actual book is pretty darn good too. and how pretty is the cover?! i'm going to have to go back and read the corrections too.

the ethics of what we eat by peter singer: recently i have been making an effort to be more aware of the world around me and to live on top of my rock instead of under it. i no longer eat any meat unless it i know it is organic, and am yet to do more research on the organic meat industry. if i don't like what i find i will stop eating it all together. i have also stopped eating fish except if it is sustainably caught (and i've been finding this hard to find out a lot of the time, so i have only eaten some wild salmon once in the past month), and in general i eat organic where possible. i am finding this book quite helpful and enjoyably, it isn't a tedious read.

more adventures of the great brain by john d. fitzgerald: written in the 1890's, this book continues the adventures of T.D.,conniving hero of the great brain, and, from the inside of the front jacket, 'proves that boys in Mormon Utah in the 1890s are the same as boys today- full of limitless energy and fun yet with a capacity for sensitivty and sadness'. so far T.D. seems to me to be a bit of a little shit, but i'll continue reading and give an update later.

mwf

i went to the melbourne writer's festival this week and saw...

steph bowe. she was very funny, an excellent speaker and made me a wee bit jealous for two reasons: she is more mature than i will ever be, and she can walk in heels. really high heels. this might seem like a weird, unliterary (ha, who am i kidding, me, literary?) type thing to notice but coordination really impresses me as it is something i struggle with, even on a basic level.

steven herrick. the john marsden of poetry, he was a delight to listen to. funny, honest and great with the school kids, i dare anyone to challenge his awesomeness.

shirley marr. what fantastic sparkly dorothy shoes she was wearing! and she was also a good speaker. and nice. and funny.

argh, i irritate myself with my constant positivity, but i really don't have anything to criticise. although at one point i did feel as though i was standing in the middle of a swamp full of high schoolers. but i guess that's what you get for going to the schools program.
the only bad thing was that i didn't get to see jaclyn moriarty. but the delaightful kate did, and said she was lovely, so that will have to be good enough for me.

also, i got to get coffee from the waffle man. and i spoke french with him. well, i said 'merci' when he gave me my coffee. and he asked me where in queensland i was from, which is a bit insulting really, i guess i must just speak like a bit of a bogan, cos it certainly wouldn't be my bronzed skin that made him think that (i am so pale i make milk look tanned).
au bientot!

Born to Run- Christopher McDougall

I ventured out of my young adult nest of reading material and found...

'"So where the fuck did they get it?" Lieberman asks, with all the gusto of a man who's not squeamish about hacking into goats with a rock. "The bow and arrow is twenty thousand years old. The spearhead is two hundred thousand years old. But Homo erectus is around two million years old. That means that for most of our existence-for nearly two million years!-hominids were getting meat with their bare hands. "'


Taken from page 226 of Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.


Raising some phenomenally interesting questions about our bodies, our diets and our evolutionary processes, Born to Run is something I recommend that everyone reads. With a focus on everything from the elusive Tarahumara, the benefits of going barefoot, ultra marathons and the drug cartels of the Sierra Mountains, this will make you go 'oh shit. really? nah, no way. but, hold on... way!' (or your own less overexaggerated-trashy-excited-bogan version). And it is very well written. What more could you ask for in non-fiction?

I'ma waitin for you, September!

exciting september releases i am teeteringon my tenterhooks over:

the hunger games: mockingjay by suzanne collins
can i just say ohmygod ohmygod i have been waiting soooo loooong for this it better be fucking fantastic! although i am sure it will be as it is the third in the incredible, gripping, throat grabbing series involving Katniss, Peeta, Gale and the eeeeevil Capitol. argh!

immortal beloved by cate tiernan
you can read my review here. now go read the book. it is unbelievably fantastic. i shall say no more. please don't be put off by the really dodgy cover. marketing people, you are moronic to say the least.
now, seriously, go read it.

skulduggery pleasant: mortal coil by derek landy
the fifth in this entirely excellent eventually to be nine part series. people who have read the first four will need no introduction. people who haven't read the first four had better get on this shit, quick smart. you are missing out. also, derek landy came into the shop months ago and was super lovely and funny and a huge HUGE dog slobbered all over him (outside the shop, sadly we don't have a bookshop dog) yet in the true form of an delightful human bean he cuddled the dog back cos it was a beautiful dog, and he missed his puppy in ireland. and did i mention that he was funny?