Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Book meme
I've been tagged by TECH to do the ubiquitous book meme that's doing the rounds. While I'm pleased someone tagged me with something; I kinda wish it hadn't been this one. The reasons will become obvious when you read my self-revealing reply that I just know will turn into some sort of philosophical rant rather than a simple answer to this meme.
1. How many books do you own?
"Where do you keep your books, Aunty, I need something to read," said my nephew when he visited last year. He'd been a constant visitor to every home I'd previously had and just knew I must have heaps of books somewhere. The answer was, "they are in your room". 33! Yep, that's right, not 1,033 or even 133 but 33 -I just counted them. See that's one of the benefits of not owning a library, you can keep an accurate record of how many you own. The other is not continually running out of bookshelves!
It's to do with the stage of life you've reached, I believe. Once I owned hundreds of books, maybe close to 1000 and my partner at that time was continually hammering and sawing and building new bookshelves. Not only for my books, but bookshop son (read his answer to this meme here) recalls shelving 540 at that house -partner had a few of his own and even tv viewer son had about 3 shelves-worth (at 30 per shelf, even that's 90 books and he hated reading). But the thing is, you get to a stage of life most of you can't even imagine yet, where you don't want all those THINGS any more. They become just more objects to dust and house. You stop aspiring to possessions and acquiring more junk to clutter up your life. You start divesting yourself of THINGS.
I moved from that 4 bedroom, 2 living room, 2 bathroom house into a tiny camper trailer, dimensions roughly 14 ft by 5ft. Careful choices had to be made and they included a book of maps, a bird identification book, a mammal identification book and whatever we were currently reading, with maybe a couple of spares - you see I can't bear to have nothing to read. While travelling, we solved the problem by buying second hand in each new town and 'trading in' whatever we'd just finished, so my personal tally of books I owned was always around 6 or 8 - plus the reference books.
Now I borrow from the local libraries - 10 books at a time and I change them at least twice a month. You see, it's an economic decision as well as a philosophical one - I guess I read between $300 and $400 a month worth of books but I get them free.
2. Last book read?
Okay here comes the shameful part of the revelation. I can't remember. No, no, I don't mean it's been so long since I read a book that I can't remember, I mean I don't remember anything I read (so you can see why it's not worth spending money on books). I probably average 3 or 4 novels a week. I love reading but I'd have trouble most times telling you the name of the book I'm currently reading without looking at the cover - I just did and it's called Tricks of the Light by Alison Fell (I'd remembered that as The Quality of Light). I've always had the problem - can't remember anything much about the books I read, the movies or tv shows I watch or the names of singers I like or songs. I don't know why- it's bizarre, very embarrassing and severely limiting on conversation. But there you have it - and it gets worse with every year older I get. In fact someone dear to me once made the remark that it wasn't such a bad disability to have, since soon I'd be able to own only one book I really loved and read it over and over again... I'm almost there mate! The only linking factor I can find with these things is that they are all things I do for pleasure. I remember a little more about work or business things. Perhaps there's a psychologist or a neurosurgeon out there who can explain all this - I can't.
3. Last book purchased?
Oh God, yet more shame!!!Hollywood Divorces -Jackie Collins. I was catching a train and was terribly upset by an altercation with a loved one and bought it at one of those tables of cheap books you find in shopping malls and railway stations. I needed something crappy and shallow that I could sink into and take my mind off things - and it only cost $5. It's not my usual fare, promise!
I borrowed a new lot from the library this week, they are:
* Manhattan Is My Beat - Jeffery Deaver - I enjoy psychological thrillers and serial killer novels.
*Names for Nothingness - Georgia Blain - billed as a story of mothers and daughters- what happens when the life you choose involves denying everyone you love (introspective, gut wrenching relationship stories get me every time).
* The Mythology of Self Worth - Richard L Franklin -no comment needed
* A Seahorse Year -Stacey D'Erasmo -another 'family/relationships book.
* Queenmaker - India Edghill - a novel of King David's Queen in the tradition of 'The Red Tent' - I remember I really enjoyed The Red Tent, can't tell you what it was about but if the name has stuck in my memory it must have been exceptional, so...
* An Imperfect Marriage - Tim Waterstone - more family/relationships stuff
* A Woman's Place - Edwina Currie - not sure whether I've read this one before or another of hers that I liked. That's the good thing about library books, you don't need to be selective. If you don't like it, you've lost nothing.
4. Name five fiction books that mean a lot to you.
Since almost everyone will have stopped reading long ago, I'm not going to rave on about these. I could give you a brief, potted history beginning with The Billabong books, a children's series about outback Australia that threaded strongly through my childhood and taught me that the place I lived and the things I knew were just as valid as moles and toads and tea in the nursery featured in all those English children's books, Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' that illuminated my right-wing twenties, the books I read to my children such as 'The night before Christmas'. So many, hundreds? thousands? that have shaped and informed my life, but instead, I'm only going to tell you about one; the book that means the most to me of any.
Suburban Aliens is not a well-known book. Published by Lothian in 2003, it's billed as "a report from the front line of teenage life in the suburbs in the early years of the twenty-first century. Honest and relevant, it describes a world that young people will recognise and adults won't want to believe." It's beautifully crafted, a spare, truthful vision of teenage life through the eyes of a participant. It's a damn good book that anyone could relate to. But it has an added edge that makes it THE BOOK THAT MEANS THE MOST TO ME. It fills me with pride and gratitude. The author is my son - Nicholas Carvan.
5. Tag five more people.
Sorry, I can only think of one who might be interested; all the rest have already been tagged by someone else, don't blog, or have given up blogging (you know who you are!). I tag Mellipop
1. How many books do you own?
"Where do you keep your books, Aunty, I need something to read," said my nephew when he visited last year. He'd been a constant visitor to every home I'd previously had and just knew I must have heaps of books somewhere. The answer was, "they are in your room". 33! Yep, that's right, not 1,033 or even 133 but 33 -I just counted them. See that's one of the benefits of not owning a library, you can keep an accurate record of how many you own. The other is not continually running out of bookshelves!
It's to do with the stage of life you've reached, I believe. Once I owned hundreds of books, maybe close to 1000 and my partner at that time was continually hammering and sawing and building new bookshelves. Not only for my books, but bookshop son (read his answer to this meme here) recalls shelving 540 at that house -partner had a few of his own and even tv viewer son had about 3 shelves-worth (at 30 per shelf, even that's 90 books and he hated reading). But the thing is, you get to a stage of life most of you can't even imagine yet, where you don't want all those THINGS any more. They become just more objects to dust and house. You stop aspiring to possessions and acquiring more junk to clutter up your life. You start divesting yourself of THINGS.
I moved from that 4 bedroom, 2 living room, 2 bathroom house into a tiny camper trailer, dimensions roughly 14 ft by 5ft. Careful choices had to be made and they included a book of maps, a bird identification book, a mammal identification book and whatever we were currently reading, with maybe a couple of spares - you see I can't bear to have nothing to read. While travelling, we solved the problem by buying second hand in each new town and 'trading in' whatever we'd just finished, so my personal tally of books I owned was always around 6 or 8 - plus the reference books.
Now I borrow from the local libraries - 10 books at a time and I change them at least twice a month. You see, it's an economic decision as well as a philosophical one - I guess I read between $300 and $400 a month worth of books but I get them free.
2. Last book read?
Okay here comes the shameful part of the revelation. I can't remember. No, no, I don't mean it's been so long since I read a book that I can't remember, I mean I don't remember anything I read (so you can see why it's not worth spending money on books). I probably average 3 or 4 novels a week. I love reading but I'd have trouble most times telling you the name of the book I'm currently reading without looking at the cover - I just did and it's called Tricks of the Light by Alison Fell (I'd remembered that as The Quality of Light). I've always had the problem - can't remember anything much about the books I read, the movies or tv shows I watch or the names of singers I like or songs. I don't know why- it's bizarre, very embarrassing and severely limiting on conversation. But there you have it - and it gets worse with every year older I get. In fact someone dear to me once made the remark that it wasn't such a bad disability to have, since soon I'd be able to own only one book I really loved and read it over and over again... I'm almost there mate! The only linking factor I can find with these things is that they are all things I do for pleasure. I remember a little more about work or business things. Perhaps there's a psychologist or a neurosurgeon out there who can explain all this - I can't.
3. Last book purchased?
Oh God, yet more shame!!!Hollywood Divorces -Jackie Collins. I was catching a train and was terribly upset by an altercation with a loved one and bought it at one of those tables of cheap books you find in shopping malls and railway stations. I needed something crappy and shallow that I could sink into and take my mind off things - and it only cost $5. It's not my usual fare, promise!
I borrowed a new lot from the library this week, they are:
* Manhattan Is My Beat - Jeffery Deaver - I enjoy psychological thrillers and serial killer novels.
*Names for Nothingness - Georgia Blain - billed as a story of mothers and daughters- what happens when the life you choose involves denying everyone you love (introspective, gut wrenching relationship stories get me every time).
* The Mythology of Self Worth - Richard L Franklin -no comment needed
* A Seahorse Year -Stacey D'Erasmo -another 'family/relationships book.
* Queenmaker - India Edghill - a novel of King David's Queen in the tradition of 'The Red Tent' - I remember I really enjoyed The Red Tent, can't tell you what it was about but if the name has stuck in my memory it must have been exceptional, so...
* An Imperfect Marriage - Tim Waterstone - more family/relationships stuff
* A Woman's Place - Edwina Currie - not sure whether I've read this one before or another of hers that I liked. That's the good thing about library books, you don't need to be selective. If you don't like it, you've lost nothing.
4. Name five fiction books that mean a lot to you.
Since almost everyone will have stopped reading long ago, I'm not going to rave on about these. I could give you a brief, potted history beginning with The Billabong books, a children's series about outback Australia that threaded strongly through my childhood and taught me that the place I lived and the things I knew were just as valid as moles and toads and tea in the nursery featured in all those English children's books, Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' that illuminated my right-wing twenties, the books I read to my children such as 'The night before Christmas'. So many, hundreds? thousands? that have shaped and informed my life, but instead, I'm only going to tell you about one; the book that means the most to me of any.
Suburban Aliens is not a well-known book. Published by Lothian in 2003, it's billed as "a report from the front line of teenage life in the suburbs in the early years of the twenty-first century. Honest and relevant, it describes a world that young people will recognise and adults won't want to believe." It's beautifully crafted, a spare, truthful vision of teenage life through the eyes of a participant. It's a damn good book that anyone could relate to. But it has an added edge that makes it THE BOOK THAT MEANS THE MOST TO ME. It fills me with pride and gratitude. The author is my son - Nicholas Carvan.
5. Tag five more people.
Sorry, I can only think of one who might be interested; all the rest have already been tagged by someone else, don't blog, or have given up blogging (you know who you are!). I tag Mellipop
