Reader GeneaMeme

 

It's National Year of Reading in Australia - time to post a GeneaReader meme. (courtesy of Jill at Geniaus)

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item 

Which of these apply to you? reading

1.   Have you written any books?  No.But all of my friends have...does that count?
2. Have you published any books? No.
3. Can you recommend an inspiring biography? Hmm....inspiring...hmmm biography...I've read a few inspiring autobiographies...e.g. Richard Branson's and Angela's Ashes....I did enjoy reading the Julia Gillard biography and I particularly enjoyed the Packer biography Who Killed Channel 9? but I'm not sure that they were inspiring....instructive....insightful....amusing....
4. Do you keep a reading log? If yes, in what format?  Sort of...call it a blog....
5. Are you a buyer or a borrower of books? Both.
6. Where do you get reading recommendations? Librarything mostly.
7. What is the one genealogy reference book you can't do without? Nick Vine Hall still stands me in very good stead.
8. Do you hoard books or do you discard them when you have finished? Oh dear...hoarder...
9. How many books are in your genealogy library? Never enough...but to be specific about 50....
10.  What's your favourite genealogy magazine or journal? Well I am besotted with Inside History at the moment...
11. Where are the bookshelves in your house? Everywhere...though we have refrained from the toilet and bathroom (due to mould -  you understand)
12. Do you read e-books? How?On my iPad that my BBF gave me...
13. How many library cards do you have? I think about four.....one for Uni (well it's not a card..it's a number..one for Brisbane City...one for Moreton Bay and one for State Library ...though Charlie did tell me about the National Library so I think I'll be getting one there too...does State Archives count?
14. What was the last genealogy title you read? Probably something about Bathurst at QFHS today..ooh that's potentially another library card!!
15. What is your favourite bookshop? Oh dear....that's hard...I think it has to be the State Library bookshop...Avid Reader at West End is very good but I feel more at home at State Library for some weird reason...Berkelouws is a close second....oh but then there is online and I do like Book Depository and ABE
16. Do you have a traditional printed encyclopaedia in your house?  We have several....Arthur Mee's is my favourite ...but we do have Colliers and also the Children's Brittanica...when I think about it Children's Brittanica is the one I refer to most....we also have The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Animal Life
17. Who are the authors in your family tree and what have they written? Zip...
18. Who is your favourite author? Barbara Pym is pretty neat but I'm going for Elizabeth Gaskell....
19. Where do you buy books? see answer to question 14
20. Can you nominate a must-read fiction title? So hard to pin down just one...George Eliot seemed to have a great impact on me....but I also loved loved loved Elizabeth Gaskell most recently...
21. How many books are in your personal library? Hmm too many to count...we're up to 3,000 on Librarything but I'd say a conservative estimate would be more like 6,000.
22. What is your dictionary of choice?  Well of course I'd like the OED but we've got Robert's old Concise and well chewed Oxford which does us very well.
23. Where do your read? In bed, but that can be fatal...everywhere really...living room...while cooking tea...on the train....
24. What was your favourite childhood book?  It's awful but I can't remember the title of it...but from memory it seemed to feature donkeys (Charlotte stop laughting...it's most unseemly) and was Russian from memory...failing that, Beatrix Potter..The Tale of Two Bad Mice is a firm favourite....here are some very important quotes..."They would not come off the plates, but they were extremely beautiful."   A dieter's dream!
    
    "-all so convenient!"
    
    "Then Tom Thumb lost his temper." - said with great emphasis.....
    
    followed swiftly by...
    
    "Then there was no end to the rage and disappointment....." sounds like my house....
    
    and to top it all off....
    
    "Jane leant against the kitchen dresser and smiled...." as all dolls do....
25. Do you have anything else to say about books and reading? A bit like the old Nike ad...Just Do It!

ReadaThing

Here's a bad photo of me kicking off the ReadaThing at Avid Reader in West End yesterday.  That's what happens when you have to take a photo of yourself, by yourself, with your mobile phone - all the time worrying that the people sitting beside you think this is the most overblown case of narcissim they have ever witnessed - either that or sheer insanity!!  Ah - the things we do for social networking....

I chose to read The Passage by Justin Cronin - a futuristic vampire tale - which is a monster of a book at over 700 pages!!

And what a monster of an election!!  There will be a few pollies with sore heads this week I imagine.  Except for Bob Brown of course.  That smile won't come off his face for a while :)  A Greenslide indeed.

I've never seen such long queues outside polling booths .....and Bel voted for the first time bless her!

New culinary territory was explored in honour of the marginal election dinner party hosted for John and Julie - lamb, harissa and chickpea casserole....I've never used harissa paste before and it was a bit tricky to track down.....I should probably make my own in future instead of paying outlandish prices at the local wonderful but expensive gourmet deli. 

The upside down apple tartin was a big hit too with lashings of whipped cream.  There's nothing like baked apple to make you feel loved.  Quick! Give some to poor Maxine....

First Batch

These won't help the diet at all of course but I just had to make them....Basic Ingredients direct marketing worked a treat and I couldn't resist the 2k offer. 

I'll just keep practising until I get them right.  They've sunk a bit so I guess that means I need more yeast.

A big week what with the launch of Grand Purl Baa's book and all.

Here's the window display at Avid Reader last night.

Here's a sunset from my car window the night before when I was doing a pracise run via West End.

I know these aren't fabulous photos - they're taken with my mobile phone....

And this is the pedestrian bridge from the restaurant at GoMA last night...

I think the bridge looks best at night.... it looks like a cat's cradle...it was designed by Michael Rayner.... and is called the Kurilpa Bridge.  Kurilpa is the original name for the West End area and was a neutral meeting place for Aboriginal tribes.  Kurilpa means place of water rats.  We were very well fed water rats last night dining at the GoMA restaurant.  Afterwards we were entertained, nay moved, by the melodious and beautiful voice of Kamahl who sang all sorts of songs from the 70s that I had completely forgotten.  It's hard to say which song I enjoyed the most....he sang All I Have to Offer You (Is Me), Wind Beneath My Wings, The Sounds of Goodbye, The Elephant Song, Ol' Man River, The Way we Were and some more but I can't remember and finished with My Way.  Fabulous stuff.  Thank you Kamahl!!!