Saturday, May 16, 2009

The Fastest Book Club in the West.

My friend Britt (it's her 33rd birthday today, Happy Birthday Britt-Marie!) is an avid reader, like myself. She introduced me to the Twilight series of books by Stephanie Meyer and we are now both currently obsessed with them, and have both also purchased the DVD of the movie. Britt reads heaps and recently her workmate Alice and herself decided to act on a conversation we'd had and start a book club.

I've been reading since I was in primary school and Mum used to buy me an edition of Enid Blyton every Thursday when she did her food shopping. Amelia Jane the Naughtiest Girl in the School, The Magic Faraway Tree, The Famous Five, and so on. I still have all these books, I wouldn't get rid of them for the world. They represent my escape as a child into a place that I could read over and over and over. Not that I needed to escape from my childhood; I just grew up in Hedland and it was too hot to do anything else but sit inside and read!
I remember going to the library in my lunch break in primary school and spending the whole time perusing the books to read. In the end, having decided there were too many to choose from, I started at A and read my way through the whole alphabet of the library!

When I lived in Perth I had my Enid Blyton books on display in my dining room, but alas, they've been packed away in boxes for over 4 years now. I'm really hoping, and it looks to be true, that Cassidy will inherit my love of books. I hope both the girls do because I think being well read is a great enhancement to an education. I'm the sort of person who knows a little about everything and I believe I am like that due to reading books. And magazines. And blogs. And also being obsessed with 4 Corners but that's another story.

At the moment Cassidy has about 50 or 60 books in her room, from Disney editions of Cinderella to the Green Sheep, Paddington Bear to Little Golden Books. Do you know there are Golden Books you can buy that are the same ones we had when we were kids? Like, 35 years ago? Fantastic! I love that they haven't changed. Shane and I get a real blast from reading the same books we used to have. Well, for the first 5 reads maybe. Unfortunately, Cassidy also has a terrible habit of ripping out pages of some of them as well, much to my disgust. Books are to be revered. Treated well. Don't bend the corners over. Don't break the spines. Don't get them dirty or eat around them.
Years ago I was given a copy of 'The Stand' by Stephen King from an ex-boyfriend. I hadn't been able to find this book anywhere so I was overjoyed and proceeded to read it immediately. Then, said ex-boyfriend borrowed the book and took it to work. At BHP. And returned it covered in iron ore. I was so effing ropable at him, a fantastic book, one of the best books ever written, and he didn't even take the care to look after it. What a crime.

To my extreme pleasure, I have recently reread all my Jane Austen books and this has lead to a desire for old style literature, such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte and one of my favourites, Wilkie Collins. And 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee is easily one of the best books I have ever read. When I was younger I used to be a real horror nut and I still collect and enjoy Stephen King books. But it's a shame I missed out on discovering beautiful authors, like Nicholas Evans who wrote 'The Horse Whisperer' and the Australian author Tim Winton, at a younger age. Then I would have had more time to read them all!
Incidentally, I am not a fan of old movies but one night ABC were showing the old black and white verson of To Kill A Mockingbird with Gregory Peck. It was just beautiful, a lovely, well-made captivating movie and I really enjoyed how true to the book it was.


So we are reading 'Jasper Jones' by the Australian author Craig Silvey and so far, it is great. He reminds me a lot of Tim Winton; his storytelling is very aussie. The kids sniff and say 'roit' and one boy is obsessed with cricket. We are meeting next weekend to have our first book club meeting so I have until then to read it and have enough time left over to lend it to Joanne to read too. I am very excited about this and hopefully we will actually discuss the book a little rather than just get straight into talking about our lives and getting distracted.
Britt has already mentioned she'd like to make the next book a Jane Austen one. Which is perfect as I'll then be 'forced' to read her again. Oh the difficulties of my life! TTFN.

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