Ireadthereforeiam: Thread VI

It's new thread time!



Artist: Zaho Kailin

JULY BOOKS
39. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada 568p (tally 9,798p)
40. The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier 180p (tally 9,978p)
41. Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. 259p (tally 10,237p)

AUGUST BOOKS
42. Awful Auntie by David Walliams (read aloud to W) 416p (tally 10,653p)
43. Free to Learn by Peter Gray NF 237p (tally 10,890p)
44. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes 167p (tally 11,057p)
45. Plumb by Maurice Gee 272p (tally 11,329p)

SEPTEMBER
46. Fiordland by Andris Apse (intro 14p) (tally 11,343p) NF
47. Love Story by Erich Segal 127p (tally 11,470p)
48. The History of the World in 10.5 Chapters by Julian Barnes
49. Stig of the Dump by Clive King (read aloud to W) 244p
50. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 327p

OCTOBER
51. Indignation by Phillip Roth 234p
52. The Interrelationship of Leisure and Play by John Stebbins 173p NF
53. Ratburger by David Walliams (read aloud to W) 316p

NOVEMBER
54. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter 350p
55. The Happiness Industry by William Davies NF
56. The Women's Room by Marilyn French (532p)
57. The Wellness Syndrome by Carl Cederstrom NF (135p)

JANUARY BOOKS
1. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Booker Prize 1996) 324p
2. Pincher Martin by William Golding. 230p (tally 554p)
3. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (Booker Prize 1992) 302p (tally 856p)
4. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Pulitzer Prize 1993) 249p (tally 1,105p)
5. Daphne du Maurier: A Daughter's Memoir by Flavia Leng 234p (tally 1,339p)
6. Five go Adventuring Again by Enid Blyton (read aloud to Wilbur) 190p (tally 1,529p)
7. The Maples Stories: Everyman's Pocket Classics by John Updike 255p (1,784p)
8. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 261p (tally 2,045p) From Bowie's top 100
9. The Circle by Dave Eggers 491p (tally 2,536p)

FEBRUARY BOOKS
10. Plato for Beginners by Robert Cavalier NF 153p (tally 2,589p)
11. The Property by Rutu Modan (GN) 222p (tally 2,811p)
12. Science on Stage by Stephen Hilgartner NF 150p (tally 2,961p)
13. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 336p (tally 3,297p)
14. So, You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson NF 282p (tally 3,579p)
15. That Eye, the Sky by Tim Winton 150p (tally 3,729p)
16. Wrinkles by Paco Roca (GN) 102p (tally 3,831p)
17. Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 111p (tally 3,942p)

MARCH BOOKS
18. Chocky by John Wyndham 151p (tally 4,093p)
19. Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding DNF (read 169/386p, tally 4,262p)
20. The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphries 184p (tally 4,446p)
21. Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson 175p (tally 4,621p)
22. Science, non-science and pseudo-science: Bacon, Popper, Lakatos, Kuhn, and Feyerabend on defining science by Max Charlesworth NF 46p (tally 4,667p)
23. Climate Change Denial by Haydn Washington and John Cook NF 163p (tally 4,830p)
24. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters 548p (tally 5,378p)

APRIL BOOKS
25. Small Steps by Louis Sacher 256p (tally 5,634p)
26. The Sailor who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima 143p (tally 5,777p)
27. Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan 215p (tally 5,992p)
28. Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope NF 299p (tally 6,291p)
29. Science A History by John Gribbin NF DNF (read 347/600+p, tally 6,638p)

MAY BOOKS
30. What is This Thing Called Science by Alan Chalmers NF 170p (tally 6,808p)
31. The Iron Man by Ted Hughes 134p (tally 6,942p)
32. The Bird Artist by Howard Norman 304p (tally 7,246p)
33. The Five people you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 196p (tally 7,442p)
34. The Philosophy of Science: An Introduction by Kent Staley NF 297p (tally 7,739p)

JUNE BOOKS
35. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 536p (tally 8,275p)
36. Not my Father's Son by Alan Cumming 295p (tally 8,570p)
37. The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower 350p (tally 8,920p)
38: White Noise byDon DeLillo 310p (tally 9,230p)

BOOKS ACQUIRED
1. Daphne du Maurier: A Daughter's memoir by Flavia Leng $1
2. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel (second hand, first edition!) $5
3. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (new) $16
4. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton (thoughtful gift from Nittnut)
5. Infidelities by Kirsty Gunn (new) $2
6. The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Menfetsu
7. To Save Everything, Click Here by Evgeny Morozov CURRENTLY READING
8. Liberty in the Age of Terror by AC Grayling
9. Freedom Next Time by John Pilger (4 in a row all gifts from roundballnz)
10. Anthills of the Savannah by Chinua Achebe $4
11. Jernigan by David Gates $23 (new)
12. The Iron Woman by Ted Hughes $15 (new)
13. The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom $3
14. Neuromancer by William Gibson (free from Uni book swap)
15. A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin $6.67 (new)
16. Great Jones Street by Don DeLillo $6.67 (new)
17. The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don DeLillo $6.67 (new)
18. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagirhara $15 (new)
19. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys $2
20. The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpenter (gift from Jenn/Nittnut)
21. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles $2
22. The War of the Worlds by H G Wells $2
23. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by by Ayana Mathis $2
24. Everland by Rebecca Hunt $2
25. The Women's Room by Marilyn French $10

26. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin ($25 new)
27. The Vegetarian by Han Kang ($23 new, with the above, a $30 discount applied, so really $9 each)
28. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane ($6 new)
29. A Beautiful Young Wife by Tommy Wieringa ($24 but free for me with birthday voucher!)
30. Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler ($24 but free for me, as above) CURRENTLY READING
31. A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White ($25 but free for me, as above)
32. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter ($14 new!)
33. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis ($1)
34. The Gathering by Anne Enright ($3)
35. Light Years by James Salter ($3)
36. The River Between Us by Richard Peck ($3)
37. The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman ($2)

MOVIES TOO
1. The Force Awakens (date 3/1)
2. The Chipmunks III: Something about a road 'chip' (5/1)
3. The Force Awakens (again!) (8/1)
4. Zootopia (29/4)
5. Florence Foster Jenkins (8/5)
6. Finding Dory
7. Poi E (28/7)
8. Neruda (NZIFF)
9. The Secret Lives of Pets (18/9)
10. The Hunting Ground (23/9) (doco)
11. My Scientology Movie (6/11) (doco)

DAVID BOWIE'S TOP 100
Reading one of these a month, I hope! So far me and Berly are going strong.
Struck are the ones that I have read, bold are ones I want to read....soon. Suggestions welcome!

January As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
February In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
March Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
April The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
May The Bird Artist by Howard Norman
June White Noise by Don DeLillo (reread)
July Last Exit To Brooklyn By Hubert Selby, Jr.
August Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
September Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
October Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
November Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler

Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse
Room At The Top by John Braine
On Having No Head by Douglass Harding
Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
City Of Night by John Rechy
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Iliad by Homer
Tadanori Yokoo by Tadanori Yokoo
Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin
Inside The Whale And Other Essays by George Orwell
Mr. Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art by James A. Hall
David Bomberg by Richard Cork
Blast by Wyndham Lewis
Passing by Nella Larson
Beyond The Brillo Box by Arthur C. Danto
The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
In Bluebeard’s Castle by George Steiner
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd
The Divided Self by R. D. Laing
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Infants Of The Spring by Wallace Thurman
The Quest For Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Puckoon by Spike Milligan
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Waste Land by T.S. Elliot
McTeague by Frank Norris
Money by Martin Amis - SEPTEMBER???
The Outsider by Colin Wilson
Strange People by Frank Edwards
English Journey by J.B. Priestley
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West
1984 by George Orwell
The Life And Times Of Little Richard by Charles White
Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock by Nik Cohn
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus
Beano (comic, ’50s)
Raw (comic, ’80s)
Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom by Peter Guralnick
Silence: Lectures And Writing by John Cage
Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley
The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll by Charlie Gillete
Octobriana And The Russian Underground by Peter Sadecky
The Street by Ann Petry
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn
The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
Metropolitan Life by Fran Lebowitz
The Coast Of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
The Bridge by Hart Crane
All The Emperor’s Horses by David Kidd
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
Tales Of Beatnik Glory by Ed Saunders
Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music by Gerri Hirshey
Before The Deluge by Otto Friedrich
Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia
The American Way Of Death by Jessica Mitford
Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Teenage by Jon Savage
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Viz (comic, early ’80s)
Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)
Selected Poems by Frank O’Hara
The Trial Of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler
Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Transcendental Magic, Its Doctrine and Ritual by Eliphas Lévi
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Leopard by Giusseppe Di Lampedusa
Inferno by Dante Alighieri
A Grave For A Dolphin by Alberto Denti di Pirajno
The Insult by Rupert Thomson
In Between The Sheets by Ian McEwan
A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
Journey Into The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg

CURRENTLY READING

Flaubert's Parrot (for Bowie's top 100 group read)
Plumb by Maurice Gee
To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by Evgeny Morozov
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein

ALSO THIS UNIVERSITY READING

Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga
The Interrelationship of Leisure and Play by Robert Stebbins
How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims



Plus the following sample of readings that I used as examples for my recent mind mapping assessment.

Bjorklund, D. F., & Pellegrini, A. D. (2000). Child development and evolutionary psychology. Child Development, 71(6), 1687-1708.
Carter, B. (2012). Childrens well-being: Priorities and considerations. Journal of Child Health Care, 16(2), 107. doi:10.1177/1367493512451061
Coakley, J. (2006). The good father: Parental expectations and youth sports. Leisure Studies, 25(2), 153-163. doi:10.1080/02614360500467735
Coakley, J. (2009). Sports and children Sports in society: Issues and controversies in Australia and New Zealand (pp. 125-158). Australia: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd.
Craig, L., Powell, A., & Smyth, C. (2014). Towards intensive parenting? Changes in the composition and determinants of mothers' and fathers' time with children 1992–2006. The British journal of sociology, 65(3), 555-579. doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12035
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across life's domains. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 49(1), 14. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0708-5591.49.1.14
Eime, R. M., Young, J. A., Harvey, J. T., Charity, M. J., & Payne, W. R. (2013). A systematic review of the psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for children and adolescents: Informing development of a conceptual model of health through sporT. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (IJBNPA), 10(98), 1. doi:10.1186/1479-5868-10-98
Ginsburg, K. R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, 119(1), 182-191. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-2953
Gleave, J., & Cole-Hamilton, I. (2012). A literature review on the effects of a lack of play on children’s lives. Retrieved from http://www.btha.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/AWORLDWITHOUTPLAY-a-literature-...: http://www.btha.co.uk/CDCBE68B-49FC-428F-BACB-B650B976305C/FinalDownload/Downloa...
Green, F. J. (2015). Re-conceptualising motherhood: Reaching back to move forward. Journal of Family Studies, 21(3), 196-207. doi:10.1080/13229400.2015.1086666
Henderson, A., Harmon, S., & Newman, H. (2016). The Price Mothers Pay, Even When They Are Not Buying It: Mental Health Consequences of Idealized Motherhood. Sex Roles, 74(11-12), 512-526. doi:10.1007/s11199-015-0534-5
Huizinger, J. (1971). Homo ludens: A study of the play element in culture. Massachusetts: Beacon Press.
Kremer-Sadlik, T., & Gutierrez, K. (2013). Homework and recreation. In E. Ochs & T. Kremer-Sadlik (Eds.), Fast-forward family: Home, work, and relationships in middle-class America (pp. 130-150). California: University of California Press.
Neely, K. C., & Holt, N. L. (2014). Parents' perspectives on the benefits of sport participation for young children. Sport Psychologist, 28(3), 255-268. doi:10.1123/tsp.2013-0094
Pellegrini, A. D. (2009). Research and policy on children’s play. Child Development Perspectives, 3(2), 131-136. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2009.00092.x
Sayer, L. C., Bianchi, S. M., & Robinson, J. P. (2004). Are parents investing less in children? Trends in mothers’ and fathers’ time with children. American Journal of Sociology, 110(1), 1-43. doi:10.1086/386270
Schiffrin, H. H., Godfrey, H., Liss, M., & Erchull, M. J. (2015). Intensive parenting: Does it have the desired impact on child outcomes? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(8), 2322-2331. doi:10.1007/s10826-014-0035-0
Slutzky, C. B., & Simpkins, S. D. (2009). The link between children's sport participation and self-esteem: Exploring the mediating role of sport self-concept. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 10(3), 381-389.
Stebbins, R. A. (2015). The interrelationship of leisure and play. United Kingdom: Palgrave MacMillan.
Tremblay, M. S., Gray, C., Babcock, S., Barnes, J., Bradstreet, C. C., Carr, D., Collyer, C. (2015). Position statement on active outdoor play. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(6), 6475-6505. doi:10.3390/ijerph120606475
Weisner, T. S. (1998). Human development, child well-being, and the cultural project of development. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1998(80), 69-85. doi:10.1002/cd.23219988006
Wiersma, L. D., & Fifer, A. M. (2008). "The schedule has been tough but we think it's worth it": The joys, challenges, and recommendations of youth sport parents. Journal of Leisure Research, 40(4), 505. doi:201205228

OK. Now, this thread is good to go!
Yesterday I begged off uni work early to go home and sleep. It worked wonders, and now I am revved up to go and write some words. Wish me luck!!

Happy New Thread, Megan! I like that topper. I have missed seeing you around.

I plan on reading Flaubert's Parrot very soon.

Yay! My favourite firstie!
I used to 'sit' on chairs like that as a kid. Maybe I'll try it again!? It's like a headstand in yoga but without the effort.

I am only here to start my new thread...what I am *actually* (supposed to be) doing is writing my essay. You know the drill ;)

Hi there, Megan! The best thing about a new thread is I can be magically all caught up now, hurray! ;)

Happy new one, Megan!

Hi Megan! Happy new thread.

>11 Ape: >12 Crazymamie: >13 karenmarie: Hey, thanks!
Y'all come back now, y'hear? Stephen, it might not be such a novelty for you to be caught up, I expect to be hard core essay writing these next few weeks so might not be about much.

LOVE the topper, Megan! It's perfect ... and just how I feel tonight after working today, LOL.

Happy new thread, Megan.

I hope you can speed up a bit to make it to 75 this year as you normally do. Of course if you counted all your reading for studies you would have passed the number long ago, I would hazard.

Megan--Happy New Thread!! Love the topper. Not sure I would look that pretty in the same pose. LOL.

Slowly working my way through Flaubert's Parrot and I am really enjoying the wildly different chapters. : ) We should start thinking about our August read...!

Good luck with the writing Megan. Happy new thread.

>15 lit_chick: there is something very free about the image, I reckon. Plus, I like that it looks like her house is being painted and she is just flopping down any old way after a days work

>16 PaulCranswick: I would love to count all my university readings, but they are often just a few chapters from a book, or a few (hundred) research articles. When the readings were bound in a class book I counted it, as Stasia says...if its between a cover, it's a book!

>17 Berly: I was JUST thinking about next months Bowie read. I am LOVING the monthly challenge, and just so you know: I am now reading the second book in my edition of Flauberts Parrot...the one I spoiler alerted the fact that I would never.....I am so contrary ;)

>18 charl08: the writing was not prolific. :(
But I did come home and get some dinner prepared in advance of the onslaught of the children. So all was not lost

>17 Berly: How about the Anthony Burgess book from Bowie's list for next month? Earthly Powers. Or, Madame Bovary perhaps!? I'll admit to being intrigued now :)

Happy new thread, Megan!

Congrats on the new thread, Megan!

>1 LovingLit: "Like"

I loved Earthly Powers way back when.

Happy new thread Megan and I love the thread topper photo, sending love and hugs.

Happy new thread, Ace!

Book "haul"!!

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles $2 (Penguuin Modern Classic edition, silver spine)
The War of the Worlds by H G Wells $2 (Boston Globe Family Classic edition, hardcover)

Ironically, I was looking for a bookcase when I went into the second hand shop :)

Ooh, good work with the penguin classics!

Happy New Thread, Megan! Your current reads look interesting. It seems that Flaubert's Parrot has been on several "currently reading" lists.

>25 LovingLit: Of course you had to come away with books.

Happy Thursday!

>27 EBT1002: Which I now know is a Bowie thing. I shoulda known. :-D

>26 charl08: You know I know that you love the Penguins too :)

>27 EBT1002: >29 EBT1002: Bowie strikes again! This month's selection has had good buy-in from the LT community.

>28 karenmarie: Yup. Had to. I only ever buy books in good condition (unless I am desperate!), so was happy enough to add those two to my collection. I have been relatively restrained so far this year with books, so felt justified.

Throwback Thursday!! (it's still Thursday in the US, right?) This is me and a flatmate having a sack (rubbish bag) race at our old flat, circa 1996??!! Whoever scanned it has left a whole lotta space at the bottom end!

You look good in a rubbish bag, Megan. Grins...

I started Flaubert's Parrot. I have not read Madame Bovary or any Flaubert but I like it, plus it is an easier read than Last Exit. Another grin...

>32 msf59: Mark, you silver tongued devil! He's right though!

>32 msf59: lol, I actually went to a friends "dirty 30" themed birthday party as a bag of rubbish. I think they wanted it to be a sexy dirty rather than rubbish dirty....but it was fun to "subvert the brief"!!

>33 PaulCranswick: lol (again) we were racing so hard. Both of us really wanted to win, and I can't even remember who did win now!
That flat was great, the odd time I came home from a night out to find my brother sleeping in the shed. He never has got around to announcing his arrival in advance!

Eta: Auto-correct devils are at it again!

Hallooo! Happy new thread a while ago. :)

>31 LovingLit: That's definitely lol material.

>30 LovingLit: I'm glad one of us has been restrained this year! (I've acquired 175 books and culled 96. Yeesh.)

>31 LovingLit: Fun pic.

Happy Sunday!

Happy new thread, Megan.

>35 The_Hibernator: we are lolling while we are jumping!

>36 karenmarie: well, it takes just one moderate buyer to make up for all you excessive buyers! Who am I kidding, if I had the $$ and the shelving, I'd be all over those book shops!

>37 Ameise1: thanks B!

I finished Plumb, a book by a NZ legend, Maurice Gee. And now I find it is the first in a trilogy, so have to seek out two more before I can put this one to bed properly ;)

It is about a scholar and man of the cloth in 1920s NZ. Well, slightly before that, and up until his death as an old man. A wonderful life and times story, with some spectacularly observed moments, and clever "what the??" moments when you are forced to reconsider his self-described actions from someone else's point of view. A beautifully written meander through life. I gave it 4-stars.

>39 LovingLit: Hi Megan! Sigh. I've added Plumb to my wishlist. It sounds wonderful.

Hi Megan! Love the trash race photo. LOL. I am up for a re-read of Madame Bovary next month for our Bowie selection. Yes? No? : )

>40 karenmarie: it was a meandering read but a very pleasant and thoughtful journey. I'm glad you will be trying it!

>41 Berly: Sounds great, a companion read. I'm sure the library has a copy, and I will try to track it down. Ye olde, and French nonetheless! *feeling swanky*

Happy newish thread! Plumb sounds interesting. It's going on the wishlist!

>39 LovingLit: Sounds like fun Megan. Will have to see if I can get hold of a copy.

Ooh, an orange penguin!

>43 cbl_tn: woohoo, another hit. I hope you enjoy Plumb. He is a very conservative guy, yet for the times and his profession, very non-conservative. Interesting.

>44 charl08: woohoo, orange Penguins are the best* kind ;)

*of course, by best, I mean second best, after the modern classic Penguins ;)

The jury is in.

Bowie's top 100 group read wil be Madame Bovary, of course in honour of having just read Flaubert's Parrot in August. I will set up a thread tomorrow, if you can't wait that long to discuss- feel free to start here ;)

Oh, and....mini book haul! Real finds as practically new :)

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by by Ayana Mathis $2 Everland by Rebecca Hunt $2

Oh! I have Madame Bovary on the shelves, so I'm in, although I do have to finish reading Flaubert's Parrot first.

Nice haul - you always find great bargains, Megan!

BOOK 46
Fiordland by Andris Apse

Last night I had the pleasure of reading, yes- reading, this photography book. As some of you know, my dad is a photographer, and he had the advance copy of his latest book to show me. He has written a long essay in the front to mark this, the final photography book he will produce. So once the kidlets were in be I settled in to read it. Of course for me it was wonderful to read his personal thoughts on why this part of NZ is so special to him. (He's not normally one to gush over anything....so when you get an inkling of a heart-felt story you shut up and listen- or read in this case.) And I was very impressed! He's a self-confessed non-writer, and I know he agonised over the text. I think it paid off. You get some cool anecdotes wound in amongst stories of why the glory of this wild and remote place appeals so much to him. And after I read it I was privy to some of the stories of him camping out that didn't make it to the text. (I can see why, some of them were pretty wild...think about the combination of hunters/fishermen/helicopter pilots and whiskey and you'll get the drift.)
So, that's my two cents, with full disclosure.

>48 Crazymamie: whoppee, we have a trio at least.
I haven't read so many of the classics, it's about time I started. I'm just about to set up a thread.

Gorgeous cover. Forgive my ignorance - will it be available outside New Zealand?

>51 charl08: Anyone can order it from his website, but there would be a postal fee to add. I'd say as far as booksellers go, it would largely be a NZ affair.
I have only been there once, a few years ago with a friend. It is utterly spectacular and we were luck enough to catch a good weather period so got to enjoy it to its fullest. I'll see if I can dig up a photo of my own to show you just how good dad's are.... ;)

>49 LovingLit: What a special legacy you have!

>53 cbl_tn: I know. It is pretty cool. And he dedicated the book to his grandchildren, of course including my two boys! Dad will give me a copy (he usually does with his new books) but I am going to buy another copy and put them both away for when the boys are old enough to appreciate how special that is.

And, the Madame Bovary thread is up.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/231253

Join one join all for September's Bowie read!!

Hi, Megan! Hooray for your father! Looks like another beautiful edition. LOVE that cover. You must be proud.

Since, I have never read Madam Bovary and I was inspired after reading Flaubert's Parrot, I might just join you guys. Let's see if I can drum up a copy.

>56 msf59: Yes, very proud. And silly proud at my kidlets making the dedication list in on the front page :)
Yay for Bovary. In searching for quotes I came across one that said something like: never mind about the Housewives of *insert major urban centre here*, try reading this! I thought that sounded fun.

Hi Megan, happy new thread to you.

>49 LovingLit: Super cool! It is just beautiful.

Hope you're all OK after your earthquake. Was it nearby?

I'm glad I've read Madame Bovary because I haven't been inspired to read Flaubert's Parrot yet. These challenges are killing me…but I can't stop trying to play with the big kids! If the cover of your father's book is any indication, there must be some fabulous photographs inside. I've loved everything you've posted by him. Why will this be his last book? Maybe he has different projects in mind…

Oh no, not another earthquake. I know you are used to them, but we still worry about you, Megan!

>58 AMQS: the earthquake was miles and miles away, so I didn't feel it. And as it was off the east coast, and deep(er) than any of ours, it would have felt rolly rather than jolly, I'd imagine.

>59 Donna828: see above message too! No issue here with the earthquake.
Dad is trying his best to retire so he can spend more time fishing and hunting animals rather than images! He is 73 this month, so it is high time no took some time for himself....that was all in explanation of why this will be his last book :)

Glad you missed the earthquake.

Thanks for clarifying about the book. Having watched an amazing nature programme about NZ I'm tempted to find more. Any penguins (?!!)
Love the dedication story too. Really sweet.

>61 charl08: there are penguins in NZ, in the Fiordland book? I don't think there are!? There are some albatross though....if they will do ;)

>49 LovingLit: That is so cool, Megan! And what a gorgeous cover. How lovely that your boys are on the dedication page.

Hoping that your week is full of fabulous!

Nope, albatross won't do it. Gratuitous penguin required.

>63 Crazymamie: hi Mamie! The weekend was full and fun. My university hosts an international night where you pay the money and get to eat all the world's food!!! It was so so so delicious. I gorged on a Cambodian salad which had tonnes of green chilis in it. Oh, and prawns too. *grin* Also, we had a Father's Day brunch at my sister place and then a visit to a friends farm where the boys were bey $10 they couldn't catch a sheep (they couldn't, by boy did W try!). Also rugby league end of year prize giving, W came away with the coach's merit award (he was so nervous going up in front of 200-odd people!). So yeah, not bad!

>64 charl08: Aw cute penguins :) I would definitely slow for penguins. Maybe even stop :)

I'm nearly done with A History of the World in 10.5 Chapters by Julian Barnes, which I had firm intentions not to read. But when I had a peek, I was drawn into it :) (the best reads are sometimes the least expected ones!)
Then it is going to have to be a hastily read Madame Bovary. Time is a ticking on my essay due date too, and presentation, and 25 essays to mark...all of which occur in the disastrously-times school holidays. Yikes.

>49 LovingLit: Fiordland looks rather special - I must agree that once you visit it does get it in your soul & you find yourself constantly returning for your Fiordland fix

>65 LovingLit: That sounds like a great event! We are going to Canada today and planning to have Japanese food for lunch. It will be the first time in at least a year and a half for me.

>67 roundballnz: hi Alex. The irony is that it is already very popular with fly-in-fly-out tourists, and that talk of a mono rail connecting tourists more quickly to Milford Sound might only be the beginning in terms of maximising the tourist dollar.

>68 ursula: I love how that sentence is so international all of its self! Here in NZ of course, going to another country is a big deal, it requires a cruise ship or international flight!
I trust you have settled in well?

>49 LovingLit: That is drop dead stunning! And I love your comments and your candor about the experience of reading your dad's work. Just wonderful. If I see this book in any bookshop, I will pick it up and look at it. I might even purchase it. :-)

I have had A History of the World in 10.5 Chapters on the TBR shelves for a while. What's your verdict? Should I read it?

>69 LovingLit: Right? "What did you do today?" "Oh, I went to Canada for a couple of hours." Everywhere else I've ever lived it would be a big deal to go to another country too, except Belgium I guess. We went to France on a day trip from there.

It's weird, they ask you where you're from and what you're doing at the border crossing into Canada, but coming back they give you the third degree. He wanted the windows rolled down so he could get a good look at my husband and me in the back seat, he wanted to know what kind of jobs everyone had in the US, what we bought in Canada (and when the driver said "no fruits, no peppers..." (stuff that you're not allowed to bring back) the guy said "Okay but what did you buy?"), all kinds of things.

We are settling in pretty well, yeah. Still need so much for the house but we're getting into the rhythm of doing normal things like knowing where to shop, finding a good place to eat, etc.

>69 LovingLit: Definitely not a fan of the proposed mono rail .... I hope it dies yet again

I've been to Canada for a couple of hours. I think I spent longer trying to get back into the US than I actually spent in Canada. They didn't like the fact that I crossed the border and crossed back over in a couple hours so they had to search all my stuff. Made an adventure out of Canada, anyway.

>70 EBT1002: verdict: it is fizzing out at the end. I have got many wow moments from it, but as an overall reading experience, I am not exactly raving. This is not to say that it isn't good, or even very good. However, I am thinking of down-grading Flaubert's Parrot, based on my reflection on the way both books are written in connected-short-story style.
Re: Fiordland, he has spent over 500 tent-nights there. It is the rainiest, most remote and most sandfly-riddled place in NZ. I think you should buy the book just for that ;)

>71 ursula: haha, the old border guards a bit jumpy huh? Last time I went to the US (like it happens so often!!?) was in 2000 when I had a 5 hour stopover in Chicago. I was stamped in on a visitor visa without a second glance, took a bus to the city and wandered around, and then bused back and got on with my flight to Mexico City. Yes, it was pre-9/11, but I'd say my innocuous NZ passport helped. My friend's Somalian boyfriend (circa 1999) wasn't allowed to leave London for a 5 night trip to the US because they considered him a flight-risk.

>72 roundballnz: I think it will, it's a pretty tough call to justify it in my book. But then again, I am not reading the same book as those who stand to make millions off tourists!

>73 The_Hibernator: that reminds me of trying to get an extension on my working holiday visa in the UK, I heard that the ferry immigration crew were a lot more accommodating than the airport ones, so I popped to France, and got stamped back in by a friendly officer who shared a conversation with me about cricket!
Cricket, uniting the colonies and the motherland all over again;)
Maybe that part of the world is lax, as I wasn't even required to have my passport when I went from UK to Ireland. Again, a ferry. They just waved me through. I must have looked like a dizzy back-packer, which was in fact what I was.

500 tent nights definitely sounds worthy of some kind of award!

I do love the cover of your dad's book. Does he have to do a lot of mountain climbing to get that kind of perspective?

>75 charl08: that particular photo was shot from a helicopter, but generally he does a lot of walking the hills, yes. Although now he is nearly 73....he's dialed that particular aspect of photography down a bit.

Bah. Sandflys sound bad.

But 500 tent nights sound(s) good!

I haven't yet read Flaubert's Parrot, either. I so loved Arthur & George, I want all his other works to be that good.

>77 EBT1002: I loved The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, which was the only other one of his I had read til recently. No pressure Julian! We want them all to be perfect please ;)

>78 LovingLit: Doesn't seem like too much to ask, really, does it?

>79 EBT1002: well, when you have won the Booker and been Booker-nominated, it's the least I can expect ;)

>49 LovingLit: Hooray! And nice to dedicate it to his grandkidlets. Very cool.

>51 charl08: I would check Amazon. I have found a couple of his photography books there, and perhaps this new one will turn up as well.

>58 AMQS: We felt the earthquake in Kapiti. Very rolly, and longer than usual. The kids slept through it. Then my husband got up and looked up the website to see where it was. And woke up the kids.

>77 EBT1002: Sandflies are horrible. The "fly in the ointment" of New Zealand paradise. See what I did there?

>78 LovingLit: LOL

>81 nittnut: hi there international Betty! (I know your name is not Betty, it was my attempt at humor). I hope you are settling in OK, and have tracked your older son down, now that you are in the same country.

>82 kidzdoc: I know you expect quality too, Darryl. Don't try and deny you like a well-written book ;)

Lenny loves his reading, so far ;)


And Wilbur (on left) is more of a hands-on man :)

Happy weekend!

^thanks! So far so good...sunny and warm today. Tomorrow was going to be birthday fishing trip for Wilby, but the weather is supposed to pack it in, so it might be birthday movie date instead :)

Hi, Megan. Looks like I have been AWOL over here. Bad Mark?

Wow, Lenny is really growing up. Does Wilber read too?

I am enjoying Madam Bovary in the early going. Smoother prose than I expected.

As promised (threatened?) here is an image of my mind map. I had trouble converting the file from a pdf to a jpg file, so have just plonked the whole thing here from a word doc. You get the idea from it anyway.
The black & white image is the bones and the coloured overlay was where the ideas were fleshed out a bit more. It was well received, and actually made me think differently about my project, so was a great exercise.

>87 msf59: bad Mark? Na, bad Megan! Too....slow...writing...my....essay...not...enough...LT...time...

Lenny is a Trojan these days, he wrestles, runs, yells, and is generally a little-boy-powerhouse of testosterone. And he was my easy one!!! Wilbur doesn't like reading at all. In spite of my high hopes after the penny dropped that he himself could read books, he quickly gave up. I still read to him (of course! Currently its Stig of the Dump) and I hope that he will at least not hate it so much one day.
Madame Bov is a lovely read. I am a little confused through section to though, the characters are melding.

Megan, try out some audiobooks with Wilbur, the Andy Griffiths 'Just' series is really hilarious for disenchanted readers, has lots of sound effects and such like.
http://www.andygriffiths.com.au/books/
Paul Jennings has some story collections that are pretty fun reads.

>90 avatiakh: thanks for that, but I fear that my tech situation wont allow for audiobooks listening, do they come in tapes anymore??! I actually found a cassette at the op shop of one of Wilburs fave story books from when he was little. It was fun putting it on and hearing those beeps that sounded at the very beginning of the tape! What memories.

Christchurch libraries have them as downloadable audiobooks. Do you have an iPod, use the borrowbox app on your mobile or listen to them on the laptop?
https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/search?&t=smart&search_category=k...

Lenny the Trojan! A real boy's boy! I love it!

>92 avatiakh: lol, don't have and iPod, don't have a phone that can do apps, and the laptop is a 150 year-old relic. I'll see if the download works for the ancient iPad.
One day I will graduate to technology, but for now I am happy with our 50c videos from the dump shop, and our music on CD :)

>93 msf59: He's all about running and noising. ;)
But, weirdly, that comes with an interest in writing, he has been 'practicing' his writing often since starting school. He appears to enjoy it, so that is nice.

>49 LovingLit: How cool to read a book by your Dad?! And I LOVE the front cover. Very cool that your boys made the dedication page. Wow.

Congrats to W for the coach's merit award! Very cool. And I laughed about the boys trying to catch a sheep.

Love the pictures of the boys.

I actually left a comment on the Madame Bovary thread--wonders never cease!! : )

Hi Megan, Oh I am doing the countdown to OUR birthday, yes we share the same day! But you are a spring chicken! So a few more sleeps to go!

Hope Stig is going well. Loved that one.

Hey there, Megan. Where are you? I am back and you are gone! No fair. ; )

I have a thought for the next Bowie read. In honor of the very-popular-here Halloween October theme, how about a strange one, like Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter? It is on the "1001 books you must read before you die" list. What do you think?

>95 Berly: >98 Berly: hi Kim! I am here, sort of! I was away with the kids for the last three/four days and now I have a week to prepare for my presentation, and to mark 22 essays. Oh- And it's school holidays.
I am still getting along Wth Madame Bovary though, and am into part III now. I hope to finish it before Friday....but probably won't. And yes for your October pick from Bowie's list. I will try to track it down.

>96 mdoris: hey birthday buddy! Spring chicken huh? Tell that to my body, it is in "manufacture wrinkles" mode, and "make noises when you get up from chairs" mode ;)
Two more sleeps for me til I'm 41!!!

>97 charl08: we finished Stig of the Dump last night. It was pretty good, actually. I can see why it would draw boys in. All the adventure and action of exploring and stuff. I think W liked it, and now he can't it for us to start Ratburger by David Walliams.

School holidays are upon us! In true fighting spirit I have packed our schedules with mini getaways, and "outs" for myself by way of work....for which my lovely other must take time off his work. so far so good.

We spent three nights on the West Coast (5 hours drive away) for my dads birthday.....the drive was a dream as me and my sister drove in convoy and swapped the kids around to keep things fresh. The best drive I have had with kids ever! (did I mention the school holidays when I stopped the car less than half way home from a 6 hour drive and cried in the cafe because I couldnt stand the kids fighting for one more minute? Probably not, it's not really a bragging point!)

Next week we have two nights in Kaikoura (3 hours drive north) with another family. I am looking forward to that one as I will have done my presentation by then, and hopefully have marked all the essays too. Woohoo!

Good luck with all that marking! Impressed you're still reading Bovary amidst everything else you've got going on. A big win on that car journey, too.

>100 LovingLit: That's a luxury for a car trip, trading off like that, and something I probably still wouldn't have thought of! I can understand stopping and crying before - constant arguing is so stressful when you have lots of other things on your mind and you're all supposed to be having FUN, dammit! :)

Hi, Megan! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed your road trip, and I hope that your upcoming trip and birthday are equally nice.

Hi, Megan.

I'm with you on loving Sense of an Ending, and with Ellen on loving Arthur & George. Sounds like I may have liked Flaubert's Parrot more than you did. Barnes is so clever. I'm sorry to hear that History of the World in 10.5 Chapters fizzled for you (I haven't read it yet). I'm also looking forward to reading his new one, The Noise of Time.

>101 charl08: I have to read in bed at the end of the day. I read til my eyes close, and then I put my book down and if in luck fall asleep immediately. If my lovely other pesters me for conversation (or whatever) once my light is out, he is out of luck ;)

>102 ursula: I know! Seriously, when they were babies they cried hours at a time in the car, and now they fight. Every time I see my friends kids asleep on car journeys (on Facebook) I almost die of jealousy. She has three boys, and apparently they do nothing but sleep on long trips!

>103 kidzdoc: thanks Darryl. I take my successes where I can! And a 5 hour drive with my kids not attacking each other is a real success :)
Tomorrow is my birthday! I'm excited as we are *paying for a babysitter* (for the first time ever) and going out to a local restaurant for a beer.

>104 jnwelch: The History of the World in 10.5 Chapters wasn't exactly a fizzer for me, I did enjoy the clever writing and the way the stories were threaded together. I just got a little "mind-wandery" which tells me the plot wasn't holding my attention ;)
I just finished Stig of the Dump with W, and that was a fun read. Now we are reading his Star Wars book illustrated with original drawings used for the set designs etc (*covet covet!!*). It's lovely.

>83 LovingLit: International Betty is homesick for NZ. Shhh. Don't tell.

>105 LovingLit: Don't be too jealous of your friend - she is probably dosing her kids to make them sleep and not telling. *grin*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

>106 nittnut: aw, really? All those cool places you look to be visiting....maybe we can do a week-long life swap? I can get some travel and you can get some NZ :)
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
I got Patti Smith's latest book, about travel and coffee and music and art. Hello? I think I'm in heaven :)

A birthday? And you got a book? Nice work...

M--A joyful ride with kids--nicely done!! Good luck juggling everything until you get to the next getaway. And yay! for the next Bowie read. I'll make the thread this time so you have less on your list. ; ) I am not wishing you Happy Birthday until the actual day. ; P

New Bowie Thread Here!! Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

http://www.librarything.com/topic/233811

Hi Megan, I haven't been around the threads for a while so I am making up for lost time. Hope all is well with you and the family my dear. Sending love and hugs from the Northern Hemisphere.

>108 charl08: yes, it was a hit :) I can't wait to start reading it.

>109 Berly: >110 Berly: >112 Berly:
It was my birthday yesterday for me and today for you, so you are on time as well as being belated. He he, funny. Anyway I grabbed a sleep in this morning, the day afte my birthday as I had one owing. And I needed to finish Madame Bovary, which I did! Yippeeee

>111 johnsimpson: hi there JS! Nice to see you round these parts :)

Happy Birthday, birthday buddy. Hope you had a fantastic and wonderful day and that got spoiled rotten! Gorgeous day here in British Columbia. I'm 68 today! Yikes. So 41, you are a spring chicken. And not wrinkles but happy tracks......

>110 Berly: just ordered it on book Depo. The only two copies out library system has are in storage, so would cost $3 to be transferred. Thought I'd buy it instead!

>114 mdoris: happy birthday to you :) My oldest friend (the one I have had for the longest, that is...) shares my birthday too. She turned 40 yesterday, and had a BBQ for her own birthday, and her sons 3rd, and because they are moving house soon. We went today and it was a lovely day for here and us!

Hope you had a great birthday!

Rats. I missed your birthday! Hope it was happy!

Happy belated birthday, Megan!

I'll add my belated birthday wishes, Megan. Hope it was a grand one!

>116 The_Hibernator: >117 EBT1002: >118 katiekrug: >119 jnwelch:
Thanks everyone!
My birthday was pretty good. Me and the kids had the day off together, and had frozen yoghurt with friends, and then sushi. I got the newest Patti Smith book, plus two others and a generous voucher. Yippee. I have yet to even contemplate spending it yet, as am just about to head into my presentation. Durn nerves!!!!
*chants to self "I will be fine. I will be fine"*

I was fine, I was fine!
There is no way I could have failed the presentation, and I hope I did well. But the main thing is that it is over. Phew.

In other news, after finishing Madame Bovary which I quite liked, btw, and then finding myself between books....(I tried continuing on with the 'intellectual joyride' that is To Save Everything Click Here but it was too tough going)...I picked up Indignation by Philip Roth. This book has been on my bedside table for a year? More? I read 1/3 of it the first night, 1/3 last night, half of the last 1/3 this morning from 5:00am when was awake from. So I am durn near finishing the thing in 3 days. Go me!
Is my reading mojo back?

Megan - I found an old VHS of Badjelly the witch which I'm happy to send to you if you want it. I was going through an old desk looking for an adaptor and the tape turned up instead.

Well done on the presentation - and the reading mojo. I've never had any luck with Roth - maybe I should pick up this one?!

Way to go, you! I look forward to your thoughts about Indignation.

A belated happy birthday, Megan.

I enjoyed reading your thoughts on your Dad's book. The present you made me of his earlier book which combined his majestic photography with your family history remains one of the most effecting gifts I have every received. xx

>122 avatiakh: thanks so much for the offer! We have had the DVD out from the library a few times though, so it might be a wasted postal on your part. Funny the things we find when looking for other things!

>123 charl08: I've liked both Roth books I have read. Indignation is a short one, so might be a good one to start with. I skipped reading it last night and hope to finish it tonight.

>124 kidzdoc: I may very well have some thoughs on it soon, as don't have much left of it to read.
I loved the other of his I read, which I may have to edit in the title of as i can't remember it. (Eta: it was The Human Stain) The plot was so clever....the ultimate conflict!
Don't read the following if youstill want to read it! A university professor, who has denied his Africa American-ness on account of being 'pale enough' to pass as white, is accused of racism by referring to two students who he had never even met by a term which wasn't even intended to be in reference to their race. On so many levels it is a conundrum!

>125 PaulCranswick: hi Paul, thanks for visiting. I am on/off lately what with working, and uni work, and school holidays. Tomorrow we are heading away for a couple of nights with two of my oldest bestest friends :) That will be nice. We are off to Kaikoura, and I stumbled across a beer sale today so have 12 bottles of interesting and all different craft beers for us all to taste. Yum!

---//---//---//---

I didn't ace my presentation, and although I got an A-, I am disappointed. Mainly because I scored at the lowest end of the grade and because this was the lowest mark I have had for any presentation so far. I don't feel like this was the worst one I have done at all- maybe the other's were just grading high, but I feel quite gutted. I will just have to get over it and get on with writing a better essay, which is worth 65% of the final grade.

I also missed your birthday over here, Megan, due to my various travels. Hugs to my pal.

^hi Mark.
Birthday good ;)
Friends son asked me why I had so much chocolate in our car on holiday....I said I got a lot of chocolate for my birthday. He expressed hreat surprise that i had had a birthday recently, and asked how old I was. When I said, he simply stated "wow, thats old". Ha!

Back from our mini break! It was fun. The place was luxurious!!!! All the stuff in it was *new*. And me and my lovely other got to sleep in the master bedroom, wherein the bed was so wide that the whole family could fit in it. Which we all did :|
Walked on beach, saw baby seals *collective aaaaaw* playing in a waterfally lake, ate drank and were generally merry.

>126 LovingLit: An A is an A when all is said and done. xx

We loved Kaikoura and stayed there three nights on our trip. Wonderful lobster and the visits on the boat for the whales and the dolphins. I also remember a brilliant though fairly arduous walk to a waterfall there where we saw plenty of those seals.

Have a great remainder of your weekend.

Hi! Just getting caught up. :) Your mini break sounds lovely. Hope your weekend is relaxing.

Just finished watching season 1 of "800 Words". I loved it and NZ is so beautiful. A vist to New Zealand is on the list for next year.

All caught up here! Belated birthday wishes. I'm glad you had such an enjoyable family getaway!

>130 PaulCranswick: I know, Paul. I think I am concentrating too much on collecting good grades instead of embracing the learning process. (or whatever...!!!)
I have decided (again) that next year I won't go on to Masters. I won't even apply for the scholarship as the full time schedule isn't compatible with my life. I will look for 20 hours work per week instead. As this is the third time I have flip flopped from yay to nay, there may yet be further news on this matter, but I'm feeling fairly confident that this is it.

>131 nittnut: last day of school holidays here. Phew. Now I have 9:15-2:30, Monday - Friday to get my essay finished and handed in. For good! And that may be it for me and academia.
But I do have my little bridging job at the university library to take me to December, that will be a nice fade-out for my time there.

>132 mdoris: is 800 words the series where the Australian writer moves to NZ after his marriage breaks up? I think I recall it, bush and beach scenery? Very nice. I look forward to you making it here yourself!! Make sure you remember the South Island! It's waaaaay better here ;)

>133 cbl_tn: I find a good break, and by that I mean one that actually is a break and doesn't just end up being chaos in another location with a higher price-tag, can be really refreshing. However, it's back to the grind now. Must find the kids school uniforms and hats, term 4 means hats every day or 'play in the shade'!

Currently reading:

Amongst Women by John McGahern. In a fit of peak I grabbed it over and above my birthday dream-read M Train by Patti Smith which, for some reason, I had placed out of my line of sight.
Also, I am awaiting the arrival of Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter, my October Bowie read.

>134 LovingLit: I hope you find a decision about the academics that you feel happy about. Taking a year off maybe? Does the uni offer a part time postgrad option? Distance learning? Sounds like you've got a lot on and you're still getting all those As, really impressive.

(And on a completely different note : do the boys wear the hats? I see so many kids here fighting them).

Hi Megan, coming by for some NZ weather as we approach our dark and cold season, groan.

I did the same thing in university, Megan: I think I am concentrating too much on collecting good grades instead of embracing the learning process.

Yes "800 Words" is the one you describe only it is not divorce but death of his wife which it the reason for change. I believe you folks can view the full season 2 but the world is big and it will be ages before it is available to us. Woe is me!

>136 charl08: if I got the scholarship I was going to apply for, it is for full time study. Which equates to 30 hours per week. Every second that the kids are at school.....school holidays would be time to make up.
The kids do wear the hats as it is policed, and those who don't are asked to move and play under the shade cloths which shelter a small section of the paved play area. It works well. They have 'hats hats hats' drilled into them from pre school, so it's pretty normal.

>137 lit_chick: we had warmish light skies tsmorning and capitalised on it by going to the mega Margaret Mahy playground in the city. It has water play, huge slides, climbing nets...all sorts. And it's free! When it started bucketing down there was a mass exodus!

Re: uni. I was loving it initially, and I don't necessarily mind not excelling. It is something about expectations, I think. I know they expect lots from me and I have this warped sense that I am letting someone down by not wowing them. It's tiring.

>138 mdoris: oh, poor you :)
You will have to read and read and read to pass the time until the next series makes it your way. A win win!

Your mini break sounds fabulous, Megan! I'm glad that you and your family had such a nice time.

Megan, it sounds like your mind is made up to end your academic career. You are young (to me) and may change your mind later. I got my Master's when I was about your age and am very happy that I did. The pull of university is very strong for me. I may sign up for another class to audit in the spring semester. I am ready for my fourth go-round in the classroom!

Belated Happy Birthday. I think it is so cool that you and Mary are birthday twins!

>121 LovingLit: "Is my reading mojo back?" I hope so!

Re: uni. I absolutely focused more on grades than on learning when I was in school and now I wish I could go back and approach it differently. But that is hard when it feels like your future rests on "good grades." I went straight through (U.S. system) -- undergrad, masters along the way to the doctorate -- and I seriously thought about stopping after the masters was complete. I'm glad I stuck with it because it has opened doors that would not otherwise have been opened for me, and there is the real point I want to make. Driving toward a degree is something to do if it will enable you to do something you want to do. Otherwise, I think it can feel like a tedious and fruitless struggle. You love learning and that will always be yours. Earning a degree is something you get to decide about: whether it is worth is, whether it will create desirable pathways for your professional life, whether you want to do it.

Okay, now I'm going to contradict myself. Like Donna, I loved school and I sometimes think I'd like to go back and study something that is not tied to professional goals (history and literature, most notably). But, for me, the pull to school is more abstract than real. I don't want to write papers, take exams, and do presentations in front of my classmates. I do want to read, learn, and engage in lively intellectual discussions with equally passionate people. I think there are ways to find that outside the formal classroom setting (but it's not always easy).

In any case, there is no right answer or correct decision. There is just your answer. Your decision. And your faith in yourself that, whatever you decide, plenty of paths to happiness remain open for you.

By the Lake (aka That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern is one of my all-time favorite novels. How is Amongst Women?

>141 Donna828: >142 EBT1002: all the helping/not helping! You are making me want to not have already made my decision ;)
Seriously, thank you for your comments, it is good to have a big picture. I still have not committed to anything, so will keep on keeping on deciding.
I do feel like the schedule would be tough. It is essentially 3 x the workload I have been doing. Although, there could be some relief considering I have done a lot of the prep work this semester....

>140 kidzdoc: a luxurious break indeed. And fantastic for the kids to have company (so less of a need to fight each other!)

Cushla posted on Fb a list of ten books that influenced her, I saw one that was discounted and snapped it up. The Women's Room. *mine, aaaaall miiiiine!!!*
Couldn't help it. Started reading it. Loving it. That is all.

The Women's Room by Marilyn French
$10
New today :)

Hi Megan, It looks like you have a busy time.
I wish you a wonderful week.

>146 Ameise1: thanks B :)
I am handing in my essay imminently. Just polishing the flow a little, and wrapping it up with a nifty ending. I am looking forward to going off to Wellington this weekend with my mum, sister and brother. For my mum's 70th birthday :)

In the interest of more helping/not helping, let me say this: I wholly believe there are many paths to happiness. They don't all go through uni. (I tell my students this all the time!!) What is most important is trusting yourself and listening to what feels right. You're clearly not making an impulsive decision and, given that, whatever decision you make is one that (I believe) will work out well for you.

:-)

>148 EBT1002: lol, one thing I am definitely not doing is being impulsive. I'm not known for that :)
One thing I definitely am, is easily-led. I shall adopt a finely-tuned critical mind and assess all information objectively. Sound good? Ha ha. I am still 90% committed to not being a student next year.

>147 LovingLit: Good look with the polishing, Megan and have fun with your family party. My best wishes for your mum.

>150 Ameise1: I finished it today, properly. So I will sit on it tonight, reread it again tomorrow and then hand it in.
Yeeeeha, my final university assessment. Done. For ever (potentially).

>151 LovingLit: Congrats! Well done, lady.

And from me too. Sounds like a good cause for a celebration!

Way to go, Megan!

>151 LovingLit: Yay!

>152 Ameise1: >153 charl08: >154 jnwelch: >155 FAMeulstee:
Thanks everyone :)
I just emailed it through now. It was so hard to press *send*. In my experience, the moment you press send, you realise there were at least two things that you ought to have done differently.
(watch this space for a happy dance)

Oh my eyes, my eyes...

Eeeeek!

>157 charl08: >158 nittnut: Hey, a happy dance is a happy dance, however scantily clad ;)

>156 LovingLit: I hope that the body hair cut into that perfect "T" isn't real.

Have a great weekend, Megan. xx

My eyes my eyes they cannot unsee that sight .......

Wishing you a great weekend, Megan.

>156 LovingLit: LOL

Oh my giddy aunt, so much news.

Books first:
This weekend I went to Wellington, more specifically to Unity Books in Wellington where I had a 29.50 voucher to cash in. Got two books:

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin ($25 new)
The Vegetarian by Han Kang ($23 new)

Also in Wellington, I got The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane ($6 new), from the Te Papa (the national museum) bookshop.

Before that, just after i had handed in my essay), I had used my birthday voucher in my own city to get 3x new books:

A Beautiful Young Wife by Tommy Wieringa ($24 but free for me!) (translated from Dutch)
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler ($24 but free for me!) (originally published 1940, translated from French- I presume)
A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White ($25 but free for me!) (originally published 1982)

University second:
My essay is already marked. I had figured out in advance that if I got an A for the paper, I would get an A for the course. And I did! I got an A!!! I feel more relieved than elated, which tells me I have my priorities wrong, but there you go.
This is the last of my course work and the end of that era, no matter how I decide to go forward. Coming away with straight A's is in my mind a miracle. It is barely believable, and I am really proud that all my hard work paid off.

Work third:
I had my first day today of a part time casual role at the university as a careers person. Specifically, i am developing a set of resources for students to refer to (bu subject, rather than course) when looking into future employment. So, I am researching the types of roles that students from whatever programme end up in, and trying to push the point (insofar as that is appropriate) that transferrable skills are important, so that students don't feel limited.

I have work until Christmas so am set up for the year. Oh, and today is my mum's birthday, AND my sister got confirmation that she is eligible for bunion operations (just like i had already) under the publicly funded system.
What a great day!

>160 PaulCranswick: I would say that body hair is de ideally fake. I can't wait til W and L are old enou to see Wayne's World, it is so funny. Presently? They would take the choicest phrases and run with them *inappropriate*

>161 roundballnz: hey, come on! Its a true and admirable expression of joy. Or something ;)

>162 Ameise1: thanks! It was a fab weekend. Dinner out, lunch out, brunch out. Much walking around the city, art galleries, books shops, a concert of Tsaikovsky music (have I spelled that correctly?), and hanging with my mum and siblings.
Very good, and a great segue from sudy to work.

>164 LovingLit: Lets go with the or something ..... IMO if we could purge the world's memory of Austin powers & Rhys Darby the world would be a better place :)

Great book haul .... new directions for the new year exciting ( whatever they will be) !!!!

>165 roundballnz: yes, Rhys Darby. All good in the films and that, but the comedy I just don't get. Is it cultural cringe, or just cringe?
Nevertheless, go him. I wich him all the best.

Oh, and I nearly forgot! my Bowie book for this month arrived today, finally. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter, thanks to Book Depo, $14.
Yeeeee ha!

>163 LovingLit: Coming away with straight A's is in my mind a miracle.
Congrats on the miracle, Megan! ;-)

Sounds like you have had a lovely time.

Have you seen the new penguins with the animal drawings? Swoon.

Oh, and definitely fake. Sean Connery p-take.

>168 FAMeulstee: :) :) :)
Thanks!!

>169 charl08: Swoon indeed, any pretty publisher series has me hooked. I'm a sucker that way.

Hi Megan. Just checking in. Hooray for straight A's. You are quite amazing.

I hope everything else is going well.

Congrats on grabbing a copy of A Manual For Cleaning Women. I am a huge fan of that book and also have a "keeper" copy on shelf. Look forward to your thoughts on it.

>171 msf59: hi Mark!
Of course I thought of you when I purchased A Manual for Cleaning Women. You and your international warbling ;)

Ha! Another plug for A Manual for Cleaning Women, Megan. It really is great. Mark's warbling has local as well as international effect. :-)

>173 jnwelch: someone give the man a book to review! if he likes it, we'll all be buying it!!! (*hint hint*)

If I (we, whatever...) get married, this is the stationery I'd be pushing for!!!! I made one similar for my 40th birthday invitation, but this is excellent :)

>175 LovingLit: COOL!!!

Love that. Importantly, what would the cake look like?! :-)

>163 LovingLit: What great news!

>175 LovingLit: If you did get married would we have to send you penguins as a wedding present?!

Have a splendid weekend Megan reading some of that haul of books you have added in the last few days.

>175 LovingLit: excellent invitation choice!! :)

couldn't resist and I love how they are all swimming....

>149 LovingLit: "I am still 90% committed to not being a student next year." Excellent.

>175 LovingLit: Love it.

>176 scaifea: it is cool, it might be just me, but there seem to so many cool penguin design items out there. Maybe it's the Internet, durn Internet ;)

>177 charl08: I knew you'd like it! The cake would possibly be cheese. So, not penguin related. But I bet there are a zillion interesting penguin wedding cake designs on pinterest!

>178 Ameise1: thanks B! It was great news :). :). :)

>179 PaulCranswick: my reading time has been hard fought and won this weekend, Paul. And its a long weekend here, too! Yesterday I managed an hour in the morning as stayed at a friends place with W in tow (part of our 'divide and conquer' parenting method), so we he was distracted by the hosts, I read in bed :)

>180 ChelleBearss: let me be clear, we arent actually getting married ;)
We decided ages ago not to take that particular path. I actually have quite a few friends who have decided the same, interesting. I wonder if its a generate thing, as a lot of people younger than me seem to be right in to big weddings.

>181 mdoris: aaah, the hypothetical wedding cake ;)
#notactuallygettingmarried
;)

>182 EBT1002: I can revise that to 99% now! (committed to not studying next year)
I have all my (2) meetings next week about that....I was thinking I'd still be on the fence when I made the times, and I think they will all be too late to persuade me now. But it will make a good time to farewell my mentors :(

99% is pretty much a done deal, I'd say. I hope it feels good to be thinking about spending next year not as a student!

>184 LovingLit: I think that's one of those things that changed as common law couples began to have the same rights as married couples. (In Canada, anyway, not sure about the rest of the world) Sometimes not being married actually helps keeps the relationship strong. I read an article recently where Goldie Hawn said that if she and Kurt Russell had gotten married they would have long divorced instead of being together as long as they have!

Hope the meetings are good goodbyes Megan. (Maybe it's just my current obsession, but might they be able to help with good connections for jobs?)

I feel that cake deserves some kind of event based excuse. Could you have a not-wedding party? Featuring cake? And possibly gifts?
(I better leave. I fear my acquisitive nature is showing...)

>185 EBT1002: it is a freeing feeling, to not already be gearing up for study next year.
Meeting one yesterday went well, and I wonder if I might just apply for the scholarship, seeing as I can defer it for up to a year. That way I can take 6 months off before starting, or decline it if I see fit....
So, that 99% sure comment may have been somewhat overstated ;)

But....there is talk of reworking my last essay and putting it forward for publication.
O
M
G
How cool would that be? Of course, the chances are it would not be accepted, but my two supervisors are keen to help me change it up to a more suitable format. And they know I am non-committal about next year, so I didn't have to pretend otherwise to get this moving.

>186 ChelleBearss: that is so interesting about Goldie Hawn and her not husband. I feel similarly- if I don't feel trapped, I generally go a longer distance. It's weird, when I swim laps, if I tell myself that I have to swim 1,000m sometimes I bail out, but if I tell myself I can stop whenever I want, I almost always swim the whole kilometre. The old 'swimming long distances as a marriage analogy'!
Not that marriage should feel like a trap, but you know :)

>187 charl08: I already have a couple of good contacts from my teachers. I have contacted one of them for work next year, and he is supposedly keen, but as he works on contracts the work is at short notice, and the last two offers I have had I haven't been able to take them on as have had other offers.

All sounds great Megan. Congratulations again on finishing - and the publishing is brilliant news.

Our daughter #1 (we have 4!) is just finishing a M.A. in Library Science and is being wooed to do a PhD. Yikes and she has her plate full with 3 little kids and is like you trying to figure out what should she/or shouldn't do. It's a toughie.

And loving the marriage/trapped talk.
My favourite is a cartoon where wife turns to husband and says "over the long haul, IT"S a loooooooong haul!". I get it!

Big congrats on the putting your paper forward for publishing. Awesome.

>188 LovingLit: but sometimes it can feel that way too. Depending on the people. I think whatever makes you both happy is what you should do! :)

>189 charl08: even having the opportunity raised is awesome, and I have little expectation of it coming to fruition, but if I'm not in- I cant win, right?

>190 mdoris: they like to woo people, I have found. :)
It does make it hard to be objective about the decision- it is easy to be seduced by their enthusiasm.

>191 ChelleBearss: I think whatever makes you both happy is what you should do
What a great mantra! I am all for that, but with the caveat added: so long as you're not hurting anybody. Which we don't plan to. *phew*

Reading as fast as I can to finish Nights at the Circus for Bowie's October read. I am nearly half way, so am possible not going to make it. Boo hoo.
Also half way through The Women's Room by Marilyn French, and wish I had more time to read. (heard that before, anyone??) Double boo hoo
;)

>193 LovingLit: I just finished Nights at the Circus a couple of days ago. I coincidentally read it because I've been seeing what 1001 Books are available at the library, and I haven't gotten very far down the alphabetical list searching yet. :)

>163 LovingLit: FINALLY taking a much needed break from kids and house hunting and dropping by to drool over your book haul. Nice choices! Also a big congrats on the A and a High Five for being done with course work. I think the feeling of relief is totally appropriate.

>164 LovingLit: I pretty much hated Wayne's World. With the exception of the scene in the car with the licorice dispenser and Queen. I may have mentioned after the trip, but we found on our South Island Road Trip that we were re-enacting the sing-along to Bohemian Rhapsody and All The Kids Knew Every Word. Parenting Win? Parenting Fail? Hard to say. Too bad we don't have a licorice dispenser though.

>188 LovingLit: Oooh! Publication! Super exciting. Keep us posted! *grin* Of course you will.

>194 ursula: a coincidental Bowie's top 100 read!? Cool! What did you think? I am troubled by the fantastical elements...no surprises there :)

>195 nittnut: hi Jenn! You'll be pleased to hear that my mum loved her personalised Eleanor Catton book ;)
I don't even remember the licourice dispenser from Wayne's World! I do remember the sha-WING though. I think the Bohemian Rhapsody redo was great parenting, btw.
And. Yes. I will keep you posted on the process of potential publication of my writing. Although, don't hold your breath...it is apparently a long process.

Just catching up here. Congrats on the straight A's and good luck finalizing your academic decision for next year...whichever way you go! If not married works for you, then that's what counts. Although I think you should find some way to use the Penguin invites. Maybe your birthday party next year? Valentine's Day? LOL

>196 LovingLit: Oh hooray! So glad your mum liked the book. :) Per the publication, I'll be around, not holding my breath, but still eagerly interested. *grin*

>197 Berly: as an undergrad I got one A-, and the rest were a variety of B's (plus that one pesky E which we won't mention). So any A was/is a big deal for me. And post -grad ones? Even better! I'm still in disbelief tha the thing I didn't even dare to hope for came true. All A's. So cool.
Ok, I'll stop going on about myself now!
I used a Penguin-style invite for my 40th invitation last year, so I might be overdoing it with one next year.
Next year, being my 42nd, may have to be a 21st redo! A 21st x2! The first one was a little...not-classy. My parents had just broken up, so I invited neither of them to make it fair...and it ended up being a free for all party party, I wouldn't mind a do over for that one!

>198 nittnut: which reminds me, I must start working on the abstract, and thinking about my section! Exciting. Now I just have to figure out how I will fit that stuff in....
:)
Ps I lasted all of 12 seconds before spilling the beans on the Catton dedication. Mum loved that I was so....clever/ economic/ efficient(?) with my gift. I also gave her a woollen scarf, so it wasn't all thriftiness!

Love the cards maybe hold off till the 50 which everyone seems to think shd be a big one ....

Be interested to see which door you open for next year ... Our gut instincts are often the best voice to listen to

>163 LovingLit: A Big Yay for all A's, Megan! It is a great feeling when you work hard and get rewarded for it. Belated Happy Birthday to your mother. I hit the Big 7-0 next year! *sigh*

Congratulations on all the new book acquisitions.

>200 roundballnz: who am I kidding, I never was any good at being the host of a party. I'd rather just attend them!

>201 Donna828: so you're the big 6-9 right now! Enjoy your last months of your 60s! I have figured out now that "old" is simply ten years older than whatever you are right now :)
Works for me!

>202 LovingLit: we are opposites there attending parties/events is torture for me ..... I wonder if that 10years gap decreases as you get older??? only one way to find out - live well but longer!

Happy Halloween!

Hope the house-hunting is going well for you. Someone had an inspector looking at the house next door a couple of weeks ago, and someone just moved in it yesterday and today. I haven't been able to tell if it was the same guy who was looking to buy or if it might be renters. I'm hoping it is a buyer. There's a much better chance I'll have a good neighbor if that's the case.

>203 roundballnz: I don't love parties, but would way rather go to one than host one. At least you can leave if it's somewhere else!

>204 The_Hibernator: thanks! Not much happens here in that regard, we actually attended the Diwali Festival of Lights instead last night. And are not gearing up for Guy Fawks this weekend, a very British 'celebration' of the death of an insurgent many years ago. Aren't cultural histories fascinating!?

>205 thornton37814: hm, do you have me confused with someone else!? I don't think I am moving (will have to ask my lovely other and check!!).
We have renters on either side of us and can say they are both wonderful! I hope you get a goodie.

>206 LovingLit: I guess I wasn't looking. I saw "nittnut's" comment and didn't realize it wasn't her thread. I guess I was tired.

Hi Megan, just doing the rounds as I have been a bit neglectful of late. Hope all is well with you and the family my dear and that you are having some nice weather. It is now very autumnal here and just starting to get chilly at night time. Sending love and hugs my dear.

BOOK 54
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (350p)

Well, Bowie may have gone too far for me this time. He certainly wa an eclectic reader, and part of the appeal of his top 100 list is that fact, but this one is just too out there for me. In spite of some marvellous sentences, I found the descriptions just too complex and jammed with adjectives. The story I found too fantastical- more my problem with suspension of disbelief than the story itself, I suppose- and this made it hard for me to enjoy the journey.
Magical realism and me just don't get along!


Eta: yet this passage referring to the turn of the 20th century is so gorgeous! Maybe an extra half star for it alone ;)

Unbeknownst to the lovers, midnight, that movable feast, rolled over the taiga at that moment, disturbing nothing in its passage in spite of the era it was dragging in its wake.

>207 thornton37814: phew, I'm glad I'm not moving.
Nittnut was recently a kiwi, so it's understandable to confuse us! ;)

>208 johnsimpson: greetings JS. I held hopes of getting back into LT more next year, but if I go on to do Masters, there will be a chance that I will be even less visible here!

*mutters to self* Must stop talking about house hunting on other people's threads... must stop talking about

>211 nittnut: hehe, you can talk all you like! About houses, about books, about kids, about sinkholes....

>209 LovingLit: Yeah I am pretty much with you on that one, Megan. It went straight over my head.

Have a great weekend.

Popping in to say hello. Hello!

>214 London_StJ: hi back! I was just on your thread talking school stuff :) Hey, how is your youngest baby? Ours were pretty much birthday buddies, weren't they?!

>215 LovingLit: July 2011, yeah? Doc is a total trip. This afternoon:
Doc: Mommy, may I make an art installation with paint? Please?
Me: I don't know if we have any paint...
Doc: You have spray paint! I'll be way more careful this time.
(Last time = Doc picking up the can of spray paint as soon as I turn my back - despite warnings - and spraying his own neck/face. I found him scrubbing anxiously in the bathroom, worrying, "Oh no! It's not coming off! I can't let my brothers see me like this!")

He started kindergarten this year, so I finally have all three in school at the same time (which makes the degree path just a wee bit easier).

How's your pair?

>216 London_StJ: hehe, sounds about right (re: 5 year-old antics)
Mine appears to have discovered toddler-rage a few years late. He gets infuriated when things don't turn out how he wants/likes/thinks it should. He is at school now though (they start at aged 5 here), so this might explain his fury- he holds it together all day at school and then releases his anger at home :|
Big brother is looking very sensible now in comparison :)

>217 LovingLit: My bookends went through rage stages around five (also when they start school here), and leveled out after six; middle child has been smooth sailing. Second grade was a breeze, but my oldest is in the third-grade and nearly-nine-years stage of know-everythingness. We have daily conversations that start with, "Year, dear, I know x - it's older than I am."

Hi, Megan! Just checking in with my pal. Hope you had a good weekend. Sorry, your Carter did not work out. Glad I skipped that Bowie read.

>218 London_StJ: if my remembering is correct, both kids had a rage-stage at about 3 years old. Just at the exact moment we were congratulating ourselves on getting through the terrible twos, and it was 3-nager territory!

>219 msf59: this months Bowie might be Darkness at Noon, mainly in the absence of any other from his list on my shelf :)

"...there is talk of reworking my last essay and putting it forward for publication." AWESOME

>220 LovingLit: Yes! Exactly! Three was so much worse than two...

>222 London_StJ: crap! I have been hearing that three tends to be worse than two, and at our house two has been filled with tantrums when she gets frustrated ... I can only imagine what three will bring then@

>221 EBT1002: I know!!!
The draft abstract for it is looking very different to what I wrote....we will see how this goes :)

>222 London_StJ: it came as a shock to me. I was all... "woohoo! We nailed the terrible twos!!". And then there were the unforeseen threes....

>223 ChelleBearss: who knows Celle, Chloe may simply be advanced! The threes may be a relaxed and calm affair!!? There's always hope ;)

Well, I'm in shock about the US presidential election. Utterly in shock.
To me this marks a turning point in world history, and not a good one.

Saw this on Mark's thread, and on Darryl's facebook feed. Seems highly appropriate right now.

Yup. We will get through this. But it's going to be messy.

>225 LovingLit: Let's see what the US election brings all of us. Not as pessimistic as you are as I think he'll be brought to heel quickly enough.

Have a great weekend.

Hi Megan, you are not alone in being in shock at the American election result, we both feel the same and worry for our American friends and what it may mean for the rest of us as we no doubt will also feel some effects if he carries out some of his threats. Sending love and hugs my dear.

>227 jnwelch: I hope this will come off ok, I really do.

>228 PaulCranswick: who will rein him in though? Won't he just place his yes-people where he needs them and get going?

>229 johnsimpson: I think this is a wake up call about how this type of situation arises. Hopefully other nations can avoid such divisive politics, and think more about us all.

Hi Megan. Just now hearing reports of a quake near you and wanted to check in to make sure you're OK.

HI Megan - me too. Very strong up here in Wellington, and I know you'll have had it worse. My shoes are by the bed because of your advice! Take care and hope all is ok.

Even felt this one in Auckland, our light fittings were swaying.

Hi Megan, I've heard about it too. How is it with you?

Another person checking in to make sure you're ok following the quake and now tsunami. Really hope you're all safe.

Hope you're OK Megan.

Megan, I hope you're OK. Thank goodness it was in the middle of the night and people weren't out and about.

Heard about the quake! Hope all is well!

Thinking of you and family. Hope you're all okay!

Hi everyone, thanks so much for dropping by to check on me :)
Just after midnight there was a loooong rocking and rolling earthquake, centred about 100 kms north of where I live. It was 7.5 magnitude and me and my lovely other were awake from 12:05am (when it hit) until about 3:00am.
No damage to my place....I was walking about the house while everything was moving and rattling (including the walls), but very few things fell off shelves etc. (only a couple of books). The kids unbelievabley didn't wake up. My sister evacuated her place seeing as she is close to the coast, and there was a tsunami warning, and said he kids were screaming in fear :(
Will be a long day today, I think.

>232 cushlareads: looks like wellingtonians have got the brunt of it this time, Cushla.Kaikoura, as well :(
No school for you or yours today then? Still not sure about my lot.

I already had the day off work today to attend an appointment right across town.....and was going to do a few hours from home as well. Will see about that now though.

>240 LovingLit: Glad to see you're ok, Megan. I heard that Kaikoura is expecting a Tsunami. Yikes I love that place and pray it will be ok.

Another one glad to read you're ok, and that the kids slept through. Hope your sister is somewhere reasonable for the duration?

So glad to hear you're OK!

ditto

Whew.

Thanks for the report, Megan. Glad you and your family are safe. Hugs to my pal.

Hi Megan, so sorry that the island has suffered another high magnitude quake, so glad you and the family are all ok and I hope all New Zealanders are ok from the quake and the expected tsunami. Sending love and hugs to you and the family.

Thanks you guys!
I guess it's international news then? Kaikoura- where we went for a family holiday just a few weeks back- has been badly hit, it seems. It is cut off, no surprises there really seeing as it is nestled between two mountain ranges and the ocean, but also there is little or no telecommunication available. Apparently they are helicoptering in search and rescue staff, and medical teams.

It turns out I was awake til 4am, not 3 as I said, because I received a text from my sister at 4am, and was still awake then. She had decamped to our mum's place with her husband and my niece and nephew (away from the epicentre, but more importantly away from the coastline). Apparently little mister 7 year old wasn't screaming in fear at all during the quake....he thought it quite exciting to be up so late and going on a midnight mission in the car to Nana's ;) His big sis actually remembers the quakes 5 years ago, so she was more concerned.

Anyway, I had my priorities right and did a u-turn on the way to my medical appointment across town- having forgotten my book- and as expected had 30 minutes of reading in the waiting room to relax and pacify me after the dramatic morning. My hip check up was supposed to be every 2 years, but I had fallen off the recall list so hadn't been seen for 5 years!! I got myself re-referred and this appointment was for an x-ray and check up by a medical registrar. My replaced/reconstructed hip joint is looking good, apparently. And I will make sure to have it monitored more regularly from now!

Another concerned friend happy to hear that all is well......... Also happy to hear from Cushla and Kerry. Good grief!
And I'm happy that you were able to go back for your book and even more, that your hip joint is looking good. Keep it up! Stay safe!

Hi Megan,
I had to check on you and family. So very glad you are all ok.
New Zealand is so beautiful - and so scary at times.
Hugs to you all.

>250 LizzieD: good grief indeed! Thanks so much for popping by. It really means a lot to me to see that my LT friends think of me, even if I am not on that much any more.

>251 -Cee-: Cee!!! So good to see you around here :) :) :)
Apart from memories of constant low-level anxiety that fear of a quake brings, we are fine. the kids are amazingly shielded from it all by the miracle that they both slept through. This whole NZ as an earthquake place is so odd to me, it is weird that there has been a swam of them in these last years. :(
Nice to hear from you :)

Good news, Megan! Glad all are safe and secure
>251 -Cee-: Ceeeeee! so good to see your post!

Glad you and your (extended) family are fairing well!

Glad to hear you and yours are okay!

Good to hear everyone is doing well .....

Megan, of course you would need to turn around and collect your book!

One thing about these tragedies is that it brings people together and I was so pleased to see >251 -Cee-: Claudia on line as I'm sure that she remembers how fond so many of us are of her.

>253 Carmenere: I know, cool huh?!

>254 London_StJ: gearing up for a night time of potential aftershocks....not that we really should expect any too large this far south of the epicentre. Have packed a grab bag just in case we need to go anywhere...

>255 ronincats: thank you!

>256 roundballnz: yes, well. Although, I somewhat lazily begged off work this morning. I had intended to do a couple of hours working from home, but used the time to nap instead. I took the university Dean's email literally, he reckoned staff should take it easy today and maybe finish early!

>257 PaulCranswick: I would have kicked myself having to sit in a waiting room without a book! And it wouldn't do to hurt myself, even if I was already at a hospital ;)
So good to see Cee :) She should come back!

Oh, I'm so glad to see that you're okay!

Phew. Yes, that earthquake is international news, Megan. That was mighty close to you - like everyone else, I'm glad you're okay.

Your hip? Do you have a replacement hip? I have two of those, and I'm grateful for them every day.

Phew!! So glad that all is well with you and yours. I have been in an earthquake but I think it was only a 3 or 4, so nothing by comparison.

I'm glad to hear you're all ok and that you had a book to read whilst waiting for your appointment :-)

>259 scaifea: yes, me too. And after a good nights sleep, I am feeling a lot better today. Which is just as well, because I am at work!

>260 jnwelch: It felt close! Although, in saying that- it also felt far away. The rolling motion of the earthquake was telling me it was from a way away. The local ones are pretty much boom-bang-jolt. This one was like trying to walk while very drunk, or on some rolling ocean-going vessel!
Yes, I have a new hip. Replaced and reconstructed 11 years ago as a mere babe of 30 years old. The joint had osteo-arthritis from it being dislocated since birth and grinding itself into near-oblivion. My life changed the day the pain disappeared! Unfortunately I didn't get any extra range of movement from my surgery back then, but since I have never had that I can't say I 'missed' it per se. I did get some extra leg length from the surgery though, but I still have my signature limp. ;)

>261 Berly: for a while there, every time I saw a single digit number followed by a 'point' and another number, all I read into that was RICHTER SCALE MAGNITUDES. He he, even street signs indicating the amount of kilometers to places I read a MAGNITUDES. Earthquakes were on the brain.

>262 souloftherose: I am loving The Women's Room! Just loving it. I hope to finish it tonight.

So glad that you are okay! I'll live in a part of the " ring of fire" , though , knock on wood, we have not a had a big earthquake in my area in my life. I've experienced just 3 earthquakes of note, none of which caused much damage, or at least not near to me. When I was about 3 or 4, I was eating breakfast when all of a sudden we heard a lot of rattling the cereal and milk in my bowl splashed out onto the table. My mom told us that it was " worms dancing in the earth" and nothing to worry about ;) At about the age of 15 or so , I was babysitting. I heard all sorts of rattling and noise coming from the upstairs of the house and thought someone must have broken in - and half up the stairs the lights went out. Oh boy, did that scare me. A year or two ago , I was lying on the couch and the I thought I noticed our townhouse swaying and heard a bit of rattle and realized - oh , earthquake. But nothing like what you have experienced.

Ahh! you are very experienced with earthquakes, just reading your post @263. I did not realize the rolling feel meant it was far away, versus the boom- bang - jolt. The one I mentioned where I thought it was someone breaking in - with all of the crashing noise - my sister was also babysitting about one mile away from me and she thought a car had driven into the house. I guess it depends on what level of the building you are on too. We are always told to be prepared for a 7- 8 - 9 , but I can't say I'm really prepared for that at all.

I live on a delta plain at sea level and they tell us the island might sort of liquefy in a big earthquake, but I try not to think about it too much. We've mainly gotten 3 - 4 earthquakes, or far away results of a larger quake.

>264 vancouverdeb: before 4 Sept 2010 I had only ever felt three earthquakes. One when I was 21- in Japan, one when I was 19- in New Zealand, and one when I was 8- in Chile! Since 2010 I must have felt literally hundreds. I could name the top ten, including dates, times and magnitudes, if you like? ;)
I heard an expert on the radio this morning taing about it and it helped me address my inability to see NZ as an earthquake nation. He said my parents generation or slightly older than them, would see NZ as an earthquake prone place, as they lived through a fair few decent shakes. In the last 50 years though (bar the last 6) we have been relatively earthquake-free. Which is why I can't reconcile the idea of it as normal.

>265 LovingLit: Megan, that's really interesting about the radio programme. I was thinking last night about New Zealand as an earthquake place, and how different it was from just a few years ago. While we did earthquake drill at school in the 70s, there *weren't* actually any earthquakes, and everyone "knew" that a quake would hit Wellington and not Auckland. But the drills must have been in place from the earlier period when there were some. I've still only experienced one earthquake, and that was a little one here in London a few years ago.

Monday's earthquake led the TV news here for a couple of hours at least, and the Guardian is still running a live blog on it: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/nov/15/new-zealand-earthquake-floods...

I grew up in California and although I remember feeling minor quakes when I was a kid, I feel like we also were pretty sure there wouldn't be a serious one because there hadn't been one in a long time. Then I was just a couple of miles away from the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and I remember all the Californians listening to the radio in the immediate aftermath and arguing that there was no way it could be over 6.5 because wouldn't that just destroy everything? We'd never experienced one so strong (I guess it ended up being 6.9). And now again, my kids haven't felt a big one in their lives.

I guess it really is cyclical. For my entire lifetime, they've been talking about The Big One being impending, but after a while you forget that it's possible.

>265 LovingLit: Maybe that is why I see NZ as an earthquake nation ... because I have experienced many ( all pre ChCh) .... not called the shaky isles for no good reason - I do think we are going to go thru a shaky period as a country for awhile .... at least Ruapehu & White island are behaving :)

>266 susanj67: I am trying to think, and yes-we did do earthquake drills at school! I was a little school kid in the early 1980s. Under the desk etc. now the kids do them regularly, they have to assume the turtle position. Tucked up on your knees with your hands over the back of your head/ neck.

>267 ursula: for quite a few years there has been talk of what might happen when "the Alpine fault goes". That is the fault line that runs directly underneath the Southern Alps mountain range straight down the South Island of NZ! Everyone will know about that when it happens.
But really, most people have expected Wellingotn to be the city hit by an earthquake over others. It's situated on the fault line too.

>268 roundballnz: maybe I'm forgetting....I must have felt earthquakes in NZ beyond the one I recall from my first-time-round university days.
The big ones I certainly remember. Crikey.

>269 LovingLit: What did amaze me on my only visit so far to NZ was how stoic and indeed informative the Kiwis were about the whole thing and especially tremors and aftershocks. Most people I met had an app downloaded that informed them realtime on all those daily shudders. I may be a keen statistician but I would have quaked at keeping those sorts of records (sorry).

Have a lovely and very, very safe weekend.

>269 LovingLit: >270 PaulCranswick: Saw a 'thing' ( very technical term don't you know ...) last night that showed all the significant Quakes ... thinking is increased quakes all starred with one in Dusky sound in 2009 ... I tend to be on the stoic/fascinated end but am conscious not all are, so careful when discussing them esp around those from Chch

Just found out that I am 15,026 days old today. I missed a certain milestone 26 days ago, but it's still pretty cool.
I was using a birthday calculator to settle a dispute between me and my sister about how old our brother is....what is it with families that that can even become an argument!? I won't even go and say "I told you so" to my sister because that would make me petty. So I'll just let her final insult sit...that (directed at me) "of course you're never wrong" or some such cutting comment.
Gah!

Anyway, a good reading week. Finished William Davies' The Happiness Industry and then just now The Wellness Syndrome. Both books challenge the wellness/ well-being trend, adherents of which tend to hold that personal responsibility is the key to success in health and happiness...and life.

And now, well this evening, I start a Bowie book, Darkness at Noon.

>270 PaulCranswick: NZers are always going on about how resilient we are in disasters. But, who isn't? I think when it comes to crunch time most human beings would have some sort of coping mechanism that includes helping others.

>271 roundballnz: I am on the stoic-fascination spectrum too when it comes to earthquakes. Apart from in the 60 seconds directly after one! Then I am a a shivering mess. but I have been fortunate enough not to be injured/trapped/traumatised by one, so that offers part of the explanation.

Book haul (it is so rare these days that I can use that phrase)

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis ($1)
The Gathering by Anne Enright ($3)
Light Years by James Salter ($3)
The River Between Us by Richard Peck ($3)
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman ($2)

Not a bad weekend all round.....cricket yesterday. NZ v Pakistan test at the Hagley Oval with a friend and a child (my eldest), out to see a choir with my mum last night, book sale this morning, and then hanging at the pool with the kids today. They went hydro-sliding, I listened to the cricket on the radio and drank herbal tea from the thermos. So good!

I'm glad you are safe and sound, Megan. And that the hip joint is looking good, too.

I want to read The Gathering. Your weekend sounds good!

"I think when it comes to crunch time most human beings would have some sort of coping mechanism that includes helping others."
I agree. I think humans can be motivated by greed, but I also believe wholly in most humans' natural impulse to altruism. It seems to play out in crises and disasters more than it does in day-to-day politics. Not sure what to make of that.

>275 EBT1002: I have heard that The Gathering wasn't to a lot of people's liking. But that wont stop me from reading it one day. One day perhaps quite far away, but one day nonetheless.
I was relieved that the hip is standing up structurally, I heard a rumour that the joint potentially would only last 10 years, and its already been 11, so. I am quite glad ;)

Follow me to the next installment!