Schools are getting sillier when it comes to book clubs...

This afternoon my oldest daughter Jay brought home the usual batch of book club propaganda sent to the schools in an effort to make reading a fun thing to do at home. Not just something you have to do at school.

Some of these book clubs have been around since before I started primary school some 22 years(aprox) ago. when I was a little takker you, or should I say the oldest child in the family, was given the book club forms to take home to your parents. Knowing that my parents didnt have a heck of a lot of extra cash I would only ever ask for a new book if it was something I wanted so badly that I could/would do extra chores for a few weeks to earn it, even if it meant doing my brothers chores too! At thst point in time (mid eighties to early nineties) you had two weeks to get the forms and money in to the school.

Jump ahead in time to 2007. You are now given less than a week, in this case two days, to find the money and get it in to the school with the correctly filled in paperwork.

Since when do most parents have the time to fill out extra paperwork? Let alone readthrough all the brightly coloured flyers? I happen to think that reading is one of the most important things any adult can teach a child, it is right up there with how to flush the toilet and not picking your nose at the table. But how can I encourage my youngsters to read a wider variety of books when there is simply not enough time in between getting the flyers and having to pay for them?

I can hear most of you saying "take them to the library" or "borrow books from the library"... I have a problem with the state library facilities in Tasmania. My children respect books, if they are damaged when we borrow them, we make a note of it and let the library staff know. however this does not always get noted by the library staff and after having my kids accused of destroying books by scribbling in them, tearing pages etc. i refuse to pay any more fines for something that other kids have done.

That and I am still paying for books that I returned a few years ago.

a dream about a book on dreams

Last night i had a most disturbing, and interesting, dream. I dreamed that I was sitting in my favorite bean bag, wrapped up in my favourite sleeping bag. I was in the middle of a big meadow that had an eight lane highway running along the north side, another running south on the opposit side, a river to the west and sand dunes to the east. I was reading a huge (1&1/2 foot by 1 foot by nine inches thick) leatherbound book about dreams. the book itself looked as if it would be at least 30 pounds and yet it was incredibaly light...

this is the first time i have ever had adream that has been about a book.

just thought i would share it with you all!

The Lord of the Flies

after reading "Hearts in Atlantis", see previous post, I decided it was about time to re-read an old favourite... The Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

I think that the creators of the TV series LOST were reading this book in the early stages of the first series. I'm not saying that they are Plagiarists just that they have some very similar themes.

i think what i like best about the book is the raw brutality and honesty. Children are cruel, in the lack of visible prescence of adult authority (although this is rapidly changing) children will bully, tease, and in the case of "piggy" the ultimate denial of independance.

wow. im hungry. gone to lunch, will finish this later

Stephen King... THE greatest Horror Author of this generation

That is a pretty bold statement you may say.Well I am not the only person who thinks so.

The blurb on Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis" states ...

"Stephen King, whos first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last US troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation."

And Guardian states that he is "One of the great story tellers of our time"

Looking back at my personal copy of Carrie Stephen clearly thanks his wife Tabitha for her support."This is for Tabby, who got me into it- and then bailed me out of it"

And in his own musings on writing, horror in particular, Stephen King manages to bind what could be a dry and tasteless subject into a mesmerising visual symphony. Everything you will ever want or need to know about writing a novel (especially if you want to write horror successfully) can be found beneath the covers of these two books.

If you havent already done it I would highly reccomend reading BARE BONES Conversations on terror with Stephen King. edited by Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller and DANSE MACABRE by Stephen King.

This man is one of the top ten Authors of all time and number one on the list for HORROR.

Television Versus Books.. Which is better for you?

According to some reserch i read somewhere, Watching 1/2 an hour of T.V. burns more calories/kilojoules than an hour of reading a book.

Why is this? Is it because we seem to get more physicaly involved with the tv? or because during the ad breaks we get up, go make a cuppa, go to the loo, channel surf etc?

It usualy takes me an hour to read a 'Mills and Boon' type book, so thats about 180-200 pages an hour. if i transfer that to a text book, or something I am realy fascinated by, I usualy go less, more like 150 pages, simply because I go back and re-read sections of the text two or three times.

I watch aproximately 2 hours of t.v.a day on average (most days i dont realy watch it at all, its just background noise). of the few programs I do watch, I tend to get 'involved' with the storyline and as such, my horemones controlling my body take over. if the hero is in danger my fight/flight reflex is activated and i have been known to talk to the person, regardless of the fact it is fantasy. if someone is injured, the nurturing instinct starts up.

HOWEVER and this to me is the interesting part... I am the same way with the characters in books. I have been referred to as "That Crazy Lady reading the book" I feel like the characters become a part of my own reality... If Harry Potter turned up on my doorstep, I would be as calm and collected as if my grandmother showed up. This may be cause for concern as my current book collection ranges from sci-fi, fantasy, horror, action, comedy all the way through to books on classical music/composers, biographies, and the occasional historical non-fiction. I also have text books on panel beating, spray painting, bookeeping, computing, accounting and marketing and human resources management.



OK, OK, I will admit it... one or two romance type novels for light reading.

The Power of Books.

Books are amazing things.

They can make us laugh, make us cry or scare us half to death. They come in all sizes, different shapes and some have nothing but pictures. Some books are for learning complex things like super string theory while others are all about the little things like where butterflies go when it rains.

I am an aggressive and passionate advocate of books. My children Jay* and Tee* both had extensive book collections prior to their births. At Eight months pregnant with Jay, I was playing her the audio versions of Pride and Predjudice, A Tale of Two Cities and anything else I could get my hands on. I did the same with Tee and as a result, both of my children have massive vocabularies for their ages, the comprehension to use the words correctly and in context and at only just eight years old Jay understands (and is getting profficiant in) sarcasm.

Reading is the one thing I believe has saved me from mediocrity. It has enabled me to seek out new challenges, bond with my kids and generaly keep myself grounded.

*names of minors have been change.