Monthly Archives: June 2011

I Will Survive

Just a quick note to let you all know I survived my tonsillectomy.

Hoorah!

When I got to the hospital at seven am yesterday I was told I was first in line for surgery.

No time like the present, yes? And, more importantly, no time to stew on it!

Less than an hour later I was in one of those extremely flattering and open-backed white robes and ushered off to the surgery ward, being pushed by a cheerful middle-aged man who smelt like cigarettes.

There I met the anesthetist who wasn't half as good looking as the anesthetist ...

Book Addict

Okay, I'm pretty sure I've upped my nerd factor today.

See those signs above? Do you? The huge purple ones that say, "YOUNG ADULT"?

Well, I bought them today for $10 a pop from a closing down Borders.

YES, PEOPLE, IT'S OFFICIAL: I HAVE YA SIGNS!!!

They are going to look excellent on my walls, one over my desk in the study and the other in my bedroom :D

They're pretty awesome. I was so excited when I got them!

I also bought four books today:

Things I’ve Been Loving Lately – June

Welcome to the monthly series of Things I've Been Loving Lately! You can read about May here, otherwise enjoy hearing about June!

Books

-I probably mention Liane Moriarty's Three Wishes more than you all like to hear, but since I'm having my tonsillectomy on Monday (eeek!) I'll be bringing this favourite with me. As I've said before, when I had surgery a few years ago to calm myself down in the pre-opp room I closed my eyes and read to myself from the book: in my memory. I've read it *that* many times I can pretty much just recite it on queue. So no doubt I'll be doing this again on Monday!!
-I bought six books today. Cheap ones from ...

How You Make A Book

I discovered these awesome videos from Penguin about making Mini Modern Classics.

I've talked about how much I love Penguin and Mini Modern Classics before, so seeing some behind-the-scenes is fasinacting!

Piles and piles of paper for the copy-edit wow!!

Enjoy!

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Journal Writing

Today I bought a journal.

It's bright orange cover appealed to me, as well as it's funny (and true) title and description (I especially like the bit about people not indicating when they turn. That's one of my pet hates).

I got it from the NGV giftshop.

I love that place. It's all arty and has the best random things to find. They have kids books and toys and really unique stationary and lots of pretty expensive art books.

My new journal has quotes about how stupid people can be on the left side, and space to write on the right side.

Water for Elephants

I know I'm a little late in the game, but today I saw Water for Elephants. This is most evident by the fact that my friend and I couldn't find a single screening of it in the city!!

We ended up going to Chapel Street and ohmyohmy was a brilliant movie.

I wasn't *that* worried about whether it would be a good adaption or not as the ads looked really good.

Plus, I saw this awesome making of doco on television a few weeks ago.

And boy did the movie not let down!!

A Sense of Place

Today on the A Thousand Words Festival blog, the question was posed: are there enough YA books set in Melbourne?

Writer of said post couldn't think of any.

My first thought while reading the post was Yes, duh, there are lots of Melbourne YA books (to which Adele listed a few of them in the comments) and my second thought was, Is it important?

Does it matter if the book is set in a fictional world or a real town/city/suburb?

In some books, yes, the setting is almost another character (and of course I can't think of any examples!!) yet others the setting simply provides a place for the story to be set.

Does ...

Random Rambled Jumbled Post

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday....

Speaking of Ms Black, who saw Katy Perry's new video clip? Respect for Rebecca: sky-high!

Actually, it's kind of a miracle that I'm blogging tonight.

I was supposed to be working - like I do most Friday nights - but my boy (the same one that I was dancing with glo-sticks with last Friday) fell off his trampoline, hurt his leg and therefore tonight was cancelled.

So instead, I'm sitting at home, fan-girling over Robert McKee.

You kids know him, right?

If ...

New Books + Links

Here's today's haul from the shutting-down, 40%-off Borders in the shopping centre where I was today:


Hazzar!

It was kind of sad walking the aisles, half of them empty.

And then knowing that in less than a month, the shop will be shut.

But on a brighter note, I have new books! :D

This is quite important at the moment because it's less than two weeks until I have the tonsillectomy - meaning I'll have nothing to do but lie around and read while I recover! All books on deck!

Some quick blog/other news:

Review: Ask Elizabeth by Elizabeth Berkley

Review: Ask Elizabeth by Elizabeth Berkley
If you've ever asked yourself why the ups and downs of friendships are so hard; if you've ever looked in the mirror and hated what you saw; if you've ever gone through a horrible breakup and wondered how you'll make it through . . . guess what? You're not alone.

Over the past several years, more than 30,000 teens have participated in workshops conducted by actress Elizabeth Berkley (Saved by the Bell): In an open, judgement-free atmosphere, girls come together to support, share, confess, and confide in one another. Written in the spirit of a group diary, Ask Elizabeth addresses the emotional lives of teen girls based on the most frequently asked question from these workshops. Full ...