Dear Money

 This book really gripped me and was a very good reflection on the artistic lifestyle as compared to life in high flying corporate life. The end has a twist that is realistic and I would recommend it. My early thoughts on this book including the authors name are in recent posts about I Love the Library.

DK
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Reunited with Old Friends - My Books

Regular readers of this blog know that I spent three years, until October 2011, living in the UK. At the time we shifted there from New Zealand I had to leave my beloved home library behind and was only allowed, by she who must be obeyed, to take 100 of my favourite books with me. The idea was that I would buy no books and use the public library. So what happened? You guessed it, I ended up with nearly 500 new books.

I now have all my old books and new books reunited and it is just like a party or conference where you meet old friends. I forgot some of the gems I had and it has been a real pleasure opening the boxes and seeing books I had forgotten about.

I have been buying books since a chance meeting with hundreds of back editions of the Readers Digest when I was 10 years old. My books track my life as a teenager, student, young married man, father, uncle, friend, book club attender, library lover and shows my slow maturity!!

My best buy in the UK, by the way, was a first edition of Virginia Woolf's book, Flush. I discovered this in a seconhand bookshop in Alnwick (Barter Books).

Well I must go and get back to the reading.

Adios


DK

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Traveling in my head

The great thing about reading is that you can travel in your head (imagination department). In the last 24 hours I have read myself to New York (twice in fact once NY 1764 and the second NY 2004!), China, Maine and London - I am exhausted. Which makes me think that we also travel in time, every book is a time capsule.

I just love reading.

DK

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Post Colonial Children's Literature

I recently found an excellent course on iTunes from La Trobe University in Melbourne Australia. it is on post colonial children's literature and it is fascinating.

The lecturer is very entertaining but brings the salient points across in a very clear way.

The themes of colonialism, post colonialism, the Aboriginal and European voice and who owns the story is gripping listening.

Not a book but about books. The story of Little Black Sambo in colonial times and it's form in post colonial times is provocative and challenging.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

I Love the Library - the sequel

In my blog yesterday I mentioned about the two books I got out at the last moment. I got a start on both of them yesterday and will give my impressions below.

Book One

The English Class by Ouyang Yu

The story follows the journey of a young Chinese man from being a truck driver, learning English by himself and then ending up at university studying English. This is a tale of two cultures and the aspirations of a young man who wants to escape China. It is well written and the storyline moves forward briskly. The characters are rounded and I am hooked already.

Book Two

Dear Money by Martha McPhee

This story follows the adventure of a 38 year old novelist who becomes a Wall Street trader on a dare. It is a poignant look at the
interrelationships between art and business, between the avocation of literature and the pursuit of wealth. This will appeal to those who want a glimpse into the corporate life through the eyes of an artist. Not as compelling as The English Class but a good read nonetheless.

I love books...

Grant aka drkelp
Books completed 2012 = 0


DK

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I Love the Library

It is a wet Saturday here so I took my two daughters to the library. We are all readers and the library is our favourite place (apart from the Internet). As we have only recently returned to New Zealand from the UK we had to supply proof of address to the library. Until we provided it we could only take out one book each!! Well we took the info in today and now we can take out 20 books each. Yippee.

The downside is that we got to the library 10 minutes before closing so I only had time to get two books.

Book One
The English Class by Ouyang Yu

Book Two
Dear Money by Martha McPhee

They both look great, leave a comment if you have read either of them.

Well I'm off to have a relaxing read.

Keep well

Grant aka drkelp
DK

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Happy Reading

Last year was not a great year of reading for me. Only read 37 books which is a new low for me. Still the books I did read were excellent and I sucked the goodness out of them. My goal for this year is 100 books which I hope to achieve plus some.

I am still wading through Proust but I have a lot of biography and letters to read in 2012 including the letters of the Mitford sisters, Nigel Nicholson and Philip Larkin.

Wish me luck :)

Grant

DK

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