tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43379520240904750082011-07-08T18:22:54.970+10:00a reading diaryThe Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comBlogger191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-50612829366172520472010-02-14T22:53:00.002+10:002010-02-14T23:09:04.428+10:00

February 14th 2010 and it's all done! There can be no suitable comment on the eight months of neglect this blog has suffered; and it started so well! I thank those of you who have read it: I think I was a bit miffed at the time that not more people responded to my big launch, but I forgot the few who did, and now, I thank you!!My approach next will be to fill in the many books I have read

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-31524544140737641322009-06-24T15:42:00.012+10:002009-06-26T16:04:01.915+10:00

Thanks for attending the launch party for my infamous Blog!!!I say infamous because some of my potential readers have known about this for a while but I haven't been ready to launch it until it was...just...right. And its not yet! So rather than keeping on writing into the ether I may as well invite others to sample and damn the consequences. My life has become a little calmer lately too so I

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-1958869038906745782009-06-12T14:33:00.000+10:002009-06-24T16:19:59.865+10:00

The story of its release and the controversy that surrounded it is an added reason to seek out this excellent first hand account of the horrors of Gallipoli. Iconic, almost nation-defining in the courage shown by Australian soldiers in the face of an impenetrable enemy and strategic ineptitude, the landings at Gallipoli and ensuing months of fighting are the background for this soldier's story,

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-14572281651345333632009-05-26T12:18:00.007+10:002009-06-10T11:18:53.642+10:00

Coming-of-age stories usually bore the hell out of me. I dutifully read the canon of Australian, UK and American books as a younger fella and could never quite figure out why they didn't seem to speak to me, or echo my own experiences. Not that they had to - other people's lives are always interesting - but they were almost universally promoted as...universal. I found, however, that in most cases

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-13077363982565995402009-05-06T13:25:00.000+10:002009-05-06T14:34:57.314+10:00

I picked this up for a lightweight read after plowing (happily) through Philip Jones. Kimberley from my old work read and reviewed it a few years ago and she highly recommended it, but with the proviso that she doesn't really read any Australian fiction. This intrigued me as I didn't know anything about Max Barry, and also because Kimberley always has immaculate taste in books. But why not

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-30842604580917441052009-05-05T21:41:00.000+10:002009-05-05T23:14:49.054+10:00

Okay I admit I've probably been avoiding this post - the raison d'etre, the justification, the explanation post - why am I doing this? Or, more precisely, what am I doing this for? Or even more exactly, what am I hoping to learn or gain by blogging my year-long Australian reading saga?I've been developing answers to this question over the past few months of reading, and I've come up with some. .

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-66154513795246220672009-05-05T13:43:00.001+10:002009-06-10T10:13:29.685+10:00

Written by a curator and historian from the South Australian Museum, this excellent book was the winner of the Non-fiction category in the 2008 Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Philip Jones obviously has a deep fascination for Aboriginal culture and history, and, married with his comprehensive knowledge of the Museum and its collection, is in a prime position to unearth some of the less

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-42177393604240357762009-04-13T18:51:00.000+10:002009-04-29T23:46:02.527+10:00

As Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and one of the world's best-known modern philosophers I knew of Peter Singer but didn't actually know he was an Aussie. Pushing Time Away is only one of his many publications - including Practical Ethics, How Are We To Live?, and Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for our Treatment of Animals, published in 1975, regarded as the starting point for

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-27317658358267817762009-04-02T21:23:00.001+10:002009-05-05T14:39:02.592+10:00

Having been seriously affected by this novel, I haven't written anything or even read much for a week now. I've also changed jobs in the interim so The Slap will always stand out as the book that bridged two very different careers. But I'm stalling. What to say about Christos Tsiolkas and The Slap? In a few words, it's one of the best Australian novels this century, possibly one of the greatest

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-23834796872003914422009-03-23T21:47:00.000+10:002009-04-02T23:30:24.066+10:00

Having just finished the fabulous The Slap - watch for the review soon - and not having chosen a successor, I thought it not a bad time to create a working list of books to choose from when next I'm in post-book limbo.Care to suggest some more? I'm currently reading one book in a week or six days, so I could need 50 for the year. I've already had some suggestions that I'll list below but any

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-41586391993854966072009-03-19T10:32:00.000+10:002009-04-13T19:01:08.082+10:00

I have been a fan of Richard Flanagan for a while, and would rate Gould's Book of Fish as one of my top ten Australian novels. However, I read Wanting, his latest, late last year and started to feel a bit uncomfortable about his writing. Not that I didn't enjoy it, I think it developed into a very solid and almost profound novel, too short to be a masterpiece but definitely a powerful example of

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-73321786202428720822009-03-18T14:37:00.000+10:002009-04-29T21:40:44.329+10:00

I managed to miss Helen Garner's early fiction so I came to her brilliant non-fiction via Joe Cinque's Consolation stunned by her intelligence, bravery, and unerring sensitivity to the travails of others. These qualities are also evident in The Feel of Steel but even further pronounced is her personal honesty and fearless self-revelation. This might sound self-indulgent, and there are times that

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-3111081337371627392009-03-09T22:34:00.001+10:002009-03-09T22:51:52.870+10:00

Just wanted to drop in unannounced on the schedule here to tell a few truths about this blog and my reading so far. I've dropped off a bit and am now blogging about a week after than I've finished each book. Work, home, hobbies, habits... So I'm still doing the reading and loving all the books so far, just not following strict deadlines, keeping it loose. My main crisis with this has been which

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-76919275602588283062009-03-09T21:55:00.000+10:002009-04-29T21:41:24.045+10:00

This book has always caught my eye, not just for its provocative cover, but also for its tough title and promise of an investigation of the Stasi and the plight of Eastern Germany during the Cold War. It doesn't disappoint; Funder writes in a tight, terse style and explores her own darker thoughts as she haunts the featureless buildings and lonely byways of the former GDR, meeting and talking

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-35464158020845730972009-03-03T20:56:00.001+10:002009-04-13T18:59:37.802+10:00

This book came via my old friend Kate - a passionate supporter of Australian literature as well as holding a doctorate in Aboriginal social history - who recommended it to me almost tearfully, having just read it. And I see now where that feeling was coming from. I have read no better exploration penned by a non-Aboriginal person of the Aboriginal link to land and country. In a story that has no

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-21640147816090187442009-02-18T22:29:00.000+10:002009-04-13T18:59:06.596+10:00

First book down, and what a cracker! I thoroughly enjoyed People of the Book, not all the time, but ultimately: unputdownable! Part-Dan Brown, part-Margaret Atwood, part-Peter Carey, its a surprising and thought-provoking book that really gets under your skin. I was a bit non-plussed by it at first - maybe a bit too Dan Brown at that point - but as I eased into her style and the conceit she

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-17678414017426420802009-02-10T22:00:00.000+10:002009-02-10T23:19:47.382+10:00

Just finished the Horwitz a few minutes ago and now primed to begin my year. It was a really wonderful book - history writing at its finest. With such a lightness of touch, his almost-present presence in the text manages to bring to the fore all the crazy characters he meets in his trips across North and South America. And you get such a vivid picture of the places he visits. My American history

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-59996192585564276042009-02-08T10:21:00.000+10:002009-02-18T22:18:53.314+10:00

Having searched for an important event: births, deaths, marriages and divorces; nothing prominent, even vaguely related to my task comes up. So I'm opting for February 11 - this Wednesday. It can become its own Date of Significance. I am currently flying through A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz and really enjoying it although I'm excited about starting my Australian reading so I'm maybe

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4337952024090475008.post-62651281584521290892009-02-03T18:49:00.000+10:002009-02-08T10:16:41.011+10:00

2009 creeps on apace so it is time to begin this task and the blog that goes with it! After much contemplation, consultation, and, admittedly, procrastination, I am finally in the planning phase for my Year of Reading Australianally. I am now on my last non-Australian book (more on this later) before my reading year begins, sometime in February it looks like. I am one for Dates of Significance,

The Touristhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09346850132630307928noreply@blogger.com