A Visit To The Library

Jack and I took a field trip to the library yesterday.

I had wanted to see if they had the Steven Toltz  book--the Aussie Booker prize prize winner.   They didn't have the book.   I was disappointed, but not surprised.   

I had a mid-size list of authors to look for--different from the usual ones I look for and rarely find.

I didn't find much from the list--except two young adult books by John Marsden. They look interesting.  I don't think I've ever read his stuff before--at least not during my Australia obsession.

I did run into Breath--Tim Winton's new book.  I found it in the new books section.   I was excited about that and pleased that our library actually has it.

Jack loved looking up things on the computer and while I was doing my own investigating, he excitedly plugged in Tim Winton for me.   His detective work found me another Winton book--this one a young adult novel.   It's called Lockie Leonard.  Human Torpedo.   I was disappointed at first with the book because the copyright page says "modified for American readers".  I took this to mean that Australia was pretty much pumped out of the book.    I was very wrong.   It has quite a bit of Aussie culture in it.  In fact,  I hate to admit it, but I'm a bit lost on some of the language/slang.   I can figure out most of it from the context though.   I just started the book and we're already getting references to Weetbix and Vegemite.  Oh, actually Winton says Weetabix.   Maybe this is what was changed for American readers.   Maybe they figured we'd have heard of Weetabix, but not Weetbix.  But I kind of thought that Weetabix was only recently introduced into American grocery stores.   

Okay, going to google.....

Ah, here we go!   Weetbix AND Weetabix were both invented in Australia. AND Weetabix has been in America since the 1960's.

Why is this blog entry turning into a whole Weetbix thing?   

Anyway....back to the library.

During my own computer catalog research, I found a nice list of books by plugging "Australia" into the subject line.   I was about to physically search for them, but decided I have enough books for now.   I'll get them next time.   I'm actually not doing a lot of book-reading at the moment.  I'm doing more online research--Indigenous Australia and all that.  

One of the books I might get next time is a biography on Rubert Murdoch. I saw it awhile back and avoided it. How much do I really want to know about that man?    But it might have some stuff about his childhood in Australia.   And plus, I do like biographies. Who knows?   Maybe I'll find things I like about the man.  There's also a book about Nicole Kidman.  I have nothing against her.   I just get tired of her because her presence in the media is a bit saturated.   

In other news....I think I finally understand the Eora thing.   From what I read, it seems this is a name for all Indigenous people in the Sydney area. I probably could benefit from a book called Indigenous Australia for Dummies. Or The Idiots Guide to Indigenous Australia.    I guess eventually it will all be a little less confusing to me. Otherwise, I might need a brain transplant or something.   

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts