I was scrolling through my camera roll and came across this GEM from lockdown 2020 when I had to work from home - and had the surreal experience of accepting book deliveries into my tiny apartment 🤣 I‘d accession and catalogue them, then load them up in tote bags, shove them into the boot of my car, ready for when I had my next library click and collect shift. Truly a time that feels like a fever dream…

I took @julesG ‘s suggestion of OIL before attempting to peel (THANK YOU!!!) AND aside from my Nana defaulting to EMU when I said I needed oil (she‘s hard of hearing, we got to olive eventually 🤭😳) it went pretty well, not painless but I didn‘t lose a layer of skin! I‘m probably still going to wrap my wrist when I‘m working but I think it‘s just about there…

I found an Animorphs book in the wild (an op shop) and it was only a $1 - I knew going on a side mission between physio and work would be a good idea (I wanted the veggie pies from the deli and to see the newly renovated indie bookshop - fitting in an op shop was an added bonus)

Back to the physio today and got taped again… something tells me that the white adhesive tape is not going to relinquish my skin gently when the time comes comes to remove it 😩

On the positive side, I washed my hair before the appointment so at least showering in the morning is going to be more straightforward.

Things I did instead of reading this evening :

- failed at deciding on a new show to watch
- vibed to a “top hits of 2006” playlist
- bought 2 dresses that I‘d been thinking about
- dusted and decluttered my bed side table
- bought tickets to the jousting this weekend
- continued to wonder where some of my misplaced objects are
- looked guiltily at the pile of library books I probably won‘t get around to reading

Sometimes I remember to provide context before I text something unhinged

TBD if she is in fact, here for the brain rot

How do you even review a book like this? Part of me feels that the less you know going in, the better. The title acts as a trigger warning, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor a couple of times because things did get, for lack of a better word, psychotic.

It caught my eye at the book store and the quirky chapter headings sold me completely (my favourite being "XXVI. Is Fraught with Some Danger, but for Whom, the Reader Must Determine.")

The way I was SURPRISED that this happened in England and NOT Australia 🤣

https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainment/unfair-dismissal-boss-dickhead/

Did not pack my pockets very well this morning and have left home without my AirPods 😫

Yesterday, I was at the physio, when he busted the tape out & all I think was I SHOULD HAVE WASHED MY HAIR THIS MORNING 😫

It‘s sort of getting better but also I‘m not loving having it taped. My goal is to leave it on til at least close of business tomorrow. I‘ve been wearing my wrist support brace on top (as instructed)

I‘ve started 2 audiobooks because I didn‘t trust myself not to 🤣 at my work desk with one of them. Reading motivation LOW!

“This isn't supposed to be a scary story. It's supposed to be disturbing. There's a difference.”

Hmm!! HMMM even!

I think I‘ll try another.

It was my grandpa‘s birthday yesterday - we had a family lunch (I made his favourite soup - minestrone!, followed by Black Forest cake) and it was just really nice! He‘s not been having a good year, health wise and I wasn‘t convinced we‘d all be here and smiling for his birthday but we made it! And things in this moment are good.

Spotify would struggle to find an artist I was less interested in seeing tbh.

I‘m posting this here because my Mum has already endured my rant about How To Make Gravy coming 9th in the recent TripleJ Hottest Australian 100 of all time.

Idk what‘s worse, being injured (I‘m so tired of patrons moving library furniture around) or being told that my managers are “reviewing available duties within my restrictions”… it‘s my right hand/wrist and I‘m right handed… genuinely what am I going to be doing tomorrow? It‘s a public library, everything is manual handling.

I loved this! I do wonder why I was completely fine with snow leopards, moose and pandas showing up at the same watering hole but when I got to kangeroos, I was like this is a bridge too far 🤣 where are we?

Loved finding all the frogs scattered across the pages - I found my little glasses wearing guy on most of them! 🐸

Continuing my Graham Base journey and I‘m 😍 with the frog in glasses on the very first page!

I picked up library books from my grandparents this afternoon and Nana told me mournfully that she thought this was the second last Sebastian St Cyr mystery… she was so happy when I told her that she wasn‘t even at the halfway point of the series yet…

😃 = her face

So far, it‘s been a drop everything to read / stay up past her bedtime series and I love that for her!

Loved the premise, it‘s very topical, it sadly fell flat for me, only finished it because it‘s short.

I introduced an 🇺🇸 friend to NetGalley and she was approved for this book 5 months ago… *angry muttering about Australian book rights* to be fair, I had forgotten that I‘d requested this, mostly because I didn‘t think I was likely to get it.

Everytime I come across a mention of Chopper, I flash back to my most terrifying library enquiry which started with a man asking if we had Chopper on DVD and then, unprompted, while I was looking it up on the catalogue, added that he‘d been in Pentridge Prison at the same time as Chopper. Different cell block though.

👀

🇦🇺 VEGEMITE MENTIONED 🇦🇺

Vegemite is great! (I wouldn‘t call it a treat tho 😝 it‘s a staple!)

I worked the closing shift at the library tonight and at one point, I looked across to see if the water dispenser needed filling (it sadly is not plumbed in) and there‘s a young adult on their hands and knees drinking out of one of the taps… genuinely baffled at the thought process that got them there. (Most people have their own bottles or we have paper cups at the desk, you just need to ask).

A short book that packs a punch. I had a great time not joining a single dot - I read it in one sitting and I can't say that I even had a theory which is very unusual for me. Strange Buildings is being translated and will release in March 2026 and i'm ready to be bamboozled again! Thanks for the buddy read @julesG

It starts with a troll playing Godzilla on a bridge and it ends with the reveal that Baba Yaga is a multi level marketing guru… and the small business of averting a war between humans and the fae happens in the middle. So you know, the usual EXCEPT no one got kidnapped…

Mercy & Adam were a bit cute in this one. Possibly the end of the walking stick? An enjoyable outing!

I was reminded of this book recently and couldn‘t remember if I‘d ever actually read it? Graeme Base feels very familiar to me as a 90s Aussie kid but I‘ve never been particularly patient (even though Where‘s Wally had me in a chokehold) so carefully searching for visual clues wouldn‘t have appealed - so it‘s very possible that I didn‘t… anyway, it‘s pretty cool (I read the answer page and made no attempt at decoding. I know who I am)

Ooh! Arrived earlier than anticipated (it‘s the Libby way)

Are you up for a buddy read this weekend @julesG ?

Today in libraryland ranged from having to knock on a toilet door to ask them to turn their music down (baby shark doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo) to a patron spiralling over a lost bookmark (returned in a book several months ago & no longer in lost property) that ended with a proclamation of reporting the “theft” to the police…

Is it a full moon? Is a planet in retrograde?

Cassie, Cassie, CASSIEEE

I love that the Megamorphs books switch between all the Animorphs kids - it really adds to the drama and so much happens in this one. From getting flung back in time and eating trex meat around a campfire, to Magic School Bus and Hansen (lol) references to the Big Bang… there was a lot happening, that‘s barely scraping the surface.

Disappointing that the trex morph wasn‘t retained when they made it back to their time 🦖

I‘ve been laughing at this all day.

(I used to watch this movie all the time with my siblings AND when the OG painting came to the NGV, we went to visit it)

In the last room of the Cats & Dogs exhibition there was a room with no gallery cards, which I find deeply annoying HOWEVER since I just finished Sabriel, I was like - is that ??? and it is!!!

Formally titled Girl with sword and white cat by Gregory Rogers, this was the cover illustration for Sabriel by Garth Nix, when it was published in 1995 by Harper Collins.

And tbh, if I can sneak Garth Nix into a conversation - I will.

Sabriel has been languishing on my “books I want to reread” stack ever since I bought the 25th anniversary edition during lockdown (so just the standard 3-5 business years on my shelf 🫣)

The beginning was a lot slower than I remembered but this is proper, detail heavy high fantasy and I‘m a little out of practice.

I switched to Tim Curry‘s audiobook version for the second half and that was a great life choice.

The Abhorsen reread is back on!

In which Mae makes a bad choice, sticks with it, doubles down on it and ignores all criticisms in the pursuit of solving the mystery by confronting a mob boss about it. Common sense and self preservation? Haven‘t seen them.

I had a year away from Normal, Kentucky mostly because my library didn‘t have this available on audio but now they do, so here I am! And I had a good time!

I weathered a few g‘days but was not particularly vibing with the writing style when I got to the “Why… it‘s the Huge Jacked Man!” line and the cultural cringe smacked me so hard in the face that I hit the return button on my digital loan. There might be a really heartwarming story here and maybe I could have given it a bit longer but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Hugh Jackman was my final straw.

My books for today‘s book chat - we had 18 people show up… we usually have about 9-12 people… So 18 is extra impressive, especially on such a wintery day.

So many things going wrong at the same time in this one.

Really enjoyed seeing Mercy pull a revenge prank that she‘s famous for… even if Adam really shouldn‘t have let it get to the point where it became necessary (like, letting Christy answer his phone more than once… really dude?)

This was a good one! (Also my first time listening to an audiobook on libro.fm)

I visited my grandparents after work tonight and it was so nice. Pa‘s been in hospital/rehab for the last month and it was pretty scary for awhile - and tonight I shared a meal with them, caught them up on what I‘d been up to and listened to Pa‘s analysis of the meals on wheels soups & when I was leaving Nana pressed this coin purse into my hand with gold coins for the laundromat (she saves them for me) and it was just kind of everything really.

I swung from ☺️ to 🙄, wildly throughout this - I‘m perhaps not cut out for cozy fantasy but I‘m also just not here for stories that are driven by men feeling entitled to women‘s care & labour (in this case, the hapless Mr Nagg & well, the basil plant). Also not quite enough character depth & everyone except Grimalkin the not quite cat was hard to root for. There was some lovely moments & I really did enjoy the authors narration of the audiobook.

Me : I‘ll just take a small handbag with me, because I want to travel lightly today.

Also me : I think this paperback would fit in my coat pocket..

(Isn‘t Algernon Blackwood just such an author name?)

This has a Janice Hallett quote on the cove. I love her books & how they bamboozle me & I was🤞🏼this would do the same! & it did! I had 1 thing right & lots of theories.

The writing feels somewhat simplistic, hard to know if that's just his style or if it‘s the translation. This held me at a slight remove from the story but how events unfolded had me hooked. It's the sort of book you want to reread to admire how it all comes together.

I need to stop walking past book shops…

Chadstone Readings had a James Islington signing today - Chadstone, being the largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere, is normally a place you wouldn‘t find me BUT I hadn‘t realised that James was Australian AND I‘m aiming to get to a million steps for the walking challenge I‘m in (& the advantage of walking means avoiding the carpark).

I spelt my name for the cashier & didn‘t realise I‘d gained an E until after I‘d joined the line 😝

I only buy dresses if they have good pockets… points 2 and 3 would require slightly more reflection…

The appeal of this dark comic described as Richard Starry‘s Busy Town meets Dexter is in the disconnect between illustrations that (mostly) wouldn‘t look out of place in a children‘s book with a storyline about a gruesome murder spree in a small town & a 🐻 who is concerned that her own murderous ways are on the verge of being uncovered.

That said, I thought this would have a more tongue in cheek vibe but this is just dark, which isn‘t my vibe.

lol

My dislike of Nitani and his disregard and general dislike of women (especially Ashikawa, who he worked with and was dating) coloured my experience of this book. I did enjoy the office politics and the petty frustrations that bubble up when you are forced to work with people, with different interests and talents that don't always compliment your own. Not quite sure what I was expecting when I picked this one up, but it wasn't quite this.

Regency romance. Not my usual but I had a great time listening to Diana and Max overcome their first, unfortunate meeting and slowly fall head over heels for each other. Loved that while this is a romance book - female friendships, and how vital they are, were given just as many pages.

Low angst, great secondary characters, swoony hand kisses. Really enjoyed it.

Working in a public library is rarely dull and yesterday I had to call an ambulance after an elderly patron took a tumble down some stairs.

Not the first emergency services call I‘ve made at work but the one thing they seem to have in common is the injured person trying to convince themselves & me that they are fine actually, and no, they don‘t need me to call anyone for them.

A very sweet colleague bought me roses & complimented my calmness.

Glorious on audio.

Past meets present, tales of the old world meet the realities of the modern world - in this lush novel in verse that celebrates Latin America and the Jewish diasporas. 16 year old Ilana is banished to Prague for the summer by her parents, who hope that the time away will help her to focus on her studies and less on her music. ⬇️

While I was initially horrified to learn that Henry & Tobias had parted ways - they did need the time apart. I didn‘t have to wait too long until Henry‘s mum manages to reunite the band - and these two idiots slowly work their way back to each other (adding a new folklorist to the found family along the way! I could read stories of their future exploits forever. Poor Tobias is locked into being the [ignored] voice of reason forever).