Librarians probably make the same joke - that working in a library would be so easy, if only the readers wouldn't keep messing things up by taking the books off the shelves and reading them.
My Australian mate Albert recently photographed some shelves that would delight a librarian.
That's all I'm saying.
Actually, to balance things up, I should also say that I'm reading this book just now. I bought it many years ago as a present for my partner. It was on special offer, it had more than 800 pages, and it looked expensive. The perfect gift.
At first I thought the title must be a misprint, that it should really read "The Story of Australia's Centuries". That would certainly help sales in Australia.
But in fact it's a hundred pieces of short fiction written by a hundred Australians. I couldn't imagine how they could have found that many stories in such a small country, even spread over a whole century. But I wasn't intending ever to read it. Who would?
Well I was wrong! I'm now at page 545 and enjoying it immensely. It's not often that you read a short story collection and enjoy almost every single story. Albert reckons that the editor sheila must be passing off overseas content as Australian.
I can recommend this book to you. There's no need to let the title put you off.
Albert? One day about 1980 part of my jobbie was to file new British Standards, the kite mark people. One day I had to change the standard for condoms since they'd put in a colour fastness test for ones designed like Stars and Stripes, etc. Anyway, that book is way too fat for me. If you meditated, you wouldn't have time to read a fat book like that. You should start drinking beer with beer in it instead. Hotboy
ReplyDeleteI say!
ReplyDeleteImagine that! There have been more than 100 stories wtitten by Australians. How many of the hundred are about cricket? I expect quite a few. Are there any about how they'll likely lose the Ashes this coming summer?
With respect to the snap of the library - I thought all of that stuff was now on the Internet, and that librarians had been replaced by Google. Maybe the West isn't as advanced as I thought.
MM III
Hotters, this is not the place to be tendering for the contract to draft the British Standard for bliss.
ReplyDeleteMingers. So far, all of them are about cricket.