iPom

If you want them back remember to punch the return date at the front.

Pollyana

Calm down guys....lets all take a deep breath before our next posts
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Back on topic -
Personally - as a librarian and book addict - libraries here are better, just never open when I'm near one, but bookshops here have far less choice and are more expensive. I have weird tastes in books, one of my passions being my collection of old school stoires - 1930s, 40s boarding schools - Chalets/Angela Brazil/Oxenham etc. Ebay isn't too bad for those and I seem to have become part of an Aussie crowd buying and selling amongst ourselves, though I do keep my favourites. postage is pricey for them from the UK as a lot are hardbacks, but if you have the patience to do surface mail its not so bad.

What winds me up here book-wise is the newsagents with piles of tat which they call "good reads". A lot (NOT ALL) of Aussies wouldn't recognise a good book if it hit them in the face - very few people that I've met at work are book fans....and those that are use Amazon UK!

iPom

How does that help anything? The same applies to people in England for sure. It's a massive generalisation and only one person's experience!
There are plenty of very well read Australians who use libraries and read good books. If you're saying what the book shops are supplying is a bit crap, then fine.

iPom

I dunno ...

Seems like Canberra has got it sorted:

http://www.library.act.gov.au/

Pollyana

I did say NOT ALL!!!! Personal experience. And yes, if asked about Brits, a lot of them are the same - I just seemed to have better chats about books when I was there and books were easier to get hold of.

cr*p and pricey

iPom

I notice you didn't say ALL ... I was thinking it was an odd statement because you could apply it to all people in all countries of the world who have books.
It really depends on who you know at the end of the day.
My hub (Australian) comes from a well read family on both sides and therefore I could tell you at least 20 of his relatives who I know read ... The libraries here are well used and always busy. It's a shame bookshops are crap. THere's a market for a good book shop everywhere... but sadly what appeals to 'the masses' in the same way the Sun is the most popular newspaper in the UK, is just 'beach' reading. This is how these places make their money ... they're not selling quality to a quality market... they're tapping into the majority of people who don't want to be challenged.

Those that do go to libraries or independent book shops where they can browse the quality.

iPom

Feel free to start a thread about books any time Pollyana... and we can all dive in. I'm reading some Anne Fine at the moment. She's an excellent author.

Vash the Stampede

LOL, you're in for a shock: "accountability" is just one of many words you will not find in the Blair government's vocabulary.

iPom

LOL - yes, that'll be interesting won't it?! The last year in the UK for me was fairly terrible with the various political crap going on. Beautiful as the uk is, I couldn't stand the political climate. I quite like it here... at least they generally call a spade a spade. I do wonder how Arkon will really find it when he goes back. I suspect he will be just as angry and enraged with the crapness he finds there as he is here.

Vash the Stampede

No, he will find some mind-bending way of rationalising the situation in order to convince himself that it's somehow better than Australia.

The Crow

I think I need to agree to disagree. Each person will find out for themselves. I for one am going to vote with my feet and join the ranks of the disillusioned.[/QUOTE]
That's fair enough - but I think some of us want to make it clear to new members who don't know your background (of problems!) that not all of us are experiencing the same things. Sure there are frustrations, I wouldn't say otherwise, but for me - certainly no more that the UK.

Pollyana

Read a couple of hers a while back. I've just finished Wicked - typical Jilly Cooper, she has me in fits every time , I'm also reading a newly purchased Brent-Dyer (she of Chalet School fame) called Jean of Storms - her only real adult novel, and since someone mentioned it in another forum yesterday i can hear Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native shouting to be re-read.
Nothing like a bit of variety, is there!!

iPom

I've never read Anne Fine, apart from children's books (She of Mrs Doubtfire fame) before but I've just finished (in one day so this is how good this book is!) 'Telling Liddy' ... which is, I suppose, at the end, about 'finding yourself' and when you've done that, not really liking who you've found. It's a hugely perceptive book and given that it's about 4 sisters, it really rang bells for me about my own relationship with my sister. Beautiful characterisation. Well worth a read if you can get hold of it. Really bordering on farce on minute to deep bond breaking thought provoking stuff. Very challenging book I think.
I haven't read the others you mention, Hardy being kept still in the annals of the A level literature reading (Tess, of course) , but find at the moment I am 'catching up' from years of not reading due to lack of time with three children. I seem to be 'chewing' through books at a rapid rate of notts. It's very pleasureable. I've got another Anne Fine to read now, which is 'The Killjoy'. I'll let you know how that goes.

Perhaps a book club thread somewhere would be appropriate if we are to chat about this stuff?

hevs

So what if she friggin well was!? We can't all be perfect and fit into what certain members of society perceive to be perfect. So some people have problems in certain areas of their lives, weather that be that she has no common sense, crap parents, a struggling gene pool or a learning disability. They strive their best to overcome things whilst they get judged by some sanctimonious git who's head is shoved so far up their own arse they need a torch to see out.

I simply cannot believe that everyone that you meet is as thick as two short planks or seemingly a result of a mass inbreeding programme, it simply doesn't add up. You need to move out of small ville and go see some of the real world. The seeming lack of understanding to all things Australian that you have makes me cringe to be a foreigner in this country; I just hope that the locals don't think all of us Poms are as up themselves as you seem to come across.

Pollyana

I might try and dig up one of the old ones, they are a couple on here somewhere with lots of good stuff on, then we can just add to it.....