Reading Notes - Trusting books again

(This post is adapted and updated from one I wrote for my private blog, Zucchinis in Bikinis, in 2004).

I am a Terry Pratchett fan. I like the Discworld novels a lot, and have found most of them highly enjoyable. My favourite Pratchett novel, however, is one that's rarely seen on most Pratchett fanciers' lists of Top Ten Super-Best DiscWorld Books. It's called A Hat Full of Sky.

It is, it should be said, very good - a typically witty Discworld story, featuring some of the witches (who are among my favourite characters). It isn't perhaps as hilarious as some of the books, and it is curiously short on double entendres and what the TV guide likes to refer to as "adult concepts". However, it engages in much more potent philosophical musings than most of the Discworld books. Tiffany's journey through fear and confusion to understanding herself and the monster that pursues her is really very cleverly written, and delves into a lot of deep concepts, like Death and Guilt and Self-Control and Human Volition and The Nature of Fear. So although it is less funny, it is also more worthwhile (in my view) and I'm likely to re-read it again and again, whereas most Discworld books get read once and put aside.

The first time I read this book, I flipped to the back flyleaf and discovered why the lack of sniggerable jokes: A Hat Full of Sky was written for "younger readers" (I'm guessing early teens). Which gave me pause - does that suggest that I liked the book because I'm effectively mentally 13? Do I lack the maturity to deal with adult literature?

Further evidence for this interpretation can be advanced with the following three facts:

1. My absolute favourite book of 2009 was Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire, the second in the Hunger Games series - a YA novel.

2. I recently permanently abandoned my futile third attempt to plow through A S Byatt's The Children's Book, which is without doubt one of the most literary (and adult) works of fictions I've attempted recently.

3. My all-time top 10 books contains 6 titles that were ostensibly written for middle-grade or YA audiences.

Well, it may be the case that I am mentally immature, but I think I've also pinpointed another factor in my enjoyment of these YA book and my increasing wariness of "proper" adult storytelling. It was such a huge relief to me to read stories where real, substantive concepts were engaged, where drama is built and sustained, where characters are tested and some of them bruised, but where none of the viler side of human behaviour is on display in explicit, technicolor detail. Lots of people get harassed and threatened, but not assaulted, abused, maligned or murdered in horrific ways. There are deep relationships, but not messy and dreary interpersonal ones. No-one lets off strings of expletives as a substitute for dialogue. No-one, in short, is distracted from the deeper questions by unpleasant little surface interludes.

Don't get me wrong - lots of YA and middle-grade books contain violence, injustice, fear, terror, hostility, loss, grief, fury, and so forth. I'd challenge anyone to read the Hunger Games books and not feel at least some of these emotions powerfully emanating from it. Don't read Tomorrow when the war began if you have a weak heart, and so on. And certainly, some of the themes that appear to be dominating the YA market at the moment leave me cold. Vampires? Yeahno, if it's all the same.

But reading the best of these stories reminds me of the sheer physical pleasure I used to derive from reading when I was a child and teenager. With a book in hand, I'd dive joyfully into the world being created, absorbing every word into my skin, losing myself in the pages. I read all the children's classics, of course, but also a lot of heavier (or at least adult-targeted) stuff - I went through a significant Jane Austen worship phase around 12 years of age, I'd read Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion twice each by 11, and I lost myself entirely in Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Robot series in year 9 (around 14, I think). I still remember that feeling of abandoment, of trusting myself completely to the story, almost like flight - with my arms spread out, I'd fall into the covers of the book and disappear.

Part of that feeling was the trust that I had - implicit then, damaged now - that the book would not betray me; that it wouldn't sandbag me with awfulness that I couldn't handle, that it wouldn't gratuitously introduce violent and twisted themes, that it wouldn't make me feel sick and besmirched. I still can't happily read fiction that is violent or explicitly abusive, especially if the violence is of a particular kind. I've never been much of a fan of romantic fiction, yet as an adult I have enjoyed many books with romantic themes, but not one with violent or abusive themes. The nasty taste that those books leave in my mouth lingers, like a too-young wine, and makes me feel compromised by merely having read it.

What I'm finding now, more and more, is that I'm reading widely and catholically on the non-fiction side (popular science, linguistics, psychology, mythology, history, and social commentary are favourites at the moment) but that my fiction reading is becoming more limited and tentative. I'm tending to read known authors, or books recommended by friends, or books I can confidently tag as being unlikely to contain content I'll hate (for example, mysteries written in the "cosy" genre don't usually have upsetting bits), or YA stories. I'm also revisiting some of my favourites from the past (I'm halfway through Tony Hillerman's excellent Navajo mystery series, which is just as good the second time around).

I don't really admire this shrinking back in myself. I don't want to be the sort of person who sniffs disapprovingly at books, and I want to be able to take a chance on something that sounds interesting. But more than that, I want the feeling back again, that feeling of excitement and delight and freedom that reading used to give me. And I think that controlling my fiction selection, so that I don't fear the book too much to surrender to it, is key to that.

We Play - Building leggo with Dad

A and E, my 7 and 5 year olds, have long enjoyed leggo play, but until recently, their play has been fairly free-form, involving constructing castles of the imagination rather than trying to build defined structures or follow instructions. Just lately, though, A in particular has expressed interest in trying to build leggo creations following the instructions. She really, really wanted to have a go at building a complex car / truck thing that we'd been given some time ago, which involved a thick instruction book, had an age-rating of 9 and up, and had many, many tiny little parts.


I nodded brightly when she expressed this interest, then suggested that this might be a Daddy and girls project!


So my husband and the big girls have now logged three 2-hr sessions of truck-building, following detailed instructions, working together, nutting out complicated bits, rebuilding where necessary. I've used these times (mostly Sunday afternoons) to log some paid work time while the toddler has napped. The girls have hugely enjoyed having concentrated time with their Dad and doing something so sustained and involved. (In that regard it's resembled a holiday project I do each school hols with the kids - putting together a 500 or 1,000 piece puzzle over several sessions of working together).

It's been fun for them all, doing grown-up leggo!

Menu Plan Monday - Busy

This is another busy week (quel surprise) and the menu plan is all about simple, familiar and tasty. (For example, although I do intend to try to make the Snow Egg guava dessert from the Masterchef finale last night at some point, it won't be this week!)

Monday - Red lentil dahl & steamed greens (adults); Vegetarian egg noodles (kids) (V)

Tuesday - Roast corned beef with orange mash & broccoli
This is held over from last week - due to a range of factors I didn't cook it then, but it'll do nicely for this week instead.

Wednesday - Pasta with tomato-basil sauce (V)
It is predictable, yes!

Thursday - Lamb & vegetable stew with rice
I haven't made stew for a few weeks and it's such a warming winter meal.

Friday - Family dinner out
Very sadly, my elderly grandmother died last week and her funeral takes place on Friday afternoon. Along with my parents, aunts & uncles and cousins (26 of us altogether), we are going out for a meal to remember and celebrate my grandma's 87 years of life.

Saturday - Sausages, roasted veggies and green beans
G is cooking tonight, and he has a way with sausages.

Sunday - Oven-baked pumpkin risotto with not-bacon (V)

Menu Plan Monday - Still Cold

Here in Melbourne we are knee-deep in one of the coldest winters in many years, and it is fair to say that salads and cold collations have no place on my family menus at the moment!

Monday - Red lentil dahl with vegetable curry (adults) and vegetable noodles (kids) (V)

Tuesday - Spanish frittata (potato & red onion) with steamed greens & carrots (V)
Hot and full of cheese, this frittata is very popular here.

Wednesday - Pasta with tomato-garlic sauce (V)
Standard gymnastics-night fare.

Thursday - Roast corned beef with orange mash & steamed broccoli
The great thing about this boiled roast is that it provides ample leftovers for sandwich fillings and our usual "tasting-plate" saturday lunch, wherein I spread out olives, cheeses, cut raw vegetables, cold meats, crackers, hard boiled eggs, bread for the others, and a cup of hot chocolate apiece.

Friday - Beef lasagne
I made a huge lasagne last Thursday and this is the second portion, frozen for just such an occasion.

Saturday - Stephanie Alexander's Chicken & leek pie
This is kind of fiddly and time consuming but the kids & I have an open day that day while husband has to work, and they want to help cook something a bit hard, so we'll give this a whirl.

Sunday - Breakfast for dinner - poached eggs, bacon, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, hash browns, sausages, toast...
This may be my husband's favourite meal evah ;-)

Kangaroo bones & animatronic bushrangers: Our Odyssey in the Odyssey, Part 2

(Continued from Monday...)

With the arrival of the kids back from their bush walk, much fun was had by all as they spread out their finds (3 cockatoo feathers, an owl pellet, some seed pods, a few interesting rocks and the partial kangaroo skeleton) for examination. My husband and his friend helped them lay out the bones in their approximate positions (our friend is a zoologist by training so that came in handy!) A, my 7 year old, was delighted to find that she had three vertebrae, a skull, a hip, and two long leg bones in her collection. Our friend explained why the bones looked different to the beef bones she's seen before (dog's treats) and the plastic human skeleton that another friend, the physiotherapist, has in her clinic. A and 5-year-old E were fascinated.


The late-coming rain had set in by this stage and the girls settled down to learn table tennis with our friend, while G took over chasing-the-baby-up-and-down-the-steps duty and I had a cup of tea and read food magazines. Pure luxury!

By 5pm the kids were starting to get a little scratchy. A long, busy, active day, and the challenge of learning a new game, was leading to moodiness for some.


It's not always easy being younger and shorter than your adored older sister! Rather than courting disaster further, we decided to repair to the Thoona Pub for dinner.

Matt Preston (yes, *that* Matt, for Masterchef followers) reviewed the Thoona Pub for The Age in March 2009 and talked, albeit slightly ironically as is his wont, about the friendliness of the place and its owners. He's right - the Thoona Pub is a very welcoming place, especially for families with children. And Matt might have been taking the p when he wrote "As well as offering ice-cream with sprinkles and chocolate sauce (which is always a big plus as far as I'm concerned), their handy wipe-clean laminated menu also uses such words as "scrumptious", which, quite frankly, is not seen enough on the leather-bound cartes of Australia's three-hat gastro-temples", but let me tell you, ice-cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles is a MAJOR plus when dining with children, and so is a simple, familiar and cheery menu.

Aside from the tasty food, chatty owners and warm fire, the Thoona Pub offered our kids another cherished experience - an outdoor jukebox, in the covered beer garden. To the adults, the weather was far too cold to favour being outside, but as soon as the kids became aware that dancing was an option, the cold wasn't a relevant consideration anymore. When a family of five children, aged 10, 8, 6 and 2-year-old twins, joined them on the dance floor, the lives of my 7, 5 and 17 month olds were made complete. The eight kids boogied energetically and long to ABBA, the Black Eyed Peas, Cyndi Lauper, Pink, Smashmouth and a bunch of other stuff. The 6 adults (us & our friends, and the other family's parents) took it in turns to stand outside as Dance Floor Police, changing guard when we got too frozen. By the time we left the pub to head for the motel at 8:30, the kids were absolutely beat (the toddler was asleep on my shoulder) but they were glowing with happiness. As I strapped her into her car seat, located in the boot of the Odyssey, the 5-year-old sighed and said, "What an absolutely perfectamundo day."

Part 3, in which we decide to go home via Glenrowan, coming soon.