uni's done - it's time to start reading for pleasure again!

i really envy people that can read multiple books concurrently. i've never been able to do that. also, when i read, if the book doesn't grab me pretty quick, it flutters out of my mind and slips from my fingers, joining the dusty shelf of half-read books in my collection. should i dare tell you the names of the novels on the adhoo-ra shelf? not yet. i'm quite ashamed to admit to some of them.

so anyway, i read a book i've had my eye on for a while - ruth reichl's garlic and sapphires, the secret life of a critic in disguise. it's based on ruth's time as the food critic for the new york times, and how she employed disguises in an attempt to review anonymously. it is an excellent read, and something else i didn't realise on the occasions i flicked through it at bookstores - there are some really good recipes in there.

i also had a surprise the other day - when i went to the city library to get garlic & sapphires, i was informed that there was a book i had requested waiting for me. i nearly said no, that's not mine, then i remembered i had put someing on hold ages ago - kaavya viswanathan's how opal mehta got kissed, got wild and got a life. then when the poop hit the fan and she was pulled off the shelves, i assumed the book would never make it to melbourne. but i was wrong. i'm now reading it and i can't help judging it really harshly. but i'll persevere, and let you know what i *really* thought of it in spite of the scandal (i just realised theres a little 'precious stone' link happening between those two titles. and i'm sure there'll be garlic in the curries lurking within kaavya's pages. weird coinky-dink, huh).

i just noticed that louise bagshawe has a new book out, too. she must crank 'em out! i should get back into it, too. i mean, seriously - it can't be that hard, right??

oh yeah, one more thing - i looked myself up on the city library catalogues (it's just like auto-googling, only more obssessive). anyway, one of my books was listed as 'withdrawn'. i was confused - what does that mean? does it mean that someone from the library read it and went pffaff! why are we stocking this tripe? i hereby demand it be withdrawn from the collection!
i had to know, so i casually asked one of the city lib staff what that status meant. she said that usually it meant that the book was damaged beyond repair, and unable to be put back on the shelves, hence withdrawn. well, that's nice to know. made me feel a whole lot better, that. so now i'm thinking a member of the public read it and decided the only proper thing to do afterward was set fire to it. or they decided, after reading it, to tear each page out very, very slowly, and then feed each page to their dog. or insinkerator. or worm farm...

or maybe someone borrowed it and took it on holidays somewhere exotic like, say the greek isles or tahiti or hey! even fiji! and they were really looking forward to reading it and they were saving it for the days they were going to lie on a the deck of the yacht and just, you know, like, laaaaze, and just as they fished it out of their stylish tote, they fumbled the tiniest bit and the book went flying out of their hands, bounced off the bright white deck and slipped splashlessly into the crystal clear water. and so there it is. on the bottom of the ocean, as yet unread and sorely missed. sleeping with the fishes somewhere exotic.

or maybe someone just spilled pumpkin soup on it at their pod at work and now they're in real trouble cause not only did they wreck the book, but they also got busted for having food at their desk. i dunno. it could have been anything. why are you asking me?