Friday 1 August 2014

Winter Shake Up-

It is now very much the dead of winter in Tasmania and we have been having shocking storms. We received 10 - 20 cm of rain across the state in the last three days and there is still more to come.
Our front yard has so much water in it that all three dogs are confined to the house which is making for interesting little tasks related to the kitchen floor.

Seeing the dogs running about the yard trying to dodge raindrops that come down at the speed of sound is quite entertaining.  Towels await by the back door. Mop and bucket are nearby and thanks for old lino on the kitchen floor.

I am in a reading slump well and truly.  I tried to do too much, I tried to keep up with reading challenges, other people's blog ideas, web page links to bookish things and now I have decided that all I really want to do with the next half of the year is to be true to the Penguin who travels Tasmania in search of vintage Penguin books.

My Penguin book collection continues to thrive with a couple of good friends finding them for me on their trips to op shops. I will share some of the newer finds here in future.  I am not doing anymore challenges. I am not going to read from any lists. I am going to read as the mood strikes me. I am going back to my true nature.

I think book bloggers try to do too much.  I have now done about 240 posts to date so I feel I know what the book blogging world is about.  I am going to only read the books that grab me, like I used to do. They might be classics or they might be crime novels. They could be literary fiction, non-fiction or utter trash. I might just read short stories for awhile or magazines.

I am also going back to the format of the "Travellin' Penguin" in that we "travel".  Tasmania is a beautiful state and I am going to show it off more here with my scootering to Op shops and bakeries and mountains with the motorbike sect. It is a big part of my life and I am going to put those photos up. Sometimes there will be a book in the post, sometimes there won't.

I plan on turning my blog into more of a journal. A journal of seeing the world, reading the books I love, talking about the films I see and the plays I read in my play reading class.  Whatever strikes my fancy will be put on this page.

I have planned a trip to go to Melbourne because in the dead of winter one needs something to look forward to. I have rented a little studio apartment in the city centre for 6 nights and I plan on doing bookish and bikish (such a word?) things.    I am also going to see David Suchet (the man who plays Poirot in the BBC series) in the play The Last Confession. More on that later.

This blog will be with me on that trip and there will be photos.  I'm simplifying the blog, I'm simplifying my winter life here and for now I'm going back to the mop and bucket and the towels to finish drying off my very wet friends who share this house with me. Stay tuned, I will be back.

9 comments:

  1. I have turned off Google Comments because it is really annoying. However I apologise to the two people who left comments on this post. I did read and answer them and I thank you for leaving them. However they were deleted when I finally figured out how to turn Google comments off.

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  2. I got your response to my comment - as an email!

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  3. Google took over my comments on blog so noo e could leave a message unless signed up to google. I finally learned how to disable it and go back to normal blog comments. They can be so annoying. Thanks for the comment.

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  4. Thomas, I am using my tablet and I accidentally deleted your post. The words delete and publish were too close together. I will listen to the episode of the Readers as you suggest. Thank you so much for your comment. I agree too that a blog that has lots of pictures and is more of a journal appeals to me also Straight book reviews have their place but I also like to get to know the bloggers and the personal life of bloggers. That is how we develop friends. Sorry I lost your post comment. Technology!!

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  5. Thomas- I resurrected your comment-
    I don't know if you've had a chance to hear the latest episode of The Readers but we actually talk about reading challenges and goals. Much of the discussions has to do with me loving to start them but hating to finish them. That way you get the best of both worlds. You get the fun of planning and making lists, and joining in, with none of the hassle of actually finishing. As soon as something else strikes your fancy, you move on.

    I also like the idea of your blog becoming more of a journal. Those are my favorite kind, even when it is a book blog. I prefer my book blogs to be no less than 60% personal musings. And one can never go wrong with lots of pictures.

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  6. Oh, Pam, I'm so glad to learn that you don't have Google comments. I kept trying to comment, but it was asking me for personal information, and I just couldn't do it. I tried to figure out a way to let you know, but failed at that. So I'm so sorry I haven't been able to respond to your posts!!!

    Secondly, I believe that people's reading evolves all the time. A reading slump is a temporary slough and a good time to write about things. Book blogs evolve as well. First and foremost, read whatever you want to read, whatever that is, and if it's nothing, so be it!!
    Judith

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  7. Thanks Judith. Yes I think Google and Facebook are getting very controlling and to big for their boots. I get really cranky when they change settings somehow that I make to programs. Hope it is sorted and if it happens again I'll just sort it again. haha

    Thank you for your comment. You're right about reading evolving. It really does. Some days I wake up and want to attack the hardest of classics and other days I just want to lie in bed with a tragic romance. There seems to be a time and a place for everything in the book world. Glad I got you back here. lol

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  8. Ooh, pleased google+ is gone as I refuse to sign up. It wants to know everything. Anyway, now I can comment, just to say that I've just been to Melbourne for my 'go somewhere in winter' trip, though S.A. isn't really that different to Melbourne this time of year. But it is nice to have a plan and to act on it!

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    1. I absolutely know what you mean both about getting away in the winter and Google+. It was like a bad dream that kept coming back and messing up my blog. Hope it's gone for good. I'm looking forward to my week away. No doubt you'll hear all about it. haha

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