Travellin' Penguin

I have a book journal that has four pages dedicated to each book I read. . There is room for name/author. Type of book- ebook, audible, soft cover, etc. A place for publishers info. You get it.

There is also room for a photo if you like. Writing and character ratings. Overall ratings. There is a page for thoughts. Then the third page has questions.  Best character and why?  Worst character and why? Is this book a page turner? How did it make you feel? What were the main themes? The writing style? And last but not least did it have a good ending? These are fun questions to answer. But the last page is a page I’ve not encountered before in any book journal I’ve looked at. What scenes do you remember from this book. 

Not everyone is a visual learner. Reading a book to me is like watching a movie. I see the locations, the people, the animals, the emotion as if I’m in the same room with them. I can even visualise shapes to a book.

I have a friend who cannot visualise much at all but hears the book in her head. She can hear the sounds, the voices, the language. She cannot visualise what she sees coming up in a book. I find it all very interesting as I am not auditory at all. I could never hear to count syllables in a word as a primary school child. I don;t hear accents unless really pronounced. Lectures were difficult if I didn’t take notes. 

I just finished three books that I put in my journal and I decided to think of two or three “movie” scenes from each book so I can write them down in my journal. I didn’t realise it would be so much fun.

So here goes. 

What scenes did I remember from Two Women Living Together by Kim Hana and Huang Sun Woo? This was the book of the two Korean women who bought a house together as they didn’t want to get married and end up living with a mother-in-law or having to spend a life time in domestic duties.

***Looking back I can see them moving into the house they bought together and organising the furnishings in it.

*** I can see the two cats they live with and how they treat them like family members.

In the book The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

*** I see four images. This is the story of the four people who were brought back to current days from past centuries. I even vividly imagine their clothes.

*** I can see our narrator in the room when she first meets Captain Graham from the Franklin expedition 1830s and is asking him questions about the past as he tries to adjust to what she is telling him.

*** I can see the narrator and Graham in their now intimate relationship acting as though they are a modern couple and hanging out.

***I can see the past scenes of Graham telling his men aboard the Franklin ship that the food is contaminated and spoiled and the reactions of the men. 

And last but not least I have images in my head from the book Time of the Child by Niall Williams. The story of the found infant who the doctor and his daughter Dorothy save and Dorothy as an unmarried woman in the 50s wants to keep and raise as her daughter.

*** I see Dorothy hiding upstairs in the house trying to keep the baby quiet while the doctor sees patients in his surgery downstairs. I see the layout of the bedroom.

***I see the local Priest coming to her front door and Dorothy and Graham sending him directly into their parlour so he doesn’t know there is an abandoned baby in the house. I remember thinking how in the world do they think they’re going to get away with this as time goes by. Where can it be hidden?

*** I remember Dorothy sneaking out of the house one winter’s night thinking she must leave the village with the baby in order to keep it. The street is snowy, the lights are dimmed due to the falling snow and wind. Her scarf is wrapped around her head.

With the images now embedded in my mind I know I won’t forget them as I wrote them down and thought about them. I know you could ask me about these books in the future and these are the memories that will remain and I should be able to discuss the book around those images. For me it will contribute to my memory.

I also realise I can transfer images into my diary as I wrote about events that happen on a daily basis. I don’t need to write today I had coffee in town at such and such cafe but I can visualise the memory and write a description of what I see in my mind. The server had green in her hair and earrings I liked them as they were gum leaves. The croissant was toasted and the coffee was in a cup I’d not seen at that restaurant before.

I like descriptive writing and this seems to make my own writing in journals more alive. I know it isn’t a new concept but recording images is a new  concept for me. 

Do any of you do the same thing? What makes you remember what book you read and what happened in that book?  I’d love to know.

Truganini Walking Track Photos in Tasmania

(There are photos here of Aboriginal people who have passed.)

Yesterday our photo club had an excursion for an autumn bush walk. We were on the look out for fungi and fall colours. However we didn’t find much of either as Hobart has had quite a dry autumn on this side of the state. There has been much more rain in the south west of the state. Speaking of that I leave on the 3rd of May to join a fungi photography tour in the southwest of Tassie so I should return with some lovely fungi pictures. 

But back to Truganini. Truganini was one of the most well known Aboriginal women in Tasmanian history. She was from Bruny Island and lived through the violent period of the colonisation known as the Black War in the 1800s. Her life reflects the displacement and survival of Tasmania’s Aboriginal people during the 19th century. 

The track we walked on is named for her. Near the top of the track, a short side path leads to a memorial to Truganini, adding a reflective cultural element to the walk. 

From where we began the track is a steady up hill climb. It is roughly 1 1/2 to 2 kms long (1.2 miles). To see the memorial one must go off on a side track and climb a very steep hill. We didn’t have the time or the breath to do the whole track in our allotted time before going off a the Picnic Basket cafe for a drink or piece of cake.

I settled for a chocolate milkshake. Lovely. We had ten members in the group and some great discussions took place about photography, camera settings and life in general. 

The track is only minutes from central Hobart and on a bus route. 

Other than that excursion, life has been quiet. I finally got my health back. I had an inflamed cranial nerve that goes to the inner ear. I couldn’t walk properly and I felt like I was falling down.  I also couldn’t keep anything down.  Fortunately with a good general practitioner, lots of rest and adjusting my blood pressure medication, yet again I am now back to normal. I actually walked about 4.5 kms (2.8 miles) yesterday, as I took the dogs out once home from the photo club excursion. No problems at all. 

Come evening I was comfortably settled reading our book club book for May which I am really enjoying. The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabbi Alameddine.  It takes place in Beirut Lebanon during the Civil War of the 1970s and is quite comical in parts as well as being very serious because of the events at the time. But more on this later.

I have also been listening to Slow Trains to Venice:  A Love Letter to Europe by prolific British travel writer and journalist, Tom Chesshyre, known for his slow journeys he writes about. The narrator is David Thorpe and he is very good. He describes the rides through several countries on trains and he does’t miss much. He can waffle on at length at times but overall I am enjoying hearing his descriptions of people, trains, accommodation and food. I don’t mind the history but sometimes he does get carried away. I want to hear about the day to day events, food and people and he does describe quite a bit of that. I see he has a big series of travel writing books so that must be all he has done over time. I had not heard of him before. 

Well that’s all for now so I hope everyone has a good week coming up.

I love autumn so much!! What is your favourite season of the year?

Had coffee in town yesterday. I enjoy sitting with coffee and my journal at Fullers bookshop cafe.

Good afternoon friends,

Sorry I’ve not been around but I have had a couple of very sudden health issues that got me a big yellow ambulance ride to the hospital. I won’t go into details as it’s all rather boring but I am recovering. It is just taking a wee bit of time. 

I have been reading though. So this will be a bit bookish today.  Irish author Niall Williams is coming to Hobart and will be doing a talk in the auditorium of one of our private schools here. I had read This is Happiness a couple of years ago as one of our book club selections and really enjoyed it. I just finished Time of the Child which I also enjoyed. I would have liked to read another of his books or two but don’t have time before he arrives later in the month. 

Time of the Child takes places in the rural west of Ireland in a cold, dark winter in a small, very close knit village. There is a strong presence of church and tradition in the story.

The story is light on characters. The main ones are Doctor Jack Troy who is the central figure. He is a very thoughtful, observant, morally grounded man. The Child- is an infant, a mysteriously found baby outdoors one night. No one knows who it belonged to. Maybe left by a gypsy within a troupe that had passed through town. It was thought to be deceased by the doctor brought her back to life. 

The village community is a collective character in its own right. The other important character is Dorothy. She is the adult daughter of Doctor Troy. She works as his assistant and lives within the practice with her father. She takes in the baby and treats the infant as her own. She really bonds to this baby.

The problem is this is Ireland back in the 1950s and Dorothy is unmarried so Dorothy and her father keep the baby hidden as much as possible. The local priest would have the child taken from her and adopted out to a “proper’ family. She won’t allow this to happen. That conflict continues throughout the entire book until a resolution at the end.

The book is an observation of members from one household to another. Over the course of the story the reader learns of many characters within the town as the doctor does his work from family to family. By the story’s end we have a pretty solid picture of this village. There are many acts of kindness. There are economic struggles. There are moral struggles. 

I found it to be a gentle book. 

I’m going to wrap this post up here. I’ll write more when I’m back to my energy levels though that is happening day by day. 

I do have some good bookish news.  Fullers bookshop has been shortlisted for Bookshop of the Year in the Australian Book Industry Awards. They stated they don’t get into the business for awards because it’s all about the glamorous lifestyle. That made me chuckle. 

Next week is the Global Book Crawl Australia from April 20 to 26th.. Six bookstores in Hobart are participating. One picks up their passport from any one of the six shops and visits at least four of the stores to get their passport stamped.

There will be prizes and giveaways once you hand your stamped passport in to the shop you began at. Giveaways will be from Libra Audio, Penguin, The Australian Booksellers association and more. If we get the required stamps we’ll get a free audio book from Libro.fm. If a Penguin book is purchased the reader receives a free pack of the ultra collectible Penguin Persona cards. There are six of them. You know how much I love Penguin ephemera. 

I’m hoping for a sunny day to take my camera out and participate in an autumn crawl. Will get some photography hopefully as I walk to at least four of the shops. If the crawl is shared on Instagram one can win $200 Australian Bookseller Association Voucher. 

 Tasmania is also hosting the Island Readers and Writers festival in May. Amanda Lohrey, Hannah Kent and Shaun Tan are some of the guests who will be speaking. It is to be held at the historic Theatre Royal. I doubt I will go as I can’t tie myself into much at the moment. But I’m sure it will be well attended. Tasmania is such a literary state. It’s just wonderful to see how much is happening here. 

Well that’s me for today. I hope not to dawdle so much to the next post. Have a lovely weekend. 

Question: The great Book Crawl is a worldwide event. Have you heard anything about it?