50,000!!!!!

Wow...it's just ticked over midnight in Australia and the counter has just tipped past the 50,000 hits mark. THANK YOU to everyone who reads my blog, and thanks to those who drop by for the odd visit. Recently, there's been a stack of you from the Ukraine...why, I don't know...but hi, and welcome!!

On the go at the moment, I have Vikram Seth's An Equal Music. Re-reading for the first time in ages, and loving my recently scored first edition. Also on the go, Zachor, I Remember. Will you? A memoir from the Holocaust by Vera Freidin, mother of a good friend of mine.

Book junkie issues #1

New series...prompted by this pic from Facebook this morning:

So, 'fess up people... Who's actually given into this urge?? I have, a few times, and have ended up with a predictable range of responses... There are the curmudgeonly types, who don't want to speak to anyone, hence hiding behind their books. I understand. I have my days like that too! I hesitate to disturb people who are dug in with coffee at a cafe with their book, but I have initiated conversations with people on buses and trains when I was commuting. Someone broke into my reading on a plane a little while ago when I was reading The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul to ask me if it was as good as the hype said it was at the time...and I was pleased to be able to say that yes it was. I'd bought it in the airport bookshop before the flight, and was about a third of the way through it when she asked. And, no, there isn't a post about it, because it was read during one of those messy periods when I was travelling a lot and not blogging much...but it may see the light of day at some point next time I re-read it.

Confessions please - I'll take your stories in the comments...!

Extra special bookcase porn - secret passages

I don't know what it is about even the idea of a secret passage... There's something magical, alluring, and mysterious that I find quite irresistible. I'm sure that one of the things that got me hooked on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was that the children got into Narnia through the wardrobe! I remember going to an open inspection just before a house was auctioned, years ago in Adelaide. The house was one of the old ones in a southern suburb - complete with a creek halfway down the huge back yard, that you crossed via a little wooden bridge to get to the orchard at the very back (an orchard...). The whole house was a bit of a fantasy really, but the thing that made me never forget it was the upstairs. There were three bedrooms up in the roof - not little pokey attics, either. They were large airy rooms with big dormer windows (with window seats...) and delightfully mad random sloping ceilings. The best thing was that you wound around narrow passageways in the roof to get to them. The passageways were too narrow and convoluted - especially to the room I'd have claimed as mine if I could have had the house - to be called corridors or hallways. They had an air of secretiveness about them, and that room in particular was tucked away and very private.

I was sent this link on Facebook this morning and just had to share it with you. When I went to Google images for the pic, I found many, many more... If you love a hideaway to read in peace, you'll enjoy these, I think!

http://bookriot.com/2012/11/02/10-kick-ass-secret-passage-bookshelves/