Favourite Quotes and A History of Australia

I've added a favourite quotes section to my webpage.

It has a couple of quotes that I've taken out of Majorie Barnard's book A History of Australia. Despite being over 700 pages long and written about fifty years ago, I am enjoying it very much. It does need a decent map (where on earth is Western Port?), and a chronological list of Governors of NSW and other notable figures. But otherwise it a great read, enlivening and humouring what can be at times a pretty bland history. She is a very good writer. Actually, was a very good writer. I note from a google search that she was born in 1897, which makes her 106-107?

Unfortunately, it is out of print. My copy comes from Blacktown library which I'm still a member of. Every Saturday when I have the kids, we go to Blacktown library and spend about half-an-hour there browsing and choosing books to borrow. It's actually a great problem for me, because I don't have a lot of spare time on my hands, and can always find one or two books to borrow. This does not help reduce the huge pile of books next to my bed, some of which have been lent to me by friends.

At the moment, the pile consists of: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson, A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, Fatal Storm by Rob Mundle about the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race that went skewiff and killed a bunch of people, Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Spirit of Kokoda by Patrick Lin, The Space Elevator by Bradley C. Edwards, Botox, Bumbreath and Bubbles by Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, The Idiot by Dostoevsky, and about half a dozen Scale Aviation Modeller International magazines. Plus a couple of others I can't remember.

I'm not showing off: I'm just distressed that clearly my desire to read outstrips my ability.

Oh yeah, and (frank admission) I had to google the spelling of Dr. Karl K's book. And also to check whether Philip K. Dick has one or two L's in his name. You never can tell.