inventory of what's beside my bed

the kettle is boiling and bed is where i'm headed. after a day of running around trying to buy a recording device [sounds very asio] to start my interviewing tomorrow, as well as helping 8-year-old to realise her dream of making a hotel out of cardboard boxes* , bed is a place where i love to read. and this is what you will see beside my bed, not that you will actually ever get there:

three new books purchased today
1. Dead Europe - Christos Tolkas. i think he wrote head on, that torrid gay-boy flick? it was very full on
2. Istanbul - Memories of a City - Orhan Pamuk. Cok guzel bir yazci.
3. Tasting Life Twice - conversations with remarkable writers by Ramona Koval.

Then a pile of other books, unread, waiting:
The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzard
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Captain Correli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles - remember that Debra Winger movie, weird in the desert somewhere, perhaps she had a wax
The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
A Fine Balance, Rohan Mistry**
Snow, Orhan Pamuk. Yes I know there are two of his here, both unread.

Then there are partly-read but as yet unfinished:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers [ this is what i'm actually reading at the moment, in between nw and the age, and blogs]
Out of Place, Edward Said

There is also Candelo by Georgia Blain. I read it a few years ago, but want to revisit.

Also the Lonely Planet Fiji guide that my ex-husband left here when he was visiting in February. How fortuitous!! Perhaps a browse and trip to Fiji with my honey needs to take place??

Also the Age Good Food Guide which they sent me for free when i signed up for home delivery. must say it is nice to just stagger out and get paper from lawn rather than stagger up road to milk bar to get paper.

Then there is the Quarterly Essay with Germaine Greer's Whitefella Jump Up piece which is partially read. Will return to this in a planned future post, to be entitled There's Something About Germaine.

Next: 2 x New Weekly mags, the one featuring celebrity drug confessions on the cover, Angelina - HEROIN, Nicole Richie - HEROIN etc as well as Sadie Frost's cocaine-degraded nose.
Also the latest one with lovebirds Jen Aniston and Vince Vaughan. I know i've said it elsewhere, but his arms look really big...

Inventory continues: 1 x hardback library copy of Allan Ahlberg's The Giant Baby.

Then several clipped news and magazine articles:

• various kid-type activities to do on school holidays [which is like now]
• an advertisement in melbuni postgrad newspaper for a creative writing competition. which i will never enter because i haven't got time. although i did have an idea of something i could knock out the other day, now what was it???
• the gwen stefani exercise regime [NW]
• recipe for 'impossible pie'
• small article on potatoes
• leek recipe
• oxtail recipe
• article on english language's "black holes" ie why don't we have a word for the action your head makes when you are falling asleep while sitting up? > whipnap is suggested. i like it.
• article by literary agent on how hard it is to publish these days
• soup recipes from different cultures
• tribute by helen garner to elizabeth jolley
• book review on "Keeping the Faith: Collingwood, the Pleasure, the Pain, the Whole Damn Thing. Ooops, may have now blown what i might get someone for a present

i am tired from carrying all the books in here and then back again. kettle is boiled. to bed.

* this project was accompanied by plans and ideas which meant i had to cut out several shoe boxes as well as two empty tissue boxes. they will be stuck on top of each other, opening outwards to approximate a high-rise hotel. there is a lift-shaft at the right which runs down all floors. this has been cut out already. there will be ground floor reception, first floor dining and kitchen, second floor is luxury suite, third and fourth floors, budget accommodation [they are the tissue boxes you see.] it's just in its infancy, but will be a grand construction once finished. the architect [8-year-old] and builder [moi] had a few artistic disagreements, but she listens well to my ideas, and we do work quite smoothly together. she called me a genius when i suggested how to show a view into the kitchen through swinging doors.

** love love loved his other one, the one about the family, called family matters?? or something similar.