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Sally Murphy, Australian author

366 Books February Update

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Two months into the National Year of Reading, means two months down in my attempt to read 366 books this year. That means it must also be time for an update.
So 31 days in January, 29 days in February means, by now, I should have read 60 books. And guess what – that’s exactly where I’m at! On target to get to 366 books. These are the books I read in February:

34 Come Down, Cat Sonya Hartnett Penguin Picture Book
35 The Outcasts John Flanagan Random House Young Adult
36 Quinn’s Riddles Aleesah Darlison Walker Children’s
37 Willow’s Challenge Aleesah Darlison Walker Children’s
38 Krystal’s Choice Aleesah Darlison Walker Children’s
39 Ellabeth’s Test Aleesah Darlison Walker Children’s
40 The Secret Signal Simon Haynes Bowman Children’s
41 Poetry Matters Ralph Fletcher Harper Trophy Non Fiction – Writing
42 HipsterMattic Matt Granfield Allen & Unwin Non Fiction
43 Darius Bell & the Crystal Bees Odo Hirsch Allen & Unwin Children’s
44 The Coming of the Whirlpool Andrew McGahan Allen & Unwin Young Adult
45 Sam, Grace and the Shipwreck Michelle Gillespie Fremantle Press Picture Book
46 The Bicyle Colin Thompson ABC Books Picture Book
47 Tin Toys Bruce Whatley Random House Picture Book
48 The Jewel Fish of Karnak Graeme Base Penguin Picture Book
49 A Bus Called Heaven Bob Graham Walker Picture Book
50 Vampyre Margaret Wild Walker Picture Book
51 Desert Boys Peter Rees Allen & Unwin Non Fiction
52 The Flying Emu Sally Morgan Walker Children’s
53 Foal’s Bread Gillian Mears Allen & Unwin Adult
54 The Carousel Ursula Dubosarsky Viking Picture Book
55 Assault Brian Falkner Walker Young Adult
56 The Red House Mystery AA Milne Adult
57 Matilda is Missing Caroline Overington Bantam Adult
58 Bom! Went the Bear Nicki Greenberg Allen & Unwin Picture Book
59 Rudie Nudie Emma Quay ABC Books Picture Book
60 Equinox Lara Morgan Walker Young Adult

If you are quick to count you might notice that although I’m up to 60, I actually started the month ahead, and so didn’t quite read a book a day during February. There are a couple of reasons for this, to do with school going back, writing commitments and speaking engagements. But there are also some books which need more than one day to read.  For example, Peter Rees’ Desert Boys took almost a week to get through – which was well worth the effort, although it took me close to not meeting my quota for the month
As with January, I’ve linked the titles above to the reviews of the books, where I’ve reviewed them. If there is no link it means I haven’t reviewed the book – most probably because it isn’t Australian (in January there were some Australian books which I didn’t review because I was sending them to Claire to review instead).
A new month started today – that’s another 31 books to get read! I look forward to keeping you updated with my progress.
I hope you’re  still celebrating the National Year of Reading.

366 Books January Update

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It’s a new month, which means one month of my National Year of Reading challenge has passed. If you haven’t been reading my posts, or following my updates on Twitter or Facebook, I’ll explain.

This year is the National year of Reading here in Australia. Hooray! A whole year of focus on one of life’s great treasures. All around the country there are events,promotions and challenges designed to get people of all ages, from all walks of life reading more – and loving it! You can see details of the goings on at the official website.

So, I woke up on the first of January and thought to myself – wow, it’s the Year of Reading. I wonder if I can really make it a year of reading, and read a book for every day of the year. And before I could stop and think about it, I’d told the world that that was what I was trying to do. And people have encouraged me,  so I’ve run with it.  You can see my original post which explains the parameters I’ve set for myself, here.

Anyway, it’s been a month, so I thought the end of the month (or, in fact, the first day of the new one) was a good time to check in and see how I’m doing – and, so far, I;m doing fine. 31 days of the year down, and I;ve read 33 books. Here’s the list so far, with links to the ones I’ve reviewed on Aussiereviews.

1  Straight Line to My Heart Bill Condon Allen & Unwin Young Adult
2 Only Ever Always Penni Russon Allen & Unwin Young Adult
3  Harry’s War John Heffernan Omnibus Children’s
4  Just Like That Janet Poole Mountain View Self Help
5  Shadrach Meindert Dejong Harper Trophy Chidlren’s
6  Nanberry Jackie French Angus&RObertson Young Adult
7   Extinction 2 Lizzie Wilcock Scholastic Young Adult
8  The Filth Licker Cristy Burne Frances Lincoln Children’s
9  Crow Country Kate Constable Allen & Unwin Young Adult
10  Note on the Door Lorraine Marwood Walker Children’s/Poetry
11  The Golden Door Emily Rodda Scholastic Children’s
12   Lily Gets Her Wings Elizabeth Pulford Scholastic Children’s
13   Animal People Charlotte Wood Allen & Unwin Contemporary Adult
14  Lily Has a Secret Elizabeth Pulford Scholastic Children’s
15   Button Boy Rebecca Young & Sue deGennaro Scholastic Picture Book
16  I Heart You, You Haunt Me Lisa Schroeder Simon Pulse YA Verse Novel
17  Froi of the Exiles Melina Marchetta Penguin Young Adult
18  The Red Bridge Kylie Dunstan Windy Hollow Picture Book
19  Nog and the Land of Noses Bruce Whatley Scholastic Picture Book
20  How Now Brown Frau Merridy Eastman Allen & Unwin NonFiction – Memoir
21  Revenge Gabrielle Lord Scholastic Children’s
22  Selected Poems TS Eliot Faber and Faber Poetry
23  Lola’s Secret Monica McInerney Penguin Contemporary Adult
24  The Little Refugee Ahn Do Allen & Unwin Picture Book
25  Cooking the Books Kerry  Greenwood Allen & Unwin Adult
26  Flood Jackie French Scholastic Picture Book
27   City of Lies Lian Tanner Allen & Unwin Children’s
28  Bilby Secrets Edel Wignell Walker Picture Book
29  The Biggest Estate on Earth Bill Gammage Allen & Unwin NonFiction – Memoir
30  Selby Sprung Duncan Ball Angus&Robertson Children’s
31  For All Creatures Glenda Millard Walker Picture Book
32  Autumn Laing Alex Miller Allen & Unwin Adult – Literary Fiction
33   The Attractor Factor Joe Vitale Wiley Self Help

You can see I’ve read a real range of books – across age groups, formats and subject matter. So far 7 picture books (yes, I know these are short and help my total, which is why I’m only counting them if it’s the first time I;ve read them AND I review them), 10 children’s books, 7 young adult, 4 adult fiction, 4 adult nonfiction.  Lengthwise they’ve ranged from the picture books to  one of over 600 pages. Some have taken more than one day to read, and one of the challenges I’ve had is to not worry about the tally so much but to really enjoy each book. It’s not a race – it’s an adventure.

I must say that the big revelation for me has been that setting myself this challenge has helped me rediscover some of the fun of reading. Yes, I;ve always loved reading, but as a reviewer with an always-large review pile, sometimes it feels like a chore – especially when I feel guilt about the size of that pile. Suddenly, in January, my pile is going down and I’ve also allowed myself time to read things not in that pile.

Onto February. I’m halfway through two different books at the moment – because I’ve decided to read a chapter of a writing book every day. And, looking at my pile, I have some great reads ahead of me in the next 29 days. I’ll update you again soon.

In the meantime, I would love to hear about any challenges you are participating in this year.

Sally

Things that made me smile this morning

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Another glorious Monday morning in Murphy-world.

Things that made me smile this morning:

One. Waking up with the knowledge that my beloved is here with me for another week, instead of 300km away like he usually is on Mondays.

Two. Diving into my pool and swimming a dozen laps of butterfly (it is not a big pool). At the start of the summer I could manage about 5.

Three. Swimming along the bottom of the pool and watching the way the bubbles rose to the surface – wearing goggles opens up a whole underwater perspective.

Four. The chapters of  today’s book I read over breakfast and morning coffee.

Five. The dragon illustration fellow author (and all round nice person) Gabrielle Wang emailed me to wish me a happy Chinese New Year – along with a rejoinder not to sweep the floor today, lest I sweep away my good luck. An excuse not to sweep the floor? Love it!

Hope you are smiling too!

366 Books – First Update

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It’s 20 days since I woke up on New Years Day and decided (a little impulsively) to set myself a challenge – to read 366 books this year (you can read my initial post on this here). So I thought it might be time for an update.

So far, I’m right on track – I’ve managed 20 books in 20 days. This is my list so far:

1. Straight Line to My Heart Bill Condon Allen & Unwin Young Adult
2. Only Ever Always Penni Russon Allen & Unwin Young Adult
3. Harry’s War John Heffernan Omnibus Children’s
4. Just Like That Janet Poole Mountain View Self Help
5. Shadrach Meindert Dejong Harper Trophy Children’s
6. Nanberry Jackie French Angus&Robertson Young Adult
7. Extinction 2 Lizzie Wilcock Scholastic Young Adult
8. The Fitlh Licker Cristy Burne Frances Lincoln Children’s
9. Crow Country Kate Constable Allen & Unwin Young Adult
10. Note on the Door Lorraine Marwood Walker Children’s/Poetry
11. The Golden Door Emily Rodda Scholastic Children’s
12. Lily Gets Her Wings Elizabeth Pulford Scholastic Children’s
13. Animal People Charlotte Wood Allen & Unwin Contemporary Adult
14.  Lily Has a Secret Elizabeth Pulford Scholastic Children’s
15. Button Boy Rebecca Young & Sue deGennaro Scholastic Picture Book
16. I Heart You, You Haunt Me Lisa Schroeder Simon Pulse YA Verse Novel
17. Froi of the Exiles Melina Marchetta Penguin Young Adult
18. The Red Bridge Kylie Dunstan Windy Hollow Picture Book
19. Nog and the Land of Noses Bruce Whatley Scholastic Picture Book
20. How Now Brown Frau Merridy Eastman Allen & Unwin NonFiction – Memoir

I am really enjoying keeping track of my reading in this way, and seeing just what the spread is of age groups, genres, formats etc. Of the 20 so far,  18 are Australian, 7 are young adult, 7 are children’s/younger readers, 3 picture books, thee for adults (one fiction, two non fiction). There is one collection of poetry, and one verse novel. Allen & Unwin and Scholastic are well represented in the list of publishers – which is a reflection both of the number of books those two produce and the number they send me to review.  Another interesting statistic is in the gender balance – four books by male authors and sixteen by women. Interesting because there has been no conscious decision there, it’s just how it’s fallen.

So, how do I choose my books. Usually from the top of my review pile (which is actually not a pile but a shelving system in my office. I shelve them in the order I receive them and generally read them in that order. But this year I am trying to read more  books not from my review pile, and have started a little pile of books I want to read for the first time or re-explore. Also, I do occasionally move books up my review pile if I’m simply hanging out to review them or f I need a shorter read. For example, whilst I was ploughing my way through Froi (almost 600 pages), which happened over four days, each day I also read something shorter.

Am I still enjoying the challenge? Yes. No regrets at having set it for myself at all.
Will keep you updated as it expands

Hope you, too, are having fun reading whatever you can during this National Year of Reading.

Oh, BTW – where I’ve reviewed a title in the list above, I have linked to that review!

366 Books in 366 Days

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Happy New Year to you!  I had a pretty awesome 2011 but am really excited about the promise of a brand new year and loving that 2012 is the National Year of Reading. Also really excited about my role as local ambassador for Bunbury, WA.
I had toyed with the idea of a reading meme for the National Year of Reading, but there are so many other really good ones already that I hesitated to add another which might duplicate what was already being done.
But then I woke up this morning and had this great idea for a reading challenge for myself. It’s the YEAR of reading, isn’t it? So what if I could truly make it a year of reading my reading a book for every day of the year? That would be 366 books in 366 days (the leap year gives me the chance to squeeze in an extra book).
No sooner had I formed the idea than I was tweeting and facebooking it, so suddenly I’d made this partly formed idea into something I’d announced to the world. But hey, making it public might motivate to actually do it – or to give it a darn good shot.
So, yes, I am going to try to read 366 books in 2012. These will come from across genres and age groups, so they will range from picture books through to very serious works of literature, and nonfiction too. I’m already an eclectic reader, so don’t plan to change that too much.
However, to avoid the urge to just sit down with my picture book collection and read my way through the first 366 of those, I’m making a rule for myself that I’ll only count picture books that I read for the first time, and also review – because the time it takes me to read and review a picture book is equal to reading a much longer book. 
Where possible I will review the books I read on Aussiereviews, if they fit within Aussiereviews parameters – ie I only review Aussie author or published books there, and don’t review a book if I can’t review it mostly positively.  But I have also decided independently of this challenge that I need to spend a bit more time in 2012 reading stuff that I don’t plan to review – because there are so many wonderful books from overseas, and classic books, and childhood favourites and so on that I never get around to reading because of my focus on Aussiereviews. 
So here’s my plan:
1.      .Read at least 366 books in 2012.
2.       Keep a list of these, and chronicle my progress on my Nameless blog and on Aussiereviews, as well as through social media (twitter and facebook)
3.       Review those which can be reviewed on Aussiereviews
4.       Include as many as possible that I read because I want to (whether or not I’ll be reviewing them)
5.      Only include picture books in the 366 if I also review them
6.     Lastly, and importantly, I’m only going to stick to this challenge if I enjoy it. If I find myself beating myself up over getting behind, or not blogging about it often enough or whatever, I’ll stop. Reading should be fun!
I’ll keep you informed with my progress as much as possible. Would love to know if anyone else decided to give this idea a shot.
Now I’m off to do some reading. Happy National Year of Reading!

New Friends, New Roles, New Books – and the National Year of Reading

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Last night I had dinner with the members of my new bookgroup. To clarify, the group isn’t new – but I am new to the group, having been invited to join because a member is leaving. I’ve wanted to be part of a bookgroup for ever, but never managed to find one with an opening for a new member. Then this one kind of fell in my lap, when I met up with a lovely lady I knew when I lived in Donnybrook 12 years ago and hadn’t seen since. We ran in to each other at an event at Bunbury Library (where Jessica Rudd was speaking), and, a week ro so later, I was asked if I’d be interested in joining the book group.

Anyway, Iwas delighted to meet the rest of the group’s members last night over a pleasant meal at Casellas on the Marlston waterfront. And I’m looking forward to being part of the group properly in 2012. It’s especially lovely to be joining a group just in time for the National Year of Reading. What a wonderful way to celebrate the year – sharing the reading experience with a group of fellow booklovers.

Also special for me in 2012 is that I’ve been asked to be the Bunbury Library’s local ambassador for the year. I met with Karen Dennison from the Library last week to discuss about her plans for the year. I’m really excited about being asked to take on this role, and about the various activities planned.

I’m excited too about the fact that I have a new book baby coming out in March – again during the National Year of Reading. Do Not Forget Australia has been several years in the making, and is really looking good. Watch this space for more information.

Lastly, I’m excited about the whole National Year of Reading. There are some brilliant National and State Ambassadors who will be spreading th word to young and old about the value of reading. There are all kinds of activities planned, online bookgroups and memes springing up, and just lots of buzz about the year ahead. Of course, every year should be focussed on reading, but in 2012 there will be a special focus which, hopefully, will remind the whole country just how wonderful – and vital – reading is.

What are you doing for the National Year of Reading?

sallymurphy.com.au