This is... my current reading material

I'm back on the Mainland and slowly catching up with all of my blog reading. I'm still in anti-climax mode after arriving in late last night and don't know what to do with myself, so catching up on the "This is" posts seems like a good start (rather than, say, unpacking/washing/tidying).

My current reading material, which I arrive at work to every day, looks very much like this:

Courtesy of jepoirrier

... except multiplied across my entire desk and with extra coffee and tea stains on top. I recently went through and organised it alphabetically and arranged them into folders, however my unsorted pile of "interesting new articles" is growing rapidly and I am not sure if I will ever get to the bottom. But surprisingly, I have actually been looking forward to reading my humongous pile of papers. I like to think this is a good thing.

In my spare time I have been plugging away through the Chronicles of Narnia which I am thoroughly enjoying. It is something easy to read that doesn't constantly have funny phrases like basal ganglia (the word "ganglia" always sounds silly to me), gamma-aminobutyric acid or rostroventral lateral medulla, but at the same time has great depth. I have just started reading The Silver Chair. I am quite a hopeless reader when it comes to fiction novels and I have started many books and never finished them. I usually only have time to read when I go to bed, and I only ever read 2 or 3 pages before I fall asleep. So a book has to either be really exciting or really easy for me to ever get through it.


Thank you Champagne Dreams for the theme and to Three Buttons for hosting This is!

This is... my favourite children's book

I adore kids books. In fact, I'm half way through re-reading the Narnia series. I love the simplicity and sheer fun of children's books. And I love the illustrations.

I loved Jim Henson, Sesame Street, the Muppets (I still do! Probably moreso now!). When I was in early primary school, my favourite books was definitely:

The climax in this book is what gets me every time! Our copy is one of those giant books and it's falling to bits from so much reading. I think it was passed down from a cousin originally. This book is all in the telling.

"Lovable, furry old Grover is distressed to learn that there's a monster at the end of this book! He begs readers not to turn the pages, but of course kids feel they just have to see this monster for themselves. Grover is astonished--and kids are delighted--to discover who is really the monster at the end of the book!"

It was followed closely by My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. It goes something like "The cat from Spain flew and aeroplane; The cat from France liked to sing and dance; The cat from Berlin plays the violin... but my cat likes to hide in boxes!" My all time favourite page from this book was "The cat from Norway got stuck in the doorway". I thought that was hilarious.

However around middle primary school, my love for non fiction books was unearthed. My all time favourite children's book was "The body and how it works". (Nerdy, hey?)

I wasn't able to find my original copy to take a photo (it's somewhere in these bookshelves!), but mine was hardcover with a pink spine. This is a copy of the front of the 1998 reprint in paperback.

It covered everything from digestion and the nervous system, to pregnancy and fetal development and I couldn't get enough of it. I used to read it all the time, from cover to cover, or sometimes just flick through it. My favourite pages in the whole book detailed the nervous system. There was this funny picture of a man with his lips and eyes and hands all exaggerated, demonstrating which parts of the body receive the most sensory information. My fascination with the nervous system pages was very telling about my future career path! It's amazing how my passion for my field of research started so young... (and then grew consistently with age!).

Thanks Potty Mouth Mama for a great topic! and also to Three Buttons who is the lovely host of This is ...

New purchase: Lotta Prints

I decided to purchase Lotta's latest book: Lotta Prints. It's been out for a while but I decided to buy it after finding it on Book Depository for just AU$16! I recently discovered this UK based company after recommendations from a couple of good friends of mine. Book Depository ships faster than Amazon, they're often the same price or cheaper than Amazon, and you don't have to pay for postage. Winner! Unfortunately I didn't find out about this sooner. I ordered some things for Gib's birthday that cannot be named from Amazon last week, and the expected time of arrival isn't until August 11 (2 weeks after his birthday! Urgh!). How can it possibly take 5 weeks to arrive? My Are they sending it by carrier pigeon? My Lotta Prints book, which I ordered two days ago, will arrive within a week. Maybe my Amazon order will arrive sooner than that and they are just giving me a generous ETA.

Anyway, I'm excited about the Lotta Prints book. If it's anything like her Simple Sewing book, then it's going to be easy and fun. And a messy too!