Emily Paull

In an effort to de-clutter my life, I'm making a commitment to read more of the books on my TBR pile, and each month, I'm going to update this blog with my progress in the form of a reading round-up.  A bit of background: I'm a bookseller, so reading a lot is part of my job.  A large number of new books is published every month in Australia, and while it would be totally unreasonable to expect me to read ALL of them, my customers do expect me to be fairly familiar with the wares I'm peddling.  As I've discovered I just can't read a few chapters and give up (I like to know what happens), this means I read on average 2- 3 books a week! Here are the books I read in January, and a few thoughts I wanted to share on each. The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) by JRR Tolkein Can you believe I have never read the Lord of the Rings before???  I have seen the films, although I barely remember them, as in an act of protest, I  attempted to sleep through them all w...

First Impressions Charlie Lovett Text Publishing, 2014 (I own a copy, courtesy the publisher) When Sophie Collingwood's beloved bibliophile Uncle Bertram dies in an accident at his home, Sophie is devastated, and becomes convinced that something isn't quite right.  But was it foul play, or has Sophie simply read too many Agatha Christie novels?  When she accepts a job at a local antiquarian book dealer, in order to fund her quest to reclaim Bertram's book collection from the dealers who bought it after his death, she is drawn into a mysterious quest for a rare second edition of a book no one appears to ever have heard of.  Not one but two customers are looking for the book.  One, Winston Godfrey, is charming and quickly becomes Sophie's boyfriend.  The other, George Smedley, threatens Sophie and adds fuel to the theory that her Uncle was murdered.  As she gets further into her investigation, Sophie realises that the manuscript she seeks is worth more th...

*TBR = To Be Read, i.e the teetering pile next to your bed of books you intend to read. Since I became a bookseller, my TBR pile has gotten a little out of control. Ok.  A lot out of control.  Here's the evidence. Buying and receiving books is wonderful, and going about it the right way supports the industry I see myself as a part of.  By paying for books, rather than illegally downloading them, I am doing my part towards ensuring that it remains economically viable to continue publishing books at all, and making sure that authors I love actually make a little money for the books they write.  But as a bookseller and a reviewer, I also receive what are known as ARCs, or Advanced Reading Copies, which are unproofed, bound copies of books used for marketing purposes.  And while I tried to keep up with reading all of these in time for the releases of the books they related to, two years on it's become pretty clear that I cannot. I'm not the...

Summer's Gone Charles Hall Margaret River Press, 2015 (I own a copy, courtesy the publisher) My father has always said that if you remember the 1960s, you probably weren't there. Yet Charles Hall's novel, Summer's Gone , recalls the pinnacle of a young man's life during the late sixties and early seventies in such vivid detail, that it's like being transported back in time. The book follows Nick, a young man from Perth who credits his love of folk music with a lie he once told his beloved Uncle Clem about loving the genre.  This was the moment he most equates to the butterfly flapping its wings which will later cause a tsunami half way around the world.  After spending a summer with Clem, and being given the gift of a banjo, everything changes for Nick.  He and his workmate Mitch start a folk band, and they soon meet sisters Alison and Helen who are singers, and form a quartet.  From then on, nothing else matters but music and love.  Alison and Mitch...

This week, the Perth Writers Festival program was launched, which for me, was like the Myer Christmas Catalogue being put out. In previous years, heading along to the Writers Festival has represented various degrees of my involvement with the writing community.  The very first time that I went along, I was invited by a writing mentor of mine and her daughter, and we got on a bus to get there (which was also a new experience for me).  I thought it was amazing.  I had never known that such a thing as a writers festival existed.  It was like going to classes, but fun.  All that separated me from writers I loved and ones I would love was a few rows of chairs.  The next year (at least I think it was the next year), Craig Silvey was a guest, and I got my mum to drop me off for his session.  The room was long and flat and there were so many plastic chairs in the room that it was hard to move or see, but there he was, my favourite writer!  Afterwards, I...

Praise be to the gorgeousness that is Lauren Foley- Writer , who has tagged me as a Liebster Award participant! For those of you who don't know what that is, it's kind of like blogging chain mail, except not as annoying, and no one threatens to set ghosts on you at midnight and kill you. Basically, it's a really cool way to get to know the bloggers your favourite bloggers are already reading, and pass on the love. So thanks to Lauren for this lovely New Year suprise! The Rules  Post the award on your blog.  Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to their blog.  Write 5 random facts about yourself.  Nominate 5 bloggers (they should have less than 3000 followers)  Answer 5 questions posted by the presenter and ask your nominees 5 questions. Five Random Facts About Me... 1.  I am ridiculously scared of heights.  As in, I can manage to be afraid of the second floor of your house.  And if your stairs have g...

I first met Meg Caddy while I was a young writer in residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writer's Centre in the Perth Hills.  As well as being a former YWiR herself, Meg is an award winning short story writer, and runs the young writer's groups at the KSP centre.  She was shortlisted  for the Text Publishing prize in 2013 and her debut novel, Waer, will be published sometime in the near future.  She blogs at www.megcaddy.com Books and Bears Books and bears. Writing and reading books, making and collecting bears.  These things are pretty prominent in the ‘home’ circle of the Venn Diagram that is my life. Books and bears have always been not-so-minor obsessions. My first stories were about teddy bears. As such, when Emily asked me to do a guest-blog, I figured both bears and books had better feature in some way. Big Bear is first on the list, because he is always first on the list. He is my most precious bear. He belonged to...

I just re-read my post about my New Year's goals from this time last year... I was pretty down on the idea of New Year's Resolutions, but I'm always pro-goal setting!  I sat down and assessed how I did, and I won't bore you with the analysis, but while nothing super super major happening in 2014, it was a pretty excellent year. Here's hoping 2015 will be even better! Here are my new goals: 1. De-clutter my life... accumulate less stuff, including books.  This includes keeping my bathroom clean. 2. Read 110 books (I would try to read more than last year except that this year I will be attempting to get my Graduate Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing as an external student through Deakin Uni) 3.  Take more photographs!  Notice things worth noticing, make memories and be more present. 4. Submit stories and writing to 12 journals and competitions-- again, same as last year-- but this year, take the negative responses less personally. 5. Cook more,...