Clearing the decks... sort of

In which I take a few weeks off from my day job to finish a few things before they finish me. Welcome to the August update.

1. TBR Update

I think I have well and truly fallen off the ‘limiting my book buying’ bandwagon, and the reason is this: I am genuinely worried about the state of the Australian book industry.

Whether it be because of the threat of AI limiting what little income Australian writers can make from our work, or the decrease in reading generally, or the fact that the cost of living going up means that people have less money to spend on a new book (which, let’s face it, is pretty high), or the dominance of writers from bigger markets (America and the UK) in our discount department stores and bookstores generally… every writer that I know seems to be doing it tough. Even the ones who are objectively killing it.

It’s hard work to make a go of this career. For some of us, it’s essential to have some sort of day job, and even doing that on a part time or casual basis can mean that you have less energy and less brain space when you do finally sit down to write. For me, it means that stringing together a series of days where I can get into the deep focus that I need to feel like I am making any sort of headway is really difficult. I often feel guilty about the things I am not getting done because I am writing instead. (For a peek behind the writerly curtain, my baseline is a two hour block of sprints I do every Sunday afternoon, provided I’m not required to be the Sunday Librarian that day.)

All this is to say that I started this year with the intention to cap how many books I bought each month. As you all saw, I kept adding caveats to that - it didn’t include second hand books, it didn’t include buying books at events, it didn’t include using vouchers etc… but what needing all these caveats was telling me was that the system was not working. Which means the only way I’m going to get the TBR number down is to make books leave my TBR, either by reading them or unhauling them. I am going to have to become… ruthless.

What’s my strategy here?

• I’ve teamed up with fellow writer and local bookseller, Samantha House, to be my accountability buddy for the monthly TBR balance, after noticing she was doing this on her Instagram too. Having to explain to Sam why the number is going way up instead of down might hold me a bit more to the resolutions I make about reading.

• Reading more. I’ve just done two readathons in a row, so I am ready to keep that momentum going. A huge thank you to readathon buddies Rachel, Jodie and Courtney who made the experience collegiate and fun. Thanks also to the sponsors who supported me and to readathon organisers like Sally who built these challenges into a genuine community. 10/10 will definitely readathon again.

• Using a focus timer. You’ve all heard of Hank Green’s Focus Friend by now, I’m sure. A little bean who needs to focus so he can knit socks is absolutely the most me-coded thing ever

• When all else fails… reckon with myself and with the piles… Reading tastes change over time and I have to admit to myself when I have held onto something because I felt like I should or because a past reading self would have liked it.

Today’s homework is to scale this mountain range.

If you’d like to find out how successful I am or otherwise, make sure you sign up to this newsletter.

2. Fewer, nicer things

I took two weeks off my day job in August to have a ‘stay-cation’ and get on top of some of the tasks that I felt as if were hanging over me, including painting the patches on the walls, doing boring stuff like my tax return, and in theory, getting lots of reading and writing done. I tried not to put too much pressure on myself about what I ‘should’ be doing, and instead tried to focus on letting myself become less like the tightly coiled spring of a person I felt I was turning into.

In terms of other categories of ‘things’ I have a lot of, let’s talk about yarn.

August was the month of ‘stashbusting’ with Retro Claude - a British Youtuber who does vintage knitting, crochet and sewing projects and also talks about the challenges of doing these things while living with a disability and chronic pain. In 2022, Claude counted up her skeins of wool, weighed everything, and embarked on a project whereby every month she checked in about how much of it she had used, what projects she had used it for, and what she could do with what was left. In some cases, because she did not have a lot of yarn left in a particular colour, this involved playing a game of ‘Yarn Chicken’ whereby you try to crochet with what you have and hope you have enough to make it to the end of your project.

I also played a game of yarn chicken this month in the making of a scarf for my friend Simon (who lives in England, so I am trying to get it to him in time for Christmas and their winter) when I ran out of grey yarn when the thing was not quite long enough to be cosy. I tried to colour match with another lot of yarn I had that I thought was pretty close, but I was definitely wrong about that, and I have since frogged* these darker rows and ordered more of the right colour. So much for stashbusting! I may have also bought a few other colours in the same kind because this yarn is SO SOFT. It is the Lion Brand Heartland yarn, if anyone is wondering. Now I have to wait for it to arrive…

Close, but no cigar, as they say…

* for anyone who doesn’t know what frogging is, in knitting and crochet, when you un-do your work, you pull back your stitches… so it’s frogging because you ‘rip it, rip it’. If you love puns, you’ll get the humour in that right away!

While I waited for the supplies to arrive, I also made a book/ Kobo sleeve for my sister, and then had a go at making a mermaid’s tail bookmark with the leftovers. I quite enjoy making these bookshelves, even if I don’t always remember to use them. Ideally, it would be great to have a stash on hand so that every time I gift a book to a friend (remember last month’s resolution that all gifts are books now?), I can wrap it in a handmade pouch.

Both my partner and I explored the hellscape of Marketplace a little bit, and while he’s certainly had more of a go at it than I have (and has the battle stories to share as a result), it is nice to be able to get rid of things that have been held onto purely because you know they cost too much money to give or throw away. The downside is, you also see nice things you want to buy, and as a result I now own roller-skates. Really nice ones though. Don’t worry, I have wrist, elbow, and knee-guards and a helmet. I did break my wrist skating as a kid so I’ve got all the safety gear barring some sort of pillow to strap to my backside for when I fall over. Now that Spring is on the horizon, I’m hoping to find a nice basketball court somewhere nearby where I can practice, and pretend I’m Olivia Newton John in Xanadu. With an audiobook in my ears, of course.

3. A reading list for…

This month, I have been re-reading one of my childhood favourite series, The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce. I started Book 4 again this morning. It’s been great to revisit them and reflect on what parts stuck with me and why, and rediscover all of the things that I didn’t remember. I’m now feeling tempted to explore all of the Tamora Pierce books I never got to (I was an Alanna and Kel girl, and I did read the Wild Magic series and the Trickster’s books, but I didn’t read Beka Cooper or any of the Circle of Magic ones.) They are extremely difficult to track down, so this means I can look forward to trawling different second hand shops.

This is the one book in my Immortals series that I cannot find… hoping that a family member who is going to the holiday house down south will find it because that’s where the other three were… Fingers crossed!

When it comes to things I look for secondhand, they have to be older items and often out of print, or older covers that can’t be ordered new anymore. I don’t know about you, but I really like my books to match.

In lieu of a reading list, I thought I’d share some of the items that are currently on my secondhand bookshop Wishlist - the items that I am hunting for whenever I visit places like Elizabeth’s or the Save the Children Book Sale (which was a few weekends ago, and while I did buy a box full, I did not find anything on my list.)

Yes, this list is part of the ephemera that I keep in my phone, on the notes app. You thought I had forgotten that part of this Substack… you might even be right.

In the comments on this post, please let me know your favourite second hand book shopping spots.

SECONDHAND BOOK WISHLIST (an excerpt)

• Mary B. by Katherine J Chen (who wrote Joan, which I loved)

• Desperate Remedies and Two on a Tower by Thomas Hardy

• The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett

• The Red Rose of Anjou by Jean Plaidy (there are a million Plaidy’s at Elizabeth’s bookshops lately but I have yet to come across this one)

• Terry Pratchett Discworld novels with the covers they had in the 90s

• Novels by Barbara Pym with the green spines (I think they are Virago classics?)

• The Last Man by Mary Shelley

• Edith Wharton novels

• Tamora Pierce novels

That’s it from me this month - I’ll need to get off the internet and get on with my to do list. That pile of books is not going to sort itself.

Before I go, it would be remiss of me not to remind you that I wrote a book, it’s called The Distance Between Dreams and it is a work of historical fiction set in Fremantle in the Second World War era. You can order it at any bookshop worth its salt and catch me at a number of upcoming events.

• Talking about researching and writing history with my incredible writer’s group at the Fremantle Library on Tuesday October 7 as part of Totally Lit

• In conversation with Sharron Booth and Melinda Tognini on Wednesday October 8 as part of Totally Lit

• On the ‘What are You Reading?’ panel at the Festival of Fiction on Saturday October 18

• At Cambridge Library on Wednesday the 29th of October

• and there are a few more events still to be announced or opened for bookings. You can always find my event listings on my website, here.