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Elizabeth Kostova’s fine work (Time Warner, 704 pages) was a surprise in many ways, not least of all for the accolades implied in the descriptions and coverage of the services provided by libraries, and how effective and efficient librarians are.

Almost a ‘gothic thriller’ – not my favorite genre, generally speaking – Kostova’s description of the research process would indicate an intimate personal familiarity with the methodology.

This isn’t a book for the squeamish, though. And the librarian who falls under the influence of the Dark Side reminds me more than a little of a colleague from my own past. That aside, for those who enjoy enforced persistence in space and time jumps (again not me, usually) this one will be a challenge in maintaining plot cohesion.

Shelve below adult eye level.

If you liked Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, there’s a good chance you’ll also enjoy John Fasman’s The Geographer’s Library (Penguin, 547pp). Heck, even if you didn’t like Da Vinci, you might still enjoy this one.

The Times Literary Supplement says “highly entertaining … keeps the reader guessing”, at least according to the blurb on the back cover. And they’re not going to make something like that up, are they?

Found the writing a little heavy at times, but the plot makes the effort worth while. Unfortunately though for library professionals, there isn’t a lot of information regarding the classification scheme used in the protagonist’s personal book collection, nor no mention of any policies or procedural documentation, so I guess that the term ‘library’ may be being used a little too freely here. But it’s definitely a good read. Shelve this one at eye level.

It’s officially the first day of the season; the environmentally unsound mercury has been over the ton for most of the day, cable TV vendor Foxtel is in meltdown - with only the cricket game available out of the 48 channels we pay for, and to top it all off there’s the world’s biggest blowfly (or maybe smallest helicopter) buzzing around the computer, secure in the knowledge that it won’t be sprayed that close to expensive hardware.
Stopped by the shop on the way home from work to get some wrapping paper and a birthday card for Grouchman, who turns 20 years old on Sunday. Others who’ve been through the same exercise know how difficult it is to find a card that manages to say ‘clean up your room before I kill you’ in some non-agressive, non-violent way whilst simultaneously providing some sort of birthday greeting.

I prepared for today’s shopping futility by spending a lot of the week’s reading time revisiting Erma Bombeck. How I miss that woman! But her words never spoke truer. “Stretch marks over 90% of [her] body”, and she cant’ get a smile out of her teenagers. I guess they’re all adults now - I wonder how they feel about what their mother wrote about their behaviour?

Now when I get around to writing the chronical of daily domestic life here and get to Grouchman, boy - is that going to be a story mothers will relate to!