“why didn’t you tell me about summer reading?”

So, my little brother – (all schoolies’d out for the time being) has begun his attempt at the mammoth of all literature feats; Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Meanwhile, all  I have managed to do since Uni finished is flick through several issues of Frankie, a few old copies of Inpress and the  occasional Kmart Catalogue.

December the 12th means that I have two and a half months of study free summer ahead of me and no reason not to brush up on my literature knowledge.  There are several wonderful bookshops in Melbourne that I have discovered lately:

1. Borders – Yes, the mother of all bookstores, especially now that I have subscribed to the wonderful email discount voucher system (you really should too!) Borders has everything you could want, except for Voiceworks magazine, which is really annoying because I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Anyone know where it sells??

2. Brunswick Bound – Sydney road’s awesome bookshop full of art, music and film books and more…

3. The Paperback Bookshop – Bourke St, CBD, between Spring and Exhibition – A good collection of everything….

4. Mary Martin Bookshop / Cafe also on Bourke St: they don’t have everything but alot of popular titles and they are extremely cheap! I knocked a total of 5 Christmas presents of my list in this place alone!

5. Minotaur – I haven’t yet been to but apparantly its the number one destination for all you graphic novel fans out there.

6. Readings Bookshop - Lygon Street, also has a window advertising places to live if you are homeless but can pay rent

If there are any gems that I am missing out on please inform me!!

Anyway, my current list of books for this summer (mainly gleaned from the reading list of the Literature subject I failed in first semester) are as follows:

Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte: I found this on my sisters year 11 book list and decided it was there for the taking until next year. So far, so good.

On The Road – Jack Kerouac: Have heard mixed reviews; angry feminists claiming the flight from domesticity demonises women as the domestic oppressors of masculine freedom ( I believe the term ‘momism’ is somehow related). Alternatively, it is Seth Cohen and Marissa Cooper’s favourite book in season 1 of the OC “This could very well be the first stop on the pancake tour of North America”.

The Catcher in the rye – JD Salinger: Ok, I simply HAVE to know what all the fuss is about! And what the hell the title means.

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulker: I started this earlier in the year and now really want to know what happens.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young man – James Joyce: Ditto. We discussed it in the tute which I hadn’t done the reading for, but sounds like a topical book regarding the oppression of the church into people’s personal lives.

The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath: I read a piece of ‘creative journalism’ on Plath as well as looking briefly at her in feminist theory and I really want to read this for the sake of having read it if I am honest.

A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway: I really love Hemingway’s short stories and I feel like I should pay him the respect of reading at least this one short book…

The Davinci Code – Dan Brown: Ok, don’t laugh! Again I’m about five years behind the stampede. But  it’s something I feel I should have read…

On Green Dolphin Street – Sebastian Faulks: I got this at an awesome secondhand bookshop on Glenferrie Road after reading Birdsong and I haven’t managed to get into it thus far, but Faulks will surely draw me in with time!

Monkey Grip – Helen Garner: Ok, I have had an urge to read this book ALL YEAR and everytime, something better has managed to come along and beckon me away. But I will get to it, at some point.

White Teeth – Zadie Smith: For curiosities sake, really.

I realise this is a highly ambitious list for two and a half months worth of well spent time. Realistically, if I get through four of these I think I’ll be doing well. So, if anyone reading this blog has read any of the above books and can elaborate on my ignorant pre-concieved ideas of them, please do! Did you like them? Are they worth the effort? Any I should eliminate? If not, what else do you suggest? Please share!

to zine or not to zine….

Just a few short days ago, life was hectic. I had too much work, too many assignments and not enough time. Now, looking four months of study-free existance in the face, time seems endless, empty and unexciting.

Yesterday, I went to Sticky – an independent publishing shop that sells various Zines, Graphic Novels, and other self-published goodies. Despite my aspiration to be published, I hardly knew what a Zine was until a few weeks ago reading about the ‘Riot Grrrl’ Zine fad of the 80s and 90s – a feminist forum for mostly white-middle-class American punk and alternatives attempting to be heard. Zines rose in popularity immensely in the 80s due to the availability of photocopiers and the convenience of mass-production … they were cut-and-paste style brochures, handwritten, often with poor graphics or personal cartoons. At Sticky, there is still alot of Zine’s looking just like that. Others are a bit more advanced, pretty colours, sophisticated designs, glossy paper, evidence of the 21st century and the existance of photoshop. I bought one zine entitled Murder Can Be Fun, an anthology of zine work called Doris, and another self published book of random stories. It got me thinking about making my own zine, after all, it seems like the simplest way to get your name out in the field of writing and publishing. But exactly how I will slant my zine I don’t know. I have alot of pretty photos I used in my ‘vintage photoshoots’, alot of short stories and articles I’ve written for Uni… but how it will all fit together I’m not too sure. Also, does printing your work in a Zine mean that actual publishers or magazine’s won’t publish it because it’s already been distributed? I don’t want to waste my best work in a crappy pamphlet if there’s a chance an actual publication would print it.

While contemplating the relatively empty summer that lies ahead of me, I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to write as much as I could and see if I’m really serious about it. My growing concern that for a 2nd year creative writing major I have done pretty much crap all in terms of actually getting my writing out there is starting to buid into a panic. So really, I now have the time to really research the industry, practise my ‘craft’ and try to get something published! It’s kind of scary though, as with anything, because of the fear of failure. But it’s a risk you have to take to get anywhere, so… no excuses. This Blog is the perfect place to write my ass off, and I’m going to do it.

Today I designed a potential zine cover – with the same title as this blog. I’m going to keep working on the potential zine as well as other stuff. I need to buy some more of the magazine’s I’d be considering submitting to: Voiceworks, The Big Issue, Frankie…. and I need to find out about a truckload more like them (if they exist!). Maybe volunteering for a local newspaper wouldn’t go down too badly either. Lot’s to think about. I’ll keep you informed!