My writing week 51

Hi all,

I had an okay Christmas day with family, enjoying cooking lobster tails for the first time.

Christmas gave me a great excuse to do little writing, but I'm looking forward to the start of the new year to really get stuck into it again. A couple of ideas for short stories have flashed into my head, so I might begin the year with some writing before resuming the editing of Stalking Tigers.

For those proclaiming the book is dead, it might survive a few more years as a report on the radio said that 70% of Australians gave someone a book at Christmas, making books the most popular present. No mention of Kindles either. I gave two books as gifts and received two as gifts, as well as a Collins' book voucher. Both books I received where by Australian authors too.

The London Times had a list of the best 100 books of the decade - even though the decade still has one year to run - and a science-fiction book, The Road, topped the list - even though its author, Cormac McCarthy, would probably be offended by it being classified as science fiction. I thought it was the best novel I read last year, and one of the best I have read in the past decade. I reviewed it here.

I have read five other of the books on the list: 72 The True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey; 54 Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss; 22 The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pulman; 19 The Corrections, Jonathon Frazen; and 7 The Life of Pi, Yann Martel. I don't disagree with any of them making the list.

Happy new year. I am looking forward to a much better 2010.

Graham.

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