Twice Read Books

We are in Victor Harbor the next two days to see the newly completed Causeway, a $43 million concrete and steel project.

We are ambling towards Granite Island when I am jarred by my 9-year old's bellowing: “Mum, keep on walking, just keep on walking, don’t look!”. Of course, I construe this as an invitation to do otherwise and I immediately put on my pedestrian brakes. And there to my left, in all its lovely glory, is a bookshop that is not in my biblio-radar.

My boys know that there is now going to be a (slight) alteration to our day's plans. We compromise. We’ll check out the horses and the camels, have KFC (this has become an imperative segue when we are in Victor Harbor), and return to the bookshop before we watch Spiderman.

Oh, this quaint bookshop. There’s music in the background, comfortable seating, and cool respite after our morning hike.

Here's a shop one would not mind babysitting. Everything costs $5 - a breeze to do the maths. 😊

 

Twice Read Books

5 Coral St., Victor Harbor

South Australia 5211

Mobile: 0421 702 193

 

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It is truly a magical season when the fiddle-leaf bears berries and a tomte is able to make its way Down Under.

And some people say I don't have a sense of humour...

 

The kitchen lab

My 9 year-old has sagely observed: "I know why you like recipe books, mum. It's because you are able to read and cook at the same time."

My happy corners

 

Old worlds, new worlds, other worlds!

The show must go on (with COVID-19 limitations!). 

And our favourite Yoda quote remains:

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Half-time!

I am halfway to reaching my KPI of becoming a centenarian, testing Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones theory that people can live healthy, meaningful, and productive lives up to their hundredth birthday.

If there’s anything that the ancient Romans taught us, a great empire can rise from the rubble and back to the rubble it can crumble. But still, in a half century, a team can soar again to win the Euro 2020. Anything is possible. In half a century, humankind has made the big leap from landing on the moon to joyriding in space.

I’ve learned that it is efficient to travel alone though I have also discovered that it is not much of a joyful ride.  Thank you, family and friends for the journey together and I’m hoping we’ll have opportunities to do carpool karaoke in the next two score and a decade (be it in an electric car or an autonomous vehicle).

Cheers.

Margaret George and historical fiction

There are two things you need to be prepared with Margaret George:

1. marathon reading as none of her books is shorter than 800 pages; and

2. change your perspective regarding her main protagonists (Nero of ancient Rome, Helen of Troy, Mary of Magdalene, Cleopatra, King Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots) as she can create vividly sympathetic portrayals of highly controversial figures in history.

 

Minecraft

Like any book-caffeinated parent, my internal barometer slides from mild anxiety to apoplexy when my child gets transfixed with his digital gadgets. 

I reassure myself that he does read.

 

Today, he said he was building me something special.

He built me a wraparound library.

With an animated book.

I had tears in my eyes.

The Book Keeper

It is a 60-kilometer drive from where I live to the Book Keeper’s shop. I had to marshal my team and get them out of the house on this sunny Australia Day to visit the bookstore I’ve been pining to see the last four months. 

I also had been following the owner’s blog. I am being presumptuous saying this: "I’ve got a kindred soul!"

I finally meet the Book Keeper. I try to look calm, composed, and avoid sounding like I downed five espressos since I left Adelaide. I ply her with my gazillion and one questions.

I dart from one exquisite book-filled shelf to another. I call my son’s attention to the children’s section while avoiding eye contact with my lovely husband who is displaying his look of consternation.

I try to talk to the Book Keeper some more. But customers are pouring in, and I am in their way.

My son hands me his books.  Then he drifts with his father to the bakery next door. 

They know I’ll be in a distant land for some time.

 

 

The Book Keeper Book Shop

Shop 4/ 1 Dawson, Strathalbyn

South Australia 5255

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.

Email: tbkstrathalbyn@gmail.com

Mobile: 0438 847 329

 

 

Sibling love

“The love of siblings is the most unconditional love of all. It is pure and loyal. A love without demand, without expectations or pretense.”

     ― Anoir Ou-Chad