The Maroon Diaries

I watched a movie called Lucy , with Scarlett Johanssen and Morgan Freeman, last night. Nice science fiction flick. The first twenty minutes were particularly brilliant, but then I was sadly disappointed to hear that they made Morgan Freeman repeat that old chestnut about humans only using ten percent of their brains. I mean, come on, the man deserves more respect than that. At least he was getting paid bloody well, I suppose.  I'm surprised that this myth has lasted so far into this day and age of MRI technology, but it is still a very popular idea, and not just in the realm of Hollywood fiction. Why is that? Why do people just accept a statement like that with no evidence, let alone common sense, attached, and go on to repeat it as truth? Is it just because it sounds catchy and profound? Apparently that is enough for many a human brain. But this is not because we only use ten percent of them.  Firstly - where did this myth come from? There are a few different theories about...

2025 was the year I got my reading groove back.  It's been a source of nagging sadness to me that I just hadn't been reading as many books over the last several years. I mostly blamed the discovery of social media addiction. And then this year, I got my new home. I got an armchair from the op shop, and I put it directly underneath the small, north-facing window in the lounge room. I got a footstool to put in front of the chair. And now I have a reading chair. A comfortable chair with a footstool and natural light coming in over your shoulder when you sit in it.  And I started reading more books again.  As it turns out, I still have time for social media addiction, as well.  1. Nocturnes by John Connolly 2004 2. The Knowledge Gene by Lynne Kelly 2024 3. House of Glass by Susan Fletcher 2018 4. Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison 2024 5. Angels and Insects by A.S. Byatt 1994 6. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective ...

Finding some found poetry inside an old copy of Selected Poems by David Rowbotham (University of Queensland Press, 1975) that I found in the free box at the op shop.  That's the thing about found poetry. Someone has to find it.  So Dream  find fires hear the wintered voice  why not twice?  An angel going shoeless today. *** Inhabitant  where creatures build the dead song shall the heart  the world  move now? meet nature with a sorry. Our land, we have unnatural rule as well.  And because of the creature time has let another one  *** p174 missed spilling  split  because to you  the scream you taught but she sent affection  you signalled back love. Not even the memory of Spain made her perfectly adored. blue-eyed you took towards home. there was redemption. Somewhere green.

 Another year, another book list.  1. Circe by Madeline Miller 2018 2. This is Happiness by Niall Williams 2019 3. Lily On The Dustbin by Nancy Keesing 1982 4. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 1990 5. Inspiration Sandwich by SARK 1992 (re-read) 6. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 2013 7. Monkeys With Typewriters by Scarlett Thomas 2012 8. Literary Witches by Taisia Kitaiskaia 2017 (re-read) 9. Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen 1966 10. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur 2014 11. After Story by Larissa Behrendt 2021 12. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood 2005 13. Hansel and Greta by Jeanette Winterson 2020 14. Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter 1984 15. Dearly by Margaret Atwood 2020 16. Home Body by Rupi Kaur 2020 17. Lovers' Knots by Marion Halligan 1991 18. Sugar Crush by Dr Richard P Jacoby and Raquel Baldelomar 2015 19. 12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson 2021 20. Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki 2021 21. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter 2008 2...

I got to go op shopping today before my dental appointment. I have come home and found myself stacking up this pile of books.    Great haul, hey? But what I'm really thinking about right now is something that I often find fascinating - how it came to be that out of the thousands of book spines and covers I scanned in three different shops I came out with this particular pile, out of all the possibilities. It's always hard for a reader to choose just a few books when faced with a large collection. So how did I end up with this pile?  First, of course, there is the delightfully random nature of books in op shops. Nobody has specifically chosen these books for these shops. They have ended up here like flotsam that floated in on tides of post-consumer and pre-loved collections among the community. Staff and volunteers attempt to wrangle the tides into some kind of categories and relegate shelving. And then the fun for me is to find the treasure.  What makes these books t...