"The Only Photographic Record I have of the evening." (See below.) Let's see.... on Saturday I did an enjoyable panel on graphic novels with
Nicki Greenberg and
Queenie Chan, which ended too soon, and attended a banquet in a museum, sitting between Nicki G and
Elizabeth Honey, during the course of which I bought a Shaun Tan painting in a silent auction for a good cause (it's on
this page and is called
The Sweet Hereafter).
Sunday morning was the Keynote Speech for the
CBCA conference, a mixture of thoughts on children's literature and poems about children's literature. Then I signed books, with a slightly desperate edge because I only had about a hundred minutes before I was due on the next panel -- a fun one about influences, with
Garth Nix and
Isobelle Carmody. Finished the line with about three minutes to spare. Did the panel. Then signed more books.
Then Eddie and Anne Campbell and Garth Nix and I went to have a drink with the lovely Chloe,
who was, as usual, not wearing anything.
Walked back to hotel. Walked past a Lush, thought hah! and nipped in and bought one of the blackberry comforter bars. Got back to hotel. Had bubble bath (
with normal sized, non-lovecraftian bubbles). Rejoiced as I stretched out in the bath in how there was lots and lots of time before I had to get back on the road...
The bathroom phone rang. Anne and Eddie were in the lobby. I had somehow zoned and lost half an hour. Hasty shower-off and threw on clothes and ran downstairs...
Dinner with my old friends Peter Nicholls and Clare Coney and their son Jack, along with Anne and Eddie, which meant I got to introduce the Campbells to the Nichollses (and their marvellous, book-lined home). Not to mention their dogs, who took a shine to Eddie. For some reason, the only photographic record I have of the evening is of Eddie Campbell and two dogs.
This morning was interviews, then a reading and Q&A at the Melbourne library, then a signing which went on for a while... soon I will leave in a taxi for a literary dinner and signing. Tomorrow I fly to Sidney and read and Q&A and sign some more. And now I'm going to hit post then do absolutely nothing for twelve minutes.
Nothing at all.
It'll be wonderful.
It's time for another roundup! Here's what I read and liked (and in one case, loathed with the white-hot fury of a supernova) in the last month of 2007.
By the Numbers
Total Number Read: 57
Teen: 14
Tween: 8
Children: 19
Preschool: 23
Standouts
Teen: Beastly by Alex Flinn
Tween: Donuthead by Sue Stauffacher
Children: Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex
Preschool: TIE Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup / Penguin by Polly Dunbar
Because I Want To Awards
Longest Subtitle, Like, Damn: Flora Segunda, Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House With Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau S. Wilce
I Want My Frickin' Fifteen Minutes Back: Mars Needs Moms by Berkeley Breathed
God, I Wish I Could Have Finished This One But I Was Stupid and Read the End First: The Princetta by Anne-Laure Bondoux
Should Totally Be a Graphic Novel: Hero by Perry Moore (review forthcoming!)
Should Totally Be a Movie Except Those Twerps in Hollywood Would Screw it Up Because That's What They Do: The Extraordinary & Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle by Catherine Webb
Well, that's that for December. On to January!
My New Year's resolution is to post more, and write the reviews as soon as I'm done with the book and it's all fresh in my mind 'n' stuff. I also resolve to do more picture book reviews.
What's your New Year's resolution?
It's been a bad week, blogging-wise. I was one sick puppy, and the things that came out of my nose, well, you don't want to know, that's all. But back to a better schedule next week!
Here's what November was like, book-wise.
By the Numbers
Books read: 57
Teen: 18
Tween: 16
Children: 16
Preschool: 16
Standouts
Teen: The Silenced by James DeVita (review to come!)
Tween: So Totally Emily Ebers by Lisa Yee
Children: Permanent Rose by Hilary McKay
Preschool: Ballerino Nate by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (review to come!)
Because I Want To Awards
Longest Awaited: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
Better Than I Expected: Before, After, and Somebody in Between by Jeannine Garsee
Not Actually On My List of Stuff to Read: Ethan, Suspended by Pamela Ehrenberg
Most Likely to Prompt a Book Challenge: Hellbent by Anthony Gowan
Just Plain Weirdest: The Greedy Apostrophe by Jan Carr
A year ago, I started keeping track of my reading via LibraryThing. Now it's time to see what I read:
By the Numbers
513 books in all (however, this isn't an accurate count because I didn't start recording picture books until September). That's about 1.4 books a day.
257 teen books
182 tween books
182 children's books
54 preschool books (since September)
It doesn't add up quite right because some books I put in multiple categories. Very few books were only tween, for example. But you have to admit, that's a heck of a list. Even I didn't know I read that much.
Read-iest month:
September 2007 (84)
Adjusted for inclusion of picture books
November 2007 (45)
Top five tags:
friendship (113)
love (80)
funny (75)
historical (71)
danger (40)
Most surprising tag:
Spanish Inquisition. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. (Oh, come on. You totally would have made that joke too.)
Interesting. I always knew that I loved YA books the most, but I expected tween and children's books to be much further behind than they were. I also always knew I liked that mushy stuff, but the importance of friendship in the books I read was another surprise.
I even find that I remember books better if I've entered them into LT, as if stopping and thinking through the strongest themes or conflicts has impressed them deeper into my brain somehow. Of course, the very best need no LT reminder, but it's good to have a record of the mid-list, so to speak.
Now I'm just waiting for them to put Boolean operation in the tag search field, so I can figure out how many funny books I read in December, for example. Oh my god, I'm such a library geek.
This was kind of neat. I'm going to try and do one of these at the end of each month, just to see what I read.
How do you keep tabs on your reading? Do you?
"The Only Photographic Record I have of the evening." (See below.) 
by Robin Merrow MacCready (review to come!)
Sounds like a good reading month to me! I didn't think I liked Big and Little, until I got to the last couple of pages, and then I was charmed. So fun!