It really is time I resurrected this Friday feature as I trawl through the by-ways and backwaters of the intertubes, looking for wacky and interesting stuff. Well, okay, it may not be interesting to you, just to me. We have to be clear on who's running this show.
Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I've changed the song titles.
I really like the "Letters of Note" weblog. It posts scans of letters from one notable to another, often with very funny results. Who, for example, would have thought that Enid Blyton would feel compelled to write, in 1964, to then Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies about some derogatory remarks he made about a book of hers.
Narelle Harris is the author of The Opposite of Life, a Melbourne-based vampire novel. She told the "Campaign for the American Reader" weblog what books she was reading. This was posted in December 2009, so loko on this as a Christmas list.
The "Detectives without Borders" weblog loved Peter Temple's Jack Irish novels and The Broken Shore, and then discovered the South African-ness in the author's novels Identity Theory and In the Evil Day.
The Bookhugger weblog posed the questions: "When using real places and real historical figures in your fiction, do the familiar elements make it easier for the reader to focus on the core of the story? How do you stop it becoming a distraction? And do you take liberties to meet the needs of the story?" And James Bradley, amongst others, had answers for them.
Nicholas Jose, who was general editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, was asked by the "Five Books" weblog to name his top five Australian novels. Interesting list as well.
And lastly, here's a weird name for a weblog: "I Wish I was Ern Malley". Seems to have died, unfortunately.
