A letter to my diary

Dear diary,

I think I’m in love.

The thing is, I think I’m in love… with you.

It’s crazy I’m only admitting this now. We’ve been friends for a while, so I suppose you guessed, based on how frequently I take you off the shelf, run my finger down your spine, open you, smell your pages, shudder over how beautiful you look when I cover you with my small writing in that regal violet pen. I suppose you knew for certain when I told you all my secrets, but then came back for more. Sure, there aren’t many mysteries within your pages, but you kept everything private, even the smallest things.

Somehow, when they were within your covers, my flaws seemed less horrible.

We’ve talked before about how much trouble I had letting myself make that first impression on your pages. It’s because I’ve made mistakes before. But when I opened you up, you took my words willingly and made them a part of yourself.

There have been mistakes. I had a relationship with someone like you in primary school. He was decorated with pictures of cats, but I liked his bright white pages and bold black lines. The way he could lock up made me let my guard down. He wasn’t flashy but eventually, writing on his stark pages made me realise he didn’t care, really. Secrets were housed but not embraced. And he locked everything up too tightly. Instead of absorbing my mistakes and my flaws and my bad days, he held them inside, and released them when I unlocked him, a fresh wave of anguish.

Then there was the one with silver and purple flowers and the purple pages. Mistakes were made, and you can’t use whiteout on purple pages. He sits near you on the shelf, but I can’t open him anymore. Does he tell you what I did to him? I ripped pages out with spelling mistakes and messy writing. I hurt him. He was too perfect for me.

But you are simple. Blue and yellow, held shut with a piece of elastic. Creamy white pages with pale grey lines. You are unassuming but pretty. You don’t intimidate. You accept me how I am.

It pains me to admit that sometimes I look at others. Flashier versions of you, perhaps, or fatter, or brighter or more intricate. But lately, I always resist, because you are at home and you cannot be replaced. There is no substitute.

There’s an inscription on your inside cover, indicating your purpose to hold my hopes, my dreams, my tears. You have done all that and more. My intention for you became your goal. You have lived to serve me.

And now you are close to being finished. Yes, you will be replaced (and I’ll get used to a new one eventually…) so that I can continue my stories, but what will I do with you? Will you be given away to someone in the future, to share my secrets? Will you be thrown away when I move out or move on?

I don’t know your future, but I know I am grateful for all you have done. You don’t just give my words a house, you give them a home.

Love Liz

A Very Short History of the World by Geoffrey Blainey *GIVEAWAY!*

A very short history of the world… sounds simple enough, right? Start at the beginning, and just say everything that has ever happened really quickly. From every culture. Including before humans could write. And not missing anything or going into too much detail.

Simple? Not at all!

Geoffrey Blainey’s book A Very Short History of the World attempts to recount the complete history of human life on this planet, beginning from the move out of Africa and continuing to the present day. It is an abridged version of his A Short History of the World however, let me tell you, it is still a looooong book. And understandably! The world has a long history!

Despite its length, I found this book utterly fascinating. If you are interested in history, geography, politics, war, culture or basically any other part of human existence, then I can guarantee there will be something in this book that interests you. Highlights for me included the final four chapters, which touch on, amongst other things, the rise of the Internet, terrorism, the world wars and globalisation.

The chapter ‘Israel and the anointed one’, about the life and legacy of Jesus, was particularly interesting for me as a Bible-believing Christian. Blainey phrases things very carefully, constantly repeating things like ‘it is said that…’ or ‘his disciples believed…’, but you get the feeling that Blainey really recognises, at least to some extent, the profound significance of Jesus’ life on earth. However, Blainey does write that upon his ascent to heaven Jesus ‘would wait until the day of judgement when he would appear on earth again to punish the wicked and reward the good’. Any good evangelical Christian will correct this statement, as Jesus firmly stated that no one was good, everyone is ‘wicked’ (as Blainey puts it) and we are rewarded with eternal life through Jesus’ sacrifice, not through our own good deeds!

Nevertheless, I think this book has true merit, whether you’re a Christian or not. One single author recounting all of history is no small feat, and Blainey has definitely done a great job. I just picked up on that particular issue because I have a personal investment in it!

A Very Short History of the World has really opened my eyes to just exactly how small a part I play in the history of the world. Instead of finding this discouraging, I actually find it really exciting. The world has had such a fascinating history, and I get to be a part of it! Of course, it’s not all good, but I am astonished that humans have done such amazing things! I mean, we got from grunting to language! We figured out how to build machines and created the Internet. We have built huge structures and tiny iPods. We are creative and intelligent. Human

s are fascinating, incredible creatures, and our history attests to that fact.

Thanks to Penguin Books, I have four copies of this book to give away! If you’d like to win one, either comment on this post, write on the wall of the Facebook page for this blog or email elisabethanera@gmail.com with a sentence about your favourite part of history and why it’s your favourite! I’ll judge the best four and announce the winners on this blog and on Facebook, or I’ll email you if you enter by email.  

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - Book Review

I am a huge Harry Potter fan, so I approached J.K. Rowling’s first non-Harry novel with some trepidation. Though I greatly admired her talent in spinning a complex story, I was unsure of how this talent would translate to an adult novel, rather than a fantasy series.

I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. Rowling’s novel The Casual Vacancy was my first book I read after the HSC and, when I finished it, I wished I hadn’t.

The Casual Vacancy is about the town of Pagford, and the lead-up to the establishment of a new town council member after the death of the previous member. Rowling establishes at least a dozen key characters, which can make the book very confusing at times, however she also brings the skills from Harry Potter that allowed her to create an entire universe to effectively do the same thing, though on a much smaller level. Pagford’s cast of characters is well-developed, and their complex struggles and relationships revealed gradually as the book progresses.

The main strength of the novel is this characterisation. While Harry Potter was a very plot-driven series, The Casual Vacancy is absolutely character-driven, and fascinatingly so. Rowling explores not only small-town dynamics, but also the undeniable truth that all people are inherently different. No two characters are the same, from uncouth, passionate Krystal to troubled, isolated Gavin, and many others. Other strengths lie in the novel’s timely relevance – the internet is a key feature of the novel, especially social networking – and the clever divisions of the book into sections. Rowling’s characteristic third-person limited style appears as in Harry Potter, but this time she narrows in on separate characters for a section at a time, before switching. This allows for an in-depth development of each character.

The book’s main weakness is its length, and its complexity. Though in general it is a fairly easy read, it does require a lot of concentration and thinking to keep track of all the plots. However, I still highly recommend this novel and I can reassure Harry Potter fans that their idol is still a great writer, even when stripped of her boy-wizard.