Down Under Views

First off, to all you good mothers out there, happy Mother’s Day. I hope it’s filled with relaxation and love.

Mother’s Day used to be hard for me. I don’t have the kind of relationship with my mother that warrants me even sending a card. I know that seems harsh, but not all mothers are good mothers. Unfortunately, I’m descended of a line of not so great mothers. I don’t want to say ‘bad’ because the women of my bloodline have gone through some pretty horrendous things. But that’s no excuse to continue the cycle.

However, you may notice that I said ‘used to be’ hard for me. Not is. Well, that’s because I know life is a state of mind, and I have decided to look at Mother’s Day not with the sadness of a scarred daughter but with the hopefulness of a mother to be.

I’m not pregnant, no, but some day I will be. Some day I will have a daughter, and I will do better by her. I will be where the abuse stops and the love begins. I will make sure she knows that I love her and I wanted her long before she came into existence. I’ll let her know that I was scared, but I still wanted her.

And, when she’s old enough, I will tell her why we never visit grandma.

To all you good mothers out there who know that respect is not insisted upon by blood but is earned – always earned, have a wonderful day. Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep letting your good mother and your daughter, your sister good mothers and friend good mothers… Keep letting them know how wonderful they are. Because for those of us with not-so-good mothers, well, we need a good template so we can grow to be the good mothers we never had.

This whole moving thing… Well, this whole ‘unpacking’ thing is taking a lot longer than I expected. It would help if my other would do his side of the unpacking, but I can’t say anything until I’m fully unpacked.

The good news is that my writing space is starting to emerge from all the chaos.

I have a lot to sort out (like getting a chair) in my new writing space, but I’m already getting excited about it. It’ll technically be a writing and craft space, but it’s all good – and it’s all mine.

The door you see on the left is one of two sliding doors that can close off the lounge. The bookshelves on the right divide the writing space from the lounge space (recliners, television, etc). The picture doesn’t do the space justice; the table is as tall or a bit taller than I am (five foot, six inches). It also has an extra middle piece underneath to make it even longer.

Even better? Behind me (taking the picture) is a space filled with boxes at the moment, but it our soon to be reading space complete with bookshelf, bean bags and pillow! I can’t wait to take pictures of that…

Do you have a reading and/or writing space(s)?

Moving Tip #3:

Make sure to leave a book or two out so you have something to read after you have packed but before you’re moved and can unpack…

Sigh.

…otherwise known as 9997 Novels I Haven’t Read.

I saw this post on Mad Bibliophile a little while ago and became curious. I usually don’t pay attention to those ‘must read’ lists because I haven’t read many classics and, frankly, I don’t intend to. Great Expectations may be a great literary work, but I’m not seeking it out.

Big whoop, right? Who cares what I choose to read?

Well, I saw that post and thought that, out of 1000 book, I had to have read some.

Wrong. Make that a few.

Out of that big ol’ list, I have read a total of three books:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
Wuthering Heights
Flowers for Algernon

Yeah, I know. It’s not the most thrilling list, is it. However, I would like to point out that there are a couple I didn’t add in because they put ‘the x series‘ whereas I had only read one. And, though tempting, I didn’t include all of the ones where I had seen the movie and not read the book.

To be honest, I still don’t care about those ‘must read’ lists; this one just gave me a bigger laugh than they usually do because of all the books I haven’t read.

If you have or do go through this list and post about it, let me know! Or let me know how you feel about these sort of lists in general.

Do you read more than one book at one time?

A week away from pretty much everything (the internet!) and everyone (my husband!) I know, and you think I wouldn’t be taking along any books?

Crazy.

By the time this post goes live, I will be saying goobye to my husband as he drives back home. I’ll pout a bit, go back to my room and get to doing what I’m going there to do: write. It’s self-examination time as well as writing time, but that’s another tangent.

I’m disappointed the my husband and I will be splitting off for a week starting on Valentine’s Day, which is probably why I’m not talking about Valentine’s Day…

Even though I’ll be there a week, I don’t want to pack much. I used to be a pack rat and after one embarrassing trip, I always try to pack in moderation. That’s why I haven limited myself to bringing along three books – none of them fiction because that’s what I’ll be working on.

The first book I have selected is The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I figure that is a pretty good book to have along with me for a week of self-examination. Plus, I’ve been wanting to read it for a long time.

The second book I have selected is Writing Down the Bones. This book is more sentimental value than anything else, as it is the book that got me through when I was diagnosed with depression back at university. Something about reading that book makes me feel calm and helps me to remember that I can get through anything.

The third book… I debated about bringing a third book at all, not wanting to overload myself with reading when I have writing to do. I finally settled on The Artist’s Way. There is a section in there about fear, which will apply to my writing life as well as my self-examination of late.

So there are my three choices, for better or worse.

If you were going somewhere next week for a whole week, which three books would you take with you?

Last week on my expat blog – The New Australian – I wrote about ‘Blogging Naked’. It’s my wish that, from here on out, I get rid of the fear of being found or judged and blog as I truly want to blog. With some of my blogs, that means that I write out the thoughts I have been dealing with for a long time. With others, it simply means taking charge and exploring some possibilities.

But then I come to this blog. My wonderful book review blog. Wonderful in my eyes, of course. I imagine it’s just one of many to others.

The first thing I want to do for this site is make it a site. I’m betting that some of the people who visit here aren’t even aware that there is a main DownUnderViews.com site. Right now, the .com and the .com/blog operate more or less as separate entities. My plans for the future are to nuke both and then have one entity under the .com

Don’t worry – I’ll be saving my archives.

The next thing I want to do is revamp my giveaway shelf and get some better titles on there. The Wednesday book game has dropped off a bit, which is nice for saving on shipping but not so great considering that I want to uphold my standing as a regular international giveaway blog.

Then, the posts… I’m not sure what else to add in here. Would you like to see author interviews and guest posts? Or maybe more bookish news. My friend Elisa likes to report on books that are made into movies.

Then again, maybe you like the blog just the way it is. I don’t know. So, if you feel the want to weigh in on the direction this site takes, please do. Goodness knows I need the suggestions.

I keep looking at all of these reading challenges happening lately and, well, I want to participate. It sounds like such fun to challenge yourself to hunt down new titles, read things you might not normally read, get away from your ‘safe’ genres…

And yet, I am a writer. I’m even pickier with my reading than the usual moody reader because I have to periodically stop reading certain things.

Right now? No fiction. Non-fiction has been fine, but I have only been reading books on writing. I’m a pretty easily influenced writer (great for inspiration, not so good for reading and writing at the same time), so I want a ‘clean slate’ while I’m working on the first draft of my novel.

After the first draft is done? All clear.

Are there any writers out there who also love reading? (You would think they’d go hand in hand.) Are you influenced by what you read? Do you have to stop reading certain things depending on what you’re working on?