BBBBBbbooooookks!

I am not a massive fan of shopping centres - I avoid them if I can but today I required the services of a same-day engraver. Because I am unorganised. And forgetful. So there was only one choice - spend 30 minutes in the car to get to the nearest shopping centre with said engraver. I admit I did this grumpily. Possibly even petulantly. sigh. Whilst I was waiting for the exorbitantly priced engraving to take place, I eye-spied  a bunch of Pensioners lurking about a stall in the middle of the mall. In my experience, it is often a good idea to check out things that interest Pensioners because they are a canny lot and know a bargain when they see one. I elbowed my way through the pack ( these Pensioners were jolly tough and were immune to gentle throat clearing coupled with"excuse me'") So glad I did, for it seems a local library felt the need to divest itself of some books. One of the Pensioners thrust one of those green type shopping bags at me and said "Here fill it up for $5". I couldn't believe my ears but I knew she was an Official Friend of the Library because that is what her handmade name tag said in all its glitter-glue glory! Well I didn't need to be told twice and I jumped right into the fray and 2 laps of the table and one crushed toe latter ( never underestimate the crushing power of orthopedic footwear!) I had a bag so full I could barely lift it! This is my stack ...

Oh my - if only it was holiday time - I could slouch about and read them all - one after the other. Alas I will have to wait a few weeks. I love this one called yilpinji . It is full of Aboriginal stories and art about love.

Now I have to admit I am not much of a gardener and frankly the only reason I would buy a gardening book would be if it had "gin" in the title. Or came with a bottle of Gin. Or Tequila.

This week at Uni we had the good fortune to have a squizz at an amazing fossil replica.

It was really beautiful and the technology that was developed to capture it is also quite remarkable. One of the books I found today is about Fossil Invertebrates and has lots of cool pics like this one :

I also found this amazing book on piercing and body decoration. The photos are awesome and catalogue piercing as ornamentation along geo-cultural lines as well as contrasting contemporary piercing with traditional piercings. Check out these pics:

 

A Masai woman from Kenya with massively stretched piercings.

 This bloke has 137 body and facial piercings - can you imagine the racket when he goes through the detector thingy at the airport?!

I still have trouble sleeping on the side that has a stud piercing in my upper ear - I can't imagine  trying to find a comfy spot with all of these. I think on Festive occasions it would be very tempting to weave all those loops with colourful ribbons though ...

What an amazing assortment of books huh? So now I feel less begrudging about having had to make the journey. My toe is still sore though - damn  Ramboesque Pensioners!