Are you a super recogniser or are you face blind? Here's how you can find out.



I've long suspected my daughter has the superpower of facial recognition; it started when she was very young. I remember her seeing an actor on TV when she was about 5, telling me that she'd seen him on stage in Beauty and the Beast in Sydney some months earlier, and then proving her point by finding the actor's photo in the program which was filed away on her bookshelf. Perhaps she has a future at New Scotland Yard...

Modern Manners: An open letter to Loud Man at the gym

 

Dear Loud Man at the gym,

I don't know your name, surprisingly, so I will refer to you as LM, if you don't mind.

Let me begin by congratulating you on how regularly you exercise. You are always at the gym when I am, and I suspect that you are there on the days when I am not. I know you are a creature of habit, because of the way you park your car, and the bag you always carry, but then, most of us gym goers are probably like that.

However, I am fast approaching information overload due to your loud conversations with

1.    people you know at the gym
2.    people you don't know at the gym

Too Much Information

Grass stains, cockatoos, silky oaks and flying foxes

Regular readers might remember my post about spring arriving in Brisbane. The golden pendas have now finished flowering, and the silky oaks are in bloom. They are a type of Grevillea and as you can see in the photo above, they grow very tall.

More about that in a later post...

From my view on the treadmill yesterday, I saw that the change of season has brought another regular arrival at this time of year: cricket matches. The boys in their white polo shirts, long white pants and broad brimmed hats are back on the oval opposite the gym.

We read to know that we are not alone: especially important for teenagers

I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard this quote. I was driving home from work listening to ABC radio and pulled the car over to write it down before I forgot it.

Like many, I thought that C.S. Lewis was responsible for it. It was a line spoken by Anthony Hopkins, playing C.S. Lewis, in the beautiful movie, Shadowlands, which tells the story of Lewis's meeting and marrying Joy Gresham in his late middle age. It is one of the most moving films I've ever seen, and I recently tracked it down on DVD. The film is based on the book, Lentenlands, which I also own. But that's by the by.

In fact, screenwriter for Shadowlands, William Nicholson, is responsible for it. That was a surprise, but really, it's irrelevant. It's the sentiment that's important: We read to know that we are not alone. Books allow us to connect with other worlds, and characters, and writers, and experiences.

How often have you read a book and realised that you are not the only person on the planet who has felt a certain way, or had a particular experience?

I think that this is where good quality Young Adult Fiction is particularly important. How reassuring it is for teenagers to read about a character's experience and think, 'So it's not just me.'

There are so many great Australian YA writers and I have had the privilege of getting to know two: Rebecca Sparrow and James Moloney, both Brisbane writers who have spoken regularly at my school and who write fantastic novels. Rebecca's non-fiction books for teenagers are also brilliant. They truly embody the spirit of 'we read to know that we are not alone'. I can't recommend them highly enough if you have a teenage girl. And if you have a teenage boy, fear not- one is on its way.

I'd love to hear about any books which have been important to you, or recommendations you have, especially for teenage readers. Please share!