What's with today, today?

As I wrote back in January , one of my challenges to myself this year was to read a book from every continent ( author's nationality + setting of book + language originally published in must all be from the same country in that continent, although I will read them in English) . Since we're now almost halfway through the year, it seems like a good time to report on my progress. I'm actually quite pleased with my progress, but not quite finished with this challenge yet. Here's what I've read so far: Africa : Song for Night by Chris Abani (Nigeria). On the recommendation of my friend Duncan . While all the reviews for this say it's set in 'an unknown country in Africa', the tribes mentioned in the book are both from around Nigeria, as is the author... so I'm calling this Nigeria. Not entirely happy with this one as a representation of Africa though. I do feel this is perhaps written for Western audiences... which wasn't really the point of this...

I finished up the semester of uni a couple of weeks ago, and, as is often the way, completely lost motivation for everything else. I was getting so excited about reading books that are harder going when uni's on, I borrowed two non-fiction books from the library (one on Old English literature and society, and one on fairytales) and I haven't opened them. Instead I have been reading fashion  blogs, considering starting a fashion blog, my last blog post was about food, I even painted a picture the other night, despite my lack of anything resembling artistic talent. By contrast, while uni was on and I was getting more and more stressed and feeling so short on time, I read like crazy, found myself enjoying books more than I have for a while- you know, when you read late into the night and don't want to put the book down. Don't ask me why this is, all I can think is that it's a break, a time for something different. Speaking of fashion blogs, here are a couple that are...

Seeing as it's a long weekend, it seems like an appropriate time to talk about brunch. Brunch would have to be one of my favourite meals, because it goes very well with a sleep in and basically you can eat whatever you feel like at the time. Today I ate a croissant and muesli at 2pm. Why not? Alternately, you could have a burger at 11. It's brunch after all, and anything goes. The one downside is the prevalence of eggs in brunch foods, I just don't like 'em, and some menus have little else. But many do, and here are some of my favourite brunching places in Sydney... Vargabar, Newtown This is my regular, and it's great for having a wide range of options (vegetarian, meat, breakfasty, lunchy, eggs or not). It also does good coffee. Of all the things they have here my favourite is the pumpkin chili hotcakes. They're a savoury twist on pancakes and just delicious. I love the way the dishes here keep changing, nothing seems to be presented the same way twice, b...

A full bottle of wine next to the public phone - Pitt St Bree and Adam Locked 2gether in hatred as it's the closest to love- we're forever - sad toilet graffiti at The Annandale "When the dog that you tattoo on your arse turns into a shark" - Overheard on a train Though contrived, this little story might as well exemplify the mischief that involves us all who take on the job of turning real life into words. Always the essential thing gets lost. That's one rule holds true of every inspiration. - 'The Moon', Jorge Luis Borges "His dad's a novelist" "What, writes books and stuff?" - Overheard Graffiti on a train seen on the morning commute: "Be not a man of success, but a man of value"- Einstein "I just want to go live in Europe... I want to do everything and I want to do it now." (other person says something) "But when? What's the plan? How will it all fit in?" - Overheard o...