Check out the reviews page on the site and enjoy the responses of reviewers to Greylands when it first came out in print version way back when.
We are only able to offer them to you courtesy of the Lu Rees Archive at the Canberra Library, which had copies of the reviews in their fabulous collection. I have donated many manuscripts to the Lu Res Archive over the years as have most of the guest authors who have spoken in our ongoing eVolution debate. Indeed I am assembling all of the material from my writing of The Little Fur series to donate, including original drawings and hand written manuscripts, later this year. I do so, knowing they will be better cared for and preserved than in my shed in a box, and that if anyone in the future wants to look at the processes that went into their making, the material will be there for them to revisit.
The Lu Rees collection is an amazingly valuable resource and record which has had to cope with the changes in how writers work including the tendency to rework the same manuscript electronically until it is perfected, thereby leaving no trace of the stages of it creation. You can read more about the Lu Rees archive and find out about accessing its collection at their website, Lu Rees Archive of Australian Children’s Literature.
And check out the guest post today, eBooks and Libraries, from Rebecca Kemble, who is part of the management committee of the Lu Rees Archive.
Coming from a university library perspective, hard copy books will always be popular. The advent of e-books was inevitable due to how much electronic media the youth of today indulge in. You never see a teenager without their phone in their hand {no longer just a phone but a lifeline to the world} which is way more than the mobile phones we had when they first came out. Never again do you have to be stuck on a bus, train or plane with nothing to read. Just download a book and you will be entertained for hours. I had the good fortune of reading a hardcopy version of Greylands when it first came out.
I love Isobelle’s work. Her books are constantly on loan at my university campus library and we have many titles by Paul Collins whose books get borrowed just as much as Isobelle’s. When a student says they are sick of reading textbooks, I direct them to our fiction section and praise the above authors to them.
I have a kindle and read one or two books a week. But when I want to pamper myself, I run a hot bubble bath, glass of wine at my elbow and I crack open a new book. There is nothing better than breathing in the aroma of newly printed pages and snuggling down amongst the bubbles for a good read. Take an e-book reader in the bath…….never,
I pretty much read all of Greylands while in the bath and I must say I wasn’t too keen to look hard in the mirror after that! I really connected with the heartache in this story and Isobelle’s writing takes me to another place where I can forget about my own troubles. I have read all of her books and look forward to any that she releases in the future whether it is in e-book format or hardcover version. I just love her.
Oh what lovely thins to read on the last few days of this site! Thank you!