Welcome to the Stressed Edition of Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts, hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

1. The picture above sums up my week (without the co-existing depression bit). Basically, ALL THE PANIC has set in – the school year ending, Christmas looming, up to my eyeballs in work and the house looks like a tip (it’s a slippery slope when I have crap all over the place…). Incidentally, that image comes from a 1960’s advertisement for an anti-depressent called Triavil (is it meant to be a before or after shot…?).

2. Our new government has reneged on election promises to fund education and schools. I won’t bore you with the details (Australian readers have heard enough in the news and overseas readers don’t need the nitty-gritty). I can usually keep stuff like this in perspective but this decision has made me so, so angry. Our Prime Minister said this –

“We want the state schools of this country to be even better. We want them in fact to develop the best characteristics of the best independent schools, the principal autonomy, the parental engagement, the high academic standards … that’s what we want to see in all schools …”

I find that insulting. Particularly the bit about parental engagement. And then our Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, said he didn’t believe there was an equity problem in Australian schools. Well fuck, what Australia is he living in?

3. Some readers are die-hard print devotees, resisting e-books at all costs. I’m not one of those readers – I divide my reading between hard copies and e-books and firmly believe that there’s room in the market for both. I particularly like it when publishers take advantage of mediums, for example Caroline Smailes clever 99 Reasons, which wouldn’t of worked as a print book.

This week, I bought a book that simply must be owned as a hard copy – S by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst. The cover is designed to look like an old library book. Open the book and find margin notes, postcards and photographs slotted between the pages, maps, and even a coffee-stained napkin. It’s extraordinary and a book that I’m sure will be a ‘reading experience’.

4. Look at how happy this is:

5. The drums are in the house (garage). He loves them.

6. A new Costco opened in Melbourne. They’re selling 5kg jars of Nutella. Might be handy for this.

7. Cue ALL THE YAYS for my ARC of Maggie Shipstead’s Astonish Me. Looking forward to starting it.

Check out this interview with Shipstead. Needless to say the bit where she says she had to do lots of research about the seventies because it was before she was born didn’t make me feel old and unaccomplished. No, not at all.