New Year is organised

Until now my New Year's resolution has been don't make New Year's resolutions.

My study and writing area before the clean-up.
Note cat soaking up sun under the desk.

Now I'm feeling the need to do so, and the resolution is... be more organised.

I generally consider myself a very organised person. As a journalist and subeditor deadlines were not, as some say, guidelines, and I knew what needed to be done, who was doing it and when it needed to be done by, and I could reorganise quickly if a story fell through.

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Melissa Wray, who has won the $50 Dymocks voucher for commenting on the previous post about what her favourite Christmas book is and why.

Deck the shelves...

What's your favourite Christmas book?

When I was a child there were few stories that weren’t set in the white, snow-covered Northern Hemisphere. Nowadays Australian Christmas stories are everywhere, but I don’t mind traditional tales – all that snow has a cooling effect during a summer scorcher.

This is by no means a best-of or even an exhaustive list of Christmas books – the library had been raided by post-storytime toddlers before I got there.

Town hub booked in

Our public library is the hub of our small but growing town, and it so much more than a place to borrow books.

This recycled book Christmas tree
would not have been welcome
in my childhood library!

Students from the nearby primary school use it daily. Residents awaiting internet connection to their new homes use the free internet to pay bills, check email and surf the net. Daily and weekly periodicals are popular with many visitors, particular older residents who walk into town, read the paper or a magazine, then walk home. Brochures list the activities planned over the Christmas holidays, which will provide some welcome relief for parents with a houseful of over-sugared children.

After school, older primary school kids take over the computers, playing online games when they've probably told their parents they'll be studying. Others are playing the video games set up in the back corner.