Aussie Readers discussion

I'm no footy fan - so I'm with you there Carmel. I'm more of a MotoGP / 125 motorbike racing fan, or rally cars :)

Mandy wrote: "I think POETS day is a cheeky acronym for the last day of the working week Jan. If I recall it's 'P*ss o..."

Yup, that exactly :-)

Not that I got to :-(

Carmel, I actually got stuck supporting Collingwood when I went to the 77 Grand Final (the other draw) on a school trip and every one else was going for North Melb. I felt sorry for the Pies. However, I dont really like footy that much, could go a whole season without watching a game... and the one I chose to watch (yesterdays) was such a disaster, I gave up in disgust. I much prefer Rugby Union. Footy drives me nuts, too scrappy.

FYI Our wonderful Aussie Readers group member Paul has had to stop being a moderator for work reasons. Thanks Paul for your great contributions and look forward to seeing you from time to time in the discussions.:)

P.S. POSITION VACANT!...(lol)
Requirements:
1. Loves Australia!
2. Likes to read
3. Likes a chat
4. Can put up with Mandy and Gail.;D

Yes, sorry folks - I really wanted to be more of a contributor to the growth of this GR section but I just couldn't find more time than what I'm already giving now.

I'm sure plenty of you fellow authors, or partners-of-authors can understand what it's like.

All that said, you can be sure I'll still be hanging around and posting lots of comments :)

Paul.

Paul...we certainly hope to see lots of comments!

No comment.

LOL

Glad to see people got my sad little bit of fun there :D

We love you still Paul. ::kiss::

Thanks Gail - sorry I couldn't be "even more" but as you can all appreciate, Elita commands the best from me ;)

Things have been picking up nicely for us the last couple of weeks, we've had a lot more web-site traffic, reviews are finally popping up all over the place along with requests for interviews and such. It's a great feeling - we're making progress.

Paul.

Sounds good Paul, keep us updated and we're all supporting from the sidelines here.

Hehehe.

Glad things are picking up.

You know what's a bit annoying about working the forums... most of the real chatter doesn't start until about 10pm at night (because they're in the USA)! Of course, I suppose if I was a sane man I'd wake up at ~6am and chatter during their evening-hours :)

I solve that by being in so many forums that I can never get caught up. Not even if I get on during a sleepless night. I don't get the immediacy of chat, but I'm not fond of that.

Now Paul, I'm very happy for you & Elita & your business, but don't let the painting go until your home looks like it's been through a dustbowl! Let us go instead - we'll welcome you with open arms when you come back.

Unfortunately it's still raining sporadically here, need a 2 day dry out and then hopefully no rain for 24 hrs after. I should have done this during the winter time.


Paul.

Here I am in Port Douglas accepting my 1st place plaque.

Great photo, congratulations David.

Yes you look very distinguished David. Congrats on the first place!! I've finished My Small Book Of Poems' and loved it. 'My favourite was 'Loving You'. I'm only up to 'When Autumn Comes Again' in Rhymes of Times but so far really enjoying it. I try to read only one poem every couple of days otherwise I find I read them too fast and don't have time to reflect on what I've read.

Thanks Woodley! I didn't know these guys when they were together. I mostly know Frank Woodley from Spicks and Specks (my favourite show on telly!). But I found this clip on Youtube and it was very funny: Lano & Woodley. Enjoy!

Hey Mandy (Lano), you would love Lano & Woodley. We have The complete adventures of Lano & Woodley on DVD, the kids love watching them, just mention the 'Pengin Outfit' and they crack up laughing. I'm a huge fan of Spicks & Specks as well. It's one of the few TV programmes I watch regularly.

Why thank you Gail & Mandy.

I agree with you Mandy, one should not try to read a book of poetry in one sitting, one at a time to penetrate the senses.

A poem a day
Keeps the blues away

I just noticed that our group numbers have hit 600 congratulations Mandy on your marvellous recruiting.

Well done indeed.

Thanks guys but I think word must be spreading. Plenty of those new arrivals found there own way here.:)

Wow, I didn't know that this book was coming out (16th Oct). It will certainly be very controversial with many different points of view:

Guantanamo: My Journey is the first published account by David Hicks of the years leading up to his incarceration in the infamous US military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, his time as a detainee, and his search for a normal life following release from prison in late 2007.

Written over the last two years, the book dispels myths about David Hicks’s life before Guantanamo and reveals insights into the interrogation techniques used by the US military on Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Publishing Director of Random House Australia, Nikki Christer, said she had greatly enjoyed working with David Hicks as his publisher, and found him to be a talented writer. She expected keen interest in this first published account of his experience. “David Hicks is one of the more intriguing figures in recent Australian history. Most people have an opinion about him, but very few know the truth of his experience,” Ms Christer said. “We’ve waited a long time to hear from him.”

One very happy novelist this morning - recipient of her K3 that I managed to keep a secret for the last couple of weeks :)

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Great news Paul....what's a K3??

K3 = Kindle v3 (this one is Wifi).

I must admit I don't know anything about these things, I thought Wifi was for games, I'm still having trouble working the new DVD player our daughter got us last Christmas.

Paul wrote: "K3 = Kindle v3 (this one is Wifi)."

Does it have 3G capacity?

Gail,

No, I didn't bother with 3G since we'll invariably take the Acer laptop with us everywhere and it has 3G-broadband already. Wifi works great for connecting here at home and most hotspots. I had no problems deregistering and then re-registering for Elita. Even surfed to her WWW page and was amazed it looked quite good even in greyscale.

Paul.

Carmel wrote: "Mandy wrote: "Thanks Woodley! I didn't know these guys when they were together. I mostly know Frank Woodley from Spicks and Specks (my favourite show on telly!). But I found this clip on Youtube an..."

Thanks Carmel, glad to see you're liking the chat. I found goodreads via the amazon discussion boards and I get so much enjoyment out of it. I loved setting up my personal bookshelf and profile then playing around on the quizzes and polls and listopia votes. Eventually I got the nerve to send some 'friendvites' to some of the fabulous reviewers out there who have similar taste to mine and now I'm never at a loss for what to read next! I feel really at home now with Aussie Readers and I'm thrilled you're enjoying it.
Sorry about your braindraining week at work. TGIF!! Let's break out the champers dahling!:D

Paul wrote: "No, I didn't bother with 3G"

We didn't either. I've got mixed feelings about that decision.

On the one hand, it would have cost us an extra US$50, and we don't really need it.

On the other, if Amazon are going to charge a couple of extra bucks to cover data delivery to Australia - whether you get the book via 3G or wifi - it's only right and proper to erode their windfall profits.

You have to get it to wrk first before you can eat into their windfall. >:(

I take it you're having a little trouble with a 3G Kindle, Gail?

Yep. It's not working at all. I don't have access to wi-fi, so my kindle is currently not functional. Paul has been trying to help me but I haven't had any success. I think tomorrow I will try relocating to a spot that has a better signal, see if that makes a difference. If that fails I will have to ring Amazon. :(

Gail "cyborg" wrote: "Yep. It's not working at all. I don't have access to wi-fi, so my kindle is currently not functional."

Only if you ignore the fact that it also has a USB port in it.

While logged in at Amazon, click on the "Your Account" link up in the top right corner.

Then, in the "Digital Content" section, click on "Manage your Kindle".

Scroll down to "Your Orders", find something that you want to download, and from the "Deliver To" drop-down menu to the right of it select "Transfer via computer". That'll allow you to download a file encrypted specifically for your Kindle, which you can transfer to your Kindle in just the same way you'd copy a file to a USB flash drive - drop it in the "Documents" folder on the Kindle.

You can do the same thing with new purchases too - rather than specifying that you want it delivered to your kindle, select "Transfer via computer" for the destination, then manually copy it to the kindle.

Of course, this is only a work-around until you can sort out the 3G issue or possibly invest in a cheapie wireless access point (assuming one can be slotted in with your other networking gear at home, that is).

I haven't been able to work out how to get them onto the kindle from my Amazon account.


Thanks for the help I now have some books to read. :)

Mark wrote: "Gail "cyborg" wrote: "Yep. It's not working at all. I don't have access to wi-fi, so my kindle is currently not functional."
Only if you ignore the fact that it also has a USB port in it.
While l..."

I must admit even though I have 3G that's working I still buy most of my books via my computer in the manner that Mark's described to you because I buy lots of books from ebook retailers other than Amazon. Gail let us know how you get on with Amazon so we can commiserate with you.:)

I've never listened to an audio book but several Aussie Readers have mentioned enjoying them in their posts. I didn't realise that antiquated copyright laws severely restricted the number of books converted into the audio format.

Todays Australian newspaper writes: THREE cheers for Stevie Wonder, who declared a "state of emergency" caused by copyright laws that make it so difficult to put books into audio form. In a short speech delivered to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the blind singer made it clear the rules should not be to the detriment of writers. But when only 5 per cent of printed material is available to the visually impaired, it is scandalous to lock out the 300 million people who "live in the dark and want to read their way into light".

Read more about Stevie Wonder's address here: Stevie Wonder Lobbies United Nations

I'm with David, what's a K3, Paul?

Oops, just saw that's been answered. Do the new Kindles have colour? I know they cost more, but I still reckon you can't go past an iPad.

Re: audio books - I've tried to listen to them, but my mind tends to wander too much and I've found I 'come to' with no idea of what's going on. It's a shame becasue I reckon audio books would be so handy to listen to on an iPod or whatever while doing particularly boring tasks, on long car journeys, sitting in doctors' surgeries etc.

The success of an audio books is dependent on the orator. I have the Stephen Fry version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher´s Stone, it is brilliant for a car trip. I also have somewhere a tape of The War of the Worlds which was also excellant.

The information on the availability of material for the blind floored me. You would think in this day and age we would have progressed a lot more than that.

Carmel wrote: "Also love the "War of the Worlds"-Jeff Wayne's musical version, especially with Richard Burton narrating. I remember when it came out in '78 (feeling old now)& listening to my brother's vinyl copy and being totally mesmerised - oh they were the days, ha:)..."

I had forgotten all about that song Carmel. Check out the "what music are you listening to' thread. I've put a link in there for you.:)


P.S. I'm also a fan of the Tom Cruise 'War of the Worlds' movie!

When I was googling War of the Worlds I came across the story of the famous actor Orson Welles and his 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds (Part 1). At that time radio was the main news source and very trusted. The broadcast was presented as if it was happening in real time and frightening news bulletins "interrupted" scheduled music and eventually the radio station itself "came under attack". There were reports of mass hysteria amongst hundreds of listeners who believed Earth was really being invaded by Martians!

This broadcast is fascinating to listen to. There is still that crackly old-time radio sound but nevertheless it is riveting! I can see why Orson Welles was such a highly respected actor.

Only 81 days till Christmas! Just bought my first Xmas present on the weekend and I see the shops are starting to put up their decorations! Anyone else a real Christmas tragic like me?

Mandy wrote: "When I was googling War of the Worlds I came across the story of the famous actor Orson Welles and his 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds (Part 1). At that time radio was the main news sourc..."
Then they made a tv show called The Night America Trembled which was the basis for a later movie called The Night that Panicked America.