A Bookish Gift, all the Way from Australia!

A parcel from Australia!

Woo hoo! The postman arrived a couple of days ago with a package for me, all the way from Australia, and a lovely picture of a possum on the stamp! And inside the padded envelope were two parcels, beautifully wrapped in old maps, with a little note from Pam, who lives in Tasmania, and runs the excellent Travellin’ Penguin blog, where she not only writes about the books she reads, but also about her searches for vintage Penguins, and her travels on her motorbike. I love looking at her photographs and reading about her adventures – finding out about other countries is one of the great joys of blogging, especially as I’m not much of a traveller. I’ve learned more about Australia from Pam and other Aussie bloggers than ever I did at school! 

Books unwrapped... the little dogs on each one are like post-it
notes, perfect to use for notes as you read.

Anyway, one little parcel contained a copy of The Carousel, by Rosamunde Pilcher, whom I’ve never read, but I was the winner in Pam’s prize draw for this book, which was a lovely surprise, because I rarely win anything. She did tell me I was the winner, but I didn't realise she was also sending a 1947 edition The Art of Reading, by Arthur Quiller-Couch, because I had expressed an interest in it. Wasn’t that kind of her? And it was so thoughtful of her to wrap them individually – it was like a birthday or Christmas!

'm looking forward to reading both these, but I resisted the temptation to sratr either of them immediately, because I’m off on a day trip to London to visit my younger daughter, and I’ve slipped the books into my bag so I have things to read on the train there and back, and while I’m hanging around waiting if there are any delays (and there usually are). So thank you Pam for the gift of books!