Dead Lines

Saving Franchesca, Melina Marchetta 

A Gathering Light Jennifer Donnelly

Hating Alison Ashley, Robin Klein

Charlotte’s Web, EB White 

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling

I hate the organised person’s grand piece of advice to the procrastinator. Just set yourself a dead line and stick to it.  Okay sure. Oi, you, fat kid over there. Just use your will power and don’t burry your face in that bowl of Smarties. Easy.

But this week I had a deadline and I didn’t set it myself. Consequently, I have ticked a number of books off the ‘to-read’ list.

I paid fifty cents for Charlotte’s Web two years ago at a Lions Club second hand book store set up in a shed.  Oh what an amazing day that was. There is nothing better than taking your pile of books up to the old man behind the counter and, after using a pencil to scribble down some numbers on a scrap of paper, he looks up at you and says ‘I am going to have to charge you twelve dollars for these love’. Oh, okay.

At the time of the purchase I thought I had already read Charlotte’s Web, but for fifty cents who could say no. At about page six things started to become a little new to me. Turns out I had watched the movie when I was younger and started to read the book, but never finished it. So unlike me. You will be pleased to know though, the pig lives.

Hating Alison Ashley, however, was one that I certainly had read as a kid. And loved. I was fixated with the name Erica for years after that book. Yet, as I was re-reading there was something that I couldn’t get out of my mind. Something that was really ruining the experiences for me. Delta Goodrem. After seeing the movie all I could picture was Delta Goodrem as Alison Ashley. How could they! They have managed to turn Alison Ashley into someone you hated to love - into someone you just hated.

Now why wasn’t that essay on a topic that I actually had an opinion about!