I have decided to sign up for the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading and Reviewing Challenge after reading about it on the blog : The Resident Judge of Port Phillip.  I am a little worried though… I have a tendency to take on rather too much and can end up procrastinating. But I would like to return to habits of reading deeply and carefully, part of my undergraduate years. Time, career, writing a thesis, family responsibilities have meant that increasingly reading for pleasure was set aside, along with discovering new writers – and those of decades past. I can still recall reading Eve Langley’s 1942 book,  ‘The Pea Pickers‘  and being fascinated by the journey of two sisters who went to work as labourers in Gippsland, when I was in my early twenties.

The Challenge Convenors have set an objective, viz:

This challenge hopes to help counteract the gender bias in reviewing and social media newsfeeds that has continued throughout 2011. It actively promotes the reading and reviewing of a wide range of contemporary Australian women’s writing throughout 2012, the National Year of Reading.

I will  aim to read ten books of either fiction or non-fiction and review four of them. There are a few books published in the last couple of years that interest me – including Anna Funder’s All That I Am.  In the non-fiction field is the thesis turned into book by  Psychologist Christine Hill. What Do Patients Want?, the result of her interviews with people who have sought psychoanalytic treatment.  That makes two.

So… a project for rainy days…!!