Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Category: Reading

Pride and Prejudice

So we have a family rule for movies where we don't watch a movie until we've read the book. In theory anyway. In reality we've seen Around the World in Eighty Days, Freaky Friday, Jumanji, Never Ending Story, Princess Bride, The House With A Clock in Its Walls and The Help – all without ever having read the book. In our defence, most of the time we didn't realise they were books first until after we'd seen the movie.

But there are some movies where I think you need to read the book first. No, strike that, you must read the book first. Which is getting kind of tricky as there aren't a lot of movies that aren't based on books that we can watch that will appeal to the very different tastes of a thirteen and a seventeen year old.

Jane Austen has written so many books that have been turned into movies and tv series and I really want to watch them but we haven't read the books. I have to confess, I haven't read Pride and Prejudice either. So I've decided to revive bed time stories and read a chapter every night. That way we can all get through the book and then we'll have the fun of trying to figure out which adaption to watch first!

May 27, 2023
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion

Hearing Pádraig Ó Tuama reciting lines of poetry by heart at the Poetry Retreat I recently attended made me want to go home and learn to speak in verse. I have a growing collection of books written by poets I have met at gigs and launches as well as ones that I have bought from a shop. Most of the time they sit on the coffee table at home for a while before I put them on a shelf to look pretty and gather dust.

Over the last few years I have been hearing lots of poetry at events and on podcasts. BBC's The Verb and Poetry Unbound being two current favourites. You can also check out my podcast, Pocketry Presents, for Australian flavoured poetry. I have also been attending loads of poetry workshops (a whopping sixty-two in the last & year's!) where I have been introduced to many new poets. But reading? Reading poetry? Not so much.

But that's all changing. Fired with enthusiasm after the first day of the workshop I went home and started searching through my shelves for The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion by Kei Miller. At the retreat, Pádraig read out Always Under Your Breath by Kei Miller and said he was one of his favourite poets. Apparently Pádraig owns all of his works.

I met Kei Miller a few years back when I was in Canberra visiting my folks and attended the Poetry on the Move festival. He was an incredible performer and I immediately bought his book. I flicked through it and read a couple of poems and then… you know what happened, right? The book went on a shelf to gather dust. Until now that is.

I'm about half way through at the moment and really enjoying the cartographer and rastaman's accounts of Babylon and surrounding lands. Miller has an ear for language and captures the two distinct voices well. If you want to hear Kei Miller read some of his poetry, check out Oracabessa.

When I was young(er) books were sacred objects to be handled with care. Don't crease the spine! Don't dog-ear the pages! Keep it looking like new. But then a few years back much to the horror of my eldest daughter, I started writing notes in the non fiction books I was reading. Highlighting phrases, writing notes in the margins. Commenting on passages. That sort of thing. After reading the introduction to Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Pádraig Ó Tuama, I decided to do the same with my poetry books. A nice way to remember my favourite lines and a record of my thoughts and feelings at a certain time.

My original plan was to read a book of poetry a week but then life got in the way. Now the aim is for one a month. Twelve books read doesn't sounds as impressive as fifty two but it's a whole lot better than none! I've been wanting to have something to do in an idle moment. A few years ago I used to take craft projects with me wherever I went and they would keep me amused while waiting. But in spite of making a wrist brace recently I'm still not making things with my hands. Now I won't be bored with this new bookish project – to read and read and read poetry!

May 25, 2023
Books, It’s All About Books

This year for Christmas I asked for books. I went mad for books. I got a stack of books. There were lots of books.

I often ask for and receive books as presents. There's a whole world waiting for you in a book. And the best thing is, you can revisit that world whenever you want. It's always waiting for you. Oh and I just thought of another thing – you can take it with you wherever you go and it never runs out of batteries!

Mostly I ask for fiction and devour it in days. There's nothing like a good story to lift the spirits. This year, however, I mostly went for non-fiction. There's just so much I want to learn! Now what usually happens when I buy non-fiction is it sits around in the lounge for a bit, I look at the cover and read the blurb, flick through a page or two and then I put it on the shelf and never look at it again. This is terrible. All that knowledge trapped between the pages with no-one to set it free.

I decided that this year was going to be different so I've left the books on my desk in a most inconvenient place and I'm not allowed to tidy them away until I've read them. And it's worked. So far I've read Bindi by Kirli Saunders, Just My Type by Simon Garfield, and Songlines by Margo Neale and Lynne Kelly. I've started Shady Characters by Keith Houston and I've been dipping into Guwaya- For All Times: A Collection of First Nations Poems from Red Room Poetry. I'm working my way through the excellent How to Grow your Own Poem by Kate Clanchy. Of course, HollowPox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend and The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst: A Kingdom and Empires Book by Jaclyn Moriarty were finished long ago. They're ripping yarns, that's why!

Once I've got through all those I'll still have Arelhekenhe Angkentye Women's Talk: Poems of Lyapirtneme from Arrente Women in Central Australia, Welcome To Country by Marcia Langton, Loving Country by Bruce Pascoe and Vicky Shukuroglou and Yornadaiyn Woolagoodja to read.

As well as Book Cover Designs by Matthew Goodman, The Illustrated Dust Jacket by Martin Salisbury and The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston and for a little light reading Selected Poems from T.S. Ellliot's. I'm a sucker for good design and this series of hardcover poetry books by famous poets is simply gorgeous.

What do you devour? Fiction or non-fiction?

January 13, 2021
Reading Now

I thought I'd share with you what I've got in my reading pile at the moment. I seem to be dipping in and out of a few books as the mood strikes me. I scored In Other Words by Jumpha Lairi at a books sale along with Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing. Impulse buys, I haven't done that for years – I've been a faithful library borrower and money saver instead.

I've been aware of Cohen on the periphery of things for a while now but am only just discovering his work after a fellow poet put me on to this excellent tribute of his life. His poetry has a style and density I'm not used to and find I need to read a single poem and sit with it for a while.

Lairi's book is in both Italian (the love of her life) and in English. Lairi wanted to learn Italian so she moved to Rome and only spoke and wrote Italian. She wrote this book in Italian about her experience and had someone else translate it into English. An incredible undertaking and fascinating story. She shares why she writes and what it means to her. She writes to understand the world and to make her existence. It lead me to think about why exactly I write. Why I feel compelled to spill ink and capture thoughts. I'm still mulling over it.

Of course there's always a stack of poetry books on the go. The current selection looks a little like this. But Is It Art? by David Munro, Footsteps by Greg Rochlin, Tailwind and Other Poems by Rohan White, Margin Doodles vol 1 by Waffle Iriongirl, Museum of Space by Peter Boyle and Hollowed Out Lungs by Joel McKerrow. Most of these titles are by authors I've met or heard speak. How lucky am I?

This list is a bit of a departure from my comfort reading of recent years. I'm starting to venutre once more into the terrain of difficult and challening. I'm relishing it!

What's on your reading list?

August 12, 2019
Girl Power!

When I was growing up, I read books to learn more about the world, the people around me and to see myself. I focussed on books with female protagonists by female authors. Mysteries were my thing and I started with girl detectives Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew and then moved on to mysteries by Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer (better known for her romances), Dorothy L Sayers and Mary Stewart (who handily combined mystery and romance).

I was hungry for female heroes – strong, incredible women who could and did do anything they set their mind to. I want the same for my girls. I want them to know that they can do anything they dream and that they are strong, brave and amazing. Luckily for them, there are now wonderful books celebrating incredible women throughout history.

We got this amazing and inspiring little selection as Christmas gifts this year and there was even title for me by Lisa Congdon celebrating incredible older women. The women in the book are not just older, they started doing what they love when they were older. I'm forty-five and it's reassuring to know that I can start doing what I love now.

My seven year old daughter Phoebe loves her Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls book so much that she even spent $50 of her savings on the second volume.

If you're feeling stuck and need some inspiraition, I recommend one of these great titles. And if you know any incredible women and girls, tell them about these books. Let's spread the word – women are brilliant and have done fabulous things all throughout history!

January 28, 2018
Girl Power!

When I was growing up, I read books to learn more about the world, the people around me and to see myself. I focussed on books with female protagonists by female authors. Mysteries were my thing and I started with girl detectives Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew and then moved on to mysteries by Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer (better known for her romances), Dorothy L Sayers and Mary Stewart (who handily combined mystery and romance).

I was hungry for female heroes – strong, incredible women who could and did do anything they set their mind to. I want the same for my girls. I want them to know that they can do anything they dream and that they are strong, brave and amazing. Luckily for them, there are now wonderful books celebrating incredible women throughout history.

We got this amazing and inspiring little selection as Christmas gifts this year and there was even title for me by Lisa Congdon celebrating incredible older women. The women in the book are not just older, they started doing what they love when they were older. I'm forty-five and it's reassuring to know that I can start doing what I love now.

My seven year old daughter Phoebe loves her Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls book so much that she even spent $50 of her savings on the second volume.

If you're feeling stuck and need some inspiraition, I recommend one of these great titles. And if you know any incredible women and girls, tell them about these books. Let's spread the word – women are brilliant and have done fabulous things all throughout history!

January 28, 2018
Belonging

Learning the names and properties of the plants around me is strengthening and deepening my connection to the natural world. Knowing the plants and what they can do, I feel much more confident in nature. I'm even starting to feel as if I'm part of nature instead of being separate from it.

The plants themselves are starting to feel like old friends and I welcome the changes I notice in them. The wattle has been blossoming and the kangaroo apple has started to bloom. I also notice the other changes around me like the noisy miners feeding their chicks and the swarming of the bugs that eat gum leaves.

In What the Robin Knows by John Young he quotes the San bushmen of Africa as saying that when they know the name of a bird a thread is formed between them and the bird. When they begin to recognise an individual bird of that species the thread grows stronger. By connecting with all the birds and plants around them, they form webs that connect them to the natural world.

I'm devouring books about plants and learning how I can grow, harvest and use them. Their history and origins fascinate me. We've been using plants for food, medicine, shelter and comfort for thousands of years. The science of their properties intrigues me – a lot of modern medicines were developed from natural sources. Aspirin gets its origin from willow bark for example.

I feel as if my quest for knowledge about the natural world and my discovery of the plants and creatures that inhabit it are giving me a deep connection and feeling of belonging. I've often felt as if I don't belong or fit in. That has shifted lately and I now feel a deep sense of belonging. I feel as if I'm growing roots deep into the earth, connecting me to this place.

December 14, 2017
Belonging

Learning the names and properties of the plants around me is strengthening and deepening my connection to the natural world. Knowing the plants and what they can do, I feel much more confident in nature. I'm even starting to feel as if I'm part of nature instead of being separate from it.

The plants themselves are starting to feel like old friends and I welcome the changes I notice in them. The wattle has been blossoming and the kangaroo apple has started to bloom. I also notice the other changes around me like the noisy miners feeding their chicks and the swarming of the bugs that eat gum leaves.

In What the Robin Knows by John Young he quotes the San bushmen of Africa as saying that when they know the name of a bird a thread is formed between them and the bird. When they begin to recognise an individual bird of that species the thread grows stronger. By connecting with all the birds and plants around them, they form webs that connect them to the natural world.

I'm devouring books about plants and learning how I can grow, harvest and use them. Their history and origins fascinate me. We've been using plants for food, medicine, shelter and comfort for thousands of years. The science of their properties intrigues me – a lot of modern medicines were developed from natural sources. Aspirin gets its origin from willow bark for example.

I feel as if my quest for knowledge about the natural world and my discovery of the plants and creatures that inhabit it are giving me a deep connection and feeling of belonging. I've often felt as if I don't belong or fit in. That has shifted lately and I now feel a deep sense of belonging. I feel as if I'm growing roots deep into the earth, connecting me to this place.

December 14, 2017
On Writing

I've always written. Ever since I was a kid I've had a pen in hand scribbling furiously on a piece of paper to try and catch my ideas. When I was younger my pen could never keep up with my racing thoughts. Now I'm older, my thoughts are slower and it's much easier to pin my ideas to paper.

I've recently started doing some creative writing courses and Stephen King's On Writing and Fowler's Modern English Usage were suggested books for aspiring writers. I was lucky enough to score them both at op shops.

I discovered the excellent The Usborne Creative Writer's Handbook: Everything You Need To Become A Better Writer at a local bookshop. I'm a big fan of junior non-fiction books for finding out facts and information. Non-fiction for children tends to be written in plain english, has great illustrations that stop me getting bored and are written in a lively and engaging way.

December 11, 2017
On Writing

I've always written. Ever since I was a kid I've had a pen in hand scribbling furiously on a piece of paper to try and catch my ideas. When I was younger my pen could never keep up with my racing thoughts. Now I'm older, my thoughts are slower and it's much easier to pin my ideas to paper.

I've recently started doing some creative writing courses and Stephen King's On Writing and Fowler's Modern English Usage were suggested books for aspiring writers. I was lucky enough to score them both at op shops.

I discovered the excellent The Usborne Creative Writer's Handbook: Everything You Need To Become A Better Writer at a local bookshop. I'm a big fan of junior non-fiction books for finding out facts and information. Non-fiction for children tends to be written in plain english, has great illustrations that stop me getting bored and are written in a lively and engaging way.

December 11, 2017