I’ve noticed mentions here and there, that Oxford have made freely available, the Australian National Dictionary. As far as I can tell it’s the fulltext of the 1988 edition. I think I have a copy of the print somewhere…it’s hard to say exactly where as almost all of my books are in boxes. One day they will be free again. In the meantime, I seem to be accumulating new additions to my library at a rapid rate. Perhaps having books around me provides a certain degree of comfort; interestingly, and happily, I continue to read at a decent rate.

Albeit a quick read, I just raced through Paul Auster’s Travels in the Scriptorium, which I found a little ho hum and reminiscent of some Golden Age science fiction. Though at the same time I enjoyed his writing and would be interested in his other offerings. This particular one may have been less annoying as a short story rather than a 140 odd page novella. I had been anticipating the new Dessaix, and an interview with Dessaix on the weekend only served to increase my desire. I bought it the following day and the initial pages read well. Just wanted to polish off the Auster before I got stuck into Arabesques properly. I will eventually get round to blogging about the books I bought on my recent trip; I bought a few too many and came perilously close to my luggage limits. In other news of words, the government has been urged to assist in the preservation of indigenous languages.