love, janie lou

week of thrifty finds :: mary grant bruce

If I had to choose a favourite Australian children's book series, I think I'd be like Fiddler on the Roof's Tevye: "On ze uzzer hand... but on ze uzzer hand..." and it could go on and on. But if I had to had to had to pick, it'd probably be Mary Grant Bruce's Billabong Books. I got my first Billabong Book--the third in the series, Norah of Billabong--when I was about thirteen, for Christmas from Mum and Dad. I read it, enjoyed it, and then stowed it away on my bookshelves. Then, maybe a year later, I pulled it out for company on a long car trip (I think we were going to see my cousins). And what joy! what wonder! what delight! How had I simply put this book back on the bookshelf? Why hadn't I found the fourteen others in the series and promptly consumed them?

Well, that's just what I did. For the next six or so years, I tracked those books down until I had read every one in the series several times over. They went out of paperback print a few years into my search so I bought them when I could and now have a full set with some repeats here and there. I only have two in the old hardbacks (you can see them above) but almost all in the newer paperbacks, and some in the hideously delightful seventies throwaway copies (you can see them below). I've devoured each book numerous times and grown to love Norah, Jim, and Wally as though they were real people. When I was smaller I even wished I could have had a brother like Jim.

In recent years, I've seen more clearly the sometimes formulaic tone of the stories, the glossy sheen of an Australian ideal, and the occasional cheesiness, but it hasn't quenched my love for these books. Written between 1910 and about 1940, they capture an incredible season of Australia's history. For the most part, the characters grow and mature at the same rate as the books' publication. We see how the fictional Linton family responds to issues that all Australians faced in those times: World War I, bushfires, drought, feminism's growth, the increasing use of the automobile. Each book is like a rich time capsule exploring the Australia of its era.

The fifteen Billabong Books (in case you want to hunt them down for yourself) are: A Little Bush Maid, Mates at Billabong, Norah of Billabong, From Billabong to London, Jim and Wally, Captain Jim, Back to Billabong, Billabong's Daughter, Billabong Adventurers, Bill of Billabong, Billabong's Luck, Wings Above Billabong, Billabong Gold, and Billabong Riders. Mary Grant Bruce also wrote several other non-series books, including Peter and Co., Golden Fiddles, Robin, and Possum. Find them! I hope you love them.

danielle. xox

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Interactions:

Caitlin :: I'm glad there's at least one thrifty-book-find fan out there. This post is especially for you!

Friends heading over from Janelle's blog :: Hi! Thanks for dropping by.

week of thrifty finds :: dickens

Alas, those of you who hate reading.* You will not be able to share my joy in presenting you with some of my favourite thrifty finds.

This afternoon, as Lauren and I were making mental lists of the best things we have discovered in secondhand shops, St. Vinnies, and Salvation Army stores around the country, I kept on going back to the books. It's true; the bookshelves are the first spot I will head to in a thrift store. I'd hazard a guess that more than two thirds of my library (a few thousand books strong) is made up of books salvaged from op shops and flea markets and the like. Part of the reason is that so many of my favourite authors have passed on and their books just aren't being printed anymore, but another part is that they are just so cheap, and it's a thrill to hunt down those hard-to-find books.

"I could do a whole week of thrifty book finds," I said to Lauren.

"But that would be boring," she said to me.

"No, it wouldn't," I said back.

She gave me a look.

I think it would be fun and she thinks it would be boring, so the final consensus is that I will share A Few Days of Thrifty Book Finds but Certainly Not a Whole Week and they will be interspersed amongst "the more interesting" posts.

The Dickens books are amongst my favourites because, although I could probably buy all of them in new paperback form (funds permitting, of course), they just look so much grander in the old fabric-covered hardbacks with the gold impressions and (hopefully) an inscription in the front cover. It is so much easier to imagine that Dickens, the Dickens, wrote these books and that people have been reading them for ages, when the book I am holding and reading from looks like it has been around for ages, too.

 

I own heaps of Harold E. Smith's books. I wish I had my own cool personalised bookplates like he did.

danielle xox

*Although it begs the question: why are you reading this blog right now?