A special birthday present

It was my birthday two weeks ago.

At the time I treated myself to two new books to read when I go on a beach holiday in a few weeks’ time. I also received a book voucher from my book loving daughter. I managed to use the voucher last week. I bought myself a copy of the recently published Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature. Its launch was covered in controversy, not so much for what or who was left out but rather what was included. It generated quite a deal of debate about the whole concept of what can and cannot be classed as literature.

Forget the debate. I’m looking forward to dipping into this mighty tome over the next few years, revisiting some old favourites and hopefully discovering some new works or authors to dig deeper into. At over 1400 pages of smallish print it is not light bed-time reading.

Reference:

Jose, N, 2009, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest.


 

2 Responses to “A special birthday present”

  1. Ken Rolph says:

    All anthologies of Australian literature leave something out. The only answer is to buy them all.

  2. Trevor says:

    But only if you have a bottomless wallet – some of those anthologies are expensive. I recently managed to get Norton’s Anthology of Poetry on eBay for $1.80 – but the postage was about $12. And it wasn’t even the latest edition! I guess that’s why it was so cheap.