Booking through Thursday
This week's question:

While acknowledging that we can’t judge books by their covers, how much does the design of a book affect your reading enjoyment? Hardcover vs. softcover? Trade paperback v mass-market paperback? Font? Illustrations? Etc.?

It doesn't really worry me. So long as it doesn't have a tightly-glued spine or pages with narrow margins and tiny type, I can't say the design of a book affects my choice, or my enjoyment of it, very much at all.
Which is not to say that I don't relish a well-designed book, with a gorgeous font (Bodoni, or Bembo, or any of the Garamond family) on luscious stock, perhaps with deckle edges and a heavy, textured paper dust jacket. Yum-oh!
Frankly, my enjoyment is affected much more by bad editing, and mistakes in grammar or spelling. Heebie-jeebies!
My sister-in-law told me once of someone she knew (in publishing, I think) who flatly refused to buy any book that had embossed type on its cover. He'd shut his eyes and run his fingers over the cover and if there was any hint of raised type, he'd reject it. There's a good Aussie word for that and it begins with w.
In fact, there are several words for that ...

Booking through Thursday
This week's question:

You’ve just reached the end of a book . . .
what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one?
Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the
next book you’re going to read? What?

Hmmm. I'm a definite diver.
These days, I have a to-be-read pile, and since I've discovered Australian second-hand bookshops in a big way (still way more expensive than amazon etc, but with lots of UK titles as well), I've got a lot waiting for me. So, by the time I get to the end of a book, no matter how good it is, I've already started working out what I'll move on to next. And then it's done in an instant.
I also find that while I'm reading one book, I can still mull over something I read recently, so there's no need for any hiatus. Just a big breath and dive right in.

Oh hospitals ...
The staff are absolutely outstanding. Dad's nurses have that amazing mix of intelligence, care, skill, compassion and understanding, topped off with a detached efficiency when it's called for, and I am astounded at all they do and know. They should be paid squillions and work in palaces. They're always ready with a smile and a laugh, and nothing any of the patients asks of them is ever too much trouble. They run in and out of wards, from one bed to another, all day. They're so impressive.
Dad's also in the hands of physiotherapists, nutritionists, speech therapists, occupational therapists and doctors, and at last his condition has a name: polymyositis. It's an auto-immune condition that can be managed but not cured, and he's likely to be in hospital for another month. But the doctors are optimistic his health will improve, that he will regain strength and eventually return home.
He will need another month in hospital. We're hoping that some of that will be back in his hometown, Albany, so Mum at least can get back to some semblance of ordinary life. It's really tough on her. She doesn't know Perth very well at all, and much of the big teaching hospital and its daily workings confounds her. She just wants to know her husband of 58 years, whom she still calls 'darling', will eventually feel better and more comfortable, and be back in her care, back home with her and the dog, and leading as ordinary a life as possible.
It has been a long, horrible few months since he first elected to have a knee replacement in the first week of January. Not that this present condition seems a result of that surgery, but we can't help feeling that if he'd continued to manage the arthritis in his knee with acupuncture and painkillers, he'd have been so much better off! The little we know, though.
I know Dad's the one in the wars, confined and putting up with everything day after day after day, and in spite of all the fabulous staff, I have to say there are times I absolutely dread going to the hospital ... the sickly pastels, the goings-on behind drawn curtains and in wards with signs that say 'Next of kin only', the obstacle course of apparatus outside in the corridors, the beeping of hi-tech monitors, the sound of the sucking machine from the poor lady opposite Dad who's had some unspeakable procedure on her nose and throat, all the needles and clear plastic tubes, 'canulation', the 'bloods' lady, fluids in and fluids out ... aaagh! The whole experience makes me long for the scent of oranges and lemons and lungfuls of fresh air!

Out of the woods ...
... well, almost. Dad has not had a stroke, but seems to have been subject to a total body shut-down because of the quantity and toxic combination of medication since he had surgery in January. He's still seriously ill, but - we hope - out of danger. We are SO relieved!
Thanks for all your concern and comments. It all means so much.
Mum and I are staying in a college near the hospital - spotless and spartan, but a godsend. All the accommodation in Perth seems to be booked out, apart from the $400 a night chain hotels, so it was brilliant to discover that this college, with its beautiful quadrangle and trees and birds, keeps a 'motel' wing for visiting acadamics and conference delegates, plus worried relatives of patients in the hospital nearby.
On Sunday we'll move to a house in Fremantle - dear friends Chris and Pam are leaving for a month in Europe and have given us the keys. So very lucky to have such brilliant friends. Karen has our washing on her line at the moment, and is cooking us a curry dinner, and tomorrow we'll be off to see Dace and Konrad for arvo tea.
Must get back to the hospital!

I'm back in Oz again
Just taking two secs on a friend's computer to let you know I've had to rush back to Australia to see my dad. No too good. I'll check in every now and again - thanks for all the comments. Back later!

Les

Touch of the noble*The kids issued us with shopping lists while we were in Australia.
They wanted nothing very onerous or expensive — Lily asked for a few hundred Madura teabags, Redskins, Peppermint Crisps, the latest Panics CD, the new volume of Isobelle Carmody's The Obernewtyn Chronicles, and some eucalyptus oil.
Will wanted a pair of Aussie boardshorts and a cricket set. That's him, above, bowling to his delighted dad at the park yesterday.
Obviously, Will's out to persuade his mates about the joys of street cricket. And they're loving it! On Saturday, he had a big group down at the local park and they played for hours, much to the amusement of a family from India, and a New Zealander who was playing beach volleyball on the sand court in the corner.
It was a very, v-e-r-y informal game, with some weird deliveries ...
... and some great smashing hits. Justin, above, was a natural.
I was thrilled to see the Carmel Creek U-18 XI included a few bold girls who, like the boys, did their best with the eccentricities of bowling, after years and years of pitching baseballs and teeballs and softballs.
Will dressed for the occasion, in his red Queenslea House athletics top from his old school, Christ Church.
Trev, above, is clearly too much a rock star for this game. He's much more likely to end up on a stage than a cricket pitch, but he did a great job.
And this lad had the bat the wrong way, which led to hoots from the crowd.

* For the uninitiated, cricket — or criggit as it is called in Australia — is rather loftily known as 'the noble game'. I presume that this is because only toffs, the upper classes, the idle rich and those with private incomes had enough leisure time to indulge in playing and watching a game that can last five days.

Ideas, please!
So — touching wood that all is well in Albany — we'll be taking a trip to celebrate a very special anniversary next month.
The stars have aligned so it coincides with Will's spring break, for which he plans to go to stay with his big sister in Olympia. So David and I had thought about a week in Paris — and that sounded very exciting and romantic. But (a) it's a long flight for what would end up being only a few days, and (b) my cousin Samantha is getting married in England in August and we'd love to try to get there for it.
So, we've decided to spend three days in Washington DC, and four in New York. We have dear friends in Garrison NY, with whom we stayed while we were on our honeymoon, and we'll be visiting them again. And Susan, with whom we stayed in Chicago on our honeymoon, is joining us in NYC for a couple of days.
We've been to NYC twice, but we've never been to Washington. Given that we love art and museums and books and good food and music and comedy — can anyone recommend some must-see places and must-do things in either city? I mean, other than the obvious (Smithsonian, National Gallery, MOMA etc etc)? All ideas appreciated!