Hello my lovelies!

How are you doing today? It’s nice to see you for our Weekend Coffee Share. Have you noticed anything different here? Study.Read.Write now has it’s own, fancy dotcom domain!

We’re all readers here, right? How about we meet at my local library for their Annual Book Market and then go and grab a coffee at one of the cafés in town?

Sounds good, right? I’ve got loads to tell you, so we’d better find a place with unlimited coffee supply.

I apologise once again that I missed another weekend coffee share last week. I was at the Friends of Nature annual conference which ran ridiculously long and resulted in me first of all rejoining the  club, but also getting unanimously elected as assistant secretary for our local chapter. Mainly because “Conny’s back, Conny can write.” My best friend Nils got re-elected as secretary, so we’ll share the job.

Then last Sunday we had an open-air book market in Ohligs, and I spent hours there despite there not having been that many books on offer. I’m glad that I found several red Reclam books. Reclam is a publishing house, who specialise in any texts that could be considered required reading. They’re cheap no-frills paperbacks and yellow when they’re German-language texts and red when they’re foreign.

So yeah, I basically grabbed all the English books I could find.

Afterwards, I was at a friend’s birthday party and then studied til the early hours. Not just for university, though. I had a free voucher for Shaw Academy, and I decided to get myself a Diploma in Social Media Marketing. It was a short but intense course, and I passed with Distinction!

The other day I asked for help regarding my M.A. Thesis topic, and I’ve decided on one: “How an author’s cultural background influences their work – The concept of “Home” in Australian Literature.” What do you think? I’m really interested in those cultural nuances and Australian literature is for the most part not yet mainstream enough that it’s been analysed to death. Let’s just hope I get this approved. But no matter what, I’ll be looking to score some textbooks on literature and culture from the library sale today.

I know I’ll be extremely busy, but I’ve decided to participate in this year’s A – Z Challenge, and not with one blog, but two. I’m currently setting up another one, which will be my literary one as I’m trying to focus more on literature and review. It’s called Literati Girl, but there’s nothing there yet, I’ve only just opened it. I’ll still be studying, reading and writing and blogging about this here, but the other blog is mainly for my reviews. I’ve got a long list of books to get through! Plus, I’m still trying to convince my teenage cousin (who thinks about doing something with books once he’s out of school) to set up a book blog. I think he’d fit in quite nicely with all of us. So if you see Literati Girl during the Weekend Coffee Share or other blog hops, that’s me. I know I haven’t been the best with keeping up with posts, but the end of my studying is in sight. I’d love to have a few days or weeks at the end of all this to recharge my batteries, read, write and just be.

I like the great outdoors, even though I prefer hot and dry climate. Recently, I’ve been dreaming about taking a break in a cabin in the woods somewhere. Somewhere with a porch or wrap-around veranda, with a comfy chair to sit in, wrapped in a blanket, sipping a coffee and reading a book in the fresh air. Usually I’m a city girl, but I think it’s time for a change. I don’t want a creepy cabin, though. Maybe by a lake? Somwhere further south than here, where it”s sunny and warm. I should ask around whether one of my friends would want to come with. Homemade food, no TV. I think that’ll be my plan once I can estimate when I can hand in my thesis.

On Thursday, I joined a global book exchange as I was invited by former classmates who share my love for literature. We each send one book to someone else, and hopefully, we’ll get one in return. We’re using the #savetheculture hashtag. I can’t wait for an online get-together to discuss each other’s recommendations. The person I got will shortly be receiving a copy of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane as it’s one of the best books I’ve read in the last few months.

And last but not least, I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. It had to happen eventually. You probably know that I’m a fan of Midori Traveler’s Notebooks. Well, I’ve got some Field Notes booklets, but no cover for them. For a while I’ve considered getting a custom cover from Altguild, as Chris does some amazing work with his leathers. Eventually I settled on a wide booklet that looks like River Song’s Diary. Yes. I’m a geek and proud of it. But one cover wasn’t enough as I use the booklets for different things. The River Song one will be my writing and research one. Because “we’re all stories in the end.” The other one, a henna pattern embossed Candori in Acorn colour with electric blue stitches, will be for thesis research for now.

Well, I think I’ve talked too much yet again. It’s been a busy week. I’m sure the other Weekend Coffee Sharers will love to see you today as well!

Thank you so much for having coffee with me today. Same time, next week?