Whilst traveling, it is the law to read as much as possible. I've actually read more books since I've been in Australia than I probably have done in the last five years. Books are the perfect companion to take with you on beach days or lazing around in your backpackers days.
With my rediscovered love of reading and the story line of Piper and Cassius bonding over literature all those months ago, it seemed like an obvious choice to dive into the book that brought them together in the first place. The Girls written by Emma Cline was the book that Piper first picked up from the Erinsborough book exchange and found somebody had been underlining (with highlighter!) poignant passages that spoke to her on a deep and meaningful level, only to discover later that it had been Cassius, the gardener who just popped up out of nowhere and eventually turned everyone's life upside down.
With my rediscovered love of reading and the story line of Piper and Cassius bonding over literature all those months ago, it seemed like an obvious choice to dive into the book that brought them together in the first place. The Girls written by Emma Cline was the book that Piper first picked up from the Erinsborough book exchange and found somebody had been underlining (with highlighter!) poignant passages that spoke to her on a deep and meaningful level, only to discover later that it had been Cassius, the gardener who just popped up out of nowhere and eventually turned everyone's life upside down.
So off I trundled to invest in the book and a highlighter of my own and was really enthusiastic to get stuck into it and find hidden messages within the pages. However I was massively disappointed with the book and it was a real struggle to get through it all. I just found it a very boring read and it promised so much and didn't deliver to my satisfaction at the end. As for finding passages that Cassius might have highlighted, I found that even more of a challenge but I tried my very best to follow suit.
Once I had finally finished reading The Girls, I decided the only thing to do with it was find a suitable public book exchange to leave it for somebody else to hopefully get more enjoyment out of it than I did and to ponder over why all those random passages had been underlined.
After a bit of research I discovered there is a wonderful website called Street Library which encourages book exchanges exactly like the one in Erinsborough and has a very handy map of all the known book exchange boxes in Australia...and there just happened to be one just a few streets away from where I was staying in Sydney! Honestly, I got far more excited about contributing to this gorgeous book box than the part where I actually read the book.
So thus concludes my little dabbling into forcing my life to imitate Neighbours (normally it happens organically without any additional input from me). My advice to you is to not to bother reading The Girls because it will only disappoint and whatever you do, do not deface books because you will spoil the enjoyment for future readers (I felt utterly disgusted at myself every time I put highlighter to paper). On the other hand, do contribute to and support community led book exchanges and public libraries wherever you are in the world because books are wonderful things and free literature should be cherished and encouraged at all costs.
Please note: This blog post is dedicated to the one and only Cassius Grady Roche, the man who breezed into Ramsay Street with his glorious muscles on display for all the horny housewives of Erinsborough to oggle over, only to be snatched away from us so cruelly just for [deservedly] killing his father...and lets face it, he was probably going to die anyway after being twatted over the head with a gnome by another one of his bastard sons. Cassius, our very own mystery underliner...you've brought literature, substandard horticulture and eye candy into our lives, it has been an absolute pleasure watching you on screen and we will never forget you!
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