January 9, 2012 Monday afternoon -- Reading Kilmister and Stockett -- Queensland, Australia

On a boat ripping across the Coral Sea, heading shore-ward after a visit to the reef
Reading White Line Fever, by Lemmy Kilmister while her mother reads The Help, by Katheryn Stockett. She got the book from her boyfriend for Christmas. Her mother picked up her book at Costco. Their favorite books are, respectively, Scar Tissue, by Anthony Kied, a biography about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, for its honesty, and Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen, for its descriptions.
After we got off the boat I headed over to the library. In the trees around library, thousands of fruit bats hang upside down chattering to each other in high pitched squeaks. At sunset, the bats emerge from the trees and cover the whole sky. Near the city lagoon, you can lay on your back and see hundreds of bats overhead.
The librarian I talked to recommended the following Queensland authors: Xavier Herbert, who writes about Queensland history and Treziese Percy, who writes children's books.