500th post!

I found "Death Note #13: How To Read" tough going. A companion to the top-selling, 12-volume supernatural crime manga, it's basically a mini-encyclopaedia. There are analyses, timelines, design notes, interviews with writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata, bonus comics and even a personality test - the character I'm most like is Near, allegedly.

Contemporary fantasy novel "Dingo" (2008) by Charles De Lint, on the other paw, is instantly accessible and just plain lovely. It takes me back to second-year uni when I'd skip class, lie on a grassy slope or a bench on the library roof, and lose myself in the same author's exquisite imaginings "Moonheart" ('84), "Yarrow" ('86) and "Greenmantle" ('88).


AFL: Yay Sydney Swans! But Barry Hall socking Brent Staker on the jaw, then later slamming into the signage ("Poetic justice!" cry the West Coast Eagles supporters) guarantees our enforcer is set for a spell.