brandlandia

I've recently begun to contribute a regular column in the totally amazing New Zealand based jewellery newsletter 'Overview' edited by the delightful ladies behind the Jewellers Guild of Greater Sandringham. If you are not already on their mailing list, please drop them an e-mail and ask to be added, I promise you won't be disappointed (sandringhamjewellersguild@gmail.com). 

This was my latest musing from OVERVIEW issue #8 August 2012 

Right now I am in the process of packing up 8 years of life in Sydney, 5 of those in my current 

abode Club Brand (infamously named after a period of Thursday nights when the living room 

transformed into a dance floor until the wee hours of the morning). 5 years is a long time in your 

mid-twenties to have lived in a single dwelling, and it seems I have accumulated more things than 

I know how to deal with. Some of my possessions have 5 years worth of train/airplane/car/city 

dust on them, however, that probably says more about my cleaning habits than anything. The first 

‘things’ I have decided to deal with are my books; I need to downsize my library and keep only what 

is relevant and important to me, so I guess it’s safe to say that my childhood copy of ‘How a baby 

is made’ should probably hit the sidewalk collection. 

Filmmaker and bibliophile John Waters famously wrote  “… If you go home with somebody and 

they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.” To be honest, I couldn’t agree more! Now, I must admit 

my library is a modest few hundred compared to Waters supposed 8,000 plus books, but I still 

whole heartily agree with his sentiment, I couldn’t live without my books and I wouldn’t knock 

boots someone who could. The Internet informs me that Walters also wrote words along the lines 

of ‘…there is nothing as important as an unread library’. So it is with this, that I must confess that 

some of my most prized belongings, my jewellery books, have barely been given any more love 

(since they came into my possession) other than a quick finger though on a rainy day. 

The few jewellers I have spoken with about this very topic have sighed with relief knowing that it 

wasn’t just them with a stack of books (often located bedside) waiting eternally to be read. Over a 

beer I ponder why I haven’t read these books; I am I intimidated by what I might find within the 

covers, will they prove that I am just as mediocre as I think I am? Will they cement the fact that there 

is still SO MUCH that I don’t know or, is it simply that I just haven’t found the time and brainpower 

required to fully absorb all that information? With Saturn’s return and big changes occurring in my 

life, what better time than any to vow never to let the dust settle (again) on these books until I have 

read each of them from cover to cover! To be fair, they are doing their job perfectly, making me 

look good to prospective lovers, the very least I could do is learn a few pearls of their wisdom.  

- Zoe Brand