A public safety announcement for readers.
We’ve all heard the warnings.
Don’t text while driving. Don’t swim alone. And in Far North Queensland, don’t sit too close to the water unless you fancy becoming part of the food chain.
But there’s another danger nobody seems willing to talk about.
A really good book.
You know the sort. The book that makes you say, I’ll just read one more chapter.
Three hours later, the coffee’s cold, dinner’s burnt and the dog has given up waiting for its walk.
Because somebody has just been murdered and you need to know who bloody did it.
That’s the danger of a good book. It removes you from your surroundings. People miss train stations. Wives mysteriously fail to hear questions from their husbands. Readers stay awake until two in the morning despite knowing perfectly well they have to get up at six.
And occasionally, someone sitting peacefully beside a Far North Queensland river fails to notice that he has become an item of interest to the local wildlife.
As an author, I probably should apologise for this.
But I won’t.
Because if The Long Grass can make you forget there’s a crocodile swimming towards you, I reckon I’ve done my job.
Public safety advice: Australian authorities have issued a warning about an increasingly dangerous phenomenon known as immersive reading.
