Copies of The living rock (digital) will be available as a FREE DOWNLOAD from the Apple Bookstore (Apple devices) or Google Drive (Android devices) for two months from Boxing Day 2021. Please note these are BIG files, both around 700MB.
I've decided to offer free copies initially as a thank you to all of you who supported the print version since its launch in 2015. The original print run of 1100 sold out in the second half of 2021with just a few copies still available at places like Binna Burra and Pinnacle Sports. I had decided several years ago that a second edition of the book would be digital, mainly because of the enormous workload involved in organising a second print version, not to mention the uncertainties, inevitable delays and material shortages because of the ongoing pandemic.
So what's new in this edition? Almost double the number of images (now close to 850) including photographs, newspaper and magazine articles, extracts from diaries, sketch pads and letters that contribute to telling the story of rockclimbing in eastern Australia. I've also included 12 videos from a range of contributors -- Rod Bolton and Robert Rankin, in particular -- which include footage of early climbing activites in southeast Queensland in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, plus aerials of prominent climbing crags in the region (courtesy of Nicholas P Shera -- who is also my esteemed nephew).
There are new climbing stories from the 1970s and early 1980s that help to fill a gap in the original publication and I have incorporated feedback and suggested corrections from a number of patient and zealous readers.
From 1 March 2022, the book will be available ONLY through the Apple Bookstore for AU$8.99 but between Boxing Day and March, it's free. So please pass on these details to all those who you think might enjoy reading it -- and add it to your own library. Any funds generated by sales after 1 March will be donated to an environmentally-responsible organisation, the details of which I will announce at a later date.
It's been another long but rewarding process pulling this one together in a new, portable format which I hope will appeal as much as the hard copy version. Naturally, there will be errors and with an electronic version, they can, at least, be corrected in a reasonable time although it's still not a fast process. So please, let me know what you like -- and what I've got wrong -- and hopefully we will end up with a reasonably accurate story of rockclimbing in Australia (with a Queensland edge).
Michael Meadows, 22 December 2021
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