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So, in 2009, according to my bookkeeping over at LibraryThing, I have read 60 books (let's face it, I'm not going to finish Black Man, Best Served Cold or Bolo before the New Year party tonight). Of those, 43 were fiction books, 5 were short story collections, 1 non-fiction, 1 play, 5 RPG Books (+one of the short story collections was technically an RPG source book), 2 graphic novel volumes, 1 Firefly reference book and 2 cookbooks.

Yeah, believe it or not I am still alive. Not a lot has been happening though so this is another of those summary posts. Sorry.

Last night I got my birthday present off Jim The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. Poetry, and lots of introductory/explanatory text. I normally struggle to enjoy poetry unless it's performed, although I'm actually kinda looking forward to reading it. I really ought to read more about old Norse mythology, maybe then I'd understand American Gods a bit better (seriously, I completely missed that Low Key was meant to be Loki... but that was stupidity rather than ignorance).

Just got back from the Sci Fi Book Group at my local Borders. I decided to head along this month because the book intrigued me – The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I told my housemate about it and she came up with the wonderfully precise but inaccurate description “Jesuits in spaaaaaace”. This would be a really bad summing up of the book. A group of people, lead, including and funded by the Jesuits is sent to investigate and communicate with a newly discovered alien culture. Only one member returns with the best reports suggesting a major disgrace on his part.

I'm a tad behind on my blogging ideal but that's because there hasn't really been a lot for me to say on here. It's been work, roleplaying, pub quizzing (or not) and little else.

On Sunday I did finally get round to dragging myself to QueerCafe Manchester. It was an enjoyable afternoon/early evening actually meeting new people (I know, me out the house and meeting people). Me being the fussy bugger I am was unable to partake fully of the Cafe aspect being, as it was, home cooked veggie stuff with icky rice and flavour.

I've recently finished reading a couple of books which I've found through rather different methods than I'm used to and thoroughly enjoyed. My normal method is "oooh... I know that author, I've read their stuff before", "recommendation from real life friend", "That's been made into a movie - the book will surely be better", "amazon (or similar) says it's similar and it has good reviews" and similar.

It's not often I find recommendations on blogs, but that's what happened with the first - Troll was a story I saw recommended on The New Gay (as blogged here).

Necromancer's Gambit was the only book in the Sci Fi/Fantasy section at Borders which made me want to look at it. I put it back as it was a little more than I wanted to spend on a complete unknown. Then noticed the posters advertising the author coming to do a signing later that day (Local author 8-). I returned and brought the book complete with signature.

The Hugo Award nominations list for 2008 is available for your reading pleasure (complete with John Scalzi Commentary). Just to add to the buzz surrounding it, I thought I'd add my thoughts to the unveiled list.

I'm going to start with Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form).

• Battlestar Galactica "Razor"
• Dr. Who "Blink"
• Dr. Who "Human Nature" / "Family of Blood"
• Star Trek New Voyages "World Enough and Time"

I am nearing the end of my list of books I will read and need to start a new one. I fancy doing a bit of a theme for this one, so I'm looking (EDIT: In the forums) for books on the theme of DREAMS.

I've also started putting book reviews into the forums.

References

So, I finished Death Note (or is it Deathnote?) and I'm most of the way through Matter on the train. so I need a new shelf-book which can be promoted to bag-book when I do finish (and therefore clear the way for a new shelf-book). I just went out and brought a load of new books (payday is fun) and now have a stack I am going to list and promise to read before moving on. That stack is:

• Jumper - Steven Gould



References

OK, this weekend hasn't been bad. Went to Manchester for the farmers' market. Wasn't as big as I had hoped, but I did manage to get a couple of pheasants and partridges, bacon and sausages. So now I need to find a use for one partridge and one pheasant as the other's got cooked today in a roast for my parents. Which worked.

References