Monthly Archives: October 2004

I started using this livejournal as a booklog almost a year ago. In that year I have read 150 books: 63 genre (sf or fantasy or borderline horror) novels 15 collections of genre stories (4 by single authors, 11 anthologies) … Continue reading →

Happy Samhain, to those who celebrate it. I decided this time last year to keep a book log as a Celtic New Year resolution. It seems to have worked. So, based on that precedent, I’m making another Celtic New Year … Continue reading →

22) Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses, by Bruce Feiler Travelogue through Israel, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan, in the company of archaeologist Avner Goren who gets most of the best lines. It’s … Continue reading →

Your LJ Horror Movie (you are the main target in the movie) by shard_of_truth Username the storyteller marykaykare the first to get killed bring_back_food the virgin nyphur the one having sex when killed aynathie the one given the “nude shot” … Continue reading →

I rather like this (thanks to ): Insular Majuscule- You are spiritual and wellrounded. People look to you for advice, butsometimes find you difficult to understand. What Calligraphy Hand Are You? brought to you by Quizilla

I’ve been subscribing to Interzone for about four years now. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s the UK’s longest running professionally produced science fiction magazine, featuring four or five pieces of goodf quality short fiction every month. … Continue reading →

Intervention in the global warming debate from an unexpected quarter. (Thanks to Charlie Stross)

Took Anne’s parents and F on an excursion into Brussels yesterday to see the Pavilion Too Shocking To See and also the Big Tent, representing the Vision of Europe of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. F basically just loved the concept … Continue reading →

We’ve had a mummy cat and four (now, sadly, three) kittens visiting our back yard for the last few months. Anne has been leaving food out for them and giving them names. She called the local cat protection people yesterday … Continue reading →

21) The Golden Age, by John C. Wright Enjoyable space opera romp. Reminded me a bit of the setting of Wil McCarthy’s The Collapsium but I thought this was better. Took a few chapters to get into and understand what … Continue reading →

I meant to list also books I’ve read in the last year by people I know. Books edited or written by lj’ers on my friends list include (obviously) Wondrous Beginnings edited by and Singularity Sky by . Apart from them, … Continue reading →

20) Wondrous Beginnings, edited by and Martin H Greenberg Nice idea, getting the first published story of numerous well-known sf authors – to be specific, Murray Leinster, L Sprague de Camp, Anne McCaffrey, Hal Clement, Arthur C Clarke and so … Continue reading →

Hah!

Happy birthday, !

19) Fermat’s Last Theorem, by Simon Singh My “to-read” pile is so huge that I’m not allowed to buy any more books until Christmas. That is, books for me; buying for other family members is OK. Anyway, I found this … Continue reading →

My trip to Dublin next week has been cancelled. Sorry not to be seeing any of you guys, but at the same time I’ve been travelling far too much recently and need to spend a nice few days in Brussels … Continue reading →

18) Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne After watching the dismal Steve Coogan/Jackie Chan film on the plane a couple of weeks ago, I realised I had the novel on my PDA and decided to re-read it. … Continue reading →

This is very funny (via Making Light)

One for and his history of the vulgar monosyllable: http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-trib28.html (thanks to Bookslut)

Happy birthday, !

If you are one of those people who occasionally skims my livejournal because you know me in real life, sign up for an account and I’ll put you on my friends list so you can read (some) locked entries.

I’m watching myself give evidence yesterday to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (preserved for posterity on video

Andrei Vassilov, unaeded [sic] and alone in the snowy night, had to get inside those forbidding and forbidden walls. Past the guards, and that death dealing electronic fence, across the mine field and the icy moat with its poison spikes, … Continue reading →

Maybe not complete. But they’ve backed down rather than be thrown out by the European Parliament. And Robert Kilroy-Silk is making an idiot of himself at the session.

Peanuts/Lovecraft crossover web chat with Alan Garner

Thanks to my old friend Joanna Harvey: http://www.petitiononline.com/buttigli/petition.html

17) The Pilgrim’s Progress From this World to that which is to come, by John Bunyan Huckleberry Finn says of this book that “The statements was interesting, but tough”, which I think is fair. Several things struck me – the … Continue reading →

I know hardly any of you care about this, but I do passionately: British Columbia is having a referendum on the Single Transferable Vote!!! Good for BC. Enlightened on gay marriages, and now also on electoral systems. (Not quite true … Continue reading →

Happy birthday, !

…but this only briefly; will be in London tomorrow to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee re Western Balkans policy at about 3 pm. Anyone around Westminster at lunchtime? If so, get in touch. (No, thought not.)