Monthly Archives: January 2007

21) Starter for Ten, by David Nicholls. (.co.uk, .com) I picked this up in Vienna, thinking, oh well, it’s the book of the the film, and I’ll probably never see the film, so it’s a heavily-discounted and thus acceptable substitute. … Continue reading →

20) The Book of Proper Names, by Amélie Nothomb (.co.uk, .com) Reading this was partly a result of impulse buying in Vienna, but also partly feeling that I should be getting to grips with the great writers of my country … Continue reading →

Thanks for the good wishes, folks. On reflection, the thieves have not done themselves a lot of favours, since I had cunningly left the power cable in the office, so they have just a few hours of battery time left, … Continue reading →

One of those days when I really should have just stayed in bed. Kept on missing train connections both going to work and coming home again; and when I stopped for a snack in Brussels North railway station, I went … Continue reading →

19) The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot (.co.uk, .com) This had been the book on my unread list marked as “unread” most often by other LibraryThing users (though since starting on it I have acquired two other books … Continue reading →

18) The Sexual Life of Catherine M., by Catherine Millet (.co.uk, .com) Catherine Millet has sex a lot, with lots of people, in lots of places and in lots of different positions. I have to say that I enjoyed this … Continue reading →

One funny: stellanova  exhorts women to “know your limits“. One serious: artw  reflects on the video I linked to yesterday.

I said to F this afternoon that I would watch his choice of episode from classic Thunderbirds, and he picked one called Give or Take a Million. It turns out to be a Christmas episode (1966), with most of the … Continue reading →

Regular readers will be aware that I have been feasting my eyes on much of the early Doctor Who which was broadcast before I was born, or old enough to really take it in, and very much enjoying it. In … Continue reading →

Striving for Military Stability in Europe, by Jane M. O. Sharp, cites my “Comment: In Search of a Solution,” IWPR, November 3, 2004. Endgame in the Balkans: Regime Change, European Style, by Elizabeth Pond: cites my “Comment: In Search of … Continue reading →

Furry Happy Monsters. Edited to add: tnh  links to one of the worst music videos ever: “…from the very start it’s terrible beyond human reckoning. After that, it steadily gets worse.”

17) From Behind a Closed Door: Secret Court Martial Records of the 1916 Easter Rising, by Brian Barton (.co.uk, .com) A Christmas present from , this pulls together the primary source material of the official records of the court-martial trials … Continue reading →

16) To Engineer is Human, by Henry Petroski (.co.uk, .com) I remember at one heated political meeting, doing a post-mortem on a particularly disappointing set of election results, a relatively new recruit to the party stopped the show by declaring … Continue reading →

15) Tau Zero, by Poul Anderson (.co.uk, .com) Another of my reading resolutions, one of those sf classics I had never got around to. The fifty-strong crew of a colonisation starship hit a technical problem – they can’t shut the … Continue reading →

14) The Tin Drum, by Günter Grass (.co.uk, .com) Part of my reading resolutions. This is the story of a boy growing up in Germany between 1927 and 1954 – in the Free City of Danzig until 1945, then in … Continue reading →

links to a fascinating YouTube diary presented by a woman with autism. The behaviour patterns she shows to us are very familiar to me. A Doctor Who fan-vid using “I’m Gonna Be” by The Proclaimers – hilarious and uplifting. George … Continue reading →

Back from my travels at last. Highlight of the trip was this conversation: Government official: “…and we do have some allies in the British Parliament, but unfortunately they are all Unionists from Northern Ireland, so nobody else in Britain likes … Continue reading →

From New Scientist. (Hat-tip to someone on my f-list who posted this in a locked entry.) Proves what I always said.

On both BSFA and Arthur C Clarke shortlists: End of the World Blues, by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Nova Swing, by M. John Harrison On BSFA shortlist only: Darkland, by Liz Williams Icarus, by Roger Levy The Last Witchfinder, by James … Continue reading →

Off again, to points east. Back Friday night.

If you’d like, respond to this and I’ll tell you which LJ user icon of yours I like most. If you want, please post in your own journal (preferably with your own favourite icon) and I’ll ask you to name … Continue reading →

13) Caricature, by Daniel Clowes (.co.uk, .com) I’ve had a somewhat hit and miss relationship with Daniel Clowes up to now. Some of his work seems to me rather self-indulgent (including the widely praised Ghost World and Like A Velvet … Continue reading →

12) Variable Star, by Robert A Heinlein and Spider Robinson (.co.uk, .com) Read for review elsewhere.

Happy birthday to Tom Baker, who turns 74 today! Coincidentally, my listening on the train yesterday was the abridged audiobook version (.co.uk, .com) of his 1997 autobiography, Who on Earth is Tom Baker? (.co.uk, .com) which I remember frenziedly skimming … Continue reading →

Julie Bell is a great artist. But Dag is too young, and Fawn not young enough.

To watch later: here.

It seems that, as predicted back in August here, and despite the protestations of Sean Ó Neáchtain here, there have been difficulties in implementing the decision to make Irish an official EU language. In fact, I hear from a friend … Continue reading →

The new job is going fine. Setting up a new office is hassle; planning a foreign trip for next week is hassle. But in a good way. However, this week another possibility matured somewhat. I had fired in a rather … Continue reading →

10) Machiavelli in Brussels: The Art of Lobbying the EU, by Rinus van Schendelen (.co.uk, .com) This is a pretty comprehensive description of how policies are made and legislation passed in the European Union, and of how an organised group … Continue reading →

9) The Sharing Knife: Beguilement, by Lois McMaster Bujold (.co.uk, .com) Like my wife, I am a complete and total Bujold fan. So a new Bujold novel is a Good Thing whether it be great or merely enjoyable. The Sharing … Continue reading →