Non-fiction 6 (YTD 35)
Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 2, by Richard Bagwell
How Languages are Learned, by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 3, by Richard Bagwell
The Essence of Christianity, by Ludwig Feuerbach (not fnished)
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 (not finished)

Fiction (non-sf) 4 (YTD 22)
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Crash, by J.G. Ballard
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell
Billionaire Boy, by David Walliams

SF (non-Who) 14 (YTD 67)
γ1
δ1
ε1
Beowulf, tr. J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
ζ1
η1
Plastic Jesus, by Wayne Simmons
ι1
Rogue Queen, by L. Sprague de Camp
κ1
334, by Thomas M Disch
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
λ1
μ1

Doctor Who 4 (YTD 38)
Millennium Shock, by Justin Richards
So Vile a Sin, by Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman
The Book of the Still, by Paul Ebbs
Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File, by Gavin Collinson and Joe Lidster

Comics 2 (YTD 13)
De Sterrensteen, by "Willy Vandersteen" [Peter Van Gucht & Luc Morjaeu]
Brussel in Beeldekes: Manneken Pis en andere sjarels, ed. Marc Verhaegen

~8,800 pages (YTD ~49,900)
8/30 (YTD 44/175) by women (Lightbown/Spada, Kingsolver, O'Farrell, γ1, η1, κ1, λ1, Orman)
3/30 (YTD 13/175) by PoC (Bounoider, γ1, κ1)

Reread: 0/30 (YTD 6/175)

Reading now:
With The Light… vol 7, by Keiko Tobe
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre
The Life of John Buncle, Esq: Containing Various Observations and Reflections, Made in Several Parts of the World, and Many Extraordinary Relations, by Thomas Amory

Coming soon (perhaps):
The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Brontomek!, by Michael Coney
A Guide to Tolkien, by David Day
Zorba the Greek, by Nikos Kazantzakis
A Winter Book, by Tove Jansson
Starry messenger: The best of Galileo, ed. Charles Ryan
Diplomatic Baggage, by Brigid Keenan
The Making of Doctor Who, by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke
A Sentimental Education, by Gustave Flaubert
The Waves, by Virginia Woolf
The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene
The Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar
Race Of Scorpions, by Dorothy Dunnett
Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott
La Galère d'Obélix, by Albert Uderzo
King's Inns and the Kingdom of Ireland, by Colum Kenny
Harlequin, by Bernard Cornwell
Eva, by Peter Dickinson
Wool, by Hugh Howey
The Strangest Man, by Graham Farmelo
Lost At Sea, by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt
Beach Music, by Pat Conroy
[Doctor Who] Tomb of Valdemar, by Simon Messingham
[Doctor Who] Bad Therapy, by Matthew Jones
[Doctor Who] The Crooked World, by Steve Lyons

• 1936: Guinness Nazi Germany advertising posters
  
  (Never actually used.)
  (tags: germany history )

We had a Cabinet at 11 and a very interesting discussion, especially about the neutrality of Belgium and the point upon which everything will ultimately turn – are we to go in or stand aside? Of course everybody longs to stand aside, but I need not say that France, through Cambon, is pressing strongly for a reassuring declaration. Edward Grey had an interview with him this afternoon which he told me was rather painful. He had, of course, to tell Cambon, for we are under no obligation that we could give no pledges and that our actions must depend upon the course of events, including the Belgian question and the direction of public opinion here.

[NB that the French ambassadors in London and Berlin were brothers.]

Both last year and in 2011 I did a survey of how bloggers had declared that they would vote for the four written fiction categories of the Hugo awards. I have done a similar survey for this year, presented below. I make the following excuses and caveats:

1. I'm sorry if I omitted your blog post. I did my best to be comprehensive using Google, but it doesn't get everywhere and it will miss things. (I note that it failed to pick up my own posts on this Livejournal!) But I also deliberately skipped over posts where no clear order of preference was expressed.
2. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your first preference, or more importantly if I used the wrong handle for you. Please let me know and I will correct it.
3. Both in 2011 and in 2013, not a single blogger in my initial survey admitted to voting for the actual winner of the Best Novel category. There were loads of Willis and Scalzi voters who simply weren't recording their preferences anywhere I could see them. The same may be happening this year (though not for WIllis or Scalzi, neither of whom is a finalist).

Having said that, there are two very clear front-runners in two of the fiction categories, so that can be taken as a fairly strong indication.

Best Novel

16 votes for Ancillary Justice (Elliotte Rusty Harold, D.L. of GoodReads, Kat of GoodReads, mgbino of Mobilereads, Pete731 of Mobilereads, Kate Nepveu, Rebecca Demarest, Martin Wisse, Joe Sherry, ReadingSFF, Richard Kettlewell, Rachel Coleman, Steven Halter, Stormsewer, Chris Gerrib and Nicholas Whyte)

4 votes for Neptune's Brood (Andrew Hickey, Timo Pietilä, Kaedrin and Ron Corral)
2 votes for The Wheel of Time (Diabolical Plots and Jack Vickeredge)
1 vote for Parasite (Jeff of GoodReads)
1 vote for No Award (Martin Petto)
1 vote for Warbound (Vox Day)

Comment: Not at all surprising that there is a front-runner here, considering how awards have gone so far this year. On transfers, Parasite rather easily overtakes The Wheel of Time for third place, and No Award passes both The Wheel of Time and Warbound for fourth place. I imagine that The Wheel Of Time will do a bit better than fifth in reality.

Best Novella

6 votes for "Equoid" (Jon Grantham, Steven Halter, Ron Corral, Diabolical Plots, Pete731 of Mobilereads and Timo Pietilä)
6 votes for Six-Gun Snow White (Nicholas Whyte, Stormsewer, Andrew Hickey, Richard Kettlewell, ReadingSFF and Kat of GoodReads)
5 votes for "The Chaplain's Legacy" (Chris Gerrib, Vox Day, Kaedrin, Jeff of GoodReads and Pancakeloach)

3 votes for The Butcher of Khardov (Justin Alexander, Alan Heuer and Rebecca Demarest)
2 votes for "Wakulla Springs" (secritcrush and Tompe of Mobilereads)
1 vote for No Award (Martin Petto)

Comment: Essentially a dead heat with six votes each for the top two stories, and five for the one in third place. When I looked at transfers they didn't resolve the tie between the top two, though they also didn't lift the third-placed story any. Assuming that "Equoid" and Six-Gun Snow White take the top two places, third place goes to "Wakulla Springs" on transfers; fourth to "The Chaplain's Legacy"; and fifth to The Butcher of Khardov, with No Award putting in a strong showing in the final stages.

Best Novelette

9 votes for "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" (Jeff of GoodReads, Nicholas Whyte, Alan Heuer, Richard Kettlewell, Kaedrin, Rebecca Demarest, Justin Alexander, Jon Grantham and Stormsewer)
7 votes for "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" (Andrew Hickey, Steven Halter, Ron Corral, Timo Pietilä, ReadingSFF, Pete731 of Mobilereads and Chris Gerrib)

5 votes for "The Waiting Stars" (Liv Diabolical Plots, Martin Wisse, Kate Nepveu and Kat of GoodReads)

1 vote for "The Exchange Officers" (Pancakeloach)
1 vote for "Opera Vita Aeterna" (Vox Day)
1 vote for No Award (Martin Petto)

Comment: Another close race here, though with a clearer ranking among the top three stories. If Chiang takes the top spot, I make it still very close for the second place between de Bodard and Kowal, with Kowal perhaps in the lead. After that we get into interesting territory, with many putting No Award head of "The Exchange Officers", and most putting it ahead of "Opera Vita Aeterna".

Best Short Story

12 votes for "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" (Kaedrin, Timo Pietilä, Rebecca Demarest, DrNefario of Mobilereads, Chris Gerrib, Nicholas Whyte, Andrew Hickey, Steven Halter, Rachel Coleman, Diabolical Plots, Joe Sherry and Liv)

7 votes for "Selkie Stories are for Losers" (ReadingSFF, Martin Wisse, Kat of GoodReads, Justin Alexander, Jon Grantham, Martin Petto and Richard Kettlewell)

4 votes for "If You Were a Dinosaur My Love" (Kate Nepveu, Stormsewer, Jeff of GoodReads and Ron Corral)
2 votes for No Award (Pancakeloach and Vox Day)
1 vote for "The Ink Readers of Doi Saket" (Pete731 of Mobilereads)

A clear front-runner here, if not as overwhelmingly as in the Best Novel category. Second place goes just as clearly to "Selkie Stories Are For Losers", and third to "If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love"; and there are enough transfers to pull "The Ink Readers of Doi Saket" decently ahead of No award for fourth place despite its poor performance on first preferences.

I should add that I have no privileged information about how voting is actually going. The above numbers represent only those votes I was able to tabulate fairly quickly from a quick google search, and past experience shows that this is only the roughest of guides to who will actually win the awards.

If you are a member of Loncon 3, you can vote for the 2014 Hugos here and for the 1939 Retro Hugos here.

Current
With The Light… vol 7, by Keiko Tobe
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
μ1
Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre
The Life of John Buncle, Esq: Containing Various Observations and Reflections, Made in Several Parts of the World, and Many Extraordinary Relations, by Thomas Amory

Last books finished
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell
Rogue Queen, by L. Sprague de Camp
κ1
Billionaire Boy, by David Walliams
334, by Thomas M Disch
The Essence of Christianity, by Ludwig Feuerbach (not fnished)
The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 (not finished)
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
λ1

Last week's audios
[Bernice Summerfield] The Revolution, by Nev Fountain
[Bernice Summerfield] Good Night, Sweet Ladies, by Una McCormack
[Bernice Summerfield] Random Ghosts, by Guy Adams
current: [Bernice Summerfield] The Lights of Skaro, by James Goss

Next books
The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Brontomek!, by Michael Coney
A Guide to Tolkien, by David Day
Tomb of Valdemar, by Simon Messingham

I tried both of these on the ferry on Sunday, and bounced off both less than 20 pages in.

July Books 18) The Essence of Christianity, by Ludwig Feuerbach

Writing about a subject I am only vaguely interested in terms which I cannot be bothered to try and understand.

July Books 19) The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806

Detailed, repetitive, poorly spelt even allowing for the standards of the day, unselfconscious, depressing, even if there had been maps showing where they were going I don’t think I could have stuck it out.

A book for kids about a boy whose father is a billionaire due to inventing a new type of toilet paper, and how difficult it is to find normality. Shockingly misogynistic – there isn’t a single sympathetic female character – and all the kids appear to be white. Lots of poo jokes as well, for those who like poo jokes.

• NASA records sounds in space
  
  Wow.
  (tags: astronomy space )
• The western front in the first world war and now
  
  Stepping back in time.
  (tags: photos history )
• The Banbridge Battalion
  
  Low-level conflict, 1913-1920.
  (tags: northernireland )

We had another turn of the kaleidoscope today. I was sitting in the Cabinet room with a map of Ulster and a lot of statistics about populations and religions, endeavouring to get into something like shape my speech on the Amending Bill, when a telephone message came from Bonar Law to ask me to go and see him and Carson at his Kensington abode. He had sent his motor, which I boarded, and in due time arrived at my destination. I found the two gentlemen there, and Bonar Law proceeded to propose in the interests of the international situation that we should postpone for the time being the second reading of the Amending Bill. He thought that to advertise our domestic dissensions at this moment would weaken our influence in the world for peace. Carson said that at first he had thought it impossible to agree, as it would strain still further the well-known and much tried patience of his Ulstermen, but he had come to see that it was now a patriotic duty. I, of course, welcomed their attitude, but said I would consult my colleagues before giving a definite answer. When I got back I saw Lloyd George and Grey and we agreed that it was right to close with the offer. Redmond, whom I saw afterwards, thought it an excellent chance of putting off the Amending Bill. The City, which is in a terrible state of depression and paralysis, is for the time being all against English intervention. The prospect is very black.

A planet where human beings, for some reason, have started to behave like bees (as far as this is convenient for what the author wants to do with the plot): rival queens duel to the death in naked single combat, non-working males are brutally killed off, and the female workers who really keep things going are kept on a low-protein diet to prevent them from becoming fertile. Our subversive and intelligent heroine meets an expedition from Earth, eats meat for the first time and thus becomes a Real Woman; and society collapses into monogamy and nuclear families. I think there is some great analysis waiting to be done here.

I got this ages back from Arc Manor, who send a free ebook monthly to subscribers. I realised pretty early on that I would never have time to read them so I think this is the only one I have downloaded.

A short but intense book about family histories echoing and suddenly climaxing across the decades, with Esme and her great-niece Iris suddenly discovering each other’s existence and forced to navigate two different generations’ poisoned sibling relationships. Esme is a particularly fascinating creation, institutionalised for no good reason for sixty years, then forced to come to terms with a new world – and finding this a reason to explore her own past in more detail. A very short book that packs a heck of a punch.

The magisterial work on late 16th century Ireland, originally published in 1885-90 and now available from iTunes (vol 1, vol2, vol 3). I’ve already read a lot of the later literature on the period, so it’s interesting to look at this as a somewhat flawed foundation stone for everything that came later. I was pleasantly surprised that the author’s supposed Unionist sympathies were not more obvious; but he does rather concentrate on the internal dynamics of the Dublin government, rather than engaging with what the Irish chieftains might have been thinking, and also rather more on Munster than on Leinster, Connacht or Ulster. I don’t much mind the former, as I too am trying to track the relations between Dublin Castle and London, but the latter is a bit annoying, especially given the rather uninformative maps in the volume, which are essentially outline sketches of the whole island with a few regions offhandedly shaded in. The first section, which takes the story to the reign of Henry VIII (his father is dealt with in a single chapter), is also quite informative. But I was struck by the extent to which Bagwell rather glides over the military denouements which are the cornerstone of later narrative – the Battle of Kinsale being the most obvious example. The term “Nine Years’ War” is not used at all.

Plenty of quotes from Sir Nicholas White, though he fades out of the story without explanation at the point of Sir John Perrot’s imprisonment and death.

• Orban Says He Seeks to End Liberal Democracy in Hungary
  
  Yes, really.
  (tags: hungary )
• Former UKIP councillor stands again
  
  for “Blonde, Curly Hair, Grey Eyes” Party.
  (tags: ukpolitics funny )
• Was Jimi Hendrix Kicked Off a Monkees Tour?
  
  No, they parted amicably.
  (tags: music )

The Amending Bill and the whole Irish business are, of course, put into the shade by the coming war, for it now seems as if nothing but a miracle will avert it. After dinner I went across to E[dward] Grey and sat with him and Haldane till 1 a.m.; talking over the situation and trying to discover bridges and outlets. It is one of the ironies of the case that we, being the only Power who has made so much as a constructive suggestion in the direction of peace, are blamed by both Russia and Germany for causing the outbreak of war.

• So What Gives? (About Tolerance)
  
  Nailing the “intolerant liberals” lie.
  (tags: philosophy politics )
• When it comes to our welfare system, we’ve lost the plot
  
  Finding a better narrative.
  (tags: ukpolitics )

Gosh. Difficult to know where to start or finish with this very disturbing book about a group of people who are brought together by their sexual interest in car crashes. It’s very grittily and credibly set in West London; the car crash scenes are somewhat more erotic than the sex scenes, which are full of somewhat disgusting detail; and the whole is awfully well done, but I’m not sure I would want to read it again, or that I would necessarily recommend it to anyone else.

A rather impressive little ebook from the BBC, downloadable from here – free to people in the UK until 31 July, the rest of us have to pay. Gavin Collinson has assembled the usual material, complete with video clips from both Old and New Who, about the Cybermen, and Joe Lidster supplies a suitably creepy story. Aimed at the 6-12s, but I was pretty satisfied with it myself. Apparently this is by way of being a pilot project to see if there is take-up for it; I hope there will be more.

• What Are You Reading? – Carnegie Europe
  
  Summer tips.
  (tags: books )
• The Devil’s Crown: The Mystery and Majesty of a Lost BBC Series
  
  Will be looking out for this.
  (tags: history )

A novel set in a near future, in a city supposedly on the Pacific coast of America but in fact closely based on Belfast (neighbourhoods called the Queen’s Quarter, Titanic, the Village, Tomb Street), where mobsters and programmers recreate Jesus, who has been largely forgotten, as an AI. It didn’t really work for me; I think if you bring a recreated Jesus into a story you need more robust underpinning, including a better explanation of why he has been forgotten so quickly, particularly in a story whose setting is based on a city so heavily impacted by people claiming to follow him.

I thought this was a rather good Eighth Doctor adventure, with Team Tardis getting caught up in a complex struggle between time travellers seeking the eponymous artefact, the Doctor, Fitz and Anji each being subjected to separate but entertainingly appropriate adventures. Apparently this was a point when the series was winding down, but there seems to have been a bit of an uptick in quality.

• Virtual Sea Odyssey – The Burgess Shale
  
  Glorious.
  (tags: biology fossils )
• Key MH17 Crash Suspect Linked to Massacre of 3,000 Bosnian Muslims in 1992
  
  Igor Strelkov’s past.
  (tags: bosnia russia ukraine )
• How to turn Barbies into Doctor Who Weeping Angels
  
  Because you needed to know.
  (tags: doctorwho )
• Teenage son discovers his deceased father’s ghost car in Xbox rally game
  
  #somethinginmyeye
  (tags: death )

No one can say what is going to happen in the East of Europe. The news this morning is that Servia has capitulated on the main point, but it is very doubtful if any reservation will be accepted by Austria, who is resolved upon a complete and final humiliation. The curious thing is that on many, if not most, of the points Austria has a good and Servia a very bad case, but the Austrians are quite the stupidest people in Europe. There is a brutality about their mode of procedure which will make most people think that this is a case of a big Power wantonly bullying a little one. Anyhow, it is the most dangerous situation of the last forty years. It may incidentally have the effect of throwing into the background the lurid pictures of civil war in Ulster.

A collection of fifteen short comic strip stories about Brussels, funded by the Flemish Independent Guild of Comic Strips (yes, it exists) and the Flemish Brussels Cultural Cell (yes, it exists too) and edited by Marc Verhaegen (who we have met before). The stories are all told by an old man sitting in the corner of a contemporary cafe, but all take place in the medieval period (and we are to understand that he has somehow survived from that day to this). None of them is terribly deep; there are three different origin myths for the Mannekin Pis. My favourite was probably the second one, about Saint Guido, supposedly the patron saint of taxi drivers, written by Lük Bey and subversively illsutrated by Reinhart Croon. The point of the book is of course that it’s there and it’s in Dutch.

A textbook mainly for language teachers (which I am not), from which I got two interesting things. The first is that it’s amazing how little we actually know. Even the apparently obvious point that children find it easier to learn languages is only weakly backed up by research. There’s obviously a big difference between learning your first language (or languages) and learning another after you can already talk. But I didn’t feel that researchers had got much beyond accumulating data.

The second point is that one of the things that is known is that some grammatical elements are easier to learn than others. Take this list of English grammar points:

1. present progressive –ing (Mommy running)
2. plural –s (Two books)
3. irregular past forms (Baby went)
4. possessive ‘s (Daddy‘s hat)
5. copula (Annie is happy)
6. articles the and a
7. regular past –ed (She walked)
8. Third person singular simple present –s (She runs)
9. Auxiliary be (He is coming)

Apparently a child who has learnt the lower items is sure to have also managed the upper ones, but the reverse is not true. (Slightly odd that irregular past tense should be learned before regular past tense; but there you go.)

I’d be hugely interested to know if anyone has tried researching such a table for cases other than English – looking at it, I thought immediately of Russian, which uses neither copula nor articles, but of course has numerous cases for nouns and distinguishes between transitive and intransitive verbs. Surely we could learn quite a lot about deep structure, including whether there is really much evidence for it in the first place, by comparing surveys like that across different (or indeed similar) languages?

Anyway, I shall continue the occasional browse of our language shelves.

• Can You Speak Commission?
  
  The Brussels dialect of the young folk!
  (tags: eu )

So, poor old Roz, eh? Having done due service to the Seventh Doctor for 18 books, she dies in battle defending her high-powered family, one of whom is an even closer relative than she first seems, against a peculiar shape-shifting alien threat. I’m afraid the plot rambled a bit too much for me, but I did like the lifting of the veil to Roz’s background – rather as we were told about Turlough back in 1984, only done better this time. Not one of the great New Adventures unfortunately, but an important building block of the (soon to be completed) series.

I very much got into this story of a young American in Mexico who ends up working for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, is present at the murder of Trotsky, moves to the USA (where in fact he has not previously lived) and gets caught in the web of McCarthyism.  Lots of good description and acute personal observation. Not quite as gripping as The Poisonwood Bible, but perhaps a bit more circumstantially convincing.

• Alastair Campbell – why I love Jacques Brel
  
  @campbellclaret shows good taste.
  (tags: music )
• Behind the Scenes in Putin’s Court
  
  Excellent piece by Ben.
  (tags: russia )
• Flight MH17: Putin’s disasters
  
  Another piece by Ben.
  (tags: russia ukraine )
• The Spanish government must find a positive message for Catalonia if it is to reduce support for Catalan independence
  
  Good advice; not being followed.
  (tags: catalonia )

At 3.15 we had a cabinet, where there was a lot of talk about Ulster, but the real interest was Grey’s statement of the European situation, which is about as bad as it could be. Austria has sent a bullying and humiliating ultimatum to Servia, who cannot possibly comply with it, and demands an answer in 48 hours – failing which she will march. This means almost inevitably that Russia will come on the scene in defence of Servia, and if so it is difficult both for Germany and for France to refrain from lending a hand. So that we are within measurable distance of a real Armageddon.

Current
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O’Farrell
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

Last books finished
η1
[Doctor Who] So Vile a Sin, by Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman
How Languages are Learned, by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada
Brussel in Beeldekes: Manneken Pis en andere sjarels, ed. Marc Verhaegen 
Plastic Jesus, by Wayne Simmons
[Doctor Who] The Book of the Still, by Paul Ebbs
Doctor Who: Cybermen Monster File
Crash, by J.G. Ballard
ι1
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 3, by Richard Bagwell

Last week’s audios
[Doctor Who] Destroy the Infinite, by Nicholas Briggs
current: [Bernice Summerfield] The Revolution, by Nev Fountain

Next books
Rogue Queen, by L. Sprague de Camp
334, by Tom Disch
Billionaire Boy, by Davd Walliams