All to do with the pandemic.
In third place:
In second place:
And top, as with Facebook:
Monthly Archives: July 2021
My tweets
- Fri, 12:56: Missing adventure ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ to be animated in 2021 https://t.co/WgIoinTANV Hooray!
- Fri, 14:21: Disappointing but not very surprising, given that F was not prosecuted for the deaths and injuries that Saville found he definitely caused, but instead for deaths and injuries for which Saville found much weaker evidence. https://t.co/1UZfmhnJdJ
- Fri, 16:43: My top Facebook posts H1 2021 https://t.co/lsvUDuVjsZ
- Fri, 18:02: Friday reading https://t.co/25wSzjAbSD
- Fri, 18:43: Roger Zelazny’s The Dawn of Amber: Book 1, by John Gregory Betancourt https://t.co/FyZ0pGtpdX
- Fri, 18:58: RT @olivernmoody: Picture of the day: German FM @HeikoMaas personally delivering a crate of what looks like Karlsberg Urpils from his home…
- Fri, 19:32: RT @GrantSana: Would encourage everyone to read Michael Mansfield’s Autobiography, not least because it details word for word, his cross ex…
- Fri, 20:20: RT @davidschneider: Boris Johnson absolutely furious about the disaster that is the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiated, signed and sold a…
- Fri, 20:48: RT @joncstone: just came across this quote from JRR Tolkien which I thought was interesting given the recent backlash against @TolkienSocie…
- Fri, 21:31: #BELITA I fear that’s the end of that, then.
- Fri, 23:08: I think the exceptions generally *are* the four-parters! https://t.co/l79tAwspmB
- Sat, 10:45: RT @MaxCRoser: Three maps that show how the life expectancy of people around the world has changed over the last two centuries. From my @O…
Roger Zelazny’s The Dawn of Amber: Book 1, by John Gregory Betancourt
Second paragraph of third chapter:
Without hesitation I unbuckled my swordbelt and slid into the seat across from her, balancing my weapon across my knees. My fellow passenger was strikingly beautiful, I found, with long dark hair and a wide, almost familiar face. Thin nose, full lips, strong chin––
The first of the prequels to the late great Roger Zelazny's Amber series, published in 2002 but I only got around to it as part of a Humble Bundle a few years back. I had been warned that the prequels were terrible; actually while the first book is not superb, it's not awful either. Our viewpoint character is Oberon, future father of the Nine Princes of Amber, who is pulled from a career as mercenary (his girlfriend killed off before we even meet her properly) by his mysterious father Dworkin, for magical dynastic plotting with his brothers and sisters. It's a bit flat, compared with the heights of the original, but I'll persevere with the series. You can get it here.
Friday reading
Current
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Riding the Unicorn, by Paul Kearney
The Separation, by Christopher Priest
Raybearer, by Jordan Ifueko
Last books finished
Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas
The Monster's Wife, by Kate Horsley
Light, by M. John Harrison
The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje
Next books
Empire Games, by Charles Stross
The Kingdom of Copper, by S. A Chakraborty
My top Facebook posts H1 2021
Most shares of my reposting someone else’s material:
Most shares of my own original material:
Most comments:
Most reactions:
My tweets
- Thu, 12:56: RT @RufusTSuperfly: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory is 50. Gene Wilder’s letter to director Mel Stuart remains a perfect example of wha…
- Thu, 16:05: The problem with reinforced concrete https://t.co/G475tZjV17 Steel rusts. Things fall apart.
- Thu, 16:38: My top tweets H1 2021 https://t.co/qsaudzWKMP
- Thu, 16:41: My four top tweets from the first half of 2021: 4) The future Sir Alex Allan lends his skateboard to a family friend. https://t.co/d2fjrXcoOQ
- Thu, 17:11: Victoria Newton’s Diary: How the Sun got its Matt Hancock scoop https://t.co/8t9uBNaLCh “It’s rare that a news exposé unites the left and the right in British politics.”
- Thu, 18:01: RT @Emmanuel_microb: Long tweet sur le variant Delta (mes excuses pour cela) —- Avec @TWenseleers , nous analysons comment le variant Del…
- Thu, 18:20: June 2021 books https://t.co/FqUm7vWJsJ
- Thu, 18:51: RT @john_lichfield: How can this be? The Spectator, which is scrupulous about facts, told us that the French economy was in ruins. The offi…
- Thu, 19:55: RT @apcoworldwide: Exciting developments in Europe! APCO Worldwide names new Europe leader | PR Week https://t.co/kd7RLbXMUN via @PRWeekUS…
- Thu, 20:02: RT @worldcon2021: We are so excited to announce Mary Robinette Kowal is our new Con Chair! Read the full story here: https://t.co/E86Q6yqH1…
- Thu, 20:48: Damn. I missed this news last week. A lovely guy and a great man. https://t.co/AXFjg2WuQS
- Thu, 22:59: Britannia waives the rules. Or tries to. https://t.co/BDymhJiYVK
- Thu, 23:24: I see some commentators this evening suggesting that with Alex Easton’s resignation from the DUP, SF are now the largest party in the Assembly and that this is the first time Nationalists have been in that position.
- Fri, 06:21: When I was a teenager, I used to sit up all night watching by-election results. Now I am 54 and live in a different time zone, I can just get up early instead. https://t.co/WWWyRqKHo1
- Fri, 06:25: RT @lewis_goodall: NEW: LABOUR HOLD BATLEY AND SPEN Results LABOUR: 13296 CONSERVATIVE:12973 GALLOWAY: 8264 LIB DEM: 1254 YORKSHIRE: 816…
- Fri, 09:28: Today’s important life lesson: don’t pull a funny face just before the interview, it may end up getting broadcast. (Interviewed by Albanian TV about EU policy towards their country.) https://t.co/JgUbuw5CLJ
- Fri, 10:45: The global normalcy index https://t.co/aiE57ao9E6 How close is your country to getting back to the pre-pandemic normal?
June 2021 books
Non-fiction 6 (YTD 22)
China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, by Peter Martin
A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, by Lynell George
Don't Be Evil: The Case Against Big Tech, by Rana Foroohar
Carrying the Fire, by Michael Collins
Boys in Zinc, by Svetlana Alexievich
The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullagh
Non-genre 3 (YTD 13)
Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding
All Among the Barley, by Melissa Harrison
The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje
Poetry 3
Blind Harry’s Wallace, translated by William Hamilton of Gilbertfield
Beowulf: A New Translation, by Maria Dahvana Headley
Beowulf: A New Translation, by Seamus Heaney
SF 9 (YTD 63)
Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey
Comic Inferno, by Brian W. Aldiss
The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women, ed. Alex Dally MacFarlane
Roger Zelazny's The Dawn of Amber: Book 1, by John Gregory Betancourt
"Stories For Men", by John Kessel
Come Tumbling Down, by Seanan McGuire
Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas
The Monster's Wife, by Kate Horsley
Light, by M. John Harrison
Comics 4 (YTD 18)
Monstress, vol. 5: Warchild, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Once & Future vol. 1: The King Is Undead, by Kieron Gillen, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ed Dukeshire
Wonder Woman: The Golden Age, Vol. 2 by William Moulton Marston
Parable of the Sower, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy and John Jennings
6,800 pages (YTD 32,700)
13/25 (YTD 52/123) by non-male writers (George, Foroohar, Alexievich, Fielding, Harrison,Headley, Gailey, MacFarlane, McGuire, Thomas, Horsley, Liu/Takeda, Butler)
6/25 (YTD 24/123) by PoC (George, Foroohar, Ondaatje, Thomas, Liu/Takeda, Butler)
2/25 rereads (YTD 11/123) – Bridget Jones' Diary, Heaney's Beowulf.
Current
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Riding the Unicorn, by Paul Kearney
The Separation, by Christopher Priest
Coming soon (perhaps)
Empire Games, by Charles Stross
The Kingdom of Copper, by S. A Chakraborty
"Grotto of the Dancing Deer", by Clifford D Simak
Le dernier Atlas, tome 2, by Fabien Vehlmann, Gwen De Bonneval and Fred Blanchard
Fish Tails, by Sheri S. Tepper
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, by Zora Neale Hurston
Martin Lukes Who Moved My Blackberry, by Lucy Kellaway
Humankind, by Rutger Bregman
The Place of the Lion, by Charles Williams
Strange Bedfellows: An Anthology of Political Science Fiction, ed. Hayden Trenholm
The History of Mr Polly, by H.G. Wells
Thirteen, by Steve Cavanagh
Cryptozoic, by Brian Aldiss
Fish Tails, by Sheri S. Tepper
Eurofiles: A Cartoonist's View of Europe and the Wider World, by Peter Schrank
The Primal Urge, by Brian Aldiss
A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik
The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
My top tweets H1 2021
My four top tweets from the first half of 2021:
4) The future Sir Alex Allan lends his skateboard to a family friend.
Ted Heath on a skateboard. You’re welcome. pic.twitter.com/2llJ2iZbwZ
— (@nwbrux) February 12, 2021
3) Mourning the loss of a dear friend. (This was also my top LJ entry for the first half of the year.)
Liz Marley @greensideknits 1967-2021 https://t.co/j0p74gh0h5
— (@nwbrux) April 16, 2021
2) Philip K. Dick foresees 2021.
The first chapters of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the Philip K. Dick novel on which the film Blade Runner is based, are set on 3 January 2021. pic.twitter.com/0lzu8JCQ9N
— (@nwbrux) January 3, 2021
1) Next time (if there is ever a next time) I’ll include alt-text for the image.
— (@nwbrux) June 22, 2021
My tweets
- Wed, 12:34: RT @rafaelbehr: I think the post-Brexit narrative demands a Belgium-England final that includes a couple of really protracted VAR reviews,…
- Wed, 12:56: Submissions list 2021: The complete list of eligible titles submitted for this year’s @ClarkeAward https://t.co/wvDD2r0i6Y Definitely worth a look!
- Wed, 16:05: RT @ClarkeAward: The 2021 shortlist has landed: The Infinite – Patience Agbabi The Vanished Birds – Simon Jimenez Vagabonds – Hao Jing…
- Wed, 22:23: 470 days of plague https://t.co/Nf8Q5nJSI5
- Thu, 10:45: RT @emilyvdw: My piece on science-fiction writer Isabel Fall and her story “I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter” is live. What Fa…