So, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heartonsnow said that I had to post something. That was more than a week ago actually, but I still haven't thought of anything worth posting. Still, let's see where this goes. I'll start with books, as that's easy.
So, I've read quite a bit of stuff since I last posted. There was the final Temeraire book, which was rather a damp squib to be honest. I don't want to go into specifics because of spoilers, but it was a ho hum ending to say the least! Still, I'll forgive it, as earlier books in the series really were very good indeed. And I read The Grapes Of Wrath, which is one of those books you always feel you ought to read. It was good, if a bit grim. Somewhat Moby Dick in its habit of winding all about the houses, but at least Steinbeck managed to keep all his meanderings relevant, which is more than can be said for Melville. An interesting mix of fiction and social history, and clearly aiming for capitalism's jugular. Basically it's a five hundred page Springsteen song. I'm glad I read it, but it was definitely solo acoustic Springsteen, and I'm an E Street Band fan. If I'm going to sit through five hundred pages of Springsteen, I want at least a little Max Weinberg to brighten things up a bit. (I'm quite pleased with that analogy, but it strikes me that it's unfathomable to anybody who isn't a Springsteen fan. Ah well).
After that I read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I've always wanted to try some Bester, partly because he's supposedly the science fiction author, and partly because one of my favourite Babylon 5 characters was named after him. It was absolutely terrific, anyway. The main character was an unlikeable sod, which is usually a turn off for me in a book, but for some reason it didn't matter in the slightest. Fab book. I shall have to look out more of his stuff. I seem to have been in a classics mood, as I thought next I would give Ngaio Marsh a go. I love Allingham, and Sayers is pretty cool too, but I had never read a Marsh. My mother is going for some sort of world record for the amount of murder squished into a bookcase though, so it wasn't hard to find the first one, A Man Lay Dead, from 1934. Pretty good. Nothing brilliant, but then it was just the first. Good weekend reading, anyway. I was much amused by a line early on about the book's main female character, which described her as having "extremely progressive ideas on acceleration". So thanks tothisbluespirit she immediately grew Nova Pilbeam's head.
What else? Laramie continues to be fun. I've been watching stray Bonanza episodes as well, because Sundays are built for Bonanza. So my life has been books, and shoot-outs with dastardly outlaws. Also awesome fist fights. Wherever possible, always hire an ex-stuntman as your hero. The results can be truly epic. *happy sigh*
Um. Pictures? As ever, I've been wandering about the place, but let's face it, there's probably a limit to how many pictures of ducks, trees, and Gloucestershire hills that the world truly needs, so have some flowers from the garden instead.
Random clematis:
This is called a penstemon, apparently:
I like it, as it's basically the mouth to Hell:
I bought this packet of seeds called "Sea Of Blue". The slugs ate most of the seedlings, but some survived, and they are indeed blue. Also purple. The black and yellow stripy thing isn't a flower though.
Definitely blue. This poor thing is called a love-in-the-mist, apparently. What it did to deserve such a lousy name is anybody's guess. But it's definitely blue.
Also Freddie is looking good at the moment:
PS: Not that I'm obsessed or anything (that's probably a lie), but I gifed the leaping fishy! Look look!
Hurrah.
I shall now vanish back into the ether for another eighteen and a half years.
heartonsnow said that I had to post something. That was more than a week ago actually, but I still haven't thought of anything worth posting. Still, let's see where this goes. I'll start with books, as that's easy.So, I've read quite a bit of stuff since I last posted. There was the final Temeraire book, which was rather a damp squib to be honest. I don't want to go into specifics because of spoilers, but it was a ho hum ending to say the least! Still, I'll forgive it, as earlier books in the series really were very good indeed. And I read The Grapes Of Wrath, which is one of those books you always feel you ought to read. It was good, if a bit grim. Somewhat Moby Dick in its habit of winding all about the houses, but at least Steinbeck managed to keep all his meanderings relevant, which is more than can be said for Melville. An interesting mix of fiction and social history, and clearly aiming for capitalism's jugular. Basically it's a five hundred page Springsteen song. I'm glad I read it, but it was definitely solo acoustic Springsteen, and I'm an E Street Band fan. If I'm going to sit through five hundred pages of Springsteen, I want at least a little Max Weinberg to brighten things up a bit. (I'm quite pleased with that analogy, but it strikes me that it's unfathomable to anybody who isn't a Springsteen fan. Ah well).
After that I read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. I've always wanted to try some Bester, partly because he's supposedly the science fiction author, and partly because one of my favourite Babylon 5 characters was named after him. It was absolutely terrific, anyway. The main character was an unlikeable sod, which is usually a turn off for me in a book, but for some reason it didn't matter in the slightest. Fab book. I shall have to look out more of his stuff. I seem to have been in a classics mood, as I thought next I would give Ngaio Marsh a go. I love Allingham, and Sayers is pretty cool too, but I had never read a Marsh. My mother is going for some sort of world record for the amount of murder squished into a bookcase though, so it wasn't hard to find the first one, A Man Lay Dead, from 1934. Pretty good. Nothing brilliant, but then it was just the first. Good weekend reading, anyway. I was much amused by a line early on about the book's main female character, which described her as having "extremely progressive ideas on acceleration". So thanks to
thisbluespirit she immediately grew Nova Pilbeam's head.What else? Laramie continues to be fun. I've been watching stray Bonanza episodes as well, because Sundays are built for Bonanza. So my life has been books, and shoot-outs with dastardly outlaws. Also awesome fist fights. Wherever possible, always hire an ex-stuntman as your hero. The results can be truly epic. *happy sigh*
Um. Pictures? As ever, I've been wandering about the place, but let's face it, there's probably a limit to how many pictures of ducks, trees, and Gloucestershire hills that the world truly needs, so have some flowers from the garden instead.
Random clematis:
This is called a penstemon, apparently:
I like it, as it's basically the mouth to Hell:
I bought this packet of seeds called "Sea Of Blue". The slugs ate most of the seedlings, but some survived, and they are indeed blue. Also purple. The black and yellow stripy thing isn't a flower though.
Definitely blue. This poor thing is called a love-in-the-mist, apparently. What it did to deserve such a lousy name is anybody's guess. But it's definitely blue.
Also Freddie is looking good at the moment:
PS: Not that I'm obsessed or anything (that's probably a lie), but I gifed the leaping fishy! Look look!
Hurrah.
I shall now vanish back into the ether for another eighteen and a half years.