My book reading has been all over the shop, in both quantity and genre, since my last post. In the week ending October 25 I read seven books but in the week ending November 8 I read none. There've been huge chunks of sci-fi interspersed with crime fiction, graphic novels and YA supernatural nonsense. Plus, for the first time since being an undergrad, I've actually been on a big non-fiction kick. And whilst all of this has been going on, my to-be-read pile(s) has spiraled out of control.

244. Dark Water - Koji Suzuki
245. Cobweb - Neal Stephenson & Frederick George
246. Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K. Dick
247. Amnesia Moon - Jonathan Lethem
248. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
249. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Chas, The Knowledge - Simon Oliver & Goran Sudzuka
250. Idlewild - Nick Sagan
251. John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Roots of Coincidence - Giuseppe Camuncoli & Stefano Landini
252. Auggie Wren's Christmas Story - Paul Aster
253. Dr. Bloodmoney - Philip K. Dick
254. A Matter of Death & Life - Andrey Kurkov
255. Evermore - Alyson Noel
256. Generation Kill - Evan Wright
257. One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer - Nathaniel Fick
258. Marvel True Believers Retro Collection: The Fantastic Four Pop-Up - Caroline Repchuck
259. The Green Marine: An Irishman's War in Iraq - Graham Dale with Neil Fetherstonhaugh
260. Sniper One - Sgt. Dan Mills

( So, let's talk about some of these for a bit )

Related only in the sense that books are involved, apparently Borders is teetering on the edge of going into administration. And I know it's mean spirited of me, but I'm actually kind of glad about this. I hate Borders. The one in Glasgow is fucking massive but you can never find what you're looking for and it's not really good value for money. There's no such thing as the personal touch and trying to speak to a member of staff is nearly impossible. I won't miss it.

I kind of forgot that I was in the middle of a trouble check over at TFL... So my update has come a few days late, but it's done so I feel like I've achieved something. And to further this paltry sense of achievement, let's talk about the books I've read recently (I'm still mostly waaaay behind on TV).

230. Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
231. Big in Japan: A Ghost Story - M. Thomas Gammaring
232. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Devil in the Sky - Greg Cox & John Gregory Betancourt
233. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Laertian Gamble - Robert Sheckley
234. Stories We Could Tell - Tony Parsons
235. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Objective: Bajor - John Peel
236. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Heart of the Warrior - John Gregory Betancourt
237. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Wrath of the Prophets - Peter David, Michael Jan Friendman & Robert Greenberger
238. The Host - Stephenie Meyer
239. Broken Angels - Richard Morgan
240. The Snow - Adam Roberts
241. Berlin Blues - Sven Regener
242. Budapest - Chico Buarque
243. The Final Solution - Michael Chabon

( Some musings and whatnot )

I seem to have read a fuck load of stuff in the past month. This partly down to the amount of graphic novels I went through this month but I read actual books too, honest!

198. The Invisibles: Say You Want A Revolution - Grant Morrison et. al.
199. Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita - Andrzei Klimowski & Danusia Schejbal
200. Cycle of Violence - Grayson Perry
201. The Sandman Presents... The Furies - Mike Carey & John Bolton
202. Point Blank - Ed Brubaker & Colin Wilson
203. Sleeper: Season One - Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips
204. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemmingway
205. Vampire Kisses - Ellen Schreiber
206. Love Story - Erich Segal
207. Tomorrow is a Stranger - Geoffrey Trease
208. Janes in Love - Cecil Castellicii & Jim Rugg
209. Connect - Nan McCarthy
210. The Three Incestuous Sisters - Audrey Niffenegger
211. The Regeneration Trilogy: The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker
212. Life Class - Pat Barker
213. The Friendly Young Ladies - Mary Renault
214. Isaac Asimov's Robots and Aliens: Changeling - Stephen Leigh
215. Isaac Asimov's Robots and Aliens: Renegade - Cordell Scotten
216. 40 Years of Original Prints - Edinburgh Printmakers
217. Model - Lee So-young
218. Cover the Mirrors - Faye L. Booth
219. Stargate: Atlantis, Angelus - Peter J. Evans
219. Twilight - William Gay
220. The Salon - Nick Bertozzi
221. The Regeneration Trilogy: Regeneration - Pat Barker
222. The Regeneration Trilogy: The Ghost Road - Pat Barker
223. 1985 - Mark Millar & Tommy Lee Edwards
224. Vimanarama - Grant Morrison & Philip Bond
225. Moomin Book Four: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip - Tove Jansson & Lars Jansson
226. Their Finest Hour and a Half - Lissa Evans
227. The Naming of the Beasts - Mike Carey
228. Vampire Dance - Sergio Bleda
229. Stargate: Atlantis, Entanglement - Martha Wells

( Related Babblings )

It turns out that it's absolutely ages since I've posted about my amazing reading habits. So sad.

158. An American Dream - Norman Mailer
159. Salomé - Oscar Wilde & David Shenton
160. The Seventh Tower: The Fall - Garth Nix
161. Juliet of the Chalet School - Caroline German
162. Harlequinn Valentine - Neil Gaiman & John Bolton
163. Queen & Country (Definitive Edition), Volume 1 - Greg Rucka et. al.
164. Queen & Country (Definitive Edition), Volume 2 - Greg Rucka et. al.
165. A Woman In Berlin - Anonymous
166. Thicker Than Water - Mike Carey
167. A Disease of Language - Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
168. The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening - L.J. Smith
169. The Vampire Diaries: The Struggle - L.J. Smith
170. The Vampire Diaries: The Fury - L.J. Smith
171. The Vampire Diaries: The Return - L.J. Smith
172. All Fires the Fire and Other Stories - Julio Cortázar
173. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
174. Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
175. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
176. The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter
177. The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
178. The French Lieutenant's Woman - John Fowles
179. Tuned Out: The BBC's portrayal of lesbian and gay people - Katherine Cowan & Gill Valentine (Stonewall)
180. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
181. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
182. Stardumb - John Defazio & Dave Hickey
183. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Brontë
184. Villette - Charlotte Brontë
185. The Professor - Charlotte Brontë
186. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Section 31, Rogue - Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin
187. Queen & Country (Definitive Edition), Volume 3 - Greg Rucka et. al.
188. Stargate: Atlantis, Blood Ties - Sonny Whitelaw & Elizabeth Christensen
189. Stargate: Atlantis, Mirror, Mirror - Sabine C. Bauer
190: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Proud Helios - Melissa Scott
191. Love Thy Neighbour: What people of faith really think about homosexuality - Ruth Hunt & Gill Valentine (Stonewall)
192. Rainbow City: Stories from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Edinburgh - Ellen Galford & Ken Wilson (Remember When Project)
193. A Fistful of Rain - Greg Rucka
194. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
195. Shooting at Midnight - Greg Rucka
196. The Maintenance of Headway - Magnus Mills
197. The Plain Janes - Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg

( Some thoughts and general ramblings )

EDIT: Holy cliffhanger, A Town Called Eureka!

I just watched an entire episode of Nigella Express and I don't really know why. Okay, that's a lie. I do know. I was flicking and they were showing a preview of her making chocolate chip cookies and they looked fucking good. This is not an excuse for the feeling of powerless that came over me once the thing actually started. Jesus. It's so smug. My forehead actually hurts from the unimpressed frowning I sustained throughout.

Anyway, let's catch up on my reading list (because I know you're all riveted when I do this bit).

127. Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz
128. The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall - L.J. Smith
129. Forever Odd - Dean Koontz
130. Brother Odd - Dean Koontz
131. This Is War - Georg Bush (as told to Dr. Parsons)
132. Two Caravans - Marina Lewycka
133. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Avatar, Book One - S.D. Perry
134. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Avatar, Book Two - S.D. Perry
135. The All New X-Men Pop-Up - Caroline Repchuck
136. The Last Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko
137. Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence - Nick Bantock
138. Star Trek: Titan: Taking Wing - Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels
139. Star Trek: Voyager: Mosaic - Jeri Taylor
140. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ghost Ship - Diane Carey
141. Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Eyes of the Beholder - A.C. Crispin
142. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Q in Law - Peter David
142. Star Trek: Titan: The Red King - Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels
143. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Imbalance - V.E. Mitchell
144. Star Trek: Titan: Orion's Hounds - Christopher L. Bennett
145. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Here There Be Dragons - John Peel
146. Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
147. Resident Evil: Underworld - S.D. Perry
148. Veronica at the Wells - Lorna Hill
149. Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
150. Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours - Jim Butcher
151. The Sea - John Banville
152. The Human Stain - Philip Roth
153. Only You Can Save Mankind - Terry Pratchett
154. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: What You Leave Behind - Diane Carey
155. The Ipcress File - Len Deighton
156. Pharos: A Ghost Story - Alice Thompson
157. The Ladies' Paradise - Emile Zola

( Some ruminations on some of the above mentioned books )

Well, holy fuck I haven't updated my reading list since July. So let's catch up. My overriding memory of my reading from July until now is that somehow I kept reading books that I just didn't like which a) pissed me off and b) slowed my reading down considerably. That said, I read some fantastic books that I cannot recommend highly enough.

101. The Twilight Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko
102. Evelyn Finds Herself - Josephine Elder
103. Mystery of the Glowing Eye - Carolyn Keene
104. Better Than Life - Grant Naylor
105. A Fourth Form Friendship - Angela Brazil
106. The New Girl at Melling - Margaret Biggs
107. Supernatural: Witch's Canyon - Jeff Mariotte
108. Circle of Three: So Mote It Be - Isobel Bird
109. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Strike Zone - Peter David
110. The Poe Shadow - Matthew Pearl
111. Friends Like These - Danny Wallace
112. Supernatural: Nevermore - Keith R. A. DeCandido
113. The Ghost - Robert Harris
114. Incompetence - Rob Grant
115. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
116. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
117. When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro
118. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
119. Something Borrowed - Paul Magrs
120. Small Favour - Jim Butcher
121. Once Upon A Time In The North - Phillip Pullman
122. Tales of the Beedle Bard - J.K. Rowling
123. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
124. Nation - Terry Pratchett
125. 30 Days of Night - Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith
126. 30 Days of Night: Dark Days - Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

( Further thoughts... )

I've just finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger from cover to cover.

Oh god.

I'd more or less avoided it for no better reason than it was a pick of the Richard & Judy Book Club. Not to be overly negative towards Richard & Judy, but I wouldn't trust either of them to suggest a good book. I would expect a book recommended by them to be cloying and sickly sweet and full of the type of morals that help you grow as a person. Despite these - valid, in my opinion - concerns, I bought it a few months ago when I saw it in a Charity Shop, going for the astronomical price of 75p.

Best 75p I've spent in a long time.

( Not really spoilers, but a cut just in case )
Despite my absolute inability to vocalise what I think about this book, I highly recommend it. I've read quite a few good books in the last year or so, but I've not read one so satisfying in quite some time.

(As I was reading the last few pages, 'Orange Sky' by Alexi Murdoch started to play, and if I'd tried I couldn't have come up with a more fitting song.)

Even though I've been working at the same place for the better part of a year, I am constantly surprised by the absolute lack of anything that vaguely resembles sensible working practice there. There's a whole department of people who are responsible for the hiring and training of staff, so what on earth do they spend their time doing? Last night I got paid double time to basically stand around chatting and no one has a problem with this. The mind absolutely boggles...

Did I ever mention that my parents went to Prague for a week to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary? Well, they did. And they brought me back the best presents ever.

( You Know You Want To Look )

And just for another topic change. I read A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby yesterday, about a year after I bought it and I absolutely loved it. I wasn't sure what to expect after How To Be Good which really wasn't very good or very funny, so this blew me away. I laughed out loud too many times to count, and I almost never laugh out loud at something in a book. If you haven't read it, read it now. Immediately. I insist.

I also read Star Trek: Voyager - Endgame by Diane Carey which was based on the Voyager finale and was absolutely atrocious. Possibly the worst Star Trek book I've ever read, and that's saying something. It's like she'd never seen an episode of Voyager before, and who knows? Maybe she hadn't.

It was a busy day, reading wise, so I also read (well, finished) The Divide by Nicholas Evans. I was disappointed. It was good, but not gripping. Not what I'd come to expect from him. So imagine my surprise when I take a look at his website to see him proclaiming that he and many others believe it to be his best book. I was also incredibly surprised to learn that he's English.

Enough random babble. Bed time!

I have a couple of book-related questions/demands:

1) Can anyone recommend a good book on grammar? I'm seriously forgetting everything I was taught at school, especially in relation to apostrophes *sigh* Is Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss any good? I've heard quite a lot about it and it seems to be relatively affordable.

2) Recommend some good vampire books, please! I've really want to read some decent vampire books, but apart from Twilight by Stephenie Meyer I haven't come across anything recently. Given that most of my friends' list has some kind of interest in the supernatural, there must be someone with some recommendations for me.

3) Failing vampire recommendations, recommend some good supernatural books in general. Before you say anything, kayim, I don't mean related to the programme :p

Come on everyone, help me read some decent books! *is currently devouring a bunch of Nancy Drew books she rescued from a charity shop*

While I was in town earlier today, I took rinabell and marimac's advice and bought a copy of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Actually, I was surprised to find it in not just one, but two bookshops. Usually I have to order in the books I want. At home, I watched some TV and then settled down to finish Terry Pratchett's Going Postal which I start back in August and then completely neglected to finish. About an hour later, book read, I started on Twilight.

And couldn't put it down until I'd finished it.

I was actually disgusted when my reading was interrupted by the arrival of dinner time! I can't really express how much I enjoyed it. I absolutely loved it. I read most of it with a happy half-smirk on my face, and I felt it. Everything about it seemed so real, so tangible. I believed everything that Bella felt, and I believed that Edward was utterly dangerous. With Ash, my one-true vampire love, I know he's dangerous, but I don't think I ever really believe it. Ash and Edward do share a delightful sense of humour though, and I'll always treasure Edward for the following:

"I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly."

The cover (here) slightly weirds me out, but I like the unreal feeling of it. It says a lot to me about Bella and how she feels through the book, and you can't usually say that about a cover. Naturally, I am unmoved by the North American cover which, in true NA style, just doesn't match up to the wonder of the UK one ;)

Book devoured, I then went to her website (here), which is just packed with wonderful stuff, including some details of its two upcoming sequels. Although I'm not too sure about a movie version. I can't visualise it somehow.

In summary, I loved this book and I love rinabell and marimac for recommending I read it. If I could, I'd force everyone on my friends' list to read it!