The Women's Press Science Fiction

I’ve had a couple of these books on my bookshelf for many years, and I'm not sure I even read them. I think I tried at least one, and may have found it a bit hard to get into.

But just recently I stumbled across another at my local op shop, and something about it appealed to me. I was something like 10 cents short of the marked price and the lady was happy to accept my pile of change. I was at pains to promise I would make a donation next time, not wanting to seem to be trying to rip off a charity. Whereas she was seriously concerned to make sure I would be ok, having spent all the money in my wallet. It made me aware of the level of privilege I have, knowing I can always get more money from the ATM. I’m probably a little too relaxed about how much is left in my wallet – which is how I even ended up going into the op shop with less than $2 on hand.

I started reading Marge Piercy's 'Woman on the edge of time' straight away and really enjoyed it. Now that I’m older and wiser, I’m better equipped for reading science fiction than I used to be (though I was always attracted to it and did read quite a bit). And I know my brain is increasingly wired for feminism.

A few days later I found a few more at the book fair and I decided I would keep collecting the series. Since then I’ve found a couple more from Lilitu’s books and music - we were at Gold Creek for a wedding on Saturday and had time to kill before moving on to the reception. I’m not even bothering to read the descriptions on the back first – I’m sure I’ll like some and not others, but they go for just a few dollars each and I love a good collecting challenge.

This is the logo inside the front cover of every book in this series.


My first reaction was that it's hilariously wrong. I couldn't believe that a logo and slogan ("steaming ahead") based on ironing would be chosen for The Women’s Press. Yeah, I was a bit slow to get the pun on the word "press", but still. The women's press was set up in 1978 to publish feminist writing by women. Why would they want to use ironing as a symbol?

But when I showed K, he didn't see anything odd about it, he just thought it was deliberately ironic. Which echoes what founder Stephanie Dowrick says:

"Then, of course, we brought in the jokes too, which centred on the emblem of the Press, our little iron. This was a joke about not being oppressed. Ironing is extremely repetitious and typically women's work and we were asking you, with this little iron, steaming ahead and red hot and all of that, not to be quite so oppressed."

I wonder if my lukewarm reaction is a sign of the times. Even my much-increased interest in feminism in recent years is probably a reaction (I have to be different) to the current mood of conservatism in these matters.

I guess it was expected and even assumed that the audience would totally get the irony. But today in 2010, I think it looks iffy. Is it just me?

Do you read what I read?

The rest of the trilogy

Terminator gene, and The life lottery, by Ian Irvine.

I liked both of these much more than the first one. I think I liked the characters more. Jemma's daughter Irith was more likable than the young Jemma in the first book (older Jemma is pretty cool though). Maybe I also got more accustomed to the author's style. All the people are pretty direct and straight-talking. It is unusal for such action-y books to really grab me like that but they sure did - I really enjoyed all the action, danger, and wondering where it was going next. I also found the near-future of severe climate change to be a very compelling scenario to explore. I am so glad I took a risk on continuing the series - I proabably wouldn't have on the basis of the first one, except I had already bought the third one, so I thought I might as well keep going.

Theme reading

Among other things, I seem to be doing a 'school shooting books' theme this year. I've read We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver, The hour I first believed by Wally Lamb, and Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Still to come - Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, and the one that (maybe) started it all - Rage by Stephen King. I think I may well have read that long ago but I'm not sure. And I could also watch the movie Elephant by Gus Van Sant. Any other suggestions?

Shared reading

I still keep a list of each book I read, down in the sidebar on the right hand side of my blog. (I need to make that linkable, don't I?) I don't automatically review everything - since there's so much crafting to be done - but if you're interested in a particular book, especially if you've read it too, please drop me a line.

it's not you, it's me

I have just finished reading Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. It was published in 1932 and is a parody of gloomy, romantic English rural novels of the time as well as earlier novels by Thomas Hardy and the Brontës.

I was glad it was quite a short read. The last book I read (The wind-up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami - still working out what I think of that one) seemed to take a ridiculously long time to finish. And the previous book is still unfinished (The hour I first believed by Wally Lamb) - it was too huge and heavy to take on the ski trip, especially as I was mostly finished, so I allowed myself to start the Murakami instead.

Humorous novels often do leave me cold. I enjoyed the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series long ago but after that I didn't get far with any of Douglas Adams' heirs in the 'funny fantasy' field - I read a couple of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels but got over them pretty quickly too. In reading comedic fiction I often feel that the writing is too self-consciously clever, taking me out of the suspended reality of the story. I think it's simply 'not to my taste'. This is the polite phrase my nephew has been taught to use when he doesn't want to eat part of his dinner.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it; by many accounts Cold Comfort Farm is a brilliant and funny book. And I did laugh quite a few times. I just didn't love the experience of reading it. I think it's because when I read fiction I want to really engage with it. It can even be not the best writing or predictable, as long as something about it grabs me and I can manage to get a little bit lost in the story, whether it's wondering what happens next, or simply enjoying the ride even when you can see pretty much where it is going.

Book: The forest of hands and teeth - Carrie Ryan

I came across this book via a sample first chapter picked up in a bookshop. The combination of the cover image and the title were really appealing. I didn't know this was considered a young adult novel. (Not that that would have stopped me). I also didn't know it was a zombie book, although it didn't take too long to figure out.

I liked the way that it was an slightly uncommon take on a zombie story. It is set several generations after a virus has decimated the population leaving only isolated enclaves of uninfected people.

However, I was quite disappointed with this book. Even though it's fairly short there would have been room to do a lot more if there was less of the overwrought and unconvincing romance aspect. For me it teetered just on the edge of what it should have been: dark, creepy, and even a bit inspiring with a message of following your dreams, and not settling for what others tell you you should want. The main character, Mary, verged on being a Mary Sue with her naivete and all the boys revolving around her. Ok that's a little harsh, but I found the romances that the novel is built around unconvincing and that didn't leave much else. It was an interesting set-up, an isolated village surrounded by fences to keep the Unconsecrated (clearly zombies) out; a small society strictly controlled by the Sisterhood. Mary is trapped in this tight place by the death of her parents and her brother's rejection, leaving her with nowhere to go except the Sisterhood (and only in an inferior and ill-trusted position there). I would have been interested in a story where Mary challenges the status quo, drawing out why the sisterhood run things this way and some of the secrets they're keeping. Instead she just wants to escape (understandably).

The latter half of the story I think owed more to zombie movies, with a small group surviving on the forest paths and in another, abandoned village, and some fighting and killing of the Unconsecrated; I got bored and just wondered where it was all going. There were a lot of questions unanswered; I gather the book is being made into a movie and there are clear opportunities for a sequel. That's all well and good, but a novel, especially a debut novel, should still stand alone as a good satisfying story; for me this one didn't.

Book: After Dark - Haruki Murakami

I was inspired to read his books quite suddenly. Tora FrØseth was right into a Murakami craze as I discovered her blog (at the time I discovered the pattern for the Little Sister's Dress) and her jumping-up-and-down excitement just seemed to transfer almost directly to me.

I first read 'What I talk about when I talk about running' because the library coughed it up first. It's a kind of memoir with a specific theme, and I enjoyed it, being a bit of a runner, not like Murakami though who runs a marathon every year and has done an ultramarathon once. But of course it was the fiction I was really after.

After Dark is a very short novel, taking place over the course of one long night. I loved the surreal elements which made me think of a David Lynch film. In spite of these bits, however, it's actually overall a fairly simply told story. Not a lot happens, but I think it does capture a turning point in three people's lives. I enjoyed it and am still keen to read more of his books.

It's recommended, if you don't mind a bit of surreality. If you've read it I'd love to hear what you think.

Book: The last albatross - Ian Irvine

For a long time I've been listing each book I read, way down in the sidebar on the right hand side of my blog. I know that if you subscribe to my RSS feed you would never see these updates; even those who visit the blog might not realise or remember they're there.

So I thought I might start posting a few thoughts. They won't be polished reviews. I will avoid spoilers - though I'd love to hear from you if you've read the same book - maybe we can have a discussion in the comments.

I've just finished reading The last albatross, the first in a trilogy of ecological thrillers by Australian author Ian Irvine (click on eco-thrillers for this series).

I didn't find any of the characters very likeable or sympathetic, and sometimes the main people were a bit wooden and inconsistent. In spite of this, they did grow and change through the novel which helped to keep my interest.

All of the names were fairly unusual, just enough to notice. Perhaps it's just a preference of the author, but given this is a book published in 2000 and set in 2010, recognisably in Sydney, this was just a bit strange.

It was interesting reading this in 2009 when it's set in quite a different version of 2010 than we are about to head into. I guess he would have been writing in the late 90's. This is an Australia where everyone drives fuel cell cars and all are somewhat inefficiently entangled in the internet - 'HouseNet' is useless or worse: the fridge can't be opened when the system shuts down, and 'SchoolNet' is forever going offline and giving teachers more to whine about (I found Jemma very whiny). The internet and reality TV offer even greater levels of depravity than our versions. Despite the 'net having pervaded every day life to an even greater extent, it is mostly shown as a one-way flow of information, with people turning on 'NetNewsLive' like they would turn on the TV.

The story was fast-moving, intricate and well constructed. It certainly kept my interest in spite of not being very into the characters, and I'm keen to read the next one. Irvine struck a good balance between telling a coherent, complete story, and setting up the rest of the trilogy.

Yes you can get something for nothing - though not til next year

It's too late now to promote Free Comic Book Day (1st Saturday in May, every year). Perhaps I should be saving these photos to promote it next year, but I would be likely to forget.

So last Saturday, I put in my one day (half day really) per year of being a comic shop girl at Impact Comics. It was a huge day for the shop, with hundreds of people pouring in each hour, many of them buying as well as picking up freebies. Of course there are those a bit down on their luck who are drawn in by anything free, and some came up with creative reasons to take more than their share (four per person - each business can choose how many they wish to give away, though they are not allowed to charge for the comics produced for this day). On the other hand I saw some families expecting maybe one book per kid, so pleased and grateful and making sure to say thank you on the way out.

As usual I had a go at answering people's questions. I do know which ones are free and which ones you have to pay for, but beyond that I often have to grab one of the real staff as my knowledge has a few gaps.

non-alphabetical; heretical!

Aside from the fascination of rediscovering the books themselves, getting them sorted alphabetically was very satisfying. I love sorting and putting things in order, including alphabetical order. Though you might not know it to look at my generally messy living and working spaces.

The other night we were at a little party at a friend's place. We talked about how their huge DVD collection was shelved in no particular order. I wondered how they find anything; why not put them in alphabetical order by title? My friend had us all in startled laughter when she stated baldly, "I hate the alphabet!"

Hate the alphabet? How can you HATE the alphabet? It was bizarre enough that we had to investigate further. It emerged that our friend is a numbers girl (well we knew that already), a whizz even. The full alphabet, however, is a challenge to remember and doesn't come naturally. Fair enough. I know many people who've never mastered telling left from right instinctively, and that's only two items, rather than 26.

The very next day I happened across this infinite alphabet wrist tattoo. It's beautiful and I kind of wish I'd thought of it myself. It belongs to an ex-librarian, who along with the literary implications, found it very useful when faced with 'the hard parts of the alphabet'. The comments on that post indicate it's not such a rare affliction.

As well as books, we have a lot of CDs in the house, and have always kept them in alphabetical order too (with a few broad genres separated). I've always been surprised at the number of people who seem to marvel at this organisation. Honestly, how else would you do it and still be able to find anything? I do remember Rob from High Fidelity had other answers for that - chronologically by order of acquisition? That would be very interesting....

Booklust.

I have finally done the last part of book unpacking. Note: we moved in at the end of December. The books were by far the most enjoyable part of packing and unpacking for me, though there was also some challenge in working out where everything would go. I've had to split my fiction: A-K downstairs and L-Z upstairs. Other downstairs shelves include K's fiction and all sorts of non-fiction belonging to both of us. I'm intrigued to find that I have almost twice as many books in the first (less-than) half of the alphabet; and that bookshelf is overloaded in many places. I'm still not entirely sure I won't find several more L-Z boxes in a corner somewhere, as there are still lots of boxes in corners around the place.

I am in a whirlwind of booklust now. I want to read about 50 books 'next'. I'm amazed at the number of dusty old paperbacks that cost me a dollar or so 15 years ago, many that I haven't managed to read yet, but that I am still absolutely eager to read.

This lust never really goes away. I am always reading at least one novel which goes with me on the bus every day. I always have a pile of stuff in waiting, loans from friends, recent purchases, and older things I've pulled out of the shelves.

The current bout of booklust has also been stirred up by a couple of rounds of bookshop browsing on recent trips to Adelaide and Brisbane. I go through phases where I don't go to bookshops, new or secondhand, much, because I'm trying to read what I've already got. But I can't really resist when I'm travelling, especially when I'm with like-minded friends who point out things I wouldn't have looked at. You'd think book browsing was an essentially solitary activity, but it doesn't have to be.

I always loved books, and was provided with many books as a child, as well as lots of library access. Of course I never owned as many books as I would have liked to, though there is something magical about those old favourites and even not-at-all favourites, including some quite impenetrable books, all of which I read and reread uncountable times, just because they were there. And I still treasure all of them.

As soon as I started earning my own money I went headlong into a long, very indiscriminate book collecting phase. I bought second-hand almost exclusively; I've never gotten into the habit of buying many books new (I do occasionally like to support a favourite author though). Second-hand books were cheap and you could never have too many books in the house. I was interested in so many different things. I bought things just because I recognised the title, especially 'classics'. Because I'm a born collector and hoarder, I was drawn to collecting multiple books by the same author, often even before I had read a single book of theirs. Sometimes when I finally got around to reading one, I had to admit I didn't love that author as much as I had expected to. Nutty? Well, it was partly just the thrill of the chase.

I long ago acknowledged that I didn't have enough space for all the books (while secretly kind of liking the books-stuffed-in-every-nook-and-cranny aesthetic). It's only relatively recently that I've really been able to do any serious weeding out. I used to go in intending to make some space, spend an hour looking and come out with three books I could bear to part with.

I think I will always keep a lot of books, but I am much more willing now to read something, realise I'm not likely to read it again, and find someone or somewhere to pass it on to. I've had much more success than I expected with exchanging books for credit at a couple of my favourite second-hand bookshops. Anything they don't want goes to Lifeline or op shops.

Who murders who, and where is the treasure hid?

I've just added another item to the sidebar (scroll down a bit), a list of the last six books I've read.

Gotta be big!

A while ago, way back in (whoa!) July, I offered two pink-and-purple pots to the first two people who said they liked them. Donna Lee mentioned that she was seeking to bring more pink into her life.

After I offered to send her the pot, we went one better and decided to swap some yarn and other goodies. With the help of her family, Donna Lee immediately set to putting together a lovely package of local goodies from New Jersey and nearby areas. It's only now that I've finally got my parcel on its way to Donna Lee that I'm showing off what I got!

Two gorgeous natural colours of alpaca yarn. Tofutsies sock wool, an unusal blend of wool, soysilk, cotton and chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells, and apparently naturally antibacterial!). A book of New Jersey ghost stories, which was an excellent pick for me, I love ghost stories, I'm reading one, Blue Dahlia at the moment. A pinecone from her backyard. Delicious lemon green tea, which turned out to be the excuse I was waiting for to buy a teapot, thus allowing me to cast on for the wacky aran cabled teacosy from Yarn magazine.

And, salt water taffy from Atlantic City! I had heard of this but had no idea what it was. It's delicious! Not salty exactly, but not super sweet either.


We just might have eaten a few pieces before this picture was taken.

Donna Lee, it was lovely. Not just receiving a parcel of wonderful stuff, but also figuring out what I should send your way. Thanks!

Crow, crow, spill all you know. Is that my name on the bell?

Via Neil Gaiman's blog: several authors are auctioning the opportunity to have your name appear in their next book.

All proceeds are to go to the First Amendment Project, "a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and promoting freedom of information, expression, and petition."

If only it was for an international charity, I would be willing to pay quite a bit for the privilege of dying in a Stephen King book. Even a bad nasty one.

What he's offering:
"One (and only one) character name in a novel called CELL, which is now in work and which will appear in either 2006 or 2007. Buyer should be aware that CELL is a violent piece of work, which comes complete with zombies set in motion by bad cell phone signals that destroy the human brain. Like cheap whiskey, it's very nasty and extremely satisfying. Character can be male or female, but a buyer who wants to die must in this case be female. In any case, I'll require physical description of auction winner, including any nickname (can be made up, I don't give a rip)."

Lonely as a whisper on a star chase

A lot of the music I used to listen to in high school no longer does much for me. The occasional blast from the past is fun but often the songs that seemed to really move me back then have lost their impact. That's why it's such a thrill when something still has the very same personal kick. I listened to Queen's A Day at the Races today and realised that certain bits set my heart racing, quite literally, in just the same way they used to. Hard to describe this, it's like a smell or a taste catapulting you into a very specific memory. It wasn't associated with any particular moment or event, I just loved it (still do) and I loved Queen (still do). A Day at the Races seems to be no-one's favourite Queen album, but it and the first Greatest Hits volume were the first ones I owned. Or, which someone taped for me off their older sibling's LP actually. Thank goodness for someone's older sibling, with a taste for Pink Floyd and Queen, or it would have been all top 40 and taping the Top 8 at 8 off the radio. Yep, I did that too.

That same someone lent me a Stephen King book belonging to an older sibling (not my first Stephen King though, I'd already stumbled across him myself) which accidentally got cleared up and thrown in the bin by Dad. He was always saying if we didn't clear our stuff away, off the dining table or wherever, he would throw it out, and one day he did. Must have been garbage day, too. I seem to remember I had to buy another copy. I was so embarassed!

It's kind of been a blast from the past week. On Wednesday I resurrected my favourite piece of clothing from college, a beloved long maroon cardie. It's more or less back in fashion, not sure about the moth holes though. The very same day I bumped into someone I hadn't seen for about twelve years or thereabouts. I suppose she could be forgiven for thinking I had never taken a break from wearing that cardie, except if that was the case it would be in small pieces by now.

Gee Mister, I really liked your book

This is, I'm pretty sure, my first comic ever. Death: The High Cost of Living #1, a spin-off of the immensely popular Sandman series. I can't remember if Kam bought it for me or if he suggested it and I bought it myself. It was about ten years ago, maybe a little bit more. (It's dated 1993 but I bought it as a back issue). It is now (drumroll please)... signed by the author. Wahooo!

The Neil Gaiman signing was great. Neil said at the time, and later on his blog that the small(ish) number of people and relaxed feeling made it 'like signings used to be'. Time to chat with those who wanted to chat. Guh. Perhaps I should have rehearsed beforehand. I dunno, maybe pointing out that he was signing my very first comic would have been a good point to mention. Oh well.

This one's got my name on it!



If you can't read that, it's The Books of Magic. This is what the current printing of the cover looks like - remind you of anything?

Mal and Kam have some photos from the Gaslight books signing on the Impact Comics website. After that was over I picked Kam up from work and we headed to ANU for Part 2. The talk was held in a large Manning Clark lecture theatre, not packed but quite a crowd, a couple of hundred maybe. Kam estimated he would know around 70% of the people there by name (customers past and present). We were shown a preview and some other promo material for the movie Mirrormask, which looks very interesting. Neil read an excerpt from the soon to be released Anansi Boys. Then there was some Q&A time. The questions from the audience were pretty geeky but they made for good, interesting, and entertaining answers. This was largely because Neil has clearly done this kind of thing a lot and knows the kind of stuff his fans are interested in hearing. The session took about an hour all up. As we left, a huge line formed in the foyer for more book signing. It must be exhausting to face a line like that.

I'm so glad I went, I got a real buzz out of the meeting of the Man and the signing of the comics and the general giggling like a fool. I kind of feel a bit silly about it but I have to admit that I love being a fangirl. I also enjoyed the rush to finish reading a few books in the past two weeks. I finished Neverwhere the other day (awesome) and I've moved within the fantasty genre, on to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (yes Jo, finally!). I've only read the first few of very many chapters, and I'm suprised - not unpleasantly - by, of all things, a bit of a Jane Austen vibe. In a book about the last two true magicians in England. Really.

Fangirl

Since I found out that Neil Gaiman is coming to Canberra next Tuesday, I've dived into a few of his books that I hadn't read (actually, though I call myself a fangirl, I haven't yet read the majority of his stuff. I have too many favourite authors). After finally finishing the-book-that-I've-mentioned-too-much, it was sheer pleasure to read the gorgeous illustrated novella Stardust. It really is, as described, a classic fairy story for grown-ups. Complex, clever, funny and satisfying. Of course, because this one is distributed by the comics people, I bought it at my favourite comics shop.

Then I quickly read Coraline (the official site includes an audio recording of the first chapter, but if you're on dial-up like me you might prefer this quicker loading non-flash site). Well, it is a kids book so it didn't take long. This was a fun, scary and inventive take on popular gothic horror for younger readers, probably vaguely in the realm of the Lemony Snicket books, (maybe for slightly younger readers) though I haven't read those.

Now I'm part of the way through Neverwhere. The timing is interesting, since it's all about a sort of alternate world, London Below, where all the people who 'fall through the cracks' live, in the Tube tunnels and sewers and whatever else is below the streets and buildings. Of course the recent bombings in London had already triggered memories of my holiday in England last October when I used the Underground a lot. A lot of people don't much fancy the Tube, either because they have to travel in peak times (granted, it does get pretty squishy but an MP3 player and a blank look helps) or because they don't like being underground, or because they fear exactly the kind of attacks that happened last week. Londoners have spend a long time thinking about likely places for bombs to go off. Mostly immune to these concerns, I got a huge kick out of zipping around under the city. I guess the shine might wear off if I was commuting to work, instead of on a holiday and wandering wherever took my fancy.

One of the things I'm really enjoying about Neverwhere is that it's a fantasy but not purely an alternate universe. It's set in a quite familiar world, and which you can related to immediately, and then elements of magic and mysterious happenings are gradually worked in so that it the adjustment to the fantasy world is gradual, and it continues to feel 'real'.

I used to find the fantasy genre pretty intimidating, especially the huge series that never seemed to end (actually I still find them intimidating). One of the first I read was the Mordant's Need series by Stephen Donaldson, The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through (recommended by Bertie, I think). Donaldson used a bit of a trick to get readers into the story easily, starting with the main character in the 'real' world and then having her whisked off as a stranger into the fantasy world he created. I think this is a fairly common approach; Guy Gavriel Kay did a similar thing with the Fionvar Tapestry. I found this a really good way to get into the genre, because you can get involved quickly in the first few pages before being immersed in an unfamiliar world. And when you are thrown into it you're there with the main character(s) who knows only as much as you do.

So anyway, Neil Gaiman will be signing books at Gaslight Books on Tuesday afternoon, and then speaking and signing more books at the ANU in the evening. I've had things signed a couple of times before: Brian Michael Bendis at a comics convention, Garth Nix at the Belconnen Library. I'm not a very outgoing fangirl, what are you supposed to say? Gee Mister, I really liked your book. Sure. Nuh. I just smile and hand it over. I did manage to get a photo when Les Yeux Noirs signed my CD at Womadelaide.


Aside from making a fortune on ebay, I don't exactly know what is the point of getting books and other stuff signed. With Garth Nix I got a real thrill out of it because the book I got signed was very special to me. With Bendis, I don't think it meant quite as much. I guess the main point of it is the chance to see - and maybe speak to, if you're more outgoing than me - your idols up close, if only for a few seconds.

Distractions

I still haven't finished that book. I've got less than 100 pages to go, but I keep getting distracted by more erudite things to read, like, oh, bank statements, Kmart catalogues, stuff like that. And comics and an illustrated novel. And, great news! Neil Gaiman is coming to Canberra.

I couldn't fall for your story if I wanted to.

I'm finally reading the Da Vinci Code. Told you it would take a long time. It had to basically fall into my hands.

It's very quick reading and an interesting enough story, but every now and then I am jerked into awareness that I'm READING A BOOK, a pretty sloppy one, by wooden passages like this:

Langdon's eyes were still riveted on the embossed key. Its high-tech tooling and age-old symbolism exuded an eerie fusion of ancient and modern worlds.

Dan Brown's writing has all the subtlety of a brick. He uses so many corny cliches I'm almost becoming immune to noticing them. Irritatingly, he also loves to begin a bit of exposition and then break off, leaving the rest for a few chapters on. It's fine if you can do that by having the characters plausibly finding things out gradually. But here it just feels like Brown is doling out bits of information to me, the reader, and the characters are secondary to that.

OK you may now call me a snob. And not much of a literary critic, this is a pretty easy target, I know. Yes I do take requests, do you want Grisham or Crichton next?

Warm fuzzy bookshop

Yesterday I stopped in at Hawker shops to check out Ron's Bookshop. This secondhand bookshop used to be at the Jamison Centre but has recently moved to a larger space at Hawker shops. I was looking for a Phil Rickman book but instead I got the first in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. Yeah, it's (kind of) a kid's book. So when I brought it up to the counter, Ron asked me, "Are you a teacher?" I said "no", and didn't add, (I just like reading kids books). He could see what I was thinking, and told me that he only asked because often teachers come in and buy kids books for their schools, using their own money. He said he keeps a stash of kids books to give free to teachers.

How cool is that? Three gold stars to Ron.

UPDATE: Clearly Hawker Shops is the place to be, at least if you're me. I had dinner last night at Rock Salt. I've heard a lot of buzzing noises (the good type) about this slightly pricey restaurant for ages but this was my first time there, mainly because I'm cheap and I live walking distance from Dickson with all its lovely and economical restaurants. Rock Salt specialises in duck dishes and lots of other meat-y things. As a vegetarian, I didn't think this would be the sort of restaurant where I would fare too well. I received the menu and thumbed through several pages of exotic meat dishes, noting a couple of side dishes that might do as a meal for me. Then, to my surprise, I hit... the vegetarian page! Yep, a whole page of vege entrees AND mains. Choice!

All of the food was beatifully presented and everyone seemed happy with it. My meal of pesto risotto followed by apple and nectarine crumble, was fantastic. They even served the ice cream in a separate bowl which made me super happy, because I hate melted ice cream with hot food. They even served little dishes of lemon sorbet between entree and main. So, Rock Salt gets gold stars too.

The New Harry Potter?

Everywhere I go, plane, train, bus or Underground, someone is reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Everywhere! Being so contrary about things like that, I will have to wait at least five years to read it. I did eventually enjoy Harry Potter that way.

Off to the Netherlands tomorrow until Tuesday. Will see if they are reading it there too, and faithfully report back here.

Went to another museum today, the Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Even got to look in the library, which is not exactly public (I had to fill in a form for a pass). Very nice, veeerrrry quiet. As we were leaving, someone got in trouble for photographing books! Cheeky.

beautiful books

Continuing on the theme of things I find inspiring:

Books! But in particular, beautifully made books for people who love books. Recent examples include the Dark Horse Book of Hauntings and its companion volume, the Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft. They're comics collections featuring a great lineup of authors and artists. Everything about these books is delicious: the covers feel nice, the paper is heavy and smells good, the colours are rich, the paper is not too shiny, the size is easy to hold in your hand. The covers are spectacular, old-school detailed line art. Inside is a varied but coherant collection of different stories and art, all of which I enjoyed. Check them out at Impact Comics... or if you're nice to me I might lend you mine.