dajashby continues in 2017

Hey ho, another year... Watched The Blues Brothers for the umptieth time last night (tends to be our NYE movie). Got to bed at 11:30, but didn't get to sleep until around 2. We're a bit close to the bloody fireworks, and the dogs don't much like them - consequently got up a bit late. Slightly ambivalent about starting this thread, but we'll see how we go...

I am part of the group.
I love being part of the group.
I love the friendships bestowed upon my by dint of my membership of this wonderful fellowship.
I love that race and creed and gender and age and sexuality and nationality make absolutely no difference to our being a valued member of the group.

Thank you for also being part of the group.

Hi Derrick, most dogs dislike the sound of fireworks, that is why we spend the week away from home.
Happy reading in 2017!

Happy New Year! (dropping a star)

Welcome back!

I “read” 76 “books” in 2016. Huzzay. Books is in quotes because in fact the total includes 12 magazine issues - all sf mags. Read is in quotes because there are 5 audiobooks in the total. 10 of the 76 were books I started reading before 1 Jan 2016, so in fact I started and finished 66 books in 2016. My Current Reading count at 1 Jan 2017 is 11, so I started 77 books in 2016. I read approximately 25,000 pages in 2016.

There were 21 works of non-fiction, 37 of long fiction, 6 of short fiction, and 12 sf & fantasy magazine issues. The long fiction can be further broken down into 23 sf & fantasy, 7 historical, 4 crime and mystery, 2 historical crime & mystery and 2 non-genre.

When it comes to book format, there were 5 audiobooks (all Ben Aaronovitch titles), 33 eBooks (all but 3 are Kindle ebooks), 25 paperback books, 1 hardcover book and the 12 magazine issues.

The 55 fiction volumes included 186 pieces of short fiction.

You'll easily spot I have a bit of reading bias towards science fiction and fantasy, but I do read other stuff.

Best long fiction reads for 2016:

1. Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantell ***5 stars***
   
2. Ancillary justice by Ann Leckie
   
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Sussana Clarke
   
4. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
   
5. The Rosie project by Graeme Simsion ***4.5 stars***
   
6. Venus in copper by Lindsey Davis
   
7. Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian
   
8. The demolished man by Alfred Bester
   

The ladies seem to (mostly) have it.

Best non-fiction reads for 2016:

1. The wave of the mind by Ursula Le Guin
   
2. Private island by James Meek
   
3. Track changes by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum
   
4. Neurotribes by Steve Silberman
   
5. Why the future is workless by Tim Dunlop
   

Best Short Fiction reads for 2016:

1. A ticket to Tranai by Robert Sheckley
   
2. Crazy Maro by Daniel Keyes
   
3. Flowering Mandrake by George Turner
   
4. Forgiveness Day by Ursula Le Guin
   
5. Ill met in Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber
   
6. Le fleurs de mal by Brian Stableford
   
7. North over empty space by Tim Pratt
   
8. The matter of Seggri by Ursula Le Guin
   
9. Pursuit of excellence by Rena Yount
   
10. The men who murdered Mohammed by Alfred Bester
    
11. The one who waits by Ray Bradbury
    

I've got to just short of 600 pages so far, without having finished a book. I've begun the year with 11 books in the Current Reading list:

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the Age of Philip II, by Fernand Braudel is the history book of the moment. I confess to tackling the abridged version. At some point I owned the two volume unabridged edition. but it seems to have disappeared. Possibly it took up too much shelf space... Currently read 31 of 690 pages.

Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett. This is a reread, the first volume of her House of Niccolo series, which is a kind of prequel to her Lymond series. (Lymond was set in the mid 16th century, Niccolo in the mid 15th) Ms Dunnett is one of the best historical novelists I've read. However, I have never succeeded in finding the time to get through all 8 volumes. Hopefully this time. So far read 60 of 480 pages.

The ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke is a collection of short stories set in the Strange & Norrell universe (an alternate universe 19th century England in which magic works). I've read the title story and have started the next. I hope they are all this good.

The voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin. This was in a list of reading recommended by Ursula Le Guin that I came across last year. According to the fly leaf I've owned this since 1971 without reading it. So far managed 54 of 550 pages. Darwin served as a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle for 3 years beginning in 1831 as it circumnavigated the planet. His observations of plants, animals and geology were the basis of his discovery of evolution.

The lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. This is a highly enjoyable fantasy in the vein of Terry Pratchett, Fritz Leiber and similar writers. The first volume of the Gentleman Bastards series. Read 21% - it's one of those ebooks that don't tell you what page you are up to.

How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the world by Francis Wheen. I've got through 230 pages of 338. It's a somewhat eclectic collection of rants about how the whole place is going to the pack. Interestingly, it predates the GFC by a few years, but I doubt that the author was surprised when it happened.

The Rosie effect by Graeme Simsion is the sequel to The Rosie Project. It's just as funny. (72 pages of 415)

The year's best science fiction nineteenth annual collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. Read 143 of 633 pages. There are 26 stories, 6 of which were nominated for a Hugo in 2002.

I'm reading the December 2016 issue of Asimov's science fiction. It's the first number of the mag that I've opened. Cost me $5.99, and also the March 2012 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I subscribed to F&SF on Amazon in 2012 when I was buying my kindle books from the US site. Unfortunately the magazine isn't available from the Australian site, which Amazon insisted I switch to a year or so later, so my subscription got cancelled.

Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson was nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards in 1992/3. I've read 14%.

I was reminded today that this month is the centenary of Middle Earth. Tolkien began writing "The fall of Gondolin" in January of 1917 when he was in England recovering from trench fever after the Battle of the Somme, and that was his first piece of writing definitely set in Arda. The Lord of the Rings is without question the best thing I have ever read, and it might be time to read it again...

Reading 11 books, Derrick?
I never manage more than 3, maybe 4 at the time.

I liked The voyage of the Beagle very much, when I read it last year.
And I hope to reread The Lord of the Rings this year.

Yeah, really. I usually have 2 going - one paper, one on the iPad. Occasionally I'll have a third going, but that's about it.

Multiple books at a time - you're my kind of reader, Derrick! I've got eight or so going right now.

>10 FAMeulstee:, >11 drneutron:, >12 scaifea: There are definitely some books that you have to read from start to finish pretty quickly so you don't lose the thread, but I find that with most books I can pick them up and put them down over quite a long period so long as I am disciplined about it. I try to read from 1 non-fiction, one long fiction and some short fiction every day, and rotate what I'm reading so I get to all 11 at least every 3 days. According to my spreadsheet the average time it took me to finish a book in 2016 was 61 days. I confess that 11 is one or 2 too many...

Derrick

>13 dajashby: I picked up the multiple book habit in grad school and just never stopped. Once you get the hang of it, I agree that it's not difficult to keep things separated. It takes me a long time sometimes to finish a book, too, though.

>13 dajashby: What an interesting approach Derrick and, of course, your stats got me wondering. Occasionally I need a respite from a certain book and will have plenty on the go at the same time at different stages of the year.

To have an average completion time of 61 days per book shows a tremendously persistent and well ordered personality, I think!

>15 PaulCranswick: "well ordered personality", ha! I think the term "anal retentive" probably covers it...

Have finished How mumbo-jumbo conquered the world, which I started on 12th September last, which is slow even for me. The book didn't really grab me and refuse to let go, though it does have some interesting insights, and fitted in with some of my other recent reading in economics and politics. I'd love to read his opinion on Donald Trump. Am giving it 3 stars. It's being replaced in my long current reading list by Gittins: a life among budgets, bulldust and bastardry by Ross Gittins, the Fairfax media economics journalist. Ross has an interesting outlook on life for a financial journalist (left of centre) which probably originates from the fact that he was brought up in a Salvation Army family.

Even though your reaction wasn't super-positive, the mumbo-jumbo book just went on the wishlist!

Here it is February and I've finished 1 book. My excuse is that I ended 2016 with almost nothing in the Current Reading list that I hadn't started fairly late in December, since I'd needed to get several finished before the end of the year to make it to 75. I have read nearly 1,700 pages!

That's a goodly number of pages!

>20 drneutron: Not great, only 48 a day... Nearly finished The lies of Locke Lamora, which is a really great read. Slightly struggling with the Fernand Braudel (page 88), which is a fat hardcover with heavyweight pages. Reading it on the toilet is not practical, really need a lectern...

No 2 of 2017. As promised, finished The lies of Locke Lamora. Mr Lynch certainly knows how to squeeze as much surprise and suspense out of any given situation as is humanly possible. I'm giving it 4.5 stars, because there were a few instances where I found it a bit too much to take. I'll now be reading Roadmarks, which I've had in the TBR for a few years.

No 3 of 2017. Finished reading The ladies of Grace Adieu, the collection of short stories set in the author's alternate version of medieval and early modern England in which magic and faeries are real. The stories are written in a rather 19th century style. I thought that Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was terrific, but although I found this book enjoyable it was a bit uneven in quality and style. I'm giving it 4.25 stars. It's replaced in the Current Reading list by Elric, the Fantasy Masterworks collection of Michael Moorcock stories. I bought this a few years ago, and got half way through it (in fact I've just found the tram ticket I was using as a bookmark, and it's dated 16th June, 2010), but Moorcock and I go way back to the 70's, when I read just about everything he published. These stories were first published in the early 1960's.

No 4 of 2017. Finished reading Roadmarks. This is a short book, and in many ways a typical Zelazny, exploring mythology and the multiverse. I have always enjoyed his rather sardonic tone, if that's the word I'm looking for. Bought from the South Melbourne second hand bookstall some time ago: the book challenge is a great way of mopping up those books you bought and never got around to reading. Now, however, I'm returning to The Lord of the Rings, which I've read umpty-three times, beginning in 1963/4. I'm starting with the iBook edition of The fellowship of the ring, but I expect to dip into the paper copies that we have in the house. We own the three volume Allen & Unwin First Edition, which have impression dates of 1965 and 1966 (the copies that Christine brought into the marriage); the three volume Allen & Unwin Second Edition, which are dated 1971 and 1974 (my copies that I bought when I moved out) and the single volume Allen & Unwin edition with Alan Lee illustrations dated 1991. I can't explain the slightly anomalous dates for the Second Edition. It's possible that a couple of copies got mixed up when I was living in a share house in 1975...

Have fun with The Lord of the Rings, Derrick, the first time I read it was in 1976. I did read it again in January and concluded I still LOVE the story.

>25 FAMeulstee: You'll probably have concluded that I'm a bit of a Tolkien nut, which would be correct. I even enjoyed reading The simarillion. If you're interested, and you haven't already, I recommend getting hold of Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle Earth, which was published in 12 volumes. It's a fascinating study into the evolution of the story, mythology and languages.

>26 dajashby: Thanks for the tip, Derrick. I used to be a Tolkien nut too, I even read The simarillion twice.

>27 FAMeulstee: What! Only twice? :-)

I first read the Ballantine editions in September of 1966 of LOTR. Felt a little dated when the 50th edition of the Hobbit came out. My 25th anniversary edition seemed sadly dated.

I loved Tolkien. Even sat in his favourite chair in his favourite pub in Oxford. Couldn't read The Simarillion.

>30 PaulCranswick: You're forgiven for not being able to read The Silmarillion. However, you ought to just try dipping into Christopher Tolkien's The history of Middle Earth. The series is a unique insight into the development of a great literary work. It just might give you a basis for appreciating the aforementioned. I also recommend Humphrey Carpenter's Tolkien biography JRR Tolkien: a biography

>31 dajashby: I will certainly go and look up both Derrick.

Have a great weekend, buddy.

I've finished reading the issue of Asimov's Science Fiction that I bought around Christmas time. Seven stories that I rated on average at 2.5, which I interpret as meaning competently written, but not particularly interesting. The longest story is a novella by one David Erik Nelson that features a bloke who'
s inveigled into pushing crystal meth via a "time portal" to a New England village in the late 18th century. He pretends to be an itinerant monk or friar, and trades the stuff for Paul Revere silverware. Not particularly uplifting or intelligent.

As if my current reading list isn't long enough already, I've started into The return of the shadow, part 6 of Christopher Toilkien's The history of Middle-Earth that I've already mentioned. This covers the writing of The fellowship of the ring.

Have a great weekend, Derrick.

If only, it's the F1 Grand Prix this weekend. The event is held in the park just a couple of blocks from where I live. The worst of it is the FA-18 Hornet flyovers that take place every day. The dogs really hate them. Given that it's a temporary racetrack the State Government subsides the event to the tune of $80 mill a year. My taxes at work.

They did an F1 race in Baltimore a few years back. Same deal - tore up the streets, disrupted everything, lost a lot of tax money... Sigh.

Happened only once? We've had it here in Melbourne for 21 years. Costs the tax payer more every year.

I think it was enough of a loss that the city government wouldn't allow the race back... :)

Over here it's a State Government matter. Originally the Victorian premier was terrible keen to steal the race from South Australia - typical hairychested rubbish. The bloke running the race was also involved with Crown Casino, and the self interest of the people involved was enough to keep the deal going. KPMG or one of them produce this report every year that claims the state gets all this economic benefit from the race, which of course depends on what rubbish assumptions you make. What I want to know is if it makes all this money for the state, why can't all the people who lose on the deal be compensated? Ho. Ho.

I've finished reading The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers and have currently progressed to "The Field of Cormallen" in The Return of the King. I'm wrestling with the issue of whether to count LOTR as one book, or three, but I'm regrettably coming down on the side of one - it is, after all, a three volume novel. I'm consistently averaging around 50 pages a day, but that doesn't seem to be translating into too many finished books...

Finished The Return of the King. (LOTR is Book 7 of 2017). Even read all the appendices.

Awesome! I usually skip the appendices. :)

The edition I read in January doesn't include the appendices, else I might have read them ;-)

>42 drneutron: Yes, well it's been a while since I read them too :-)

Finished reading Red Mars. Very good in patches. I thought his descriptive writing to do with the planet's geography - sorry, areology - was usually excellent, but I found the book as a whole to be too episodic, with the overall themes a bit hard to follow. It's possible that I didn't quite do the book justice because it was a bit of an on-again off-again read. I might try again sometime later and read it through with minimum interruption.

It's been replaced in the Currently Reading pile by Among others, by Jo Walton. This won the Nebula in 2011 and the Hugo in 2012 for best novel. I'm a big fan of Ms Walton's critical writing, but this is the first piece of her creative work that I've tried. Part of my attempt to get current with my sf reading.

Red Mars is the 43rd story in my Hugo (and Nebula) Award Nominee Challenge. Also Book 8 of 2017. Rating 3.75 stars.

Finished The return of the shadow, part 6 of Christopher Tolkien's "The history of Middle Earth". (Book 9 of 2017) It deals with the writing of The Lord of the Rings, and covers the period from 1938, when Tolkien began to write a sequel to The Hobbit to late 1939. It's a really interesting study of the evolution of one of the great pieces of fiction. It started out as a genuine sequel to The Hobbit and turned into something very different. Hard to rate the book - it would bore a lot of people's socks off - but I'm giving it 4 stars. I have now moved on to The treason of Isengard, the next in the series.

>46 dajashby: Speciality interest for sure Derrick, but probably special in its speciality.

Have a great weekend.

Started listening to The hanging tree, which is no 6 in Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series - excellently read by Kobna Holbrook-Smith. Listened to the first 5 in the series last year, and have been hanging out for this since then. Having started to listen I concluded that I just had to read the whole series again, and have so far finished The rivers of London (Book 10 of 2017), and am part way into Moon over Soho. I bought the ebook of The rivers of London, and am reading the paperback of Moon over Soho. I can't recommend reading anything other than the whole series in order, because each one builds on the last, even though each has a reasonably satisfying plot. On reflection I should have included the series in my best reads of 2016. Can't recommend highly enough.

Peter Grant begins the series as a probationary constable in the London Metropolitan Police, and is subsequently recruited into the Magical Crime Squad as an apprentice wizard. Yes, really. It's kind of Harry Potter for grownups.

Finished Moon over Soho a couple of days ago (Book 11 of 2017) , so currently reading Whispers underground. Over 80% of the way through The voyage of the Beagle, which is a fascinating read. Mr Darwin is currently in New South Wales, which he doesn't think much of. 60% through The treason of Isengard. Everything else I'm reading is currently on the back burner. I've maintained about 50 pages a day all year so far, which according to my spreadsheet is 32 pages a day less than last year. Last year I'd read 37 books by the end of May, but this year only 11...

Yeah, I'm down a bit this year too. Life is just too busy!

>50 drneutron: It isn't as though I haven't been reading a lot, just not books... Plus we have a new puppy, plus my lower back has been giving me a lot of grief...

Finished listening to The hanging tree (book 12 of 2017). Suspect I'll be reading it in a few months when I get to it in the reread. Furthers the series plot quite nicely, as we find out who the Faceless Man actually is. There is a new Peter Grant novella: The furthest station, which I am not proposing to buy in a paper format, and the ebook won't be available downunder until September.

Finished Whispers underground (Book 13 of 2017), succeeded by Broken homes. Also completed The voyage of the Beagle (Book 14 of 2017), a really interesting read, though it took me 175 days to get through it...

Finished Broken homes the other day (book 14 of 2017), and am now a fair way into Foxglove summer. Yesterday finished The treason of Isengard (book 15 of 2017), succeeded by The War of the Ring. Now only 25 pages a day less than last year's rate...

OK, finished Foxglove summer (16 of 2017). I'm putting off The hanging tree (which I've already listened to, after all), until The furthest station is available. Now I'm really reading Among others...

I’ve recently finished reading Among others by Jo Walton, which I really enjoyed. (Book 17 of 2017, Story 48 in the Hugo & Nebula Nominations challenge) It’s a novel written in the form of diary entries by a 15 year old Welsh girl who can see fairies and do magic. Morwenna has recently been severely injured and crippled in the car accident that killed her twin sister, and she accuses her mother of organising the accident using black magic. Morwenna says that this was revenge for them foiling their mother’s evil plot to takeover the world.

The story is set in the real world, and for most of the book you really only have Morwenna’s word for it that she is telling the truth about the fairies and the magic, because it does sound a bit paranoid and delusional. Having been brought up in South Wales by her aunt and her grandparents, she finds herself living with a father (who she has no memory of, because he walked out on her mother when she was an infant) and his three sisters in England. They send her to a boarding school, the same one the sisters all went to. She hates it.

Morwenna reads a lot. She particularly reads a lot of science fiction and her father turns out to be an sf reader too. She joins a science fiction book club that operates out of the municipal library close to the school she’s sent to and at some point during the course of the book she finds out about science fiction conventions, and plots to go to the British natcon in Glasgow. She meets her boyfriend at the book club, and succeeds in introducing him to the fairies.

For quite a lot of the book I kept reading just to see where it was going, but I found the ending really satisfying. Morwenna finds that her sister is spirit who hasn’t been able to make the proper transition to wherever it is that dead people’s spirits go, and it appears that the fairies are wanting her to kill herself so that she can be reunited with her sister. Morwenna doesn’t want this, and succeeds instead in opening the way for her sister to pass over, and at the same time defeating her mother’s fresh attempt at revenge.

There’s a lot of science fiction and fantasy written about the person who is “other” forced to live in the world of ordinary folk, and there’s also a lot of it written about the process of growing up. Among others is about both these things. I can understand why it won the Hugo Award in its year.

Finished reading Gittins, by Ross Gittins, who's been economics editor for the Sydney Morning Herald for about a century. It's part autobiography, part guide to economics journalism and part treatise on the future of newspapers. Not a bad read. (Book 18 of 2017). Has been succeeded by Everywhere I look, by Helen Garner. I'm ashamed to say that this the first book of her's I've read since Monkey grip (1977...)

Still reading my way through The year's best science fiction: nineteenth annual collection. Finished "May be some time", by Brenda W. Clough, which came third in the Hugo voting for Best Novella in 2002 (Story 49 in the challenge). Competently executed story, but didn't add a whole lot to Robert Sheckley's take on it in 1959. Scientists from the future bring a dying man, in this case Titus Oates, a member of Scott's Antarctic Expedition, forward in time, and he has to cope with the necessary adjustments. I'd give it 3 stars.

Around about here I should have reported finishing Elric (Book 19 of 2017), which is a collection of novelettes by Michael Moorcock about his "hero" Elric of Melnibone. They were all originally published in the 1960's, and I read them in the 1970's. These days I find Moorcock's writing style a bit hard to take. Nowhere near as good as Fritz Leiber IMHO, and covering much the same territory, probably with tongue stuck firmly in the same cheek.

Read "Marcher', by Chris Beckett and "The human front", by Ken Macleod, the last 2 stories in The year's best science fiction: nineteenth annual collection (Book 20 of 2017). "Marcher" sets up an interesting idea to do with parallel universes and alternative timelines but in the end doesn't do much with it. Gets 3 stars from me. "The human front" was a whole lot better, working with similar material. Macleod has an alternative timeline for planet Earth's twentieth century history. I thought the wrap up at the end was a bit rushed. The story probably needs to be a novel. 4 stars. The anthology as a whole is made up of 26 stories, to which I gave an average rating of 3.596. So far I've read 50 shorter pieces of fiction this year, 25 from this anthology. Sadly, I don't have a rating for stories read this year, but the overall rating for this year and last is 3.291 for the 240 stories read.

Dropping by to wish you well, Derrick.

>60 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, do come in and put your feet up.

Finished reading The War of the Ring a few days back (book 21 of 2017), and am now a way into Sauron defeated. If I could nominate one way to improve these books it would be to have the footnotes at the bottom of each page rather than at the end of the chapter. Granted, some of the footnotes are a little extensive, but probably they ought not to be footnotes.

>63 dajashby: I've now finished the LOTR part of Sauron defeated (about the first quarter). I confess that I didn't enjoy these volumes as much as the earlier ones in the series, though they were interesting as a study of the creative process. The remains of Sauron defeated looks a little weird - The notion club papers looks to be an extended private joke between Tolkien and his friends.

I have finished Everywhere I look (Book 22 of 2017). A collection of short non-fiction pieces by Helen Garner. She's a very acute observer, and she can really write.

Quiet over here Derrick.

Hope you have been having a splendid weekend.

Well, I've finished 7 books since I last reported in here. Sorry that I've been missing in action: The best made plans, by Everett Cole was a pretty bad book. Not surprising that I could only find in in Project Gutenberg. Read it because it was a serial in the Astounding Stories issue I was reading, and I only had 1 part... (Stop press: Google now tells me I can by a hard cover copy from Book Depository for $38.00. I won't be.) Sauron defeated is Volume 9 of Christopher Tolkien's mammoth series about his father's fantasies. As I said above, only the first quarter of this volume is about The Lord of the Rings. I found the rest of the volume a bit of a slog. I finally finished Astounding Science Fiction, February 1960. One of the poorer issues I've come across, to be honest.

I read Whose body, mostly because I wanted something that I knew was good as a relaxing before bedtime antidote after sitting through a couple of gripping and tension filled TV shows. Peter Whimsey is still my favourite literary detective. Utopia for realists, by Rutger Bregman, is the latest argument in favour of Universal Basic Income that I've read. I'm still a fan of the concept.

Niccolo Rising, is the first volume in a series by Dorothy Dunnett. She was a great writer of historical fiction. This one is about the adventures of a 15th century Dutchman raised as a bastard child textile worker who goes onto a career as a late medieval merchant adventurer. But it's a lot more complicated than that. I've read this volume, and the next couple a few times, but I've never got through the whole series. Here's hoping this time... That gets me up to 29 books for the year, so far. Consumed by guilt.

My currently reading pile includes SS-GB, which is there because I've recently watched the British TV miniseries based on the book. Can you have an e-book pile? Also reading The giant's house, by Elizabeth McCracken, a love story that features a lady librarian and a boy she meets when he's still in primary school. He is the giant in the book title, being 6 ft 2 inches when they meet. So far, most enjoyable. That used to be us, is a book by two Americans (Thomas Friedman is one) written in 2010-11. They decry the fact that the US is not the successful country it used to be, and provide a prescription for how to fix it. Unfortunately, they got Donald Trump instead, but I'm interested in what they had to say at the time.

Sorry that one was a bust!

>68 dajashby: Sorry, I've significantly expanded on that post...

>66 dajashby: Hi Paul, sorry, I don't remember. The most recent weekend was chiefly memorable for being bitten by a dog. It was my own fault. There was a small terrier that was off its property, I was walking my three dogs, and I thought I'd check its tag to see where it belonged. Result, one small puncture wound. I'm going to the doctors for a tetanus shot in the next hour.

On the other hand on Friday we did our usual Market shop, and dropped in on the second hand book stall. I found a practically mint condition hard cover copy of The language of the night, a collection of essays about science fiction and fantasy by Ursula Le Guin. It dates from 1979, and was edited by Susan Wood, extremely well known feminist sf fan who sadly died in 1980. Two of my favourite people. Also found a volume called Betting systems analysed, by Raymond Spargo. This was published in Melbourne in 1933, and appears to be a forensic analysis of betting systems, most of which the author finds severely wanting. I haven't made a bet for years, but I have an interest.

This is a time of year when I as a non-American ponder over what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for this group and its ability to keep me sane during topsy-turvy times.

I am thankful that you are part of this group.

I am thankful for this opportunity to say thank you.

Wishing you all good things this holiday season and beyond.

It is that time of year again, between Solstice and Christmas, just after Hanukkah, when our thoughts turn to wishing each other well in whatever language or image is meaningful to the recipient. So, whether I wish you Happy Solstice or Merry Christmas, know that what I really wish you, and for you, is this:

Just finished reading the best book I've read all year - The book of dust: volume 1 La Belle Sauvage. Really good read. Having finished it I hunted down Lyra's Oxford and Once upon a time in the North, which I found on Audible, because the 546 pages simply wasn't enough. I particularly enjoyed being reacquainted with Lee Scoresby and Hester in the latter. That makes 33 books for the year. Personally I blame Donald Trump. I've read far too much this year that wasn't a book.