Sunshine!

[tadorna]

I'm having a bit of a holiday. I wasn't meant to be, but then the sun came out, and so I've been pretending my house is a hotel, and spending a lot of time outside in our patch of concrete garden, pretending it's a balcony, and that the traffic noise is the sea. This is helped by the fact that every few hours an open-topped tour bus goes past, complete with amplified commentary. I've been trying to learn local history from it, but so far have been unable to make out anything due to distortion. I have, however, turned an attractive shade of pink.

I haven't bought any books lately. Well, except I bought two, but I bought them in WH Smiths so it doesn't count. My philosophy is this: WH Smiths is not a proper bookshop; it's just a stationery shop that happens to sell a few books. So buying books there doesn't count. The books I didn't buy were Good Omens (because of people talking about it, and it being there in front of me suddenly, and well, because Neil Gaiman) and Holes by Louis Sachar (because of people talking about it, and it being there in front of me suddenly, and because, as lobelia321 pointed out, it does have a lovely lizardy cover.) Anyway, so those are the books I didn't buy, in any real sense of the word.

Speaking of Neil Gaiman, I had a dream last night that I was mentioned on his fantastic blog. Admittedly, he was a kind of composite person in this dream, made up of himself, Martin Millar, and Andre Schneider (no, I have no idea either), and the blog was less a blog, and more a magazine designed rather hideously in pastel colours, but it was still a bit of a disappointment when I woke up and realised it wasn't true. Although it was a relief to realise that, if that was just a dream, then so was the thing about a tiny alligator coming out of the tap, growing to an enormous size and chasing me up the stairs.

Speaking of Martin Millar, he is a nice man who answers emails from fans, and it's a disgrace that his earlier books should still be out of print. So there.

Note to self: For God's sake, will you please stop starting new stories and finish at least ONE of the old ones? Please! Thanks.

Naughty hjartadhas been trying to make me write My Fair Lady Lotrips AUs and songs for Boromir to sing in the LOTR musical. It's just a good thing she writes things like this, that's all I can say! ;)

Am also rather happy that Six Feet Under is back on the box of televisual excitement. Yes. It's helping me with my ongoing frustration with BBC2, and its strange reluctance to show Buffy, ever, if it can possibly help it.

I've been eating a lot of apples lately. Uncharacteristically healthy of me.

And I'm sorry I didn't put any of this behind a cut, but that's life, so there you go.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I deserved something new after getting through The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. That took me weeks! Alison

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa

I've never even heard of that! (I'm assuming it's a book, rather than a manuscript you found in Saragossa...)

[(Anonymous)]

Then you can't be reading Neil Gaiman's blog carefully enough! It's something he recommended a couple of months ago. Written in the 17th Century by a Polish writer called Jan Potocki (translated into English, that goes without saying!). It's stories within stories (met a man who told me his story and he met a man who told his story etc etc). A bit confusing when your memory's going like mine is.....but I got there in the end. I'm reading a Diana Wynn Jones book now, really for kids, which is a nice change. I'm all for variety. Alison

Re:

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Ah - must have missed that. I get him delivered straight to my Friends page now, so it's more difficult to miss juicy stuff like that. Sounds interesting - did you enjoy it?

I'm reading a Diana Wynn Jones book now, really for kids, which is a nice change.

I found myself scanning the 'teenage' section when I was in WH Smith. Don't know what that says about me... Although, have you ever read Margaret Mahy? I read her books when I actually was a teenager, and they're still good. Being reissued this month apparently, so I'm happy about that.

[(Anonymous)]

"Enjoy" might be a bit strong. It was a challenge because it was so long (each chapter was a day, 65 days long) but I was determined to finish it. I can't see me reading it again though. LOTR is long but I've still read that several times. I haven't read Margaret Mahy but I'll note the name for the next time I'm in Waterstones not buying any books.