Jon > Recent Status Updates

"You're afraid it's the End Times because we're surrounded by death and ruin. Nurse Willowes, don't you know? Death and ruin is man's preferred ecosystem. Did you ever read about the bacterium that thrives in volcanoes, right on the edge of boiling rock? That's us. Humanity is a germ that thrives on the very edge of catastrophe."

2016: Year of the Omnishambles

The core concept of this novel is nothing short of incredible. I just hope it can go the distance.

I queued for 5 hours at Forbidden Planet in London back in '95 to get Sir Christopher Lee to sign my VHS copy of The Devil Rides Out. He'd been there for hours signing already, and when he saw what I'd brought, he stood up, smiled and shook my hand and said "almost everybody wants Dracula or The Wicker Man, I'm so glad someone remembers this; it was one of my favourites."

A proper legend. RIP.

Nobody ever taught me to write. No one ever told me what I was doing wrong ... And so I’ve been learning as I go, and I find it now rather embarrassing that people beginning the Discworld series start with The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, which I don’t think are some of the best books to start with. This is the author saying this, folks. Do not start at the beginning with Discworld.

Huh, every time I think I'm beginning to figure this out, a few pages later the book basically laughs in my face and goes NOPE. Try again, sucker!

Grr. *shakes fist*

Sat in the car listening to the Ursula Le Guin interview on BBC Radio 4. Le Guin is fascinating and engaging, and makes some really interesting and important observations. Also: Neil Gaiman sound bites. Loving it.

If you get a chance to check it out, the programme is entitled "Le Guin at 85".

Gods, I love Radio 4!

Yeah... took two days off work to go to the library and do some studying for my course and what do I do? Spend almost all of it reading comics.

Hahaha, what a fucking loser.

Only 2 chapters in and I've already got a feeling that this book might the one that breaks me.

RIP Sir Terry.

Genuinely devastated by this news.

“No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away...”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

This evening I'll be enjoying this.

Possibly with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Fpfpfpfpfpfpfpfp.

Got things to do tonight but I DON'T WANT TO PUT THIS DOWN *sob*

"Making love to Aurelia was like rummaging through a card catalogue in a deserted library, searching for one very obscure, little-read entry on Hungarian poetry. It was dead silent, no one gave me any direction, and nothing was where it was supposed to be."

Well, that escalated from "mildly entertaining" to "totally messed up" pretty rapidly.

Yikes.

It's that time of year again. Food consumed over the last 3 days:

Chocolate.
Biscuits.
Some kind of pastry-type thing. (No idea. Could have been filled with rat-poison for all I knew.)
More chocolate.
Approx. 1 metric tonne of Jaffa Cakes.
Enough tubes of Pringles to build a 1/10 scale model of the International Space Station.

Bigger trousers please, Santa...

A reference to Mid-world. Interesting!

Such a great book to read at this time of year.

I must admit I've always thought that the 'enforced cheeriness' of Christmas music was pretty sinister - but this book has multiplied that feeling by about a million.

By the time I'm finished with this one, a couple of bars of Rockin' around the Christmas tree or a garish Christmas jumper will probably be enough to transform me into a quivering wreck. :P

Hmm. Astrobiology class in 2 hours - which I haven't completed all the reading for - and I'm sat here reading Victorian Gothic horror.

When it comes to priorities, I am the absolute WORST.

I 'accidentally' opened my bottle of Christmas sherry ever-so-slightly early. Whoops.

Tomorrow morning is going to be a bit painful, I think...

Really enjoying this, so far.