misc

Free SF, science fiction, horror, fantasy and weird ebooks for the Kindle and others

Thu, 2012-03-15 21:56 — elliot

What is this?

This is my very biased overview of free ebooks for the Kindle. It only covers books I'm interested in: mainly old Fantastic fiction - gothic novels, horror, ghost stories, surrealism, sword and sorcery, lost worlds, and other odd books. There are tons more classic SF&F books out there which you can get hold of.

Sources of free e-books

http://manybooks.net/

This is an excellent site which aggregates various free books, mainly from Project Gutenberg but covering various other outlets, with a decent summary page for each book and author; it enables you to generate downloadable ebooks for each book, as well as read and create book reviews.

There is also a mobile site at mnybks.net, which you can browse directly from your Kindle.

Note: when browsing the full site via Kindle, I've found that the only downloads which work properly are Amazon ones - if I try to do mobipocket downloads, they don't work. Strangely, mobipocket files downloaded from there via a PC or laptop then sent to the Kindle (via email or USB) do work properly.

http://amazon.co.uk/

This is particularly nice, as any content you buy at Amazon will sync to any device where you have a Kindle app (e.g. a phone).

http://gutenberg.org/

I think the content in here is pretty much covered by manybooks.net, but there may be places where a gutenberg ebook isn't on manybooks.net.

http://gutenberg.net.au/

Australia has slightly different copyright laws from the US, so some books may be available here which aren't on the US Gutenberg site.

http://gutenberg.ca/

Canada also has slightly different copyright; the site is likely to have more titles in French than the US site.

http://archive.org

The Internet Archive has some items which aren't held by Project Gutenberg.

Converting various formats for use on a Kindle

I tend to get or make .mobi files; Kindle's own format is .amz.

If you can find a book in PDF or HTML format, you can convert it in the following ways:

Kindle
You can send PDFs and HTML files to Amazon for conversion and later download to your Kindle.

You should have an email set up for your Kindle first. They tell you about the paid one, but you should have a free one in the format <your name>@free.kindle.com.

Once you've done that, do the following to convert the PDF:

Send an email to <your name>@free.kindle.com
Set the subject line to "Convert"
Attach the PDF or HTML file(s)

The converted file will automatically be sync'ed to your Kindle.
You can also send .mobi files direct to your Kindle at the @free.kindle.com address: just miss out the "Convert" subject line

Online ebook converter
http://ebook.online-convert.com/
This works pretty well, and is especially useful as you can change the author and title of the output book. However, for some PDFs, I found the output was a bit of a mess. I ended up using the Amazon email conversion mostly (see above).
The one place where I did use this was for converting .lrf files to .mobi, as the Amazon converter won't do this.

kindlegen
This is a command line program (works on Linux) you can use to convert HTML files to Amazon ebooks. Can be useful if you want to iteratively edit your own HTML and test how it looks, without having to send it via email to your Kindle. Get it from the Kindlegen page on Amazon.

A big old list of books

The links below point either at a page where you can download the book in one or more formats, or to a PDF or HTML version of the book. Where the source is HTML or PDF or something else, I've marked it; otherwise you can assume there's a mobipocket (.mobi) or Kindle (.amz) format version available (Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks both provide these types of Kindle-compatible file).

I've also made zero attempt to organise alphabetically or by date.

Free sf / fantasy / horror / supernatural books

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (1940)

http://justcheckingonall.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/master-and-margarit... (PDF)
(translation released under Creative Commons licence)

The Worm Ouroboros - E.R. Eddison (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/eddisoneother060602051.html
(I've read this - it is hard going, but worth reading if you're interested in the history of fantasy and like archaic English)

The Works of Edgar Allen Poe (5 volumes) (19th century)

Volume 1: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2147
Volume 2: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2148
Volume 3: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2149
Volume 4: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2150
Volume 5: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2151
(obviously very important in the history of various genres)

Clark Ashton Smith short stories

http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/ (HTML)
(these are in HTML format, but pretty easy to convert to an ebook; I used a bit of scripting to spider the website, munge the HTML files into one big file, then convert the result into a mobipocket ebook)

The Marvelous Land of Oz - L. Frank Baum (1904)

http://manybooks.net/titles/baumlfraetext93ozland10.html
(I picked this one as it's the one I loved when I was a child)

The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen (1894)

http://manybooks.net/titles/machenaretext96ggpan10.html
(an influence on H.P. Lovecraft; I read it, it was reasonably good)

The Three Impostors - Arthur Machen (1895)

http://manybooks.net/titles/machenarother090301561.html
(some opinion claims this is one of his best books)

She - H. Rider Haggard (1886)

http://manybooks.net/titles/haggardhetext02shrhe10.html
(I loved King Solomon's Mines when I was younger, so thought I'd try this; it was a pretty good read)

Jurgen - James Branch Cabell (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/cabelljaetext058jurg10.html
(infamous fantasy novel which caused a scandal on its publication)

Fantômas - Pierre Souvestre (1915)

http://manybooks.net/titles/souvestrep2779427794-8.html
(about a master criminal)

The Wallet of Kai Lung - Ernest Bramah (1900)

http://manybooks.net/titles/bramaheretext97wklng10.html
(set in China)

The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton (1907)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chestertetext99tmwht10.html
(I read this one: very odd, very readable, amusing, worth a read; reviewed by someone else at http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2009/cur0901.htm)

The Club of Queer Trades - G.K. Chesterton (1905)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chestertetext99tcoqt10.html
(mystery short stories a la Sherlock Holmes)

The Napoleon of Notting Hill - G.K. Chesterton (1904)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chestert2005820058-8.html

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder - James De Mille (1888)

http://manybooks.net/titles/demillejetext04msscc10.html
(reviewed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/03/strange-manuscript-de-mille-...)

A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay (1920)

http://manybooks.net/titles/lindsaydavietext98vrctr10.html
(apparently very odd and a fantasy classic)

Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley - Lord Dunsany (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/dunsanyetext03drodr10.html
(you can't get The King of Elfland's Daughter (his masterwork) legally in the UK as an ebook, but you can get this, which is meant to be nearly as good)

Nightmare Abbey - Thomas Love Peacock (1818)

http://manybooks.net/titles/peacocktetext068nmab10.html

Goslings - J.D. Beresford (1913)

http://www.archive.org/details/goslings00bereiala
(post-apocalypse)

The Inner House - Walter Besant (1888)

http://www.archive.org/details/innerhouse00besagoog
(utopia)

The Amazing Marriage - George Meredith (1895)

http://manybooks.net/titles/meredithgeoetext03gm94v10.html
(one of the books Michael Moorcock likes to give away)

Household Tales - Brothers Grimm (1884)

http://manybooks.net/titles/grimmetext04grimm10a.html
(saw this mentioned by Sarah Waters as a favourite book from her childhood)

Descent into Hell - Charles Williams (1937)

http://manybooks.net/titles/williamscharlesother08Descent_into_Hell.html
(Williams is mentioned in 100 Must Read Fantasy Novels - he was an associate of C.S. Lewis, and wrote what T.S. Eliot called "supernatural thrillers" - this novel is considered one of his best)

The Place of the Lion - Charles Willians (1933)

http://manybooks.net/titles/williamscharlesother09place_of_the_lion.html
(I've read this one: not the easiest read I've ever had: shifts mood very abruptly, has long passages of Christian mysticism, and characters you can't really associate with; but thoughtful, with great imagery, and some genuine moments of psychological horror; has to be read to be believed, really)

War in Heaven - Charles Williams (1930)

http://manybooks.net/titles/williamscharlesother09war_in_heaven.html
(given I enjoyed The Place of the Lion, I thought I'd try this, which is meant to be more straightforward: a Holy Grail thriller with supernatural elements)

The Hour of the Dragon (Conan the Conqueror) - Robert E. Howard (1936)

http://manybooks.net/titles/howardrother07hour_of_the_dragon.html
(the Conan books were the first fantasy books I read when I was about 10; time to revisit them)

Atlantida (aka The Queen of Atlantis) - Pierre Benoît (1919)

http://manybooks.net/titles/benoitp1430114301-8.html
(early Atlantis novel - I just finished The Serpent by Jane Gaskell, which ends in Atlantis, so thought I might follow the theme)

The House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson (1907)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hodgsonwother06houseontheborderland.html
(I've read this one: an intense weird/horror/supernatural/occult tale)

The Night Land - William Hope Hodgson (1912)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hodgsonw10661066210662.html
(supposedly very long and hard-going, but considered his best by many)

The History of Caliph Vathek (aka Vathek) - William Beckford (1787)

http://manybooks.net/titles/beckford20620602060.html
(proto-Gothic novel)

The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole (1764)

http://manybooks.net/titles/walpolehoraetext96cotrt10.html
(another proto-Gothic novel)

Knock, Knock, Knock, and Other Stories - Ivan Turgenev (collected 2004, 19th century)

http://manybooks.net/titles/turgenevetext048knck10.html
(supernatural/mystery tales)

The Witch, and Other Stories - Anton Chekhov (collected 2006, 19th century)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chekhovaetext99witch10.html

Weird Tales (2 volumes) - E.T.A. Hoffmann (1885)

Volume 1: http://manybooks.net/titles/hoffmannet3137731377-8.html
Volume 2: http://manybooks.net/titles/hoffmannet3143931439-8.html
(Volume 1 includes The Sandman, one of the oddest and most unsettling stories you're likely to read)

Hunger - Knut Hamsun (1890)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hamsunknetext058hngr10.html

Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)

http://manybooks.net/titles/gilmanchetext92hrlnd10.html
(early feminist sf classic)

The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells (1898)

http://manybooks.net/titles/wellshgetext92warw12.html
(most of Wells' work appears to be available from Project Gutenberg)

The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells (1896)

http://manybooks.net/titles/wellshgetext94dmoro11.html
(as recommended by China Miéville in http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/16/fiction.bestbooks; will probably read this first out of the H.G. Wells books I have)

Edgar Huntly - Charles Brockden Brown (1799)

http://manybooks.net/titles/brownchaetext05edhnt10.html
(I've seen his work compared to Borges)

The Green Odyssey - Philip Jose Farmer (1957)

http://manybooks.net/titles/farmerpother05The_Green_Odyssey.html
(I'm a fan of his stuff, and this novel is public domain)

In the Penal Colony - Franz Kafka (1919)

http://manybooks.net/titles/kafkafraother05penal_colony.html
(don't need to say much about his work, I guess)

The Trial - Franz Kafka (1925)

http://manybooks.net/titles/kafkafraetext05ktria10.html

Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (1912)

http://manybooks.net/titles/kafkafraetext04metam10.html

A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

http://manybooks.net/titles/burroughseetext93pmars13.html
(very topical, what with the John Carter film)

The Enchanted Castle - E. Nesbit (1907)

http://manybooks.net/titles/nesbite3421934219-8.html

Uncle Silas - Sheridan Le Fanu (1864)

http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1485114851-8.html

Zuleika Dobson - Max Beerbohm (1911)

http://manybooks.net/titles/beerbohmetext99zdbsn11.html

The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers (1895)

http://manybooks.net/titles/chambersetext058kngy10.html
(horror short stories)

The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales - Richard Garnett (1903)

http://manybooks.net/titles/garnettr10091009510095.html
(often included in "best fantasy books" lists)

The Coming Race - Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1871)

http://manybooks.net/titles/lyttonedetext99cmgrc10.html
(lost world story)

Across the Zodiac - Percy Greg (1880)

http://manybooks.net/titles/percyg10161016510165-8.html
(early Planetary Romance sf)

The Hampdenshire Wonder - J.D. Beresford (1911)

http://manybooks.net/titles/beresfordjother060601411.html
(child prodigy sf)

The Lost Continent - Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne (1900)

http://manybooks.net/titles/hynecjcuetext95lostc10.html
(an early Atlantis story)

The Beetle - Richard Marsh (1897)

http://manybooks.net/titles/marshricetext04thbtl10.html
(horror)

The Inheritors - Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford (1901)

http://manybooks.net/titles/conradjo1488814888-8.html
(Conrad's only sf novel)

Greener than You Think - Ward Moore (1947)

http://manybooks.net/titles/moorew2424624246-8.html
(he wrote Bring the Jubilee, considered an sf classic; wonder if this is any good?)

The Monk - Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796)

http://manybooks.net/titles/lewismatetext96tmonk10.html
(proto-Gothic classic)

Dracula - Bram Stoker (1897)

http://manybooks.net/titles/stokerbretext95dracu12.html

Ghostly Tales (5 Volumes) - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1853 - 1871)

Volume 1: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1169911699-8.html
Volume 2: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1170011700-8.html
Volume 3: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1175011750-8.html
Volume 4: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose12641264712647-8.html
Volume 5: http://manybooks.net/titles/fanujose1259212592-8.html

Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories - Ambrose Bierce (collected 2003)

http://manybooks.net/titles/bierceametext03prhg10.html

Ghost Stories of an Antiquity (2 volumes) - M.R. James (1904, 1911)

Volume 1: http://manybooks.net/titles/jamesmonetext058jgst10.html
Volume 2: http://manybooks.net/titles/jamesmonetext068jgs210.html

After London (or Wild England) - Richard Jefferies (1885)

http://manybooks.net/titles/jefferie13941394413944-8.html

Pledged to the Dead - Seabury Quinn (1937)

http://manybooks.net/titles/quinns3251432514-8.html
(horror)

The Sign of the Spider - Bertram Mitford (1896)

http://manybooks.net/titles/mitfordb2747627476-8.html
("an adventure of cannibals, slave traders, man-eating crocodiles, fighting off hordes of Zulus and a terrifying spider-beast" - how can I resist?)

The Metal Monster - Abraham Merritt (1920)

http://manybooks.net/titles/merrittaetext02memon10.html
(this chap is considered one of the great pulp sf writers; I read The Ship of Ishtar, which was a rollicking good adventure)

Widdershins - Oliver Onions (1911)

http://manybooks.net/titles/onionso1416814168-8.html
(contains The Beckoning Fair One, considered a classic ghost story, which I've never read)

The Tower of Oblivion - Oliver Onions (1921)

http://manybooks.net/titles/onionso3470334703-8.html
(reviewed at http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2001/cur0105.htm - sounds good)

Where the Blue Begins - Christopher Morley (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/morleychetext98wtbbg10.html
(reviewed at http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/1999/cur9906.htm; quite a peculiar book about an anthropomorphised dog who works in a department store)

The Pathless Trail - Arthur O. Friel (1922)

http://manybooks.net/titles/friela3032430324-8.html
(mentioned at http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2011/01/2010_in_review-comments.s...)

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (1847)

http://manybooks.net/titles/bronteemetext96wuthr10.html
(never read this, but meant to be good and gothic)

Modern Creative Commons / free books

Agent to the Stars - John Scalzi (1999)

http://manybooks.net/titles/scalzijother06agent_to_the_stars.html

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow (2003)

http://manybooks.net/titles/doctorowother05domkg10.html
(much (all?) of Doctorow's work is Creative Commons, though I've yet to read any, I'm embarassed to say; full list at http://manybooks.net/authors/doctorow.html)

Painkillers - Simon Ings (2000)

http://manybooks.net/titles/ingssother08painkillers_the_novel.html
(I've read some of his short stories, and thought this might be worth a punt)

The Ware Tetralogy - Rudy Rucker (2010)

http://manybooks.net/titles/ruckerrother10rucker_ware_tetralogy_cc2010.h...
(comprising Software, Wetware, Freeware, and Realware; I read one of his novels years ago (I think it was Software), and keep meaning to read these)

The Hollow Earth - Rudy Rucker (1990)

http://www.rudyrucker.com/thehollowearth/rucker_hollow_earth_cc_jan_17_2... (HTML)
(steampunk - see http://steampunkscholar.blogspot.com/2009/07/interview-with-rudy-rucker-... for an interview where Rudy Rucker discusses this novel)

Glimpses - Lewis Shiner (1993)

http://www.lewisshiner.com/liberation/glimpses.pdf (PDF)
(this one one the World Fantasy Award in 1994; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs; more of his work for free at http://www.lewisshiner.com/liberation/index.htm)

Move Under Ground - Nick Mamatas (2004)

http://www.moveunderground.org/ (HTML)
(Cthulu mythos story written from the perspective of Jack Kerouac - got to be worth a look; Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5)

Accelerando - Charles Stross (2005)

http://manybooks.net/titles/strosscother05accelerando-txt.html
(Creative Commons)

Magic for Beginners - Kelly Link (2005)

http://smallbeerpress.com/books/2005/07/01/magic-for-beginners/
(recommended by China Miéville in http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/16/fiction.bestbooks; Small Beer Press are to be applauded for making some of their titles available under Creative Commons licences)

Items available in other countries

If you are lucky enough to live in the US, Canada or Australia, you have access to a few more gems:

Bright of the Sky - Kay Kenyon (2007)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003N7MYQK
(available for free for Kindle in the US)

The Nose - Nikolai Gogol (1836)

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602381h.html (HTML)
(absurd classic; public domain in Australia)

The King of Elfland's Daughter - Lord Dunsany (1924)

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21611&d=123... (PRC)
(public domain in Canada)

Consider Her Ways - Frederick Philip Grove (1947)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201151.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia)

Collected Stories - H.P. Lovecraft (collected 2006)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia - the same as the Kindle edition you can buy for 72p from Amazon in the UK...suspicious...)

Orlando - Virginia Woolf (1928)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200331.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia)

The Ship of Ishtar - Abraham Merritt (1924)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601941.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia; pulp classic)

The War with the Newts - Karel Čapek (1936)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601981h.html (HTML)
(public domain in Australia)

Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon (1930)

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101.txt (TEXT)
(public domain in Australia)

Melmoth the Wanderer - Charles Robert Maturin (1820)

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700551h.html (HTML)
(public domain in Australia)

The Haunted Woman - David Lindsay (1922)

http://www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0608401h.html (HTML)
(public domain in Australia; a "dark, metaphysical fantasy novel" according to Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Haunted_Woman)

Thunder on the Left - Christopher Morley (1925)

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19390
(public domain in Canada; not sf or fantasy, some consider it marginally a ghost story, but an odd, interesting and melodramatic read)

misc

Books read 2011

Thu, 2012-03-15 21:40 — elliot

Rather belatedly, here's a list of books I read in 2011, 77 in number. The ones with '*' are the ones I particularly enjoyed.

The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson *
Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson
Satyrday by Steven Bauer
Talking Man by Terry Bisson
The Other Side of the Mountain by Michael Bernanos *
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
The Last Starship from Earth by John Boyd
A Confederate General from Big Sur by Richard Brautigan
The 39 Steps by John Buchan
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington *
A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll
Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll
White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
The Death of Grass by John Christopher
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Sum by David Eagleman
The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison
The Fahrenheit Twins by Michel Faber
Under the Skin by Michel Faber *
The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney *
The Unholy City by Charles G. Finney
The Ghosts of Manacle by Charles G. Finney
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner
The Serpent by Jane Gaskell *
The Inheritors by William Golding
The Spire by William Golding
She by H. Rider Haggard
Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern
The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz by Russell Hoban
The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart *
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
The Hermit by Eugene Ionesco
The Mortmere Stories by Christopher Isherwood and Edward Upward
Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson *
Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
The Waste Lands by Stephen King
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin *
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin
Galaxies by Barry Malzberg
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Box of Delights by John Masefield
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip
The Ship of Ishtar by A. Merritt
In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser
The Sword of the Dawn by Michael Moorcock
The Runestaff by Michael Moorcock
The Weird of the White Wolf by Michael Moorcock
The Steel Tsar by Michael Moorcock
Jirel of Joiry by C.L. Moore
Where the Blue Begins by Christopher Morley
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
52 Ways of Looking at a Poem ed. by Ruth Padel
Duke Cosimo by Akbar del Piombo
Stirk of Stirk by Peter Tinniswood
The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Mistress Masham's Repose by T.H. White
The Place of the Lion by Charles Williams
A Haunted House and Other Short Stories by Virginia Woolf
Jog Rummage by Grahame Wright *
Howl's Moving Castle by Dianne Wynne Jones
Nines Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

misc

Why you should read the Moomin books

Mon, 2011-02-21 21:11 — elliot

I never read the Moomin books when I was growing up, though I vaguely remember seeing the TV series when I was a teenager. I suppose the cuddly characters indicated that there was nothing to see there, and I should move along.

But recently I have been tracking down and reading various books which are generally "Fantastical", mainly via 100 Must Read Fantasy Novels; Comet in Moominland was one mentioned there. I've just finished reading it to my daughter (7), and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's the first of the Moomin books intended for older readers (the first was more for younger children), and while slow-moving to start with, and in many ways lacking in "action", it is humorous, lovable and graceful, but with a deep, darkly-tinged heart.

Some reviews I've read, talking about this book and the later ones, discuss themes in depth; one of the most important being that difference should be tolerated. The characters are very different from each other: some nomadic, some home-loving; some open, some insular; some pessimistic, some optimistic etc. But they all rub along together, and want to stay together, tolerating each other's differences. I have to be honest that this didn't occur to me during reading, but it does make sense in retrospect. Though that's not why I'm urging you to read the book.

The story is pretty simple: through various omens, Moomintroll realises a comet may be about to crash into the planet. The comet appears in the sky, and he sets out (with various friends) to ask some astronomers (fairly useless, it turns out) when the impact will happen. Towards the end of the book, they are racing back home to Moomin valley to hide in a cave they think will keep them safe. The comet has boiled the water out of the ocean and hangs threateningly overhead; they are using stilts to move over the drained ocean bed. At that point, there is a beautiful passage which almost made me cry. It's because of passages like this that I urge you to read it, even if you're an adult:

All about them stretched the strange sea landscape, which had been covered by millions of tons of water since the beginning of the world.

"You know it's rather solemn to be down here," said the Snork. "We must be pretty near the deepest part of the ocean by now."

But when they reached the biggest chasm of all they didn't dare go down. The sides sloped steeply and the bottom was obscured in green gloom. Perhaps there was no bottom! Perhaps the biggest octopuses in the world lived down there, brooding in the slime; creatures that nobody had ever seen, far less imagined. But the Snork maiden gazed longingly at an enormous and beautiful shell that was poised on the very brink of the chasm. It was a lovely pale colour, only to be found in the depths of the sea where no light penetrates, and its dusky heart glowed temptingly. The shell sang softly to herself the age-old song of the sea.

"Oh!" sighed the Snork maiden. "I should like to live in that shell. I want to go inside and see who is whispering in there."

"It's only the sea," said Moomintroll. "Every wave that dies on the beach sings a little song to a shell. But you mustn't go inside because it's a labyrinth and you may never come out."

So she was at last persuaded to go on, and they started to hurry, as dusk was falling, and they had not found anywhere to sleep. They could only see soft outlines of each other through the damp sea mist, and it was uncannily silent. There were none of the small sounds that liven up the evening on land: the pattering of small animal feet, leaves moving in the night breeze, the cry of a bird, of a stone dislodged by someone's foot.

A fire would never draw on that damp ground, and they dared not sleep amongst the unknown dangers that might be lurking about, so in the end they decided to pitch camp on a high pointed rock, which they could just reach by their stilts. They had to keep watch, so Moomintroll took the first and decided to take the Snork maiden's too, and while the others curled up tightly together and slept, he sat staring out over the desolate sea bottom. It was lit by the red glow of the comet, and shadows like black velvet lay across the sand.

Moomintroll thought how frightened the earth must be feeling with that great ball of fire coming nearer and nearer to her. Then he thought about how much he loved everything; the forest and the sea, the rain and the wind, the sunshine, the grass and the moss, and how impossible it would be to live without them all, and this made him feel very, very sad. But after a while he stopped worrying.

"Mamma will know what to do," he said to himself.

I love how the simplicity of the language in the penultimate paragraph reflects the simplicity of the sentiment: it's simple things which make life worth living, and dressing those simple things up in more flowery language detracts from their worth (it puts me in mind of the haiku of writers like Han-shan). I also like the description of the shell: a little sentimental, maybe, but hinting at our ambivalent relationship with the sea: the myth of the siren, our endless longing for the sea, but ultimately how unfathomable and dangerous it is.

The sequels apparently become darker in tone, though remaining life-affirming. I'll definitely be getting hold of them and reading them with my daughter.

misc

Books read 2010

Sun, 2011-01-02 23:28 — elliot

Last year I did pretty poorly on reading books, so this year I made an effort to read much more. I managed 62 books this year: the first year where I've read at least a book a week. My reading rate dropped off just before Christmas, due to the lure of new DVDs and the minor improvement to TV schedules around Christmas. But I will get back to reading more regularly this year.

Here's the list (for completists and myself only); the ones with asterisks are considered "classics" in the SF/fantasy fields (one of my personal goals this year was to get better acquainted with the classics in these fields); the ones in bold are the ones I really rate:

Earth Abides - George R. Stewart *
Man Plus - Frederick Pohl *
Code - Charles Petzold
The Brothel in Rosenstrasse - Michael Moorcock
The City and the City - China Miéville
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke *
The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe *
The Physiognomy - Jeffrey Ford - a random find in a local charity shop, but really an incredible read, very unusual fantasy but not the sword and sorcery kind
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman - I don't really get Neil Gaiman; don't get me wrong, this was quite engaging, just a bit workmanlike maybe; I think I need something a bit more unhinged, uncontrolled, and melodramatic
Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg *
Gloriana - Michael Moorcock
Explorers of the New Century - Magnus Mills
Memoranda - Jeffrey Ford
Kéthani - Eric Brown
The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica - John Calvin Batchelor - recommended as a classic by The Guardian 100 Best SF books (IIRC), but I found it very, very dull and skimmed the last quarter
The Jewel in the Skull - Michael Moorcock - I'm not sure if I've read these before, and I am sure they're not as good as the Corum series, but they are bloody entertaining
Thorns - Robert Silverberg
The Family Trade - Charles Stross - a nice light read, but the second one didn't really live up to this one
Gateway - Frederick Pohl * - this is a solid read, good characters, and an intriguing plotline
The Hidden Family - Charles Stross
A Case of Conscience - James Blish * - although this is supposedly a classic, it just didn't really hang together well for me, and I found it pretty hard work
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card * - I enjoyed this, but some part of me keeps reading his work from a Mormon/religious perspective; which is wrong of me (the Death of the Author and all that), but I can't help it, and it spoils it for me a bit
The Mad God's Amulet - Michael Moorcock
Motorman - David Ohle - I'm amazed I hadn't heard of this until this year, but I'd say this is a remarkable piece of surrealism
The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth * - not as good as I'd been led to believe
Grass - Sheri S. Tepper * - very eloquent, strongly plotted, and human
The Gamesman - Barry Malzberg - almost always a pleasure
Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding - another bit of fluff, but quite well done, though very reminiscent of Firefly (the TV series)
The Embedding - Ian Watson *
The Cave - Kate Mosse - dreadful
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson * - a good read, and it prompted me to watch all three movie adaptations (The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man and I am Legend - all of which completely miss the point, that the main scientist character becomes a legend among the newly-evolving "vampires"; by the end of the story he has become a relic of an old species, a legend)
The Age of Sinatra - David Ohle
Striped Holes - Damien Broderick - frothy and comic; I'd like to read more of his stuff
Blood Music - Greg Bear * - gripping, great imagery, striking
Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham *
The Unreasoning Mask - Philip José Farmer * - couldn't really see why this is rated as a classic; A Feast Unknown is much better
The Claw of the Conciliator - Gene Wolfe
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge * - excellent, great page turner, also quite moving
House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds - quite tiresome; I did finish it, but it was a bit formulaic (you can kind of see the narrative struts holding it up)
Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster
No Enemy But Time - Michael Bishop - confusing, but at least it had some guts
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban * - a remarkable feat of storytelling, but I struggled to concentrate
Greybeard - Brian Aldiss * - this one is just lovely
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror - H.P. Lovecraft - really enjoyed this, but got a bit bored when I tried to read his entire oeuvre
Emphyrio - Jack Vance * - excellent fun, with a really satisfying conclusion
The Man in The Maze - Robert Silverberg *
Voice of Our Shadow - Jonathan Carroll * - I started reading his books for the first time this year, and found them quite addictive (I read 5 altogether); but they are so readable and fun they make me feel a bit suspicious; and they can get mildly repetitive
Stolen Faces - Michael Bishop
Grendel - John Gardner
A Billion Days of Earth - Doris Piserchia - this is very unusual and has some fantastic off-the-wall ideas, but I lost track of what was happening a bit (my attention drifted)
Kissing the Beehive - Jonathan Carroll
Bones of the Moon - Jonathan Carroll
Sarah Canary - Karen Joy Fowler
Sleeping in Flame - Jonathan Carroll
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance * - also really good fun
100 Great Science Fiction Short Short Stories - ed. Isaac Asimov - a bit rubbish
Carnacki, the Ghost Finder - William Hope Hodgson
The Story of the Eye - Georges Bataille - I read this a few years back, and still found it quite shocking (and a bit tiresome) when I re-read it
The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll
Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees * - another supposed classic, but I found it a bit slow
The Face in the Frost - John Bellairs - a light, quick fantasy quest narrative; the two central wizard characters are excellent
The House on the Borderland - William Hope Hodgson * - very odd, but well worth reading, with a particularly excellent "house under siege from the supernatural" sequence; proto-fantasy with a sort of cosmic horror element; an influence on Lovecraft

This year I plan to read more Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock and Jonathan Carroll, as well as more of the "classics", particularly older works of The Fantastic I have on my Kindle (stuff like Charles Williams, H. Rider Haggard, G.K. Chesterton, Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, George MacDonald).

I've also been attempting to put together some ideas for short stories, or maybe even interactive fiction. Something might come of that too. Probably not, though.

misc

Book-related nuggets

Wed, 2010-09-01 22:45 — elliot

I keep thinking about writing something here, but the problem is once I get started, that's a whole evening gone, waffling.

In particular, I've been thinking about books a lot. So here are some book-related nuggets. It all goes a bit Victor Meldrew by the end, I warn you now.

Space operas I've read

I recently read Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep alongside Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns. Both are galaxy-spanning space opera, both full of artificial intelligences, alien races, and dogfights in space. Both highly entertaining. But Vinge's book was written about 20 years before Reynolds', and it's pretty obvious Reynolds is a big fan of Vinge. Not to the point of copying, but the plotlines of both share similarities (humans caught up in a battle involving AI systems/races which have reached god-like power). And Vinge is a much, much better writer: his characters are more sympathetic, his scenery more memorable, his aliens more interesting, and his narrative pace tighter and more dramatic. So if you want some space opera, I'd go for Vinge first, and Reynolds second.

I might read Jack Vance soon, as a brief look at one of his books (The Star King) suggests Vinge was inspired by his work (e.g. both use the term The Beyond to refer to the far reaches of the galaxy)...

Hay-on-Wye visit

I visited Hay on Wye with my family for a couple of days last week. We've made this an annual pilgrimage, as we all love going there so much. I found a lot of good books; in particular, Richard Booth's bookshop was a fantastic source of unusual sf: see the town shop catalogue and castle bookshop catalogue for a fraction of the stock.

I ended up buying:

China Mountain Zhang - Maureen F. McHugh
Greybeard - Brian Aldiss
Underlay - Barry Malzberg
Galaxies - Barry Malzberg
The Last Transaction - Barry Malzberg
The Opiuchi Hotline - John Varley
The Snow Queen - Joan D. Vinge
The Peace War - Vernor Vinge
The Humanoids - Jack Williamson
Mockingbird - Walter Tevis
Bring the Jubilee - Ward Moore
Walk to the End of the World - Suzy McKee Charnas
The Breaking of Northwall - Paul O. Williams
Gray Matters - William Hjortsberg
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
Star King - Jack Vance
Stolen Faces - Michael Bishop
A Mirror for Observers - Edgar Pangborn
Other Days, Other Eyes - Bob Shaw

Each book cost me £2 to £2.50: cheaper than Amazon marketplace, but not as cheap as I would have liked. I think I'm lucky because sf books are still in a bit of a ghetto; other types of paperback seem a bit overpriced (a symptom of the tourist popularity of the place). I love going there, but my best finds are still when I get hold of an unusual 1960s/1970s paperback for 30p in a small charity shop.

My tactic when visiting is to make a list of specific books to look for: we have about 3-4 hours browsing time, and there are just too many books to look at all of them. On this occasion, I was aiming to find a few "classics" (Moore, Varley, Pangborn, Shaw), interesting books by authors I've recently discovered (Vernor Vinge, Michael Bishop), and books by authors I always look out for (Malzberg - often tricky to find, as I'm not sure all his books made it to publication in Europe). I had a list of about 50 authors/books, but passed up on a few I found because the book wasn't in particularly good condition, or it didn't look so good in the flesh, or were too expensive.

Madeleine chose 17 books (we had to limit her to 1 or 2 per shop, as she kept gathering piles of half a dozen or more - children's books are reasonably priced, though the Children's Bookshop is a rip-off with common paperbacks at £3); Joel got 4 picture books (he mainly wanted to walk around the shops, rather than look at books); and Nicola got about 5 (her favourite shop there is Murder and Mayhem).

Anyhow, now I've got so many great books to read, I don't know where to start.

On Bookmooch

Bookmooch is a great little site: basically you list books you want to give away, and books you'd like to acquire. Each time you give a book away, you get points; each time you acquire a book, you spend points (so no money changes hands). You get 3 points for sending abroad, 1 point for sending to your own country; asking for a book from your own country costs 1 point; asking for a book internationally costs 2 points. I've exchanged quite a few books on there. But a few recent experiences have soured it for me:

People giving away bookcrossing books
I like the idea of bookcrossing.com very much, but don't like it when people take bookcrossing books and put them onto bookmooch without mentioning it. bookcrossing books are intended to be given away after they've been read; I don't mooch books off bookmooch to give them away again, necessarily: it might be that I want to keep the book after I've read it (I like collecting books). I'd feel guilty if I got hold of a bookcrossing book via bookmooch and kept it. I recently got a bookcrossing book unintentionally off bookmooch, so now I've read it I'm going to have to leave it somewhere for someone else to pick up.
People refusing to send mooches internationally
People on bookmooch have the option not to send internationally, or to have you ask first to see if they'll agree to send internationally. While in principle I understand this (from what US citizens tell me, postage internationally is exorbitant; in the UK I've found it to be fine), it is still galling to see books you want but are unable to get because the person won't send internationally. Even more galling if you ask them to send internationally and they say "No". This is really an issue with bookmooch: it shouldn't show books you can't mooch because the person won't send internationally.
People sending books in terrible condition
I got one book off bookmooch which had some kind of toxic sticky gunk on its cover. It's so bad I can't put it next to another book on my shelf. I'm reading it at the moment, taking care not to put it down on top of any other books after each reading session. Once I've read it I'm going to have to bin it, as I'd be ashamed to give it to anyone else.
I don't mind dog ears, crumpled spines, bent pages, limited water damage etc.; but a cover which glues itself to other books goes beyond acceptable.
Poor user experience
The bookmooch website really doesn't lend itself to regular use, and does a poor job of tracking what tasks are pending and what you've done. One example: if you ask someone to send internationally, there's no record of this on the site: you have to keep the email to remind you. But despite that, you can mooch the book anyway, before the person you asked has responded (the system should block until the person agrees to send internationally, but doesn't for some reason). Then add to that the fact that reservations expire after a week, even if the person doesn't respond to your request within that time. So you can be in a situation where you've asked someone to send internationally, they haven't responded, and your reservation is about to expire. What to do? I tend to mooch it anyway, explaining why, and saying they can cancel if they wish.
Another example is the wishlist. It defaults to showing you just the books you've wishlisted, and not related editions. You can show related editions if you want, but you have to click. Each moochable book has a link next to it; but if a related edition is moochable, there's no link. What you really need is a list of "moochable items which are on my wishlist or related to my wishlist" (this is roughly what the RSS feed supplies), with a link for each.
Also, there are more general issues, like the terrible search engine, which as well as returning very poor results is also horribly slow; and the abysmal HTML, resembling something produced by Microsoft FrontPage sometime around 2000, bloated and nigh on impossible to screen scrape.
(I know I could do better (I spent two years working on Prism after all), which is, I think, what makes it so frustrating to use.)

All in all, while it worked out well for a while and I got some good books out of it, I'd actually rather spend £3 on Amazon to get the books I want, rather than go through the hassle of using bookmooch. Shame. I'll leave my wishlist on there, but I'm not going to put anything in my inventory for the time being.

misc

In lieu of a mid-life crisis

Fri, 2010-05-28 21:22 — elliot

I'm 40 this year (not yet, I hasten to add). Yes, I know it's no big deal it's a round number, that's just human preference for powers of 10. Anyway, it does seem like some kind of milestone in my life, for whatever reasons. And as I have a generally introspective mind, and a good dose of self-absorption, and this is my blog, I'm going to write a few notes about it.

Not sure what got me started down this path, but yesterday I dug out a load of old school books, note books, board game designs, roleplaying game campaign books, poetry, short stories - it's all still out there in the garage. But what struck me, rather than "where did all my dreams go? what am I doing with my life?", the usual things accompanying the average mid-life crisis, I found myself thinking "actually, I'm pretty much the same person I was when I was 12; I haven't really changed much; I still believe the same things". I mentioned this to Nicola (my wife) and she said something like "that's one thing you always are: consistent, stable, level-headed". Though she made it sound better than that: I'm paraphrasing.

So, where is my evidence for this. Cue quotations from old school books etc.:

"There is not anybody that I would really like to be, but if I had to be someone else, I think it would be Arthur C. Clarke...I would not like to be him because of the mysteries he has investigated but because of his great output of short stories and books..." (June 22nd 1982; still love science fiction, would love to be a great SF writer, but realise that probably that's not my calling)

"There are three things I would change in the world if I became, as it were, a 'supreme dictator'. 1. Banning of vivisection: all animals should be treated as part of life, and if they are destroyed or harmed we would be affecting our future lives... 2. Freedom of speech: I would give everybody in the world the freedom to speak how they wish... 3. Nuclear war: I would try to stop the production of nuclear weapons." (December 15th c. 1983; basically I was a hippie then and I still am; I think that's quite forward thinking for someone living in a provincial backwater in the early 1980s - probably my mum's influence)

There's really no point going on about achievements since then etc.; you can read my about page to find out what I've done with myself all this time. I don't think I'll ever "do enough" to say I've finished.

More important, though, are things which have meant a lot to me over the past few months. These are the kind of things we're living for:

Sledging in the local park with Madeleine (my daughter) on Christmas Eve 2009. This was just the most wonderful day for me: exhilirating, laughing with my daughter, expectations of Christmas the next day, looking forward to warming up in the cafe for lunch. I'll treasure this one for a long time.
How Joel (my son) loves to throw himself at me, fling his arms around me, wrestle me, nestle into my neck, calls me "my daddy"; his carefree grin as he ambles around the garden looking for interesting things.
Gaming night with Nicola (my wife): it's one time in the week when we sit down together, just the two of us, and get a chance to do nothing but spend time together, chat, have a drink. Sometimes we're both too knackered, but most Sunday nights, that's what we do. Carcassonne and Dominion are our current arenas. It's also great working at home, as we get to see each other a bit more and meet for lunch once a week in the local cafe. Good to be together.
Paul (my current manager) having the faith in me to persuade me to work at Intel, when I was at a really low point, virtually no self confidence, no self belief, and practically telling him I couldn't do the job. He was right, and I was wrong. It's taken me a while to build myself up again, but I finally feel like I'm getting into my stride and being useful.
Rediscovering my love of SF. I made a concerted effort this year to read more, and have been having a great time doing so. I've read quite a lot of classic SF this year, and have made some good discoveries (Grass by Sherri S. Tepper is my current one, which is really good, and actually brought tears to my eyes). I'm convinced reading fiction, great fiction, makes me a better person.
Writing more music and releasing an album. The release will happen in the next few weeks, and it's going to be very small (it's a tiny net label), but I'm really pleased and grateful someone else (Kevin Busby) has enough faith in my music enough to put their name to it.

While digging around, I also found this rather excellent (and very 1980s and corny, obviously around the time of Close Encounters) birthday card from my family; inside it says "HOPE YOUR BIRTHDAY IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!" There's also some of my mum's handwriting: "To Elliot, lots of love Mum, Dad, Dean & Chloë" (she always put the umlaut on Chloe). Finding some of her writing, that made me a bit sad (she died a few years ago of cancer). Here's the picture, anyway:

(Looking at this now, the sentimental part of me suddenly finds this picture quite fitting as a visual metaphor for what it's like to grow up...)

No earth-shattering revelation to come to, no character progression. But perhaps that is my point. What's important is knowing who you are, and doing things which make you (and those around you) feel good.

misc

Zombie Haiku

Tue, 2010-03-09 16:02 — elliot

I noticed this Zombie Haiku book yesterday: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1600610706

Which reminded me of this zombie haiku I wrote when I was about 12 (27 years ago - ouch):

A noxious zombie
eats a mouldy, worm-filled leg
in a rancid cave.

Which isn't very good (though vivid enough for me to remember and obviously ahead of its time); and not strictly haiku (it has no "kireji", or its closest equivalent in English, i.e. "a dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense of closure" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kireji). So I rewrote it while in the bath last night (probably too much information there...):

An ashen zombie
gnaws a muddy, worm-filled leg:
tears run over bones.

Hopefully, this will enable you to see how much I've progressed as an artist.

Update: After having written this, I read this surprisingly relevant blog entry about how we see our artwork when we're young (by way of Rotating Corpse), how our perceptions of it change, and even how art comes to have value.

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Books read 2009, and to read in 2010

Thu, 2010-01-07 23:35 — elliot

Last year I only managed to read 18 books. Pretty poor going. They were:

Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Magnetism and other stories - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Everything Is Miscellaneous
The Eternal Champion - Michael Moorcock
Phoenix in Obsidian - Michael Moorcock
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate - Michael Moorcock
Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
Breakthrough - Richard Cowper
Brontomek! - Michael Coney
To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Jose Farmer
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
400 Billion Stars - Paul J. McAuley
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Tactics of Conquest - Barry Malzberg
Secret Harmonies - Paul J. McAuley
Inside Intel - Tim Jackson
Imperial Earth - Arthur C. Clarke
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr.

Of those, The Road was easily the best. I dread to think what a shambles the film will turn it into.

I've also updated my list of important books to include one or two I read last year, and some others I remembered. Plus I created a separate section for my favourite sf books.

This year I'm planning to read some sf classics. Here's the list I'm starting from (as I already have copies of all these):

A Case of Conscience - James Blish
Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg
Man Plus - Frederik Pohl
Venus Plus X - Theodore Sturgeon
Davy - Edgar Pangborn
The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
Blood Music - Greg Bear
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
Time Out of Joint - Philip K. Dick
The Embedding - Ian Watson
The Fifth Head of Cerberus - Gene Wolfe
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
On Wings of Song - Thomas M. Disch
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman

Let's see how I get on.

misc

My favourite blog

Tue, 2009-09-15 23:01 — elliot

I was going to put "probably", but then decided that, no, this is my favourite:

http://ageofuncertainty.blogspot.com/

I love the way this chap writes. Mainly about second-hand books he's found and/or read, but often about their cover art, the ephemera he finds inside them, brilliant expositions about small towns he's visited, and other bits and pieces. There's a certain gentle Englishness, quiet pathos, and calm reflection about his work which strikes just the right balance for me.

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Christmas 2008

Sat, 2009-01-03 00:02 — elliot

Great Christmas holiday. Shame it's over.

Enjoyed watching lots of films through Sky+. Jonathon Creek, Gavin and Stacey, and Wallace and Gromit were good. Got the broadband working (though Sky's DNS servers are knackered at the moment).

Joel started eating solid food: he's starting to get the hang of it. Chloe and Ian came for Christmas day and we spent most of the time playing on the Wii and eating.

Presents I got:

Mario Karts Wii plus extra steering wheel
Made to Stick book
Everything is Miscellaneous book
Hello Young Lovers by Sparks
Missiles by The Dears
The Thirteenth Floor DVD
Hot Shots (I and II) DVD
The Apple Source Book
A garden fork
A bag for holding string
A puzzle book (I realised I love puzzles while on holiday)
A planetarium
Spy pens
Shut the Box game

Back to work Monday. Also need to stop eating so much crap, as I think I've put a few pounds on over Christmas.

And yes, Happy New Year and all that.

misc

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