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Monday, December 31, 2007

2008 Classic novels list

This is a project I've had in mind for a while. Read one classic novel a month _ regardless of genre _ for a year. So this is the year.
And these are the books:
January: Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier

Februray: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
March: The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
April: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
May: 1984 by George Orwell
June: The Once and Future King by T H White
July: Hawaii by James Michener
August: The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
September: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
October: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
November: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
December: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Apart from Love in the Time of Cholera, which I read years ago, I haven't read any of these books. Should be fun!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

It's the end of the world as we know it ... well, not quite.
Armaggeddon is coming and some people aren't too happy about it. The hordes of Heaven and Hell are gathering for the final battle _ to take place this Saturday _ and some supernatural beings are determined to stop it.
Although according to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, there doesn't seem to be a lot they can do. Agnes was the worst kind of predictor: she was always right.
Crowley the demon and Aziraphale the angel have been living among humans for thousands of years. And to tell the truth, they sort of like it. So they determine that the best thing to do is to hunt down the Anitchrist and destroy him. Which is a shame, really, because he's a nice kid.
Good Omens is funny, funny, funny. Giggling maniacally and laughing out loud funny. The combination of Pratchett and Gaiman has created something profane, possibly profound and very, very, very funny.
I'm a recent Pratchett fan _ having only read this and The Colour of Magic but he's fast becoming a favourite; and Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors.
Great stuff :)

Also reviewed here:
http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2007/12.html#good_omens :)

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Boo

Heh. This is like an adjunct to my other blog. It's for keeping track of what I read, and writing short reviews (hopefully). It's something I've been wanting to do for a while, so of course I choose now, when my life could hardly be busier! Let the fun begin!