Weekly Geeks _ answering some questions and rambling

A digression before we start ... I'm supposed to be reading A Suitable Boy for June's classic. But ... um ... I''m not. Will pick up something classic-y next month. Also, that's my favourite photo of me and Patrick, dinner-lady arms, grey hair and weird ponytail aside. It makes me smile. :)

I'm doing the Weekly Geeks answering post now, because I'm liable to forget later in the week. I'm a space cadet at the moment _ work is so busy that I feel like I put my life and my family down somewhere last week and I've forgotten to go and pick them up from the bus station. Which is what happens when you say “yes, yes I can fill in for person-on-holiday and still do my regular job, of course I can” forgetting that I really am only one person.
Anyway. Enough of that nonsense.
Quite a few of you wanted to know more about The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

http://readbookswritepoetry.blogspot.com/ http://page247.wordpress.com and http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/ asked what it was all about.

Well ... I'm glad you asked that .... (although you all may not be _ my answer is kind of long, rambly and has the word "whore" in it).
I didn't know a lot about it myself, to be honest, but I loved Pan's Labyrinth so much, that my fangirl took over my brain (seriously, I need a fangirl intervention – it's getting ridiculous inside my head) and said to me, Homer Simpson talking to his brain-style:
“You must have book!! Guillermo del Toro. MUST HAVE”
“But - ''
“MUSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!” Upon which my fangirl persona turned into Gollum. I may or may not have stroked the book in the store and called it my precioussssssss.
Anyway. I digress. The book starts with a prologue of a Romanian grandmother telling her young grandson a very spooky legend about a giant who ends up living as a recluse in a castle. Ten years later, in a World War 2 extermination camp, the young boy encounters an unspeakable evil.
Jump forward to the present day, and a plane full of people has landed at JFK. With everyone on board dead ….
I'm only about a quarter of the way in, but I'm already seriously spooked – in the best possible way. And it's going to take me a while to finish because I do most of my reading at night, and I can't read this at night. So it's a weekend book. I think the last weekend-only book I read was Twentieth Century Ghosts by Joe King.
http://undercoverbooklover.blogspot.com/ (I love your blog name, btw), asked if I'd seen a lot of del Toro's films. No, not really. Pretty much just Pan's Labyrinth, and Blade II. Certainly enough to make me a fangirl. My fangirl is basically a whore.

Jacqueline also asked if del Toro is a better writer than a film-maker. I can't compare, given that I haven't seen that much of his work, but I think he thinks in pictures. Scary-ass pictures saturated in blood, gore and set to an awesome soundtrack (which, in my head is God's Going to Cut You Down, by Johnny Cash for some reason. Oh - because that's my zombie film soundtrack.)

Speaking of tracks, let's get back on this one.
Nymeth also asked what my favourite thing about thie book was: My favourite thing about it so far, is everything.

http://thebookladysblog.com/ wants to know about the cross-genre aspect. I love vampires (well, not the sparkly vegetarian kind so much, because really ... wtf???) and I love a good crime novel, and it's a cross-over that's working well so far. Apparently Del Toro interviewed a bunch of writers and picked Hogan based on his procedural knowledge. Which makes me want to seek out Mr Hogan's other works. Plus, who doesn't like a good scare now and then (I'm looking at you Stephenie Meyer ... seriously NOTHING HAPPENS in Breaking Dawn.)

Uh ........ next?

I think that's all The Strain questions answered.

The lovely Louise at http://louspages.blogspot.com/ asked about Pyramids. It's part of Mr Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, which I only just started on last year and I'm slowly making my way through them for the first time. On one level, they're comic fantasy novels. On another level, they're unicorns and chocolate, and kittens, and rainy Sundays, and your favourite movie. Awesome, in other words. The first is The Colour of Magic. :)

http://anothercookiecrumbles.wordpress.com/ and Eva at http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/ both asked me about The Belgariad. I'm re-reading it because David Eddings died a couple of weeks ago, and it feels like a fitting tribute. Eva, I read it in high school, too, many, many times and at first I was kind of like ... I don't know if I'm enjoying this, but now I'm getting into the story more, and just having fun reading it.

http://thebookladysblog.com/ asked what I would recommend, of what I have read and reviewed, for a book club. Let's see .... if your book club doesn't mind YA, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson; because it brings up all kinds of questions about being human and what humanity really means.

Q & A, by Vikras Swarup would be a good one. Then you could watch Slumdog Millionaire :) Oh ....... one of my absolute favourites is The Vintner's Luck, by Elizabeth Knox. Which is incredibly romantic, and sad, and all that jazz.

Gosh, that's a GOOD question!

Whew! Long post. If you made it all the way to the end, I salute you!