Ratings

Avatar-cat Merlin, as a kitten.

I've been toying with ratings since I started blogging about books, but I couldn't come up with a system that I liked, or said "this sums it up nicely". Since I go for random most of the time, I present to you my very random ratings system:

10/10 Could not be improved on, even by angel dust and a basket of kittens
9/10 So good, you'd take it to meet your Mum
8/10 That movie that you've watched 100 times and you never get tired of
7/10 Someone else cooks dinner – yay!
6/10 Leaving work 30 minutes early
5/10 A very nice day
4/10 Why am I here?
3/10 Waking up and thinking it's Saturday on Monday
2/10 Stepping in the stuff the cat just threw up
1/10 Blind rage at the time stolen from my life

The reading week

It's Monday again .... really? Wow, that went fast. What are you reading is asked here: http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/its-monday-what-are-you-reading_08.html

I finished a couple of books this past week, Pyramids by Terry Pratchett and Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Short review of both below this post.

I'm embarking on a Belgariad re-read, in honour of David Eddings, who died last week. Other than that, I still sort of have Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury on the go.

Happy reading!

Really short reviews - apparently I''m swearing again - sorry

I actually finished a couple of books in a relatively short space of time; so here are a couple of short reviews before the reading/review ratio has a chance to get out of hand.

First up was Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, which was The Goods, but not quite as much The Goods as Wyrd Sisters, which I love like, well, like a sister. Anyway, Teppic has been training to be an assassin in Ankh-Morpork. Only, when his father, the king dies, Teppic finds himself inadequately prepared to take on the job. Weirdness abounds, and many, many funny moments. So I do love it, but like a slightly less close family member. A cousin, say.

Second was Naomi and Ely's No-Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Sundays are my stay-in-bed days while the husband takes care of Patrick. So I literally spent all morning in bed, just reading this. And I just ... I want to hang out with it for, like, ever. And I want someone to create a playlist for me and I want my own copy, because I had to get it out of the library. It's SO good. I loved all of the characters, even Naomi a little bit, even though I totally went to school with girls like her - pretty and entitled. On the plus side, it's nice to know that the lives of these people are just as fucked-up as everyone else's. And it's sad, and funny, and romantic and ... practically perfect.

Back to The Belgariad ...

Weekly Geeks

It's summertime Weekly Geeks … somewhere. Not here, obviously. Here it's been cold, and wet and cloudy and dark most of the time. Having said that … the sun is shining and the sky is blue today. Which is a nice change from yesterday, which was so cold, wet and miserable it was practically a cliché.
Our summer is December-February, so Christmas time falls smack in the middle of that. And I didn't think that pine trees, tinsel, fake snow and Santas in red suits were incongruous when I was a kid. Our Christmas traditions pretty much came with the British settlers, so that's what we're used to.
So turkey dinners are common; as are barbecues for some. Some head away – mostly to beaches and run-down cribs (or baches, if you live further North) – basically small, rundown houses. Although that's changed now and some “cribs” go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The grand Kiwi summer holiday tradition is endless hot days near water, if possible. For me, as a kid, we spent most of our holidays in a tiny little spot called Garston, in a free, rundown farmhouse on the land of a farmer my Dad worked for after coming back from World War 2. He was the kindest, most generous man ever. I don't even know what we did, really. Picked peas, and mushrooms, and gooseberries. Hung out at the dried out creek bed.
On Saturday nights, when my parents would go to the pub, they'd take me sometimes, and the barman would make me Shirley Temples.
We'd travel up the road a bit some days to a rest stop at Lake Wakatipu, not far past Kingston. We had our favourite spot _ a large rock with a natural slide. Or we'd travel to Queenstown, at the head of the lake.
The lake's freezing, and the beach is pretty much rocks, and small stones. But it was our spot. We'd stick our Coke bottles in the shallows and just … I don't know how to describe it.
I'm the youngest by six years in my family, so I felt like an only child a lot of the time, even on holiday. I did have a holiday-friend _ the youngest son of the aforementioned farmer was a year older than me and we sort-of almost became real world friends until I totally lost contact, which I kind of regret.
The hottest month is always February, and I have never got used to that. I was always the kid my parents tried to make go outside on nice days. The heat down here where I live is usually a dry kind of heat, which I find easier to deal with than humidity _ it was one of my least favourite things about living in Auckland.
I've gone off-course, again, I think. But my Kiwi summer experience is fairly typical. Take one (1) rundown crib, add sunshine and water, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

That's a not-very-good pic of the spot at the top there. :)
Live long, and prosper Weekly Geeks. :)

Thank you Mr Eddings

Fantasy novelist and creator of The Belgariad David Eddings died this week. There are quite a few tributes out there, but this one is my favourite: http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2009/06/will-and-word-tribute-to-david-eddings.html

As a teenager, apart from Lord of the Rings, the Belgariad was one of the first major fantasy series that I read, along with the first three Dragonlance novels. I still remember picking up Pawn of Prophecy for the first time in a bookstore. And Dragons of Autumn Twilight, come to think of it.

So. That picture above is of my (very) battered Belgariad, that I will be re-reading after many years. Tis my own tribute.

The books are so beaten down because they were passed around among my friends at high school. And yes, those books are held together with sellotape and good wishes. What can I say? I was 15.

Yeah, I was one of the weird, outsider kids, for whom I like to think these worlds were created.

Thank you, Mr Eddings. It'll be an honour to spend a few days in your world again.

Booking Through Thursday

It's been a while since I did one of these, but this one is a list, and I love me some lists :)

Here's the explanation from http://btt2.wordpress.com/

“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

1) The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien

2) Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

3) The Belgariad :( by David Eddings (Rest in peace)

4) Magician by Raymond E Feist

5) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

6) The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

7) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

8) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

9) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

10) The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

11) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

12) The Stand by Stephen King

13) On Writing by Stephen King

14) A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

15) Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes

That was fun!

The Reading Week

It's Monday, so it's time to answer the question again: what are you reading? Brought to you by http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/

Sigh. The same two books I was reading last week – Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, and Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.
But I can't blame Idol this time. No, the blame for this slow reading week lies squarely at the feet of Stargate: SG1. I rented Season 8 last Saturday and spent most of my free time over the next week (eight-day hires) watching the whole series, including about four episodes yesterday.
It's not my favourite Stargate series – it felt a little talky, but average Stargate is SO much better than a lot of stuff that's on TV now, that I'll take it. Although I kept wishing they'd update Daniel's glasses. Those roundy frames looked very out-of-date to me.
Um. Yeah.
Happy reading?