Books Read in 2024

My oh my, the time flies.
This year is rather embarassing, not due to numbers, but because there is a mystery in my list. I have a start date written down, but no title. I also could not remember when I started another book, as I forgot to write it down. Now it could be that the two are the same, but I don't think I started the book that early, so I'm going to leave them as two seperate entries.

Numbers wise it's about the same as my usual amount, though perhaps slightly less as I've spent my reading time this year using the G-machine to translate a French dance manuscript from the late 16th-early 17th century. Looking back, definitely much better than last year, as I got around to reading some of those books I bought, and again have bought a few books late in the year which I have not gotten around to reading, but nowhere near a friend of mine who read 95!

I've also read a couple of plays (and was in one), so here is this year's list, with plays in italics and re-reads with asterisks:

1. Vets Might Fly - James Herriot

     2/1 - 6/2

 

2. ????????

12/2 - ???

3. Lost Realms: Histories of Britain from the Romans to the Vikings - Thomas Williams

?? - 30/5

This is a brilliant book. It is very well written, both in style and metre and in the subjects he chose along with the linking of their interactions. He chose to look at the smaller of the kingdoms, so due to their "less importance" there was less for him to research, but what he did with what he was able to find was fascinating for a history buff like myself. Also a gorgeous cover.

A couple of people in different circles who saw me reading this thought the author was one who had written several fantasy novels that they read, but he isn't.

4. The Ballad of Maria Marten - Beth Flintoff  

14/3

A very recently written play, commissioned by a local theatre company in the UK on a well known historic tale from their region, this is done for an all female cast, as it was looking at the character of a woman murdered, rather than at the incident of her murder.

5. Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective - AB Greenfield

3/6

A kid's book, and reads very much reads like it, though in some ways better than the other "cat detective" book I read last year.

6. Pitt Street Bankers - Tom Mortimer

4-19/6

Written by one of the lawyers involved in this fiasco forty or so years ago, very well told. My reactions "shows how little banks have changed" is a good indication of how much they have really, when you consider that this happened because of the trust that people had in banks.

7. The Red Plague Affair - Lilith Saintcrow

22-29/6

8. Strange Magic - Syd Moore

22/7 - 5/8

These two books are good examples of how series can be written. "Red Plague" is actually the second in a series of books, and the friend that I got it from (who got it in an advent calendar of books) reckoned that it wasn't necessary to read the first book beforehand (as they had gone and got an e-book copy of Book 1), was right, the author did now and then keep referring to incidents in the first book, and I was slightly confused and curious with some aspects of that. "Strange Magic" on the other hand, which I picked up at a Vinny's store, is the first in a series of novels and whilst there isn't the back referencing, there is in someways, a forward reference and whether that's because I read it knowing that it was the first in a series, I'm not sure. Slightly clunky in style, though given that the rest of the series is not yet released, it has obviously been agreed to, I did wonder if that is simply first author nervousness/style indetermination.

9. The Worst Witch All at Sea - Jill Murphy*

23/10

 

10. The Worst Witch Saves the Day - Jill Murphy*

24/10

11. The Worst Witch - Jill Murphy*

25/10

More kids books which I read due to a radio conversation asking people to call in with their favourite witches in literature or TV/film, due to the launch of Wicked here. Maybe as aimed at an older audience, her style is more full and they don't feel that kiddy.

12. Sylvia - AR Gurney

24/11

13. Silent Sky - Lauren Gunderson  

2/12

I'd really hoped to get a part in this play, as it's looking at one of the many women on whose work, men got the credit for what we take as granted today. The main character is the person who came up with the law that enabled Hubble (on who that telescope is named after) to determine that the universe is of many galaxies, not just the one. Another reasonably newly written play, it is rather odd in that it puts in a sister she didn't have, though there were other siblings, and it makes her wear and use a period hearing aid, which she admittedly did have as she got older and yet the other character in the play, who was deaf from childhood due to illness, doesn't get one. Still will be interesting to see how the local theatre does it.

 

14. The Revlon Girl - Neil Anthony Docking  

18/12

 

15. Voices of Rome - Lindsay Davis

26-29/12

 

16. A Stroke of the Pen  The Lost Stories - Terry Pratchett

30/12 - 1/1/25

17. Instruction pour dancer les dances cy apres nommez  - Author unknown*

All year

A goodly read for the year, along with the very good quarterly magazine from the State Library, and the bi-annual one from my university.

 

Books read 2023

                     This is a year with a rather small list of books read, although I did read that book I mentioned last year, by the daughter of an old teacher. I also read a book written by a friend! I think the biggest thing about me and books this year was the number I bought. I still have a couple of unread books hanging around.

 

1) Terry Pratchett A life with Footnotes* The Official biography - Rob Williams (8/1 -  )

 

Embarassingly I haven't actually finished this one.

2) Relativity - Antonia Hayes (20/1 - 11/2)

3) Skunk and Badger - Amy Timberlake (26/3 - 1/4)

4) Spin - Michael Fidler (17/7 - 13/8)

5) The Orphan with a hundred mothers - Noela Fox Phd pbcm (2-11/11)

 

This is written as a story, rather than the history I had expected after hearing about it on the radio, but it still brings in so much historic bits, it is quite interesting. The funny thing is, when I heard about it on the radio, I went "oh wow, how fascinating, I had never heard about it before", but a couple of days ago, when looking through a book done to celebrate the 100th anniversary of my school (back in 2011) this snippet of history actually gets a brief mention.

6) What the cat dragged in - Miranda James (26-28/12)

 

Triggered a grammar debate over the use of further vs farther. It's actually a latest (#14 - no wonder everyone expected the lead to have found the body rather than his cat) of a series I've not read before. 

I lent three different styles of books to a friend for something to occupy her on a fairly long international flight, so will be interesting to see what she thinks of them, when she's back next year.

Books Read 2022

 And it's the old favourite, of the books I got through in the year. I think this is the full list, though I do have the feeling that there may be one or two missing, as I lost one of the two places I keep track of what I've read >ironic mutter - frikkin tech<.

    I didn't read everything I wanted to read - I bought one book written by the daughter of one of my school teachers, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet and I still haven't read a massive one I bought two years ago, though I did buy it mostly for the pictures in it, but I do want to read it at some stage.

So here is this year's list, with plays in italics and re-reads with asterisks:

 1. The Riddle and The Knight: In Search of Sir John Mandeville - Giles Milton  (5-27/1)*

 2. The Complete Book of Heroic Australian Women - Susanna de Vries  ( ?? - 5/4)

 

This is an amazing book - as always when you learn history there is just so much of it, only bits that have a large importance to many, are what is generally chosen so that cultural knowledge can be taught and understood. These stories are of women who may at first glance, be considered bystanders, but are outstanding in what they've done.

 3. The Illustrated Etymologicon: A circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language - Mark Forsyth   (26/4 -27/5)

 

An interesting enough book, with his connections from one entry to the next often amusing, however whilst I'm sure Forsyth did some research for his weekly newspaper column (which this book is a conglomeration of), some of the supposed origins of words/phrases that he puts forward as the official answer, I found rather dubious. You just have to look at the question which was floating around recently due to the yearly boat race on at this time of year (why are ships considered female), for which there are several suppositions, but no definitive answer, to see that there are many possibilities which will never be known the answer to.

  4. Secret Bridesmaid Business - Elizabeth Coleman  (25-27/7)

  5. Fallen Into The Pit - Ellis Peters  (??/9 - ????)

 

And that feeling I mentioned above proved. I picked this one up at the annual Vice Chancellor's Book Fair, as I like her Cadfael series, but it didn't read how I expected it - both through the character that is the narrator, the story itself and her writing style. It was good - whilst I picked some aspects, I didn't pick the culprit, but I don't think I'll get another in the series if they turn up.

 

 6. April in Paris, 1921 - Tessa Lunney  (24/10 - 10/11)

 7. Get Off My Lawn! - Anne Ceguerra   (11-15/11)

 

A self published novel being sold by the author at a local artist's market. Not how I thought it would end, but still a nice little book.

 

 8.  Instruction Pour Dancer: An Annonymous Manuscript - Editors Angene Feves, Ann Lizbeth     Langston, Uwe W Schottermüller and Eugene Roucher (22/11 - )*

 9. Historical Dances  12th to 19th century - Melusine Wood  (16/12 -  )*

Reading these two together, as am trying to properly transcribe the dances in #8 to then reconstruct them (although kind of pointless really as there isn't any music for them) and using #9 to help with French dance words that Google has no idea about. Still working hard on this (or should it be hardly?)

10. The Enigma of Room 622 - Joël Dicker  (26-30/12)

And there we go. Twenty-twenty two done and dusted. Another of the books I was wanting to read was one that has been made into a film, as the trailer didn't seem to fit my memory of the book, although I have recently seen a little clip proclaiming how close it is to the novel, staying word for word (almost). And whilst it does (and that first lot of brackets was theirs), there are also several lines left out between lines used, so it will be interesting to see how the film goes. I hope you've read to your satisfaction and if not, that next year goes a bit better that way.

Possums & moths bring you citizen science!

The moths need our help, and if you see one, Zoos Victoria and Federation University Australia want to know

 

 

 

Each spring, endangered Bogong Moths start an amazing migration across Australia to our alpine zone. 

 

 At the same time, Mountain Pygmy-possums wake up from hibernation hungry for nutritious Bogong Moths to eat. 

 

But over the last few years, Bogong Moths have not been arriving to the alpine regions in the numbers needed, raising concern for the survival of the moths and leaving the Mountain Pygmy-possums without their primary food source.

 

 

Bogong moth (Photo by Donald Hobern)

If you see a Bogong Moth (picture to the right), or a moth you think could be a Bogong Moth, take a photo and upload to Moth Tracker. It’s quick and easy, and will help scientists better understand how to help the moths and if they will make it to the mountains this year.

Learn more: https://www.zoo.org.au/possums

 

 

 

Books Read 2021

 I have been rather slack this year, there have been a number of Citizen Science call outs throughout the year which I didn't get around to sharing. 

Despite that, I have actually read a number of books this year. Nowhere near the numbers I read in earlier years, but more than in recent years. I took up the challenge to read books at lunch, as driving myself to work meant that I no longer had the longer and more often chance to read to and from work on the train. Not to mention that aging eyes find it slightly harder to read later in the day when the light level is low (especially when the text is an odd colour and small in size).

On the topic of driving, a recent radio show host asked one of their guests on the topic whether they thought that audio books counted as reading a book, and the guest thought so, though I didn't - in the same way different actors will put different slants to the same character, an audio book will give different views on characters: tone of voice and delivery of character, narrative or narrator. That's one of the wonders of reading, it's your imagination that takes you to a place, and as much as it has been created by someone else, when you read it, you put your slant on it. What do you all think?

So here are the books from 2021, mostly novels, though also a couple of non-fiction ones in there as well.

 1. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to liberate an American town (and some bears) -       Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

     27/12/20 - 1/1/21

 2. The Grove of the Caesars - Lindsay Davis

     5-7/1

 3. The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn - Colin Dexter 

    13-17/1

 4. Service of The Dead - Colin Dexter

    17-21/1

 5. Murder's Immortal Mask - Paul Doherty

    23-29/1

  6. Dress in the age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion - Hilary Davidson  

    ?? - 24/6

 I had a big gap between starting and then actually getting stuck into the book, not to mention finishing, (as this is a wonderful tome) and as I don't tend to write the dates down until I've finished, I forgot when I actually started it. Whilst it is a great book, in both writing and related pictures, it has the drawback that the text is in mid-grey and on the smaller side.

 7. Moving Pictures - Terry Pratchett

    27/7 - 15/8

  8. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett

    14-25/9

  9. Rhett Butler's People - Donald McCaig 

    2-4/10

 I read this as an acquaintance rewatched Gone with The Wind, and was very sad that due to a particular scene, Rhett Butler, someone she had liked growing up and into adulthood, now seemed a wrong/bad man. So I thought I would re-read this more modern sequel. I also read little bits of Gone With the Wind after, to check pieces from the original afterwards.

10. The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett

       9/11

11. Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik

      16/12

12. A Comedy of Terrors - Lindsey Davis

      28/12/21 - 4/1/21

     

 So there we go, more than last year and half-half re-reads/new ones this year. Not bad.

 

Books Read 2020

Well, what a year huh? As I was lucky that I kept working all year, I was unlucky in the respect that I didn't read anywhere near the number of books that I would have liked to have read. Also not helped by the fact that the local library was closed (as I mentioned in last year's book list). With the whole pandemic bringing around lockdowns, I never ventured to try out the other two libraries,

So here is this year's list, with plays in italics and re-reads with asterisks:

1. A Capitol Murder - Lindsey Davis (28/12/19-4/1/20)

2. A Blink of the Screen - Terry Pratchett (18-19/1)

3. The Golden Age of Murder - Martin Edwards (29/2 - 10/5)

4. Dress in  the Age of Jane Austen, Regency Fashion - Hilary Davidson (?/3 -   )

I didn't finish reading this, as it is printed with small grey text, and I'm kind of blind without bright light (and/or my glasses), which the tea room at work doesn't really have, and whilst I do have a pair of glasses at work, remembering to grab them out of my locker/defeating my vanity. I do want to actually read it all the way through, as it was written by a friend. I promise I'll read it Hilary! Honestly!

5. Akhnaton - Agatha Christie (26/4 - 13/5)

6. Death Comes As The End - Agatha Christie  (2/6 - 2/8)

7. Alexandria* - Lindsey Davis (8/11 - 5/12)

8. Hereward the Wake - Charles Kingley (shortened)  (7-16/12)

9. Devil's Wolf - Paul Doherty (20-24/12)

10. A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear - Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling (26/12 - 1/1/21)

This one made me very happy that I don't or be inclined to, live in the US, especially New Hampshire. It had a couple things odd to its end - whilst being fairly descriptive of actions that had happened, it ends with a turn of phrase that does not really let you know what happened. Also in his acknowledgments, where he thanks all the people that are mentioned by name, even for the smallest of bits, for talking to him, he doesn't include one of the main characters with one the most amount of book space. It could be because the man died, so wasn't there to feel the appreciation, but neither was his family, for being happy to let him mention their father, who was a man that I felt, he thought had worthy morals(?)/ambitions(?)/world views (perhaps?).

So that's not too bad, about one a month or so and I read more than last year! Woohoo!! Again reading mostly at lunch hence the read-time spread of most of them.

 

The funny thing with 5 & 6, was that reading 3, which is looking at the writers of detective fiction in the "Golden Age" it mentioned that Agatha Christie was actually a fan of archaeology, and wrote both a play and a novel set in Ancient Egypt. So when my brother asked for suggestions for a birthday present, I said the novel, but I told him the title of the play, which I didn't realise until I opened said present. Mum then went and got me the novel, theoretically for Christmas, but she gave it to me when it arrived.

Stay safe and indoors and read - build your knowedge and your aspirations.

Citizen science on land changes

I've come across a couple of good citizen science opportunities recently, both of which simply involve taking photos and posting them to the appropriate app/website.

The first is one looking at the regrowth of plants and animals in the zones devasted by the recent (and still on-going) bushfires in Australia:
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/citizen-science-project-bushfire-recovery-needs-your-help/11910486?fbclid=IwAR1yhjBSlZ4T9Mio5WavBwcpra0T8QGBdzP8dpJOLWe-rfGrpesYbwdohfA
"If we can just get lots of eyes on the ground we can look at the fire intensity and what the plants are doing."
The study's webpage, with currents results: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/environment-recovery-project-australian-bushfires-2019-2020

The second, again in Australia, but which has also spread globally, is Coast Snap. This project is looking at the changes to beaches over time
https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research-and-publications/your-research/citizen-science/digital-projects/coastsnap
"CoastSnap data provides a valuable record of the movement of sand between the exposed and submersed parts of the beach system. Coastal researchers and managers can use that data to investigate how much the beach might change during extreme conditions, or in response to the long-term effects of climate change such as sea level rise."
If it's of any favourability, this one even has a Facebook page, which you can post to and see information from the global snap points.

The page above also lists and links a few other citizen science projects.

Jewellery casting methods for Vikings

This is a very interesting article written by someone who has not only researched the possible different methods used by the Vikings to cast their jewellery, but has also had an attempt at it, which is always a good way to fid out whether your assumptions are correct and/or easy.

https://exarc.net/issue-2018-4/at/viking-jewellery-mould-making-experimental-and-reconstructive-aspects?fbclid=IwAR39L-1meBzENYaHUAmO3udOUx6T7rx_sXTulrRWLUxdMlWbjp1wnG9H8_o

I recommend having it open in two tabs, as the page displays the figures down the side, rather than in line with text, which means that you have to scroll back up and down trying to find where you left off from to look at the referred image. Having it on two tabs allows you to much easily flick back and forth to the image and text spot you were up to.

Books Read 2019

Ah that time of year again, what all my readers of 0 have been waiting for, wha books I got around to reading in 2019. Not as many as I had hoped, as I had wanted to read all of JRR Tolkien's works, and even asked my friends via FB for suggestions as to order to read them in, but never got around to doing. But at least I still read some.

Quite interestingly in the last week of the year, I heard a couple of related examples of this sort of thing: on the radio I heard about a study conducted by people at a local university, who were looking at social media and photography. They took a bunch of people to one of the zoos that you can stay at, they could tell their family and friends where they were going, could take photos, but could not use social media for the time they were there which was a huge overnight stay. And the result was that they took less photos, and spent less time when taking photos.
    The same day, when getting home, I read a friend's post about how she found that tracking her reading through using an online app made it more likely for her to increase her reading (though she also found she hadn't read as much as she wanted).
      I found these two similar stories interesting as it really does show the increasing use of and combination (assimilation?) of stuff into the one place/implement. My friend is younger than I am and very much a telecommunication implement user, whereas I use my phone pretty much mainly as a phone, despite now having a smart one. Although I will admit that I have seen plety of people my age and older, using their phones in a likewise manner to her. She does however take public transport for work travel, whereas I, now driving to and from work, am reading less. I'll also admit that I read far less at home than I used to when I was younger, having become addicted to the computer and social media.

So onto the list, re-reads with asterisks:

1. The Fall of Gondolin - JRR Tolkien (?/12/18 -19/1/19)
2. Instruction Pour Dancer: An Annonymous Manuscript - Editors Angene Feves, Ann Lizbeth     Langston, Uwe W Schottermüller and Eugene Roucher (22-27/1)
3. Vespasian Tribune of Rome - Robert Fabbri (17-28/2)
4. Rebels and Traitors* - Lindsey Davis (25/3 - 23/7)
5. Pandora's Boy - Lindsey Davis (?/5 - 16/6)
6. Hogfather* - Terry Pratchett (25-26/12)
7. A Capitol Murder - Lindsey Davis (28/12 - 4/1/20)

                
Whilst not as many as in previous years, and not as many as I had hoped, more than I thought I had read (definitely helped by the unexpected reading of the TP book) and way more than last year (2018 that is). Book four took so long as I was reading it only at work during lunch breaks once I realised I had already read it.

Writing this prompts me to advertise Deadly Science - a very cool organisation which is sending science books and early reading material to remote schools in Australia, and whose organiser has been nominated for Young Australian of the Year, along with winning the state level. Will keep fingers crossed for him.

Will be interesting to see what 2020 is like reading wise. Not only did the idea of reading Tolkien's other works come into my head (for obvious reasons given the first book), but also through watching the TV renditions of works, was struck by the idea to read the original Poldark books, along with Vanity Fair and one other series, though I'm not sure if I'm imagining this other one or not. Looking back on previous read book posts to check formatting, I see that I had also wanted to read the James Bond novels and Moby Dick a year or so ago. Rather ironically, I arrived back from work  slightly early for a Christmas party being held at my physio's and decided to walk down to the local library ro borrow a book, only to find that I had missed it by about 12 days, and it was now closed for at least six months due to renovations. On the poster saying where the closest things it provided were, it did give two close libraries in other councils, though I feel that this may be more for use of internet & computers than for book borrowing, as it didn't give any specifics on that, in comparision to the local pool, which when it closed for rebuilding, gave you the option to use your paid for entrances at another pool run by the council, though in a different suburb or to keep it for the pool re-opened. So will be interesting to see if my council has reached agreement with the other two to give us free access, or whether we'll need to pay for membership.

Read well and lots.

Books Read 2018

So here it is, pretty much the only post I do, my books read. So, so few this year.

1. Jonathan Unleashed - Meg Rosoff
    12-20/6

2. The Fall of Gondolin - JRR Tolkien
     15/12 - 19/1/2019


    Wow, actually. I could have sworn I'd read more than one (as still reading the other) book this year, but that's all I had written down.
     Looks like I've been rather slack this year. Especially as I've been given a couple of books that I still haven't read, and book no. 1 I actually bought last Christmas. I will admit that this is partly due to the fact that I no longer catch a train to/from work, but now drive myself, so don't have the opportunity. However I will admit that the rest of it is due to the fact that I get stuck in FBland. So much for my hope/decision from last year to pay more visits to the library this year.
       Better luck for 2019?

Books read 2017

The list this year is pretty small, and the first time I've ever had more than one unfinished/given up on novel. Most of this was read on the train to and from work. Re-reads with asterisks

 1.  Uprooted (1-5/1)
      Naomi Novik
 2. The Graveyard of the Hesperides (5-10/1)
     Lindsay Davis
 3. Bhagavad Gita, As it is (9/? - unfinished)
     His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 
I gave up on this one, because a lot of the introduction kept getting interrupted with bits from the author, and I kept nodding off on the train ride.
 4. Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion... so far (?/5 - unfinished)*
     Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs 
I never finished this one as I left it behind on the railway station late at night after finishing work, and it wasn't handed in.
 5. Good Omens(17/8 - 5/9)*
     Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman 
I read this one on the announcement of the actors that would be playing the main characters, one of whom I was quite familiar with as an actor, to see how I pictured them through reading and if I could picture the actors as the characters. I could kind of agree with the one chosen to play one character, but based on simply the picture in the costume they'd decided to whack him into, couldn't agree with that.
 6. The Jane Austen Book Club (17/8 - unfinished)
     Karen Joy Fowler 
Didn't finish this one as this was lying around in the tea room at work,for a while, and then it vanished.
 7. Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo (16-25/10)
     Julia Stuart 
 8. Some buried Caesar & The Golden Spiders (26/10)
     Rex Stout
A double Nero Wolf story book, not burying the spiders with Caesar
 9. Love & Friendship: In which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon is entirely Vindicated, concerning the beautiful Lady Susan Vernon, her cunning daughter and the strange antagonism of the De Courcey family (27-28/10)
     Whit Stillman
10. Artemis (29/10 - 7/11)
      Julian Stockwin
11.  The Pigeon Pie Mystery (8-15/11)
       Julia Stuart
12. Vindolanda (16-27/11)
      Adrian Goldsworthy 
13. Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium (25-31/12)
      Paul Kidby

Having now written them all up, with numbers, not as small as I thought it was at the start, though still smaller than I've had in previous years. I hope I read some more during 2018. I think I'll have to try and pay the local library a few more visits.

Citizen Science on frogs

If you're an Australian resident, the Australian museum has created an app to help with conducting a survey on frogs. You  can just send off the recording of the ribbit straight to the museum, or you can make your own ID guess, through listening to the possible ones in your area and water location type and then send it on. The museum will keep you in the loop with regards to what you send in to them. Very cool.

https://australianmuseum.net.au/frogid-project

Books read throughout 2016

Once again my list of books read for the year. I was able to use some of my time travelling to work this year. As always, the titles with asterisks are re-reads. No plays this year however. In this case the number of them is due to my re-read in order of all of Terry Pratchett’s novels as my respect and remembrance of him on his death the year before.

 1.   The Happy Return – C.S Forester  (3 - 10/1)
 2.   Feet of Clay* - Terry Pratchett  (4 - 7/1)
 3.   Hogfather* - Terry Pratchett  (7 – 11/1)
 4.   Jingo* - Terry Pratchett  (12 – 18/1)
 5.   A Ship of the Line - C.S Forester  (18/1 – 4/2)
 6.   The Last Continent* - Terry Pratchett  (18 – 23/1)
 7.   The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett  (25-29/1)
 8.   Flying Colours - C.S Forester  (5 - 9/2)
 9.   The Commodore - C.S Forester  (10 – 17/2)
10.  Lord Hornblower - C.S Forester  (19 – 25/2)
11.  Hornblower in The West Indies* - C.S Forester  (26/2 – 3/3)
12.  Thief of Time* - Terry Pratchett (4 – 8/3)
13.  Carpe Jugulum* - Terry Pratchett (10 – 11/3)
14.  The Truth* - Terry Pratchett  (12 -17/3)
15.  Monstrous Regiment* - Terry Pratchett  (18 – 29/3)
16.  Going Postal* - Terry Pratchett (30/3 – 6/4)
17.  Good Omens* - Terry Pratchett  (7 – 13/4)
18.  Nation* - Terry Pratchett (19 – 27/4)
19.  Rebels and Traitors - Lindsey Davis  (29/4 – 27/5)
20.  A Blink of the Screen - Terry Pratchett (30/5 – 14/6)
21.  Dragons of Crumbling Castle and other tales - Terry Pratchett  (21 – 24/6)
22. Super Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner (2-11/12)
22.  Deadly Election - Lindsey Davis  (29 – 31/12)

So not a bad list. Most of it still due to my memorial to Sir Terry Pratchett from last year and I have now finished all his books. Whilst I know I stopped reading as often in the later half of the year, I know I read at least one more book towards the later end of the second half, but couldn't find it written anywhere. Maybe after I tidy up somewhat.
I still didn't get aroud to reading Jane Austen or The Hobbit or any of the original James Bond stories. I was watching one of those TV documentaries looking at things that started things and was struck by the thought that it would be interesting to have a read of Moby Dick, which I haven't before (or if I have, I've totally forgotten).

Ahh the irony

I had to laugh this morning.

There's this guy that has been getting off the train at the stop I get on for the last month or two, that I will admit I find kind of good looking. Now I'm always in precisely the same spot, he started off being up or down one carriage, though more recently has been in the same carriage. So when the train pulls up I'm waiting looking in, and he's standing at the door, at which point he looks away. He could be one of those people that that doesn't like to look people in the face, or it could be that it's because of how I'm dressed - baggy, casual clothing (as I work in a warehouse), in comparision to his suit pants and buisness shirt (which at my station at 6:30am is its own little connundrum).

Well today I was trying to catch an earlier train at a different station as my schedule is changing, but missed it, so got my driver to drop me back at my usual station for one last glimpse. So when the train pulls in, the door goes past, he's not at it, I grab my stuff and head for the next door, and there he is, so I let go an involuntary smile. His reaction, on the other hand, was more like, oh no not that annoying girl again. Well you can relax now dude, your senses won't be offended again, as you won't be seeing me any more. I wonder if he'll even notice.

Books read 2015

In 2014, I thought I'd like to re-read some books, Pride and Predjudice (Jane Austen) and The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien) were the only two that I could remember when I wrote up this post for the year's list and I utterly failed in that. This year there was much hype around James Bond, with a couple of documentaries and I thought it would be interesting to read the original novels. So on the note of plans for 2016, here are the results for 2015, with, as usual, re-reads marked with asterisks.

 1. Enemies at Home - Lindsay Davis (1-12/1)
 2. Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett (30/1 - 2/2)
 3. Hornblower and the Hotspur - CS Forester (3-6/2)
 4. The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (16-21/2)
 5. Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Govenor, Spy - Michael Pembroke (1/3 -11/6)
 6. Pyramids* -  Terry Pratchett (16-23/3)
 7. Truckers* - Terry Pratchett (28/3 - 2/4)
 8. Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light - Derek Landy (23/4 - not finished)
 9. Hornblower and the Crisis - CS Forester (18/6 -8/7)
10. The Colour of Magic* - Terry Pratchett (9-17/7)
11. The Light Fantastic* - Terry Pratchett (19-22/7)
12. Equal Rites* - Terry Pratchett (23-28/7)
13. Truckers* - Terry Pratchett (29/7 - 3/8) Re-read due to the gap since March, so story would be fresh for Diggers 
14. Diggers* - Terry Pratchett (3-5/8)
15. Wings* - Terry Pratchett (6-8/8)
16. Mort* - Terry Pratchett (10-16/8)
17. Sourcery* - Terry Pratchett (2-4/9)
18. Wyrd Sisters* - Terry Pratchett (14-16/9)
19. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett (18-22/9)
20. Pyramids* - Terry Pratchett (23/9 - 2/10) No clue of why the re-read, blame it on my poor memory and inattention to the list on the opposite page
21. Moving Pictures* - Terry Pratchett (2-26/10)
22. Faust Eric* - Terry Pratchett (27-30/10)
23. Reaper Man* - Terry Pratchett (31/10 - 9/11)
24. Witches Abroad* - Terry Pratchett (10-23/11)
25. Small Gods* - Terry Pratchett (25/11 - 9/12)
26. Lords and Ladies* - Terry Pratchett (9-14/12)
27. Men at Arms* - Terry Pratchett (14-17/12)
28. Soul Music* - Terry Pratchett (18-23/12)
29. Strata* - Terry Pratchett (24-26/12)
30. Interesting Times* - Terry Pratchett (27-28/12)
31. Maskerade* - Terry Pratchett (28/12 - 1/1/16)
32. Only you can save the World* - Terry Pratchett (29/12)
33. Johnny and the Dead* - Terry Pratchett (30-31/12)
34. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents* - Terry Pratchett (31/12 - 1/1/16)

It's one of the biggest lists I had for years, and as you can see, it's very heavily dominated by one author this year - the inestimable Sir Terry Pratchett. On the announcement of his untimely death in March this year, I decided that I would do my own personal memorial to him, by re-reading all of his books. I only got half way through my collection though, so 2016's list might be flavoured somewhat with Pratchett as well.

Vale Terry - you've filled and brightened my world with your imagination and insight for a long time and I will treasure my (your) books as much as any pearl of the orient.

Jeanne Baret

The Australian National Maritime Museum recently published on their blog an interesting story about Jeanne Baret - the first woman to have circumnavigated the earth.

https://anmm.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/she-will-be-the-first-woman-that-has-ever-made-it/?utm_source=General+Public+eNewsletter&utm_campaign=8331b68c73-General_News_December_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7df72491fc-8331b68c73-145429493&mc_cid=8331b68c73&mc_eid=694125080f

I disagree with the comment at the end, from one of the people who named a new species of plant in her honour in 2012, though. The comment that she was "an unwitting explorer", seems to be ignoring her entire story.
Her partner/employer, Philibert Commerson, could have left her safely at home, but instead values her so much that he brings her with him and into an environment that requires the hardest of work from Jeanne to disguise her true self.

This woman was no unwitting traveller, dragged along by accident, but a willing participant in what was from the start a multi-year prospect. You just have to look at how she preserved the work done by Commerson and herself for years after his death and brought it back with her and her new husband to France; to see that she valued the work done and wasn't just the sidekick. This may not have been the intention of Tepe and may also have been taken out of context, but it's stuff like this we have to be careful of to make sure that deserving people aren't relegated to the shadows of historic endeveour.

The sound of tears gently falling

My heart is breaking yet again. One more person I've developed feelings for has looked past me for someone else. It's partly my own fault though - I didn't act on it because of a role he held had him interacting with someone of whom I'm unsure of their view towards me and I didn't want this to affect their working relationship.
From reading the comments it seems that other people were aware of the direction he was turning. Even though some of these are my close friends, so it's not like I'm in different circles to him, but I guess another part of the problem is that I'm not in those circles that often.

And considering that I've been of the notion that he doesn't actually like me, he just puts up with me because I'm friends with his friends, I shouldn't be that surprised or upset. But after having had these thoughts, the last time I saw him, he greeted me with such a tone in his voice that sounded like he was happy to see me, and when my back was turned, so he could have just kept on walking past me, which sent my poor head spinning round again. But I was struck by the thought today when deciding whether to screw my courage to the sticking plate next weekend (before I saw the news, ironically old) that he's just like me and is nice to everyone, and is not being in any way specifically nice to me.

So here I am, a broken, dusty old book, lying forgotten and unwanted on the shelf, my pages foxed with my tears.

Books Read 2014

So here again my list of books read for the year. 2014 saw a few occasions where I thought "I must read that book again", so it will be interesting to see if I get around to reading them this year. As usual re-reads marked with asterisks.

  1. Snuff - Terry Pratchett (1-5/1)
  2. Death in Kenya - M.M Kaye (13-17/1)*
  3. Catgrafika - Mike Margolis (19/1)*
  4. Death in Zanzibar - M.M Kaye (31/1 - 1/2)
  5. Death in Cyprus - M.M Kaye (3-13/2)
  6. Death in Kashmir - M.M Kaye (18/2 - 1/3)
  7. Ruddy Gore - Kerry Greenwood (27/3 - 3/4)
  8. Urn Burial - Kerry Greenwood (11/4 - 20/5)
  9. Raisins and Almonds - Kerry Greenwood (21/5 - 13/6)
10. Death before Wicket - Kerry Greenwood (27-29/6)
11. Away with the Fairies - Kerry Greenwood (4-11/7)
12. Cocain Blues - Kerry Greenwood (25/7)
13. The Lady Chapel - Candace Robb (11-13/8)
14. Skulduggery Pleasant: Armageddon Outta Here - Derek Landy (15-17/8)
15. Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones (25-26/8)
16. The first Rex Stout omnibus - Rex Stout (27/8 - 26/9)
17. Inspector Singh Investigates: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul - Shamini Flint (10-11/10)
18. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton (28/10 - 3/11)
19. The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (27/12 - 3/1/15)

Books I felt I should read again:

Pride and Predjudice (Jane Austen)
The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien) - strictly speaking that came up in 2015 when I saw the final movie in the trilogy and couldn't remember where it had left off or most of the stuff (battle) that was in the film. But as it was within a week of new year's I'll put in in.

There were a couple more, but I can't recall them right now. 

Space Oddity

           I recently was given occasion to think of myself superimposed on the song Ordinary Man (by Christy Moore), but as solitary rather than ordinary - solitary man, nothing special, nothing grand.
           I think it was brought on by a friend asking me at an occasion, whether another mutual friend was with me. When she first asked, I actually first thought of another mutual friend with the same name, so wasn't sure why she was asking, but when I realsised who she was talking about, replied no (this is all split second stuff btw). At this my friend pulled an astonished face, as if this were some extraordinary thing, like we were joined at the hip and never went anywhere without each other, whereas whilst we are good friends, we don't spend that much time with each other.
          I've always been independant - I'd go to the office at school by myself for example, but had friends, and was sure that I would one day marry and have children. But with the past year I've had (and I think the couple of years before that) it's made me slightly depressed and wonder whether I have ever made a mark on anyone, or whether it's me that people can't mark.
          When I moved for work a couple of years ago, I decided to share as I had missed the company of my family the last time I had moved. Due to the layout of the house though, my housemate and I don't spend much time in proximity to each other, which was alright because at the time I had work and the ability to go over to my friends and to the activity I enjoyed. About a year ago though, I lost both, and whilst I could get lifts to certain things, I stopped seeing my close friend. Admitedly I never invited her over to my place that often, though on the odd occasion I did, she had work the next day and was too tired so wouldn't come. And she and another friend who used to come over to my place regularly stopped for good reasons, but then never came back when that reason was over.
          I've stayed where I am, rather than moving immediately back in with my family (in a different city), partly due to a few medical appointments and partly due to my feeling a failure if I do: not only do I not have a partner (and have only ever managed to have one) but also no job. In thinking about reasons to move back, have been that more of my long term close friends are in my home city, and yet just recently, two of those same friends forgot that it was my birthday and when another friend remembered and wished me happy birthday publically, after the general round of well wishes from those nearby, they didn't come up and wish me a happy birthday personally. Admittedly they did have their two young kids with them and may have been distracted somewhat, but it still hurt.
            Oh and remember that whole one partner thing? Well recently a friend kissed me, and when I contacted him a few days later, wanting to talk about it, as he hadn't called or sent a message, and was in the same city, he wanted to but wasn't able. Three months later, with still no message, I decide to push the issue and see if he wanted to catch up. He did, but after dinner and back at his place, no indication that he had any other interest other than friendship. So when I head off he asks if he can walk me back to my car. Remember what I said about the office at school? Well normally I would have said no, but thought that this time I should say yes to see what happens. So off we go - and when we get there I thank him for a good night, he opens his arms for a hug, we do so and then I stand on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, step back as I think I stepped on his foot, go back in, and I think he was aiming for the mouth, as he got just on the edge of my lips, but didn't kiss me again where he had meant (as had happened many years ago with the first man). And a week later and no contact.
           Now I know we're no longer in a time where it's the man that has to do the chasing for all to be seemly, but he made the first move, and I made it obvious I was interested and yet nothing more. Do I just ignore it and keep to my solitary self (a la the David Bowie title) and miss out on the chance of something good?

 From all of the above, I think it's fairly obvious that I'm not that cut off, though a friend did ask me to visit her on my way back home last as I was up for a wedding and I made my excuses, so there must be a part of me frozen in there somewhere and as the Proclaimers say, for every bit of love a part of you dies. I just don't know what to do, and had to get this down to express it somehow other than have it swim around in my head with images of me dieing in a car crash un-mourned apart from my family. Not that anyone reads this blog and will make a comment or suggestion on my torment.
           

Books Read 2013

It's rather late this year, but the end of 2013 and the start of 2014 has been a bit of a swirl, however here's the list of books I read in 2013, with plays in italics and re-reads with an asterisk:

 1. Platypus - Ann Mayal (24/12/12 - 12/1/13)
 2. Rousseau's Dog - David Edmonds and John Eidnous (25/1-21/3)
 3. Don Parties On - David Williamson (6/4)
 4. Secrets of a lazy French cook - Marie-Morgane le Möel (10-12/4)
 5. Single Spies: A double bill - Alan Bennet (25/5)

 6. Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik (?/6-1/7) *

 7. The Matilda Women - Sue Rider (22/5)

 8. Explain Pain - David Butler and Lorimer Moseley (16/7 - 19/8)

 9. Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare (29/7 - 1/8)

10. The Fox on the Fairway - Ken Ludwig (6-11/8)
11. The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick (15/9)

12. The Maleficient Seven - Derek Landy (28/9)
13. Murder and Mendellsohn - Kerry Greenwood (8-10/10)
14. Gut Bliss: A 10 day plan to ban bloat, flush toxins and dump your digestive baggage
          - Robynne Chutkan M.D (1/11 - 23/12)

15. Imagine that... The history of technology rewritten - Micheal Sells (19-20/11)

16. The memory book - Everyday habits for a healthy memory - Judith Wiles and Janet Wiles (5-9/12)

17. The Crucible of Gold - Naomi Novik (25-26/12)

18. Dodger - Terry Pratchett (27-28/12)

19. The Ides of April - Lindsey Davis (29/12/13 - 1/1/14)

        So that's it - a total of 19. There may be one or two more that I've forgotten to note down (as I've edited this twice), but it's not a bad total.
         I was commenting to a friend recently that I don't read as many book as I did as a school kid, although I read more than I did last year which is good (even if that was due to having a few plays in there for 2013), taking me back up to the total of the years before; at the same time I think it was due more to having a bit more time on my hands due to health/work issues rather than a desire to read tearing me away from my computer.

Reading completed 2012

So here's my (rather late) list of books read over 2012. As with 2010 and 2011, the numbers in brackets is when I read them, day and month. Italics are plays (none this year) and they're all new reads for me, except for those marked with an asterisk which are re-reads.

 1. The Castlemaine Murders - Kerry Greenwood (16-27/2)
 2. The Careful use of Compliments - Alexander McCall Smith (28/2-14/3)
 3. Soulless - Gail Carriger (19-22/3)
 4. 10 Short stories you should read in 2011 (7/3)
 5. The Secret of Laughter - Shusha Guppy ( ? - 24/5)
 6. Platypus: The Extraordinary story of how a curious creature baffled the world - Ann Moyal (24/5-12/1/13)
 7. The Armoured Rose - Tobi Beck (4-5/7)
 8. Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik (9/7)
 9. The Battle of the Galah trees - Christobel Mattingley (15-16/8)
10. The Pyrates - George MacDonald Fraser (28/8 - 2/9)
11. Axe for an abbott - Elizabeth Eyre (? - 26/11)
12. Tongues of Serpents - Naomi Novik (25-26/12)

As you can see I didn't read that many books this time round, though I have the feeling that there may be one or two that I've forgotten to write down.

Transit of Venus

Today sees the second of the pair of transits by Venus across the face of the sun for this century. The next lot will be in 115 years time. I was hoping to nick off to the Mt Stromlo Observatory during lunch, but that got sent down the drain, when I found out the manager was heading off for the rest of the day to do other stuff leaving me on my lonesome. Oh well, I'll just have to try and rig up something myself.

I was hoping that Mt Stromlo would let people take photos of it with their own camera using one of the Observatory's telescopes as I was able to do several years ago at Sydney Observatory when there was a solar eclipse (got some great photos of solar flares), but disappointingly it wasn't something they were offering.

Here's a couple of sites that let you see it or helps you to rig your own set up:

http://venustransit.nasa.gov/2012/transit/webcast.php

http://venustransit.nasa.gov/webcasts/australia/

http://nightskyonline.info/?p=3688


Well I got a nice snap of the sun disk through a rig such as that on the nightsky online page, but unfortunately, as the only binoculars I had access to here at the VIC were a pair of kids ones, with 1.5x magnification, I had no hope of the disc of Venus showing up.

Siiiiiiiiigh. A distinct Mad Scientist fail! I guess all I can do now is hope that they invent long life pills in the next few years or so.

Let me know if you had better luck than I did.

A trip to the the-aytre

I've just come back from seeing the brilliant Miriam Margolyes in Dickens' Women. She's a brilliant actress, and I think a lot of the humor comes from her facial expressions and body movements.
It made me wonder though about societal norms - as one of the characters she was doing before the intermission from Little Dorrit (I think) who was written as a revenge on an old love of Dickens' for the temerity of having grown old, she was thrusting and bumping her considerable bosom around which garned lots of laughs (from me as well), but I was struck by the thought would a thin actress have got the same laughs? Margaret and Barbara, the two elderly ladies I was sitting next to, didn't think they would have, but thought that it was alright because MM accepted what she was and used it to her advantage.

And talking of expectations - I totally failed in my hero worship after the show, when Miriam was giving her signature. The lady before me was talking to her about when she had seen her in other performances, and the lady behind me was engaging her with erudite talk about Dickens' work and characterisations, whereas all I managed to tell her was how much I enjoyed it and how good I thought it was. She very politely said that she glad I thought so and thanked me for coming (and was also kind enough to sign both the CD of the book and my program); but as I walked away I felt a little bit of a failure that I hadn't managed more. I guess it's because I like to think of myself as an intelligent person who can partake in decent conversation.

Whilst the show wasn't quite what I was expecting, I think due in part to the fact that I heard several interviews with her where she had gone into slightly more depth about Dickens and how the women in his life had affected him, and to the old book to performance conversion conundrum, it was still a brilliant night out and I reccommend it to anyone who happens to read this.
In regards to the BTPCC, I think the live performance in some ways is better than the written/spoken word. I bought the CD of the book for my mum, who wasn't able to make the performance, and I thought that the CD would be the poorer for the fact that you couldn't see Miriam's face pulling the expressions and grimaces of the chosen extracts. Thinking about this as I type, I guess the CD will have Dickens' written descriptions which she based her performance on in the first place, but that will be the listener's interpretation and not Miriam's, which I think is the listener's loss and the viewer's gain. It will be interesting to see what I think once I listen to the CD.

So if you get the chance, go and see it - 2012 tours dates can be found at the Dickens' Women website. I think you'll be glad that unlike Dickens, Miriam has made it (twice!) to Australia & New Zealand.

Something sciencey for the young ones

Found out about this through the NSW Association for Gifted and Talented Children - the Google Science Fair.

To quote the home page:

The Google Science Fair is an online science competition seeking curious minds from the four corners of the globe. Anybody and everybody between 13 and 18 can enter. All you need is an idea.

Geniuses are not always A-grade students. We welcome all mavericks, square-pegs and everybody who likes to ask questions. Simply upload your project here to win some life changing prizes.

Everyone has a question. What’s yours?

Books throughout 2011

Building on tradition, here is 2011's list of books read. The numbers in brackets is when I read them, day and month. Italics are plays and they're all new reads for me, except for those marked with an asterisk which are re-reads.

1. Nemesis - Lindsay Davis (2-3/1)
   
2. Tirra Lirra by the River - Jessica Anderson (4-7/1)
   
3. Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil - Derek Landy (13-14/1)
   
4. The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook - Nury Vittachi (?-20/5)
   
5. Mr Wong goes West - Nury Vittachi (20-24/5)
   
6. Black Powder War - Naomi Novik (24/5 - 18/6)
   
7. The Flying Cloud Season 1 - Paul Gaziz (16/6)
   
8. The Mystery of the Missing Masterpiece - Robin Bowles (20-22/6)
9. Catalyst - Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Anne Scarborough (23/6)
10. Catacombs - Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Anne Scarborough (24-26/6)
11. The Marvellous Boy - Louis Nowra (July)
12. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun - J.R.R. Tolkien
    
13. Inns of Courts - Timothy Daniell (?-26/9)
14. Lettice and Lovage - Peter Shaffer (4/10)
15. Agatha H and the airship city - Phil and Kaja Foglio (Nov)
    
16. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell (24/11-22/12)
    
17. The Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik (26-27/12)
    
18. Mr Midshipman Hornblower - C.S Forester (27-29/12)
    
19. Lieutenant Hornblower - C.S Forester (31/12)
    

Hidden Details

I found this picture tonight when I was doing a search for celticly styled pelican images:

copy right Royal Observatory Greenwich

it's from a blog from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and is the jumper from John Harrison's first timekeeper. Which means that it wouldn't be seen once the clock is assembled.

Wow! Is all I can say. It's such a beautiful detail.

Yet another opportunity to participate

And here's another opportunity for you to participate, though this one is limited to those who live in the ACT.

Due to rising rates in the ACT of chlamydia infection, the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the Australian National University is running a trial program where women between the ages of 16 and 30 can get paid ten dollars for having a test at a participating pharmacy.

Quoting Associate Professor Rhian Parker from the SMH's article, chlamydia is "usually easy to resolve with antibiotics but because it has no symptoms it can go unnoticed, and so untreated, for years. The longer-term effect can be devastating, with two-thirds tubal infertility and a third of all cases of ectopic pregnancy attributed to the infection."

So if you're in the ACT, go to one of these pharmacies: Devlin's Garema Place, City Markets, Priceline and Pyes - in central Canberra and in suburban pharmacies in Hughes and Charnwood; take a test and look after yourself, as well as potentially helping other young women across Australia if this trial is deemed a success.

Another experiment!

Yet another opportunity for people to help in an experiment - boy this is a good January!

And not only do you get to have fun doing Science, you get to help people as well.

This one is looking at ocean rip currents and is being conducted by the folks at UNSW, with the Surf Life Savers. So if you've ever been caught in a rip off an ocean beach, fill in the survey - http://www.surveys.unsw.edu.au/survey/155251/142e/ and here's the Surf Life Saver's page with all the info: http://www.sls.com.au/content/surf-life-saving-and-unsw-rip-current-survivor-survey

A new experiment!

A new experiment for the new year!

Another chance for lots of people to participate in an experiment - if you live in Australia, the ABC is running Feral month.

They're asking people to report feral animal sightings in January - any feral species, any place in Australia. It can be foxes in the cities or camels in the outback. If you see it, report it.

How do I do that?

You can do it via SMS, Twitter, email (feralmonth@your.abc.net.au), or online form (http://feralmonth.crowdmap.com/reports/submit). For details check out the ABC's page - http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/01/04/3093947.htm

And while you're doing that, check out the Feral Map - http://feralmonth.crowdmap.com/

Go to my minions and spot those animals.

Have fun.

What books I've read this year

So inspired by a friend who regularly compiles a list of what she reads each year, and as I've posted lists of books to read, I decided to do the same. The numbers in brackets is when I read them, day and month. Italics are plays and they're all new reads for me, except for those marked with an asterisk which are re-reads.

1. Alexandria - Lindsay Davis (3/1)
2. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett (4/1)
3. The Commodore - C.S Forester (Jan-Oct)
4. See how they run - Phillip King (1/2)
5. Cold Fusion - (Feb)
6. Face to Face - David Williamson (26/3)
7. A Conversation - David Williamson (5/4)
8. Charitable Intent - David Williamson (5/4)
9. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The murder at Road Hill House - Kate Summerscale (May/June)
10. Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy (1/9)
11. Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with fire - Derek Landy (6/9)
12. Islamic Patterns: An analytical & cosmological approach - Keith Critchlow (12-27/9)
    
13. In a unicorn's garden: Recreating the mystery and magic of medieval gardens - Judyth A. McLeod (Oct)
14. Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones - Derek Landy (2/11)
15. Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark days - Derek Landy (3/11)
16. The Unexpected Guest - Agatha Christie (4/11)
17. Thief of time - Terry Pratchett (18-20/11) *
18. Throne of Jade - Naomi Novik (27-28/12)
    
19. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S Lewis (31/12) *
    

Some thoughts on ancient gold hoards

This is an interesting point of view on Anglo-Saxon gold hoards:

http://600transformer.blogspot.com/2010/05/when-i-was-writing-this-paper-i-was.html

and this is what he's talking about:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghammag/sets/72157622327837525/

The thought processes

This is quite fantastic - an art historian has made a huuge shawl from spider silk. Check it out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216433/British-art-historian-creates-worlds-largest-cloth-woven-entirely-spider-silk.html

Words from the Astronomer Royal

It is better to read first rate science fiction than second rate science
- Lord Martin Rees

And the honours go to...

I'm awarding honourary Mad Scientist status to Adrian Reeman from Southhampton in the UK, who has spent the last twenty years decorating his 1960's council flat in the style of the Palace of Versailles. He's never been there, but has done it all from bits he's picked up here and there.

Here's the BBC news story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/8313921.stm

Congratulations Adrian, that's a brilliant piece of work, even if it is a monster that you wish you had never started - that's what Maaaaad Science is all about.

It looks the same the world over

Apparently the reason why there is so much misunderstanding between people of different races/cultures is that the facial expressions are different (along the lines of don't smile at monkeys because to them the baring of teeth is an agressive signal). But you know, there are some expressions that look the same no matter where you come from and what you look like.

Whilst I was sitting in an asian restaurant last night waiting for my take away order, I was watching an asian family - a bowl of pho (Vietnamese noodle & stuff soup) was put in front of the young girl (about 16 or so) and she was telling her how to eat it, and then another bowl of pho was put down behind the first one, and they looked at it in puzzlement, and called the restaurant people and the first bowl was taken away. The looks that were on the woman and girl's faces were priceless (having been in a similar situation myself at times) and I realised that there are some expressions that look the same the world over.
WTF is definitely one of them.

Some more belated greetings

This time to HG Wells - most famous for his story the War of the Worlds about invading Martians, which when first broadcast on American radio, actually had people believing that what they were hearing was really happening.

Happy Birthday HG wherever you are.

Hubble Rides again

I'm in love!! With the new images to have come from the Hubble Telescope after its repairs and additions in May. Here are a few images:

The Orion Nebula

The Crab Nebula

Nebula NGC 604

Ride 'em Cowboy!!!!

Books Aliiiive!!!!!

Books Alive is a government initiative to get people reading. Every year a list of 50 contemporary Australian and international
books is compiled, apparently hand-picked by booklovers across Australia, (though I don't know how you can recommend a book for the list) with many different tastes and preferences.

The Book of Rapture
The Slap
The Lieutenant
The Rip
Dead Man Running
The Scarecrow
Shantaram
Too Close to Home
206 Bones
Shatter
How to Break Your Own Heart
Dear Fatty
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Parky: My Autobiography
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Road
Through a Glass Darkly
Heart and Soul
The Young Widow’s Book of Home Improvement
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
The Night My Bum Dropped
To Love, Honour and Betray
The True Story of Butterfish
Occy
True Colours
A Most Wanted Man
A Fraction of the Whole
Australian Tragic
Pacific Fury
1788
My God! It’s a Woman
The People’s Train
The 19th Wife
Dog Boy
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Wanting
Dark Country
A Beautiful Place to Die
It’s All Too Much
The Host
Brisingr
Finnikin of the Rock
Eagle Day
Robot Riot!
Somebody’s Crying
Pearlie in the Park
The Graveyard Book
The Nixie’s Song
From Little Things Big Things Grow
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

So pick a book (it doesn't even have to be one of these) and get reading

Vale

Vale John McDonald - a sweet, loving man, who was happy to take his chances and withstand the consequences.

You will be missed.

The value of a life

There have been a couple of murder cases brought to judgement here recently where a man has killed an adult (in both cases his wife) and a child/ren. In both cases for the murder of the child the sentence was "life" and for the adult "at least 15yrs" for the first case and "thirty years" for the second.
And here's my question - what makes the murder of a child so much worse than the murder of your equal? Both love you and are no more or less valuable in their intrinsic worth. Theoretically however, your spouse should be loved more by you than any offspring, as it's your spouse that you've promised to spend the entire rest of your life with, so isn't that betrayal worthy of more reparation? You could argue that a child is more helpless than an adult and therefore that is the worse crime and deserving of the harsher punishment, but then how many people has the adult touched in their life, making more people bereft through their loss - isn't that a more far reaching crime?

Who knows? Justice is a difficult thing after all.

Birthday Greetings

Happy birthday to Mendelssohn who was born 200 years ago.

Eeehee

eeeee.
I saw fairy wrens at work a few days ago, again. I'm going to have to bring my camera to work and try to get a piccy or two before summer ends.

Gee the males are gorgeous birds.

Reproductions

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now - ever since I saw an episode of the American version of Kath and Kim.

Why is it that something that is a flop for one person can be a massive hit for another (and vice versa)? Just look at the song My Island home - it was recorded by three other people (including the writer) with limited success, before Christine Anu recorded it and had a massive hit.
As for Kath and Kim, the script seemed to be as word for word as i could tell, and yet it didn't quite have the same je ne sais quais as the home grown original. When I was talking about it to my workmates, they asked was it because it was Americanised? I don't think that was it per se, though there are a few minor differences: the accents for starters, though I wasn't sure if they were trying to do Australianesque accents or that was their base accents; Kel isn't a butcher, he owns a sandwich store and is called Phil; Kim and Brett (called Craig in the US version) are much younger and Sharon has been replaced entirely. But there is one major difference - and that's in the appearance of the actresses and I think that's were the big difference is. Both actresses are the typical American actress - skinny and relatively good looking. But most of the humour I think, comes from the fact that Kim thinks herself exceedingly attractive and fashionable, but isn't. And Kath worries about her age and how her body is changing with it, but Molly Shannon has a figure any 20 year old would be jealous of. Not to mention the disappearance of Sharon - Kim's overweight sport obsessed second best friend. She's been replaced with yet another good looking (though more voluptuous) woman. Whereas the men are more "normal" looking. And in the episode where Kel/Phil is getting secret dance lessons, the reacher isn't a little old lady, but a rather attractive woman that works in the same mall as him. They were just ordinary people, and we could laugh at them because they reminded us of ourselves in someways. But I think they've lost out on that in their casting choices of the women.

Time to step up

Forget honorary mad scientistship, here's the opportunity (for those in Australia at any rate) to be a real mad scientist.
Catalyst is currently (and until April 2009) running a ladybird survey - and they want your help. Take a photo of any ladybirds in your garden, or local park etc etc =, identify them using the helpful gallery of common ladybirds on the Catalyst website, or using the CSIRO ladybird site, upload them, and you might win a copy of the lady bird book that the CSIRO site is based on.

Of the over 500 species of ladybird in Australia, only 268 of these have been identified. So go to my pretties, take photos and take part in science.

Honorarium

I was thinking last night, that the boys of the Top Gear program - Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, really deserve honorary Maaaad Scientist status - they do some really wacko and way out things - which are incredibly amusing for those watching.
Last night in particular they painted up a small 4WD to look like a fox, towed a rag soaked in fox pee behind it and then set the hunt onto it. And who was driving the small 4WD? Why the rather tall Jeremy of course, who (at least twice that they showed) smashed his head into the ceiling of said 4WD when it went over some rather bumpy ground, and then getting himself stuck in a ditch, was caught by the hunt, losing the challenge.

Life Imitates Art

This aphorism comes to us from Wilde courtesy of Ovid and I think never more aptly demonstrated in the TV advertising for X-Men 2 this past week. Forget the fact that a lot of us have mobile phones which look like nothing so much as the original communicators from Star Trek, that we have machines taking the place of people - this beats it all.

To what am I referring? Well a couple of weeks ago Ginger Meggs and Benny went to the movies to see Australia and who should be there to ask them what they thought than Hugh Jackman, but of course, what should the boys exclaim but "Wolverine!". Well, I reckon someone in channel 7's advertising department must be a fan of Ginge, for the ads declared that X-Men 2 "starring Halle Berry, Ian McKellen and Wolverine". Boy did it make me laugh (though by the end of the week it was getting quite annoying).

Great but boring?

Hmmmm. I wonder whether there might be a correlation between the greatness of a book and its inherent boringness. Just spotted on another blog a list of the Top 100 books according to the Sydney Morning Herald, and couldn't help but notice that several of the books were also on the list of 106 most unread books (see earlier post). So I ran a correlation and 16.5% of the most unread books are considered to be good and vice versa - here are the results:

1984*
A Tale of Two Cities*#
American Gods
Emma*#
Jane Eyre#
Life of Pi: a novel
Love In The Time Of Cholera
Memoirs Of A Geisha
Middlesex
Persuasion*
Pride and Prejudice*#
The Catcher in the Rye*
The Kite Runner
The Mists of Avalon
The Time Traveller's Wife*
Wicked
Wuthering Heights#

I also just ran a brief addition to the correlation: *=made into a movie/s #=made into a TV series.

Does it have anything to do with the differing country of origin of the lists? Is it a coincidence? Or is every TV copper right and there are no coincidences? Only the Shadow knows (Mwahhahaha!!!!!!!)

Experiment IV

Sound is an interesting thing - it can provoke so many things depending on what mood or perhaps even what thoughts are in your mind at the time.
A few years ago, late one night I was watching a rendition of Tosca with Bryn Terfel as Scarpia, the villian of the piece. Well it was just sort of background noise until at the beginning of Act 2, when Bryn emerges onto the stage dressed all in white, singing of his intentions towards Tosca, and well, the sheer thrill that passed through my brain was completely unexpected and disappointingly not repeated upon repeat viewings - the next with a different cast, which I wasn't that surprised at not receiving the same aural thrill, then the same one with Bryn again, which I was quite disappointed at, having been waiting for the moment.
Well I had another moment tonight watching Good News Week - Ronan Keating was one of the guest stars and when it came to his turn to sing his team's song clue, after forgetting what song he was supposed to be singing, he came out with a very bluesy, jazzy torch version of Madonna's Like a Prayer (which I didn't recognise as such until he sang it again later in the show), but it was a real "Omigod mrrrowwrrr" moment - Paul McDermot (the host) described it as being like sexy honey, and that pretty much nails it. The thought that went through my head was "now I know what those girls have been going on about" (and yes it was just as good when he sang it again for longer).

The title of this post by the way is the title of a Kate Bush song - where a group of scientists are working for the military to come up with a weapon based on sound (which goes horribly awry).

Experiments!!!!

Yes finally some more experiments. I meant to update this blog ages ago with a couple of experiments, but never got around to it and one experiment was ruined by external forces. Not in my case the dreaded ethics committee, but something far worse, which has interfered with science experiments down through the ages.

Experiment Four - Fading Ink

In this case not trying to create tools for espionage or magic tricks, but seeing how lightfast a huge bottle of artists ink I bought actually was. Why?? Well because I bought it to do calligraphy on award scrolls for this group I'm in, and didn't notice until after I'd bought it that the label didn't actually say light fast. Water proof yes, lightfast no. So having dipped a disposable chopstick (yes a clean one) into it to see how thick it was and having made some scratchings on a piece of paper, I had a test subject ready to go. Fishing it out of my paper recycle "bin" the day after deciding on this experiment, I left it on the windowsill of my office in the full direct sunlight from 23 stories up with no other buildings in the way for most of the day.
It sat there for an indiscriminate amount of time, but no longer than a month, before I noticed it wasn't there anymore - the blinking cleaner had cleaned it away!! Arrrrrgghlllle!!! And it's winter now, so there is a distinct lack of strong sunlight. So that experiment has gone on hold for a while.

Experiment Five - Skin bleaching

Somehow, I don't know how - as I wear high necked clothes for most occasions, I developed a large brown blotch in my cleavage, right smack in the middle of the canyon. As I have very pale skin, it's kind of noticable and to my mind kind of disfiguring. So I figured I'd have a go at varoius kinds of traditional skin bleaching methods. Well two. Buttermilk (mentioned in Gone with the Wind as the only thing that Mammy was able to get rid of Scarlet's freckles from having gone without her parasol at Saratoga, with) and lemon juice. I was going to take photos and put them up here, but that was not to be.
Not having buttermilk, but there being a stray lemon in the fridge I started with the lemon jiuce and with just a couple of drops applied each night after my bath, the splodge was gone in three days. Yes that's right dear readers - three days. So don't go paying tons of money to get blemishes lazered off - just rub in some lemon juice.

Been away

Yes it's time for the sundry, no not sundry - repetitious, noo, common, well not really the word I wanted, but I'll go with that for now, excuses for why the blog hasn't been updated for a while. Not that anyone actually reads this blog anyway. Maybe I should put a counter on, that would be an experiment after all.
It seems that most of my friends whose blogs I was reading have stopped blogging/LJing as well. Perhaps it's the end of the fad. Mmm maybe not.

most unread books - apparently

Instructions: These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. Bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn't finish, and strike through what you couldn't stand. Add an asterisk to those you've read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina -Not sure, have definitely seen the TV version though
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose - possibly, seen the movie
Don Quixote
Moby-Dick
Ulysses
The Odyssey *
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre*
A Tale of Two Cities* - Love the movie with Dirk Bogarde
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations*
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
--Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West--
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian: a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch - loved the TV series with Rufus Sewell - hell I'll admit it - loved Rufus Sewell
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo - arrgh the pathos! This is probably the only book I prefer the movie version to.
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility - possibly, possibly
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbevilles
Oliver Twist* - both abridged & full versions
Gulliver's Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Dune - seen the movie
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes : A Memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States: 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere - seen the TV series this novelises
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter - my best friend at high school read this, does that count?
Eats, Shoots & Leaves - never finished as was at somone else's house when I started reading this
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake: a novel
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion - and seen the TV series
Northanger Abbey - and seen the TV series
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity's Rainbow
The Hobbit - loved the puppet show
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers - and all the sequels, but the last one was diasappointing, and not forgetting all the movie variations. Which reminds me: the black and white silent TV series - very very good

So how did I do? 25/106 Definitely read (23.6%). add in the unsures (3) and the one which was a TV series first, gives us 29/106 or 27.4%. So perhaps some more reading to do. Though there must also be a reason why people don't read these books. Perhaps because they're illiterate drudges, perhaps the books are boring.