Total number of books I’ve owned:

500+. I’ve been trying to get rid of them. They take up too much space, all my shelves are double stacked.

 The last book I bought: 

Here’s the thing. I’m not buying a lot of books anymore because I’m not reading a lot of books anymore. Two reasons. I no longer have a train commute, which was the only time of the day I could read. The second reason is the fact that since (and for some time before) I got diagnosed with diabetes, I tend to fall asleep the minute I start reading. Whether on public transport, or sat on the couch, my eyes close very quickly. I used to read in bed for hours, but I can’t do that anymore either.

The books I buy now are mainly photography related. Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography book (1 and 2), Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure, a some more I wouldn’t recommend. Others are written by friends and bloggers: Walter van den Berg‘s West and Merel Roze‘s Fantastico, and I’ve just ordered ‘Things I Learned About My Dad’, which was edited by Heather Dooce.

Other than that my main reading material these days, believe it or not, is comics. I’ve got a subscription for all issues (and all covers) of Dark Horse‘s Buffy Season 8 and IDW‘s Angel – After the Fall as well as the Firefly/Serenity comics. I’ve also been reading Marvel‘s Runaways TPB 1-7. I never thought I’d be reading comics, but some of the characters from the Jossverse have stuck with me and I want to know their story. (Unfortunately, my favourite characters aren’t the ones the focus is on.)

The last novels I bought are still sitting on my shelves, unread: Robert Little’s The Company, Pullman’s Northern Lights, H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights.

The last book I read:

Today I picked up Angel – After the Fall #7 and Buffy – Season 8 #14 and read them at A-Fusion, a Chinese bar/restaurant I go to a lot. It’s two doors up from the comic shop. I don’t remember which novel was the last one I read. It may have been  John Banville’s The Sea, or Marc Almond’s In Search of the Pleasure Palace. I know I never finished Adriaan van Dis’ De Wandelaar. The last book I really enjoyed reading was Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife.

Five books that mean something to me:

I enjoy books, but they don’t really ‘mean’ a lot to me other than ‘that was a bloody good read.’

John Banville – The Untouchable.
Ursula LeGuinn’s Earthsea series.
J.J. Voskuil – Het Bureau series.

Roger Zelazny – Amber series.
Can’t think of #5.

Tag five people and request they fill it out on their blogs:

The last time I tagged people nobody did anything with it, so I’m going to save myself the embarrassment.

To which DYFL answered: @cvodb You’re starting to sound like a proper comics nerd…

Yes, I’ve been buying comics, eventhough I only get a tiny bit of satisfaction from reading the continued stories of Buffy and Angel. I still find reading comics incredibly hard and they have to be easy and linear for me to be able to follow them. The Buffy ones I can just about manage, the Firefly/Serenity ones are easy, but for the Angel comics I need to read the synopsis on wikipedia or else I’d be lost.

But… last evening, when I opened up a package containing three TPB’s of Marvel’s Runaways (very easy to read!), I caught myself thinking: ‘I wish someone made this into a tv series.’

This Volkswagen commercial combines ‘Lost in Translation’-type images with Richard Burton’s evocative reading of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. Gorgeous. (via Vanderzande.com).

I’m not that keen on motorcars in general, but I do keep telling people that driving through cities at night and London in particular is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world.

See also www.night-driving.com.

Dirk Bogarde: The Authorised Biography. (I was foolish enough to get the hardcover. The paperback will be out soon.)

The prologue is an account of the actor’s death and an introduction to the woman who took care of him the last two years of his life, Sheila Maclean from County Donegal. Originally hired to nurse Bogarde for 6 weeks, Sheila says:

“… he was unique and had contributed a lot and he still had something to say and do. And that is when it became clear to me that I should stay longer than six weeks. I thought: ‘To hell with this, I’m not going to be able to walk away.’”

Bogarde eventually asks her to stay, in a convoluted way:

“You know, it is getting close to the six weeks. What is it that you want to do? Because it is really important to me.”

Sheila tells him she can stay on “a wee bit longer,” not wanting to over do it. And he says:

“You have no idea how much of a relief that is to me. Because in all honesty I think you and I have the measure of each other.”

Sheila tells John Coldstream, the biographer:

“And I understood exactly what he meant. Because I did think that was true — that we did have the measure of each other.”

I think I understand too.

Dirk Bogarde was the lead in four of my favourite films:

* Joseph Losey’sThe Servant

* Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter

* Luchino Visconti’s La Caduta degli dei
(‘The Damned’)
* and Death in Venice, also by Visconti

‘They don’t make ‘em like that anymore,’ is a trite thing to say, but honestly? I think two of those films would not be made in the current conservative climate. All four would be considered morbid.

Morbid suited Bogarde, who made a clean break from his early Rank matinee idol status, seeking roles that were as dark as his brooding looks.

What attracted me to him was the expressiveness of his eyes. He was subtle performer, intense, mysterious and dangerous as well as slightly fey. A gentleman with secrets. To me he was Britain’s finest actor.

We were chatting about him a couple of weeks ago but could I remember his name? NO! I named The Night Porter, The Servant and Death in Venice and still no-one could help me.

“I’m surrounded by idiots”
Gordon (link) – 28 January 2005 – 01:43

My uncle is always looking for new gestures. I ‘did’ one for him the last time I saw him at my dad’s birthday and he took a picture of this ‘gesture of disgust’. I haven’t seen it yet, but Pat Andrea drew the image from the photograph and apparently it is featured in the book.

Joseph O’Connor is Sinead’s brother. Let’s get that out of the way. I’d previously read two of his books. Cowboys and Indians, I think, and possibly The Secret World of the Irish Male, both of which I cannot recall a single word from. Now I’m fifty pages into his latest, Star of the Sea (USA) and I know it’s likely I’ll read this one again.

The book feels like a classic, made up of bits of ship log, recollections, poetry, letters to and from emigrants, newspaper columns and illustrated with etchings.

It’s the story of the passengers on a ship, the Star of the Sea, that sails from Ireland to New York in the winter of 1847. On board are refugees from the potato famine, an Anglo-irish Lord and his family, a budding novelist, a maharaja and a murderer. Even before the ship sets sail, one or two unfortunate passengers die of hunger, others succumb to disease on board, all carefully noted in the ship’s log by her captain.

While set in the past, you feel a more recent history inevitably foreshadowed in the thoughts and actions of the men and women aboard the ship.

The language is rich and Irish as are the characters, and O’Connor knows all their voices. I can’t wait to see what happens to these people.

Amazon reviews, check out #3. Heeee!
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The Da Vinci Code is one of the most annoying books movie pitches I have ever read. The (stupendously flat) characters bore each other, themselves and the poor unfortunate readers to death with their endless expositioning. It’s a sweet ‘n’ lo version of Foucault’s Pendulum.

Dan Brown’s writing reminds me of PG-13 fanfic and children’s literature. The hero of the story, a poor man’s Indiana Jones, is supposed to be a Harvard professor. He quotes from a copy of ‘My First Symbology’ with the depth of Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and runs around Paris with his very own Mary-Sue-type heroine encountering comic book villains left and right.

Whodunnit? By the end of the story I couldn’t care less. Dan, seriously, if you want to write fanfic, at least make it a hard R and let your heroes shag already.

That’ll teach me picking up a book with a cover that says “The Number One New York Times Bestseller”.

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