Day 06 – Your Favorite Book Of All Time

"Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!"

Jane Eyre is one of the few books I can keep coming back to and still enjoy, probably because it's the only book I've every actually identified with in any real way. I love plain ordinary mousy Jane and the way she faces up to her supposed physical, mental or moral betters. Everytime I read it, I'm reminded that I need to be more like Jane.

Or at the very least I must keep in good health and not die :p

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 6 - Track for Swaggering To



It's hard not to dance down the street when this comes on the iPod.

Day 05 – A Book You Hate

Once again there was no contest for this one, it has to be Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

This the single most boring and pointless book I've ever been forced to read. I no longer remember if it was on the GCSE or A-Level English Lit syllabus, but this book is the reason I chose not to study English to degree level and the reason I won't read anything that has won the Booker Prize unless at least 10 people can give me decent reviews.

Not only is it deeply depressing, the subplot is actually significantly better than the main story. I get that the butler has a pointless and lonely life but did we really have to read 250+ pages of it, when we could have been reading about the tragic, misguided landowner and his suspicious dealings with the Nazis? I hate books that put too much stress on their metaphors to the detriment of the plot and this had that in spades. There's one scene where the main character visits a lake and you're basically clubbed around the head with clumsy meaningful descriptions for ten pages. It's like the author wrote "look at me, I'm clever" on a shovel and hit you in the face with it. Actually that would have been infinity more enjoyable. The only good things about this book is that it ends. But not nearly soon enough.

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge - Day 5 - Track For Feeling Lovesick and Bad



As previously mentioned, I'm a huge Gary Numan fan. This has to be one of my favourite songs, certainly one of the most heartbreaking.

Day 04 – Your Favourite Book Series Ever

No contest for this question, there could only every be one answer- Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Currently checking in at 38 individual books (Snuff, book number 39, is due for release in October 2011) and 5 short stories, The Discworld series in really several different series all taking part in the same universe. With the Rincewind series we get traditional big bold sword and sorcery, whilst the Witches focuses more on superstition and a less showy form of magic. The City Watch are police procedurals with a twist and the Death/Susan series are about the ultimate outsiders trying to make sense of humanity. And that's not including all the stand alone and mini series books.

There aren't many of these books that I don't adore, and whilst some of the early ones are weaker compared to the recent books, they all still have endearing qualities. If I had to pick one thing that makes Discworld great as a series is the fact that you don't HAVE to read the books in order, and missing out the weaker books won't really prevent you from enjoying the others. I hate to waste time and money slogging though unenjoyable books to get to the good stuff, and these are perfect for avoiding that. For example the first Discworld I read was Soul Music, book 16 of the overall series, and book 3 of the Death storyline, and it didn't matter! Whilst the various characters grow and progress with the series, all the relevant bits are recapped in a way that is intrusive to a familiar reader but just informative enough to a newbie.

So if you like police books and murder mysteries then just start with the City Watch, if you prefer to focus on the human condition the go for the Death series. Or if you aren't sure then choose one of the stand alone books like Moving Pictures, Pyramids, Small Gods or Monstrous Regiment. Actually I'd probably list those four amongst my favorites anyway. My all time favorite in the series is probably Fifth Elephant a political mystery focusing on rivalry between vampires and werewolves. The German version is shown above.

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 4 - Track for Feeling Lovesick and Good



One of the few songs both my partner and I agree on, that wouldn'tfreak you all out. Ahem.

Day 03 – The Best Book You’ve Read In The Last 12 Months

Ok, for this one I've decided not to go with any of the books I've previously mentioned. Spring-Heeled Jack and Dreadnought would probably both qualify for this but I thought I'd pick something a little more obscure.

I previously knew Mark Gatiss as one of the stars of The League of Gentlemen, the BBC horrorcomedy series, as well as character actor from Doctor Who and a plethora of historical dramas. Somehow I never realised he was the writer behind some of the better Doctor Who episodes and books. The quality of his TV writing, and the depth of devotion he demonstrated in the excellent History of Horror documentary series, convinced me I had to read the Lucifer Box trilogy.

Covering the three great ages of detective fiction (Edwardian, Roaring '20s and Post-WWII) the series follows the charming, handsome, witty and overtly bisexual Lucifer Box, portrait artist and secret agent, from his glory days to the twilight of his career via three excitingly camp adventures. Gatiss' love for detective fiction is clear in every single page. Box is a James Bond for the modern age (but in the past), you won't find any that "homosexuals can't whistle" rubbish here, and Box doesn't spend all his time chasing women, rather he chases anything that moves, male or female. Much more entertaining that way!

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 3 - Track For A Roadtrip



There's something wonderfully sci-fi about driving past a power station at 3am on a deserted motorway with the Blade Runner soundtrack playing in the background.

Day 02 – A Book You Wish More People Were Reading

A year ago, if you'd told me that Gyles Brandreth, the slightly camp custodian of Dictionary Corner and wear of a thousand terrible jumpers, had a written a series of excellent historical murder mysteries starring Oscar Wilde, I'd have laughed at you. In fact that's exactly what happened, I did laugh... then I read the books and saw that it was true.

The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries do exactly what it says on the tin, but they do it very well. The tone and voice for Oscar and his companions are absolutely perfect, and Brandreth plays on the real life link between Oscar and Mycroft Holmes wonderfully. As a piece of speculative fiction the historical accuracy is excellent, and serves to make Oscar's ultimate fate all the more poignant. If I had one complaint its that I always end up reading this book in Brandreth's voice, and that just serves to make the descriptions of brothels etc that little bit more uncomfortable. I'd pay good money to hear Stephen Fry (who has played both Wilde and Holmes) perform the audio book for these though.

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge - Day 2 - Track For A Badass Action Sequence



Not the usual kind of choice for a fight scene, but i can see this working in a Victorian comedy zombie fight scene a la the Shaun of the Dead Don't Stop Me Now sequence. I do wonder how my brain comes up with this stuff sometimes though.

Good News Everyone!

I bet you read that in Professor Farnsworth's voice. If you didn't, you need to watch more TV. If you're still reading in his voice, you need to watch less TV. Nah, not really, no such thing as too much Futurama. Anyway, to business....

The new issue of Irregular Magazine is here!!! Hoorah! This issue, entitled BEASTS OF WAR, is packed full of RPG and wargaming articles, painting tutorials, gorgeous art and a plethora of reviews (one of which is by yours truly).

Download the new issue here!

In terms of art, I recently completed an album cover and I'm now working on contributions for a steampunk RPG project. I can't say much just yet, but I'll be posting more when I can.

Bookshops - Bricks&Mortar Vs Online Shopping

A great man once said-

"A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Sir Terry Pratchett

And that is absolutely true. A good bookshop should contain significantly more books than you could ever imagine it containing, and it should distort time and space in such away that ten minutes of browsing turning into three hours and a budget of £10 should mysteriously turn into £70 worth of purchases.

My person heaven of book shopping is Fables Book Shop in the village of St Marychurch near Torquay. If you ever happen to be in the area I strongly recommend it. It's tiny, not just compared to monsters like Waterstones and Borders (RIP) but tiny compared to the average living room. However it's literally packed to the rafters with books, and you always get the impression that the owners have read every one of them before adding them to their stock list. It's the kind of store where every shelf has multiple rows of books, stacks of books, tottering piles of books! I found a gorgeous hardback set of The Larklight Series by Philip Reeve hidden away the first time I visited and I've made a point of going back every time we're in the area ever since. And there in lies the problem- this store is about as far away as its possible to be from my home town and still be in England. On a good day its a 6 hour drive.

So what do we have closer to home? The answer is very little. When I was growing up there used to be a creepy independent store which seemed to mostly cater to science and fishing enthusiasts but never had a lot of stock and generally refused to order anything for customers. That was demolished about 5 years ago and never reopened anywhere else. There has been a W H Smith's in town for as long as I've been alive but like all W H Smiths the stock is 60% stationery & magazines, 10% DVDs, 10% confectionary, 10% school books, 5% Mills&Boon-esque books and 5% the second book of any given series. Shopping at Smiths for a book has always been a depressing process, one that I only bother with now if I end up with a voucher at Yule.

Finally there is the pièce de résistance, the Famous Bookstall. Yes, it's actually called that. Compared to W H Smiths it's a wonderland of books, though, in line with its target market, it is heavy on the Mills&Boon. Whilst I wouldn't normal shop there my grandmother did once present me with a book from the stall stating "this is more your kind of thing than mine". It was Lord John and The Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon, and I'm still not sure if my gran was referring to the 18th century murder mystery or the fact that the main character is gay.

Unfortunately the next town over doesn't offer a great deal more. There are two more W H Smiths, a Christian bookstore, two Blackwell's (good for textbooks, expensive for anything else) and not one or two but THREE Waterstones. The biggest of the Waterstones is spread over two floors, but has recently been marred by the edition of a Paperchase (not some where I will ever shop again) and a Costa Coffee (blurgh, IMO worst coffee ever). However the size does mean that there is usually a good selection of books available, and a greater likelihood that you'll find more of what you're looking for. When I visited there last week I noticed some new signs basically saying "If you can't find it on the shelves we'll order it and have it within 48 hours". Now normally I wouldn't bother with that, now that we have the internet, but I noticed that the last Mark Hodder book The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack was on the recommended shelves, and I remembered that the new book was due to come out the week before. 48 hours would be quicker than I could possibly get it from an online seller so I decided to ask. Here it got interesting. And a little strange.

First I was told that the book wasn't out *at all* until September. Which I knew was the pre-order date for the paperback, but what about the hardback? Nope, apparently that wasn't out either. *and* they'd checked Amazon. I could order it now and get it in September. I thanked them and left without placing an order, since if they were just going to order it from Amazon well I could do that myself and get it delivered to my door in a week, rather than having to drive two towns over the pick it up. That night, on a whim, I decided to check Amazon myself. Guess what? The book was already available for order, not for pre-order but for shipped-in-24-hours-order. It arrived in 72 hours and its in paperback. Review to follow shortly.

This is why so many people shop online if they are looking for something specific. I enjoy browsing in brick-and-mortar stores, I like discovering things I might not read under normal circumstances, but if I know what I want to buy in future I think I'll just stay at home and order stuff in my PJs at midnight that I know I'm going to receive, rather than travelling for an hour in the vague hope that the things I want are actually going to be available.

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Those who know the area might berate me for leaving out Forbidden Planet and the glory that is The Space Centre, when I was listing local book shops. That was intentional. Not because they aren't amazing but because they are genre specific. Of course if I ever want to go shopping for comics or RPGs or classic sci-fi/fantasy those are the places I'll visit first. I recommend you do so too. Also visit Patriot Games whilst you're at it!