Book Chain, weeks 16, 17 & 18

#20: Read a book whose cover clashes with the cover of the previous book.

Second attempt: I re-read the Very Pink Edition of Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell. (I still have no idea who that cover design was aimed at, but I suppose that as it was a 40th anniversary edition they could count on a ready audience of people who would buy it whatever it looked like. Myself being a case in point.) It's still entertainingly written, but I'm more aware of its flaws than I used to be, and a few chapters before the end I found suddenly that I was looking forward to it being over. There's still, if memory serves, one Modesty Blaise novel that I've never read, and there was a time when the incompleteness would have bothered me. At this point, though, I might read it if I ever happen across a copy but it's increasingly unlikely that I'll exert any effort to seek it out.

#21: Read a book with a different number of viewpoint characters than the previous book.

Made a start on Tanith Lee's The Silver Metal Lover, and then on Julian Rathbone's The Last English King, but then the new Rivers of London book came out so I happily put both aside and read that instead.

The new novel is titled Stone & Sky, so it also counted for the July Buzzword prompt ("Punctuation"). I enjoyed it, but I don't feel that I have much to say about it specifically.

Week in review: Week to 12 July

. At board game club this week, we played RoboRally, which I've heard about for years but I believe this is the first time I've actually played it.( Read more... )

We also had another of our weekend afternoon sessions, where we played Race for the Galaxy and Nemesis.( Read more... )

. I've been spending some time poking around in old files and posts, and found a couple of old limericks that I still like, and after some dithering decided to put up on AO3. I also found a couple of sonnets, which I haven't decided what to do with yet, and a very silly filk that I'm holding back to inflict on a suitable occasion.


. The library notified me that an interlibrary loan had arrived for me: Mary Chase's play Harvey, which I'd noticed in the catalogue and put in a request for out of curiosity. ( Read more... )

When I went to the library to pick it up, I was served by a new librarian, who had to be assured that the card I'd given him was an authentic official library card, because I still have the original card I was issued back when the library first computerised, and he'd never seen one of those before.


. It has been quite some time since I've been active on the blog I used to run about the Liaden Universe series, ( Read more... )

. There's a new Murderbot short story out: "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy". ( Read more... )

. I've broken out one of my old jigsaw puzzles, and got as far as sorting out the edge pieces, but I don't seem to be feeling very enthusiastic about assembling it. On some level, it feels like there's an element of discovery missing, now that I've already done it once. Or maybe it's just that I'm not currently spending much time listening to and watching the kinds of things that made a good background for jigsaw puzzle assembly.


. I am continuing to be much better than I used to be at keeping on top of the washing up.