Kylie

I've been rewatching The Newsroom. Such a clever and funny show.

Here are the blank questions, if anyone wants to copy them. Great topic, Gaia, thanks! I'm going to fill mine out now. A — Author You’ve Read The Most Books From: B — Best Sequel Ever: C — Currently Reading: D — Drink of Choice While Reading: E — E-Reader or Physical Book?: F — Fictional Character You Probably Would Have Dated in High School: G — Glad You Gave this Book a Chance: H — Hidden Gem Book: I — Important Moment in Your Reading Life: J — Just Finished: K – Kinds of Books You Won’t Read?: L – Longest Book You’ve Read: M — Major Book Hangover: N — Number of Bookshelves You Own: O — One Book You’ve Read Multiple Times: P — Preferred Place to Read: Q — Quote that Inspires You and Gives You All the Feels: R — Reading Regret: S — Series You’ve Started and Need to Finish: T — Three of Your All Time Favorite Books: U – Unapologetic Fangirl/boy for: V — Very Excited for this Release More than Anything: W — Worst Bookish Habit X — X Marks the Spot – Start at the top of your shelf and pick the 27th book off it: Y — Your Latest Book Purchase: Z — The Zzzzzzzzzzzzz Snatcher Book (Book That Kept You From Sleeping):

Yeah, it doesn't sound too great over there. I'll probably have it on in the background while I work.

Agreed. It's a very good movie.

I finished Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Very good, I thought.

Oh dear! That's terrible news. This book crept to the top of my TBR pile recently, but I ended up going with a Flavia de Luce book and planned to read The Turkish Gambit soon after it. Hopefully I'll get along better with it than you did. Thanks for the warning re Fandorin's absence. I bought the new Harry Potter book today. I was undecided whether I'd get it straight away, but I saw stories on the news of people getting all excited about it, and then I got excited too. I'm going to start reading it shortly.

I'm around 120 pages into A Red Herring Without Mustard, the third Flavia de Luce novel by Alan Bradley.

'You frighten me', the Gypsy said. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

OK, now for other recent book activity. I recently started reading A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley. I'm only a chapter or two in so far. On Saturday I went book shopping with mum and came home with the following: Agatha Christie Parker Pyne Investigates Agatha Christie Passenger to Frankfurt Justin Cronin The Twelve Susan Hill The Woman in Black and Other Ghost Stories Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter The Long Earth #3: The Long Mars The best part is that I only had to pay for the two Agatha Christie books. The rest were bought using a gift card and my loyalty reward points. I bought the two Christie novels because they're not ones I see around very often. I have a large number of ACs in my favoured editions, and I've bought most of them secondhand, so it was nice to splurge on some new ones. I was particularly stoked to stumble across the Susan Hill book. It's a gorgeous hardback and contains four or five of her books in one volume. I had been buying them separately, but now I can stop doing that. (Who am I kidding? If I find them cheaply enough, I'll probably buy them. They're such beautiful little hardbacks!) The Woman in Black is one of my favourite books, so I'm very happy to now have a beautiful edition to treasure.

This was going to be a brief post about my recent book activity, but it turned into an actual review... I finished reading Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti & Vanessa O'Connell, which was a fascinating read about the widespread doping among cyclists. It's hard to believe how many people were involved, what they got away with, how long they got away it, and especially the lengths they went to to conceal it all! Lance Armstrong comes across as a massive bully and a generally horrible person. I'm no expert, but I'd say he's a sociopath. I can't believe he only confessed to doping in 2013, but he'd been testing positive for at least a decade. It's unbelievable how many people were involved and how many lives were ruined (directly by Lance) when people tried to speak out about it. I highly doubt cycling will ever be a clean sport, but I still enjoy watching it, and I try not to think about who might be doping. As I type, Chris Froome is a couple of hours away from winning his third Tour de France. I'd be highly surprised if questions aren't asked about him...and yet I don't think I've heard a single commentator even mention doping, which is odd given how widespread it must still be. And that's how Lance got away with it...he became such a big sports star that people didn't want to knock him down, even when they knew the truth. There were a few downsides to this book. First, there was a lengthy chapter on someone who ended up a bit player in the whole story (in fact, I think he was one of the few people who had nothing to do with doping). It seemed that the authors decided to include everything the guy had given them in their interviews...which turned out to be his whole life story. Second, the book also got a bit bogged down in the business side of things, which was a little dull. Third, it moved forwards and backwards in time a lot. The authors would mention a date but no year, so I often became confused about where I was in the timeline (the main part of it covered the late 1990s to the early 2010s). I think it could have benefited from clarifying the year occasionally. Lastly, the editor in me hated the inconsistent use of acronyms. Usually an acronym is defined the first time it appears, and thereafter only the acronym is used. This book jumped all over the place, sometimes using the acronym followed by the spelt-out version in the same or following sentence. It was so frustrating! In short, the book was great, but it would have been even better with a great editor.

It's so purdy! Producing involves liaising with everyone else and making sure things are on track re sound lighting, publicity, program, props, costumes etc. N has been doing a lot of stuff himself, which is good, but I've been kept busy driving around Sydney to source different props. There's rather a lot involved in this play! The auditions were good. We're now less than three weeks from opening and still have a lot to do. Yikes! The main character is overseas for the next two weeks, but he has a really good work ethic, so we know he'll be practicing his lines while he's away. A couple of cast members were sick last week, which is a problem when there are only four people in the entire cast! We ended up skipping a rehearsal. There have also been problems with the availability of my backstage crew (as in, I only have one person to help me so far when I actually need a minimum of four!) Hopefully they'll all be on board this week and things will start going more smoothly. Hmm, not sure. I don't think we ever went to Parramatta, but we would have gone through it on the train on our way into the city. It's halfway between Penrith and Sydney. Woof.

I hope they were good thoughts! I'd love love love to go to San Francisco one day! And the rest of California too...and the rest of the country. But I'd definitely start in San Fran (is that what locals call it, or is that a tourist thing?) Thanks Gaia. I love looking at bookish thing almost as much as looking at books. I went to a bookshop with my mum on the weekend and saw a gorgeous Gone with the Wind pencil case that matches my beautiful hardcover edition of the book (it's a re-creation of the original 1930s cover). I talked myself out of buying it because I don't actually need a pencil case and I'm trying to reduce clutter in my house. Thanks! I haven't actually read anything by Crispin yet, but he's one of those authors that I'm sure I'll really enjoy.

As it happens, I rather did enjoy Death Descends on Saturn Villa! I think I had (mistakenly) gained the impression from other reviews that March and Sydney were apart for most of the book, but it didn't turn out that way at all. They were only separated for a bit. I did have a couple of problems with the book, but they escape me now, even though I can remember the plot quite well. I get confused with the way Kasasian writes his stories. I feel like I'm always struggling to keep up...like I'm only reading every other sentence or something. But I don't think it's a problem with the plot, per se; it's just his writing. I don't know if that makes sense. And there were inconsistencies in Sydney's character that bothered me. He was much more of a jerk at times (unnecessarily so), but not at others. And in the parts of the book told from his point of view, some of his writing didn't seem to be consistent with his character (for example, he'd include information about things that he'd usually mock other people for doing). But overall I enjoyed it, and I'll definitely continue with the series. Re Letters of Note: I've flicked through it and read a couple of bits and pieces. It looks great, but it's probably something I'll be dipping into rather than reading straight through. I do recommend looking more closely at it. It's such a gorgeous book. It practically begs to be allowed to sit on the coffee table so I can pick it up from time to time. I can't remember if I've already mentioned this, but did you know there's also a Lists of Note by the same author? It's an equally beautiful hardcover book and looks equally fascinating. I think I'll put it on my Christmas wish list this year. It would be great fun to do a J&W play. I'm going to see the London production soon (that is, I'm going to see it in Sydney when it comes to visit), so I'll get a better idea of whether it's something I'd like to do. I've been interested to see that some people who loved Notes from a Small Island think that Bryson whinges more in The Road to Little Dribbling, but I thought it was quite the opposite! NfaSI is actually my least favourite Bryson book for that reason. I think I really need to revisit it one day to see if there's as much whinging as I (think I) remember.

This must be a new record (low): responding to messages two months late. Sorry Sari! I think the show has nearly ended already. I haven't managed to catch a single episode. I just keep forgetting it's on, and the weekly format probably has something to do with it too. Sometimes when I ring mum I can hear my music in the background. I started having a big clean out the other day. I bagged up probably half of the clothes I own, with around half to go to charity and the other half to be thrown out (not fit to donate). It's so liberating!! I'm nearly done with my clothes but still have the rest of the house to go through. Well, I have as many of the Fandorin books as have been translated into English. It looks like the last several books haven't been translated. I hope that doesn't mean they've stopped translating them. No. From the Book Depository: 'Alain de Botton turns now to look at the manic and peculiar positions that 'the news' occupies in our lives. We invest it with an authority and importance which used to be the preserve of religion - but what does it do for us? Mixing current affairs with philosophical reflections, de Botton offers a brilliant illustrated guide to the precautions we should take before venturing anywhere near the news and the 'noise' it generates. Witty and global in reach, The News will ensure you'll never look at reports of a celebrity story or political scandal in quite the same way again.' It sounds excellent. He's just published another book too, called The Course of Love. I was going to try not to buy it because I now have about half a dozen of his books to read, but then I read part of an excerpt of the book, and it sounds really great.

I love this show.

Yeah, I noticed the same thing when I checked the Book Depository the other day. What, hasn't he even started writing it yet?!

Lovely bookcases, Flip Martian! I see a lot of great books there.

This sounds great. I bought it a little while ago but haven't read it yet. Must bump it up the pile!

Yay! It's aged very well, I think. The technology is still very impressive (and still doesn't exist, as far as I know). I also love Jennifer Garner, both as an actor and as a person. She seems quite down-to-earth.

I'm re-watching Alias. Love this show.

I pictured you as watching documentaries and generally more high-brow TV...and steering well clear of American sitcoms! I love Sheldon too. I've dated two guys who are rather like him (extremely smart, extremely nerdy but rather weird and not very good with relationships—apparently I have a 'type'), so occasionally his funny quirks make me a little sad. But that's rare (and becoming rarer with the passage of time). I always have a good laugh at/with him. Sheldon has so much in common with my more recent ex that I've often tried to convince him to watch the show by describing some of the nerdier scenes, or at least mentioning the references to, or guest appearances by, people I know he likes ('Neil de Grasse Tyson!', 'Star Trek/Star Wars/Doctor Who/Firefly!', 'Stephen Hawking!'), but he has a thing against American sitcoms (perhaps I was projecting that onto you ). Great reviews of Wodehouse and Emma! I really need to start planning to re-read Austen's novels. I count her among my very favourite authors, but I've only read each book once (that is, the six more well-known novels; I still have her short and unfinished fiction to read).

I'm watching the Tour de France.

What happens when you lose at the gym? Do you lose a Pokemon? And what exactly are Pokestops? Pardon my ignorance! I think I was a bit old for Pokemon when it first became big. If it was 16 years ago, as Noll says, then I was 18 at the time. I think it must have been popular with some people around my age though, because some of my former school friends are really into it. Still haven't decided if I want to try it. I know everyone's doing it, but I think I'd feel silly walking around pointing my phone at (no)things. I get quite self-conscious in public (more so when I'm on my own). If this game managed to get me off my backside and walking around, it would truly be a miracle.

It's been insane here too! There are large groups of people congregating everywhere, and my Facebook timeline feed is full of stuff about it. I downloaded the app the other day but haven't opened yet. I don't know if I'll do anything with it. I got it more out of FOMO (fear of missing out).

I'm planning to move house soon, and will likely be downgrading to a smaller place. Every single house I've looked at (online) doesn't seem to have nearly enough room for my books. It'll be one of the biggest challenges for me when house hunting. I'd be prepared to cull my collection a little, but not too much.