Raven

Yes.

April books of the month are up on Amazon, picked up two: The Vorrh, by Brian Catling and Nod, by Adrian Barnes There are also a couple of Kurt Vonnegut novels I might go back for later, and Animal Farm is in today's daily deal.

Try The Ninth Rain, by Jen Williams. Not read it myself, but I hear it has a strong female lead.

Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter has died. One of Britain's most iconic detectives, but very different as played by John Thaw from the character in Dexter's books (well, the early ones at least...). I read several of his books back in the nineties, I think I have a couple of signed copies somewhere. RIP.

Dinotopia are large format picture books by artist James Gurney. Good stories in the ones I have read, with beautiful illustrations.

Was a really nice, sunny walk into work this morning, but as the day has gone on it has got increasingly cloudy. Lights on now, the weekend must be coming...

I read the first book last year and enjoyed it for the most part, but I will probably only read further if they pop up as Kindle Deals of the Day. They reminded me a bit of Dinotopia. And, yes, the covers are excellent!

^ The best one yet!

The original opening for The Three Railway Engines was far darker than Reverend W. Awdry's later version: Once upon a time there was a little engine named Edward. aNd tHeN tHE MurDErs sTartEd...

It could equally have been chick-lit where the romance revolved around a couples liking of a chocolate covered coconut snack.

^ It's been officially announced by the BBC (although that is an on-set picture).

^ I really need to get a move on and read the Smiley books I haven't thus far!

Yes, very good. I especially like the Firefly posters in the background. In book news, I started reading Guards! Guards! last night. Maybe it will kick start a reading spree, who knows?

I listened to the first part on Sunday afternoon, and can't say I was very taken with it. It may be a sign of our times, but it seemed to labour the psychological effects of the events on the main character and those around him, and quite a bit of air time was taken up with this. Whilst some of this was portrayed very well, especially the main character's reaction to the demise of the initial contact party, after that it quickly became repetitive. I'm also not a fan of radio plays where they have to have two people "in the room" at all times and move the plot along solely using dialogue. In the original story, large parts of the book were spent with the narrator by himself, in this version there is always someone else present and the sense of isolation/disconnection from the world he knew has been lost. Why they don't deal with these parts by having the main character narrate the story, I don't know. I'll probably listen to the second part, but at this point I think I prefer the version the BBC did in the 50s.

I should re-read this, I have a copy of the sequel and cannot remember who all the characters are.

My book activity today consisted of walking around Waterstones and moving a copy of Guards! Guards! from my living room to my bedroom. Living. The. Dream.

^ Bravo!

Just a quick heads-up, but there is a new radio dramatization of The War of the Worlds on Radio 4 at 2.30 this afternoon! More here: The War of the Worlds.

STILL ONE!

^ Yes, this. The length of books isn't generally an issue for me, but I do like books that are broken down into reasonable length chunks. There is nothing worse than having ten minutes to kill, that you could happily spend reading, only to end up with an hour long section...

Awwh, I was hoping for 'Written in Mudblood'

^ Not very well for Primark.

That's just to throw you off the scent. I've still not properly engaged with Capaldi, and it's bugging the hell out of me why not (I really can't put a finger on it). I really liked Matt Smith, to the point of saying I think he is one of the best Doctors ever, but Capaldi, I dunno... I think for the most part the stories over the last couple of years have been pretty good, but I think their fault is that most of them aren't very accessible and need a repeat viewing to get to grips with (which most people won't do). There have been a couple of real clunkers, however, including the one with the Sandmen (worst Doctor Who villain - Ever! /simpsonscomicbookguy).

To add to this, I can also recommend Strange Weather in Tokyo and The Nakano Thrift Shop, both by Hiromi Kawakami. Two good books, I've read both of them in the last year.