Raven

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.

Sequel in the works: The Seven Sisters Yay!

Amelie is my favourite foreign language film, by a long way. Such a joy to watch, and always makes me feel better about life!

^ It's not the best Terminator film, but the sheer wanton destruction during the car chase is glorious.

Did you know that The Shop Keeper from Mr Benn and Al from Quantum Leap are also one and the same?

Not heard of anything myself, but I have a few Penguin first edition paperbacks and would be interested to know of a forum where they are discussed!

Pullman has had heaps of critical acclaim, and his books are definitely better written than Rowlings, but they are just a bit too po-faced to have the same mass appeal (also, the film series stalled after poor returns from The Golden Compass and worries about how they were going to film the other two parts. The up-coming TV series will probably correct/address that, so - coupled with the new books - Pullman's star should be set to rise again...).

I'm fairly indifferent to the whole process at this point. Chibnall hasn't even started work yet, and he'll be the one casting the new Doctor, so I don't think we'll hear much for a while, past rampant, uninformed speculation from the tabloids. Personally, I hope they cast another unknown.

ONE!

Thanks, everyone. Planning and doing are two different things. I read Stiletto last year, after picking it up for 99p on my Kindle. It didn't have the originality of The Rook, in terms of story telling, and it was very uneven in places, but I still enjoyed it (Glad you did too!). It wasn't a patch on the latest Peter Grant book, however.

Clash of the Titans (The good one).

Twitter seems to be part euphoric, part apoplectic* over the news that Tilda Swinton is the bookies favourite to be the next Doctor. The first thought that went through my mind on hearing the news was "Well, that will be the second Doctor I've seen naked..." *So no change there, really...

I can totally understand someone railing against having things defined by nice, neat little labels, but... Oh do get over yourself, Philip, dear...