ian

Super Mother-in-law to the rescue. I just popped round there tonight to pick something else up for Ruth and she said "Oh I've just finished the latest Lee Child if you want to borrow it" Excellent

I was watching a vid of Americans trying British snacks only last night. The sight of one guy deciding to try a spoonful of marmite straight from the jar is one that will live with me for a looooong time!

I like the phrase "author burnout" - I will be using that! In the meantime, I've suddenly almost completely lost my mojo for reading. I've just started "Bleak House" which probably isn't helping at all: I'm finding the very size of the book daunting which isn't something that normally bothers me. I don't want to be a slave to the book jar, but I also hate giving up on books. It may be that I've just had such a lot of other things on at the moment, when it comes to relaxing, I just want to veg out in front of the TV. I think I'll give it to the end of the weekend and if it hasn't improved, I'll put it aside for now and find something light (in both senses of the word).

I literally just choked on my sandwich when I read that! Ok, here goes... When a woman asks a man for his opinion, she doesn't want to hear his opinion, she wants to hear her own opinion repeated back to her in a deeper voice.

He certainly did! Kudos to both the writers and the actors involved in that. And Clara made an excellent villian IMO

The complete works of H.P.Lovecraft by H.P.Lovecraft I wanted something creepy to read over Halloween, and seeing as Stephen King regularly cites LOvecraft as a major influence, I thought it was about time I read something by him. First off, I should say that I didn't read everything in this collection. That was never my intention, as it would take too long, and it's always the kind of collection I can dip in and out of as I want. Instead, I picked either those stories I'd heard of, or those whose titles intrigued me. I did read the first 5 or so, and as these are presented in chronological order, I got a good idea of Lovecraft's early work. There is a wonderful sense of other-worldliness and an ever-present sense of impending doom that fills these stories, which is absolutely wonderful. His use of language is, at times superb. But, read together (which I guess they shouldn't be) I did get a feeling of repetition, and his use of the narrator of a story being unable to have the words to describe a particular horrfying sight did get on my nerves a little. The later stories, being longer, were better. Overall - 3/5

I'd not really thought about it, but now I do, they have done that quite a lot this series. Done well, it's something I enjoy (Hustle did it particularly well IMO), but I take your point. To be honest, while I knew the Bootstrap Paradox, I wasn't aware it was called that, so It was nice to learn something. That's true. My older brother is a Pertwee man through and through!

I thought I'd start a thread on the current series, as surely I can't be the only person in the world who's enjoying it? It may be my age, but some of the episodes this series have really reminded me, in terms of the tone, of Tom Baker era. Now that's always going to go down well with me, as he was "my" Doctor growing up. I like Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, I'm mostly sure that I prefer The MOff over RTD (Christmas specials excepted, they haven't been great) and I even (hunkers down, whispers it quietly) like Jenna Coleman. I've enjoyed that they have made each adventure into two-parters; I think it's given the writers much more time to build story and tension rather than just a quick info-dump, a chase and a resolution.

I caught this last Sunday - am I missing something? Is there some legal reason why Superman was never mentioned by name? He was always either "He" or "my cousin", which got a bit grating after a bit. Other than that, it was enjoyable.

I thought the announcement was big of pushing the fact that the new series will be on a streaming service, and almost non-existant on Star Trek info. It does make me worry that any new series will be there just to garner a buzz about the streaming service and not necessarily be that good. Maybe I'm just pessimistic - it could be great! Either way, I don't have the time, patience or money to subscribe to multiple streaming channels just for one potentially good programme, so I'll wait till it gets shown on a UK terrestrial channel or Sky.

I found the Cruciforms much more scary than the Shrike, but that's probably just me

I didn't even know you could do that! Well, that's me entertained for the rest of the weekend, just playing with that feature

For my next read, I'm leaving the book jar method - it's getting close to Halloween, so I've got The Complete Works of H.P.Lovecraft on my Kindle to get me in the "spirit" of things!

The Son - Jo Nesbo Sonny Lofthus, in his early thirties, has been in prison for the last dozen years: serving time for crimes he didn't commit. In exchange, he gets an uninterrupted supply of heroin—and the unexpected stream of fellow prisoners seeking out his uncanny abilities to soothe and absolve. His addiction started when his father committed suicide rather than be exposed as a corrupt cop, and now Sonny is the center of a vortex of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him stoned and jailed, and all of them under the thumb of Oslo's crime overlord, the Twin. When Sonny learns some long-hidden truths about his father he makes a brilliant escape, and begins hunting down the people responsible for the hideous crimes he's paid for. But he's also being hunted, by the Twin, the cops, and the only person who knows the ultimate truth that Sonny is seeking. The question is, what will he do when they've cornered him? (from Goodreads) My thoughts What a great book. After a couple of 'meh" books, this was just the thing to fire up my mojo again. I've read a few of the Harry Hole books by Nesbo, so I was a little unsure of a stand alone, but this was tightly plotted, with a great, flawed detective and an equally flawed anti-hero - the Son of the title. Despite him (The Son) being a drug addict and murderer, I ended up rooting quite heavily for him. There is a great twist at the end, which left me wanting more. 4/5

Pennywise....[shudders]

Two episodes in, and that "Can I just throw that thought into the thought pond?" comment is a contender for bulls**t comment of the series! Last nights shampoo task was very good. I actually thought the women's billboard ad was much better than the mens, although for the full advert it was the other way around. I think it's the first time I've seen an ad on Apprentice that looked professional. Of course they are all massive big heads, so for me, the fun is watching them get ripped to shreads by Lord Sugar afterwards.

The Keeper by Luke Delaney The second novel in the DI Sean Corrigan series—authentic and terrifying crime fiction with a psychological edge, by an ex-Met detective. Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Peter James and Stuart MacBride. DI Sean Corrigan is different to most cops. He’s no psychic, but his own dark past has given him the ability to step into a crime scene and see it through the eyes of the offender. He understands what drives a person to commit murder, rape, arson—but sometimes his gift seems more like a burden. When the brutally murdered body of a young woman is found in the woods, Corrigan and his team are on the case. But this is not the act of a one-time offender. They’re on the trail of someone who has been taking women from their homes and keeping them captive before disposing of their bodies. This killer is looking for the perfect woman—and when he finds her, he’s going to keep her. Whether she likes it or not... (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts I'd not read anything by this author before, but what grabbed my attention was the fact that this was written by an ex-policeman. Great, I thought, this will feel realistic and have details about how the police really investigate murders. While the latter is partly true however, the author seems more interested in delving into the mind of the perpretrator and throwing in lurid details. Yes, it was still a cut above - I actually felt some sympathy for the perpretrator at times, when details of his troubled past were revealed, but the other characters, including the main protaganist, DI Sean Corrigan, felt a bit cliched and two-dimensional in comparison. Every character who isn't in the police is treated with suspicion which got old quite quickly, where as Sean Corrigan is almost psychic in his ability to think like the murderer, because of his own troubled past. I like characters that are almost perfect (Jack Reacher) and I like troubled cops (John Rebus), but this felt like neither. A shame 2/5.

There have been a couple of occasions where I've picked a book out and thought "really?" and been tempted to put it back in. I've resisted that though; it defeats the object. The only time I've chosen again was two books ago. The jar picked Matilda by Roald Dahl, but that's my daughter's book and we'd just emptied her room to paint it and there was NO way I was going looking for it!

Over the last couple of months, I decided to start using a book jar to help me pick the next book to read. I wanted to do this, as I was concious of the fact that I kept avoiding the book on the bottom of the pile in favour of those at the top. It was also taking me far too long, as I tried to deliberate which one I wanted to read. But I've also found that now, not only are my choices quicker, but it's actually quite exciting, wondering which book will come out of the jar. So now I have "The Keeper" by Luke Delaney. Not a writer or book I'd heard of, but I picked it up from the coffee room bookshelf at work. It looks like a standard police thriller, but what intrigued me is that the author is an ex-police officer with the met.

It's a shame, because the characters are genuinely engaging in the first book, which for me made up for the inaccuracies. Plus there were some nice twists that kept me interested. This book though - meh.

I was enjoying the Rubgy until Saturday! I had a bad feeling about it, so I watched Doctor Who instead, and kept turning over, and watched the last ten minutes upstairs. My son came in when he heard me howling at the tv (must have been bad to draw him away from the X-box!) and asked me if everything was alright. Never mind, there are still lots of good games to watch as a neutral.

My normal fall-back position in times like this is a book of Stephen KIng short stories

The Black Country by Alex Grecian (Murder Squad 2) The British Midlands. It’s called the “Black Country” for a reason. Bad things happen there. When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal-mining village—and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird’s nest—the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard’s new Murder Squad. Fresh off the grisly 1889 murders of The Yard, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith respond, but they have no idea what they’re about to get into. The villagers have intense, intertwined histories. Everybody bears a secret. Superstitions abound. And the village itself is slowly sinking into the mines beneath it. Not even the arrival of forensics pioneer Dr. Bernard Kingsley seems to help. In fact, the more the three of them investigate, the more they realize they may never be allowed to leave. . . . (taken from Goodreads) My Thoughts When I read the first book in this series (The Yard) I did note some of the historical inaccuracies, but overall they didn't bother me as the story was very good and the characters were well drawn and likeable. Unfortunately, for his second book, the author chose to set it in the area I grew up in, so it was impossible for me to ignore those inaccuracies. The Black Country village of Blackhampton seems to have been based on some frontier town in the American mid-west. Grecian talks about the "Wilderness" beyond the villages main street. There simply wasn't any wilderness left in that area by 1890 - even the woods were given over to charcoal production. The winter storm seem ridculously severe, and if we are in the middle of a coal-mining district (a central plank of the plot), why do all the homes and public houses have log fires? The plot itself feels quite thin after the detailed richness of the first book. To be honest, finishing it was a bit of a chore. I dare say, I will still read the other books in the series, but I can't see me hurrying to do it. 2/5

Geralds Game is probably one of my favourite King books from this period. It's one of the few book that have a point in them that I had to put it down and go for a little walk around.