half-real worlds of paper and ink

January
The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
The Sandman Volume 6: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

I've never been much of a reader of historical fiction. Most of the problem came from the fact that I didn't have much grounding in world history; it seemed like my education began with the ancient civilisations and skipped straight to World War II. (Well, the Renaissance was in there somewhere, I vaguely recall the pictures in the textbooks, but it went by very fast and didn't grab me much.)

Then came Dorothy Dunnett. I read her Lymond Chronicles and loved the books, and The Game of Kings, the first book in the series, is one of my favourite books ever. But that story (or the retelling of it) is for another time.

I started her House of Niccolò series this year. The series is a prequel to the Lymond Chronicles, following the adventures of one Nicholas de Fleury, an ancestor of Lymond in mid-fifteenth century Europe, who started as a lowly apprentice and rose to become a merchant trusted by kings. ( I spent almost ten months, on and off, reading these books. )

What can I say? The lady was a magnificent writer.


Below are some thoughts about the series, and some knee-jerk reactions especially to the last book, Gemini, since it's fresh in mind and I am somewhat boggled about a number of things. They are not in any particular sequence. None of them are very coherent.

( spoilers for both House of Niccolò and the Lymond Chronicles )

And it's a Sunday night!

This week I was supposed to do some sewing (curtains -- will have to explain in another post) and work on bug 1813. Not much progress on the bug; I was doing the fixes alphabetically and right now I am still at, uh, Bases. Yay progress? But I did Tabula Rasa first, honest! So that all the layouts based on it will have the icon placement thing fixed or partially fixed. Perhaps I should submit the ones I'm done with first.

I probably shouldn't have picked something so CSS-y, huh. Not my strongest suit, CSS.

As for the curtain, no progress on it at all! It's still on my floor, alas.

I worked on my own layout for a bit, based on some feedback I received, and ended up making some modifications of my own. I'm beginning to dislike the colours, which probably means I've been looking at it too long, XD.

Other things I've been up to: I've been reading the House of Nicolò books and have finished book seven, Caprice and Rondo. I started the last book, Gemini, but I have been rather slow at getting through it, mainly because Caprice and Rondo ended on a somewhat happy note and while there are tons of things unresolved, I'm just glad that the main characters are reconciled about a number of things. Also the writing in Gemini seems a bit more low key and toned down -- I don't feel like I need to rush through it as I did for the other books.

Re-watched Howl's Moving Castle (the Miyazaki movie) with my brother, who hasn't seen it, and now I feel like rereading the book. I love the movie -- it's so pretty! -- but I'll always love the book better.


I had also just realised, with dawning horror, that November is here and I have signed up for Nanowrimo and I have nothing to write! I don't know what foolishness makes me attempt to write 50,000 words year after year. We'll see where this will go. (My prediction is nowhere.)

So. I'm participating in Dewey's Read-a-thon, which simply means I will be stuck in a nook somewhere, reading, for the next twenty-four hours. Official start is in less than an hour!

Here's a list of books I might read in the next twenty-four hours:

( a list of books! )

I won't be posting hourly updates -- it's more likely I'll update using Twitter, and probably add comments to this post instead of making new posts.

Fifteen minutes to go!

(The only downside to this is I won't have time for bug fixing *looks at bug 1886 woefully* but I'll try to get it done by tomorrow night. It's mostly done, but done in the wrong places, heh. It shouldn't take much work to get it fixed, I think.)


P/S: OpenID works on Dreamwidth -- you can log in with your blog's URL if you're using a blogging service that supports OpenID, like Blogger and WordPress. :D

Hullo! I am back from internet-less lands! Not that anyone had noticed that I was gone, I suppose, XD. I was at my grandma's for three days, and while internet is accessible using my mobile phone, the phone itself is somewhere at the lower end of the phone spectrum and it is not much fun trying to view even pages made for mobile view using that thing.

But! I am back! And currently on leave, and will only be back at work on Monday.

What I am up to right now: searching for bills and paying for them before someone comes and cuts off the electricity, etc. Which wouldn't be a good thing, considering the whole family is here and everyone will give me disapproving looks if that happens.

Once that is done I'll have to update my Dreamhack and, uh, do stuff. Poor 'hack, left alone for such a long time. Hopefully this time I'll get things done and not lose momentum after a bit. Among things I think I would be able to help with is converting stuff in dreamscapes to S2, but I haven't really attempted that yet, so we'll see how it goes!

Speaking of dreamscapes, I've posted a layout there for comment, but there hasn't been any response -- either it's good enough or no one really wants to bother with it. XD Admittedly it's much easier (and fun, I bet) to check out new colour schemes to existing layouts that go through that hassle of installing and testing a new layout. But, if you're interested, the relevant post is here, and I'm willing to help if you get stuck trying to use it. Both layout and theme layers are public, layerids are 77089 (layout) and 77090 (theme). yati is using the same layout with a different theme, which I haven't submitted.

Aaaand speaking of Dreamwidth, I still have invite codes. (Though I suppose everyone who really wants an account probably already has one.) Ask if you need/want a code!

What I also need to do: compare book prices and get The Unicorn Hunt. The ending of Scales of Gold made me go asffdfghlhl;hh;;khg WHAT? I should have known that was going to happen. Both the ending and me going WHAT? That's Dorothy Dunnett for you. (Seriously, if I had found her books earlier, I bet I would've been more interested in history in general and the Renaissance in particular and would've wanted to get more grounding in the classics than what I had in school. I can't believe I'm looking things up for this lady.)

Maybe a reaction post later. I have notes for this book. Notes.

Har har FFEX. What was I thinking. (Edit: OMG. Look at the cute Squall here. LOOK. I shall work for my accomplishment sticker!)

Prompts are out! Check your email! Read the assignments! Panic! Now I need to set aside time to make sure I get this done! While I think I won't have too much problems completing the assignment (1000 words!), making myself coherent while telling a worthwhile story would probably be quite a task. >.>

I feel like I'm relearning to write fic -- it's been too long since my last attempt.

Whee.


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Apparently my other assignment, this time from my lunch buddies, is to watch True Blood season one. I'm the only one who hasn't watched it, and they keep nagging me about it. Do you hear guys? NAGGING. I wonder if I can nag them into a group reading of a YA novel. Just to be fair, you know? Let everyone share everyone else's interests? :P

I've never been much of a fan of vampires. My experience is limited to one Anne Rice book (was it The Vampire Lestat? I know it wasn't The Interview with the Vampire), some Christopher Pike books (and what was with that ending, sir? It was almost as bad as "and it was all a dream"!), possibly something by Stephen King (The Shining? probably the movie, not the book).

I don't know whether it's hilarious or it's just that I have a one-track mind that when Fazi asked me whether I wanted to watch True Blood my reaction was something like, "that show based on those books by Charlaine Harris?" Haven't read the books, can't say I have any intention to either.

Oh well. As long as no one forces Twilight on me, I'll live. It's amazing, really, the power of the internet -- I haven't even read the books, yet when someone even mentions Edward Cullen I shudder in horror. Not because of the vampire factor, oh no -- it's because people whose tastes I trusts and are similar to mine dislike the book(s) with a passion. (My youngest sister, when asked, said that the book was "stupid". She falls within the target age group of the books. She loves John Green. Of course I trust this succinct review of hers.)

I'll be back with a report on True Blood. A report, I say!


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Other things this weekend:

• finish a sewing project that got halted because I got the measurements wrong (ha ha).


• perhaps poke the stylesheet this journal is using and see if I can make it conform to the guidelines for submission we have here at dreamscapes -- give it a go, guys! It's fully CSS, no S2 involved, I swear!


• uh. There was something I wanted to look at about version control on your local machine but I think I'll just leave that off for now (though suggestions of what programs I should look at are welcome!). It's not just code getting messy anymore; even fic drafts are all over the place.


• finish that Douglas Adams book (currently reading Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency -- I've only got to the part where the detective agency makes an appearance) and maybe start Dunnett's Scales of Gold.


• sleep! And not be a zombie on Monday.

Weekends need to be longer!

This week's Weekly Geeks left me scratching my head. Our assignment this time is to list the books we haven't reviewed yet, and get other readers to ask questions. Not difficult, right? Just list the books and wait for questions!

Here's the thing -- I haven't reviewed anything the whole year. Possibly nothing since July last year. I think the last reviews I did were for a same task when Dewey posted about it way back then, and even then I didn't manage to answer all the questions. (Awful, aren't I.) But I still want to participate this time, so here's the list.

I've decided to be kind to myself and post only the titles of the books I read this year. Here goes:

( a lot of books! )

The list is copied directly from this page here, where I list all the books I've read this year.

If you have questions, fire away!

I was searching for my copy of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude because Helen wanted to borrow it. Found it without much trouble in the bookshelf downstairs. Brought it up to my room with me to stuff into my bag (I was supposed to bring it today but I forgot) and I started flipping through it, and without realising it I had read through several pages, enough for Úrsula to lose her temper a few times.

I hastily closed the book at this point, because otherwise Helen will have to wait weeks before she finally gets the book.

This happens with most of the books I'm about to lend to people. I reread DWJ's Howl's Moving Castle before I passed the book to my mother. I had flipped through and read my favourite parts of Dorothy Dunnett's The Game of Kings on the flight home before leaving the copy with my mother. (Alas, she didn't even manage to start the book. I took it back with me the next trip home. I think I will buy her a copy and bug her to start reading it. Come on, friends on the internets! You need to read this book! I've given you reasons why you need to read this book before but here's a new one: AWESOME SUBTEXT. >.> You know who gets the blame for that.)

Now I am sort of lazing between books because I don't feel like starting Dunnett's Scales of Gold just yet, but the I'm having trouble getting into anything else.


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In other news: laptop still busted. Order put in for new one. Now I need to convince myself it's ok to splurge on this because sometimes it's ok to want nice things for yourself. What's the use of money if I can't spend it on myself. Right?


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Office got on the Twitter bandwagon pretty late, but now that everyone has found their way there, it's filled with the latest gossip. Very classy, office. Very classy. (I am saying that with a straight face. Yeah.) Anonymity is a great thing, yes?

December
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin
Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones*


November
Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers
Gemini by Dorothy Dunnett
The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt


October
Caprice and Rondo by Dorothy Dunnett
To Lie with Lions by Dorothy Dunnett
The Lying Carpet by David Lucas
The Unicorn Hunt by Dorothy Dunnett
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Owl Service by Alan Garner


September
Matilda by Roald Dahl*
Scales of Gold by Dorothy Dunnett
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle


August
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett*
Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams


July
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness


June
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Superior Saturday by Garth Nix
[manga] Descendants of Darkness Volume 4 by Yoko Matsushita
[manga] Descendants of Darkness Volume 3 by Yoko Matsushita
[manga] Descendants of Darkness Volume 2 by Yoko Matsushita
[manga] Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei) Volume 1 by Yoko Matsushita


May
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden*
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday


April
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
The Little Prince (and Letter to a Hostage) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Moonbird by Joyce Dunbar


March
George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl*
Cygnet by Patricia A McKillip
The Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett


February
Niccolò Rising by Dorothy Dunnett
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman


January
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones*
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie


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* Denotes a reread.