I am doing the Big Read book meme because I need to chill out before bed, and I can't stare blankly at the TV like usual because Bethan has a boy over (really!) and they are watching a film. So I'll do this, then read a bit. Then sleep. Ace.

I got to get up really early tomorrow for a day trip to Manchester for this freelancing gig... Anyways, here goes.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them ;-)
( Read more... )

I fucking love Neighbours. I can't stand Eastenders at all, but I love Hollyoaks and Neighbours. I like my soaps trashy, unrealistic and chock full of melodrama. I like plane crash tragedies, people faking their own deaths, serial womanisers with one leg, and people missing presumed dead who turn up with memory loss working for the Salvation Army. I like ridiculous teenage drug addicts, late night specials where date rapists get impaled in abandoned fair grounds, schemeing evil wives, and closet gay priests. Who doesn't?

I also have a massive girl crush on Libby Kennedy. I grew up watching the Kennedy family, and my first boy crush was on young Billy. Remember when he asked everyone to call him Bill because it sounded more grown up? Heh, yeah. And my first girl crush? Libby. She's like the amazing older cousin you looked up to as a kid, who always seemed so clever and strong and beautiful and you could never be convinced otherwise, even when she was babysitting in her jogging bottoms and burning your dinner. Even now, I adore her. She can do no wrong.

JKRs prequel-type thing was cool. ( Cut for spoilers )

I also devoured Supernatural: Origins, the graphic novel prequel that follows John Winchester's hunt for the thing that killed his wife. ( Cut for more spoilers! )

ETA: And now I am going to do my ironing and watch the tennis and this makes me very happy indeed. Yay tennis!

Bethnal Green
London - England - United Kingdom

A neighborhood on London's East End, historically known as a poor area. Bethnal Green was also where Willy Widdershins pranked Muggles with exploding toilets, which Mr. Weasley had to investigate in OP9.

(From the Harry Potter Lexicon)

Yay! So THAT's why my toilet exploded! Our new one is lovely though. It doesn't spray sewage out the back or anything. A "plumber" came and fixed it. I like to think it was one of Mr Weasley's colleagues from the Ministry.

Have I mentioned how much I love Planet Rock? They can't close it down, I can't get any other channels on my DAB for one thing!

Other than the amazing Alice Cooper breakfast show (SO worth getting out of bed for), there are the taglines. Oh the taglines. Personal favourites so far include:

At Planet Rock, we want to teach the world to sing. Like this... (cue classic rock song)
We're not rocket scientists, but we know how to rock it!
And the absolutely, laugh out loud brilliance of:
If music be the food of love... stand by for a good rogering!

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Meep. I've almost finished writing my article on lone travelling, although not quite. Although it's getting hugely long. Eep. And it's kind of birthed a second article whilst being written, which is exciting!

In non-journo school related news, I finally finished reading The Testament of Gideon Mack which was interesting in a slow sort of way. It was readable, but I think I missed the point. If there was one. I enjoyed it though, in an interesting, character-study way, but I suppose as an avid sci-fi lover, I read supernatural elements a little too literally by default.

I have an excited pile of books waiting for me now. I ordered a bunch off Amazon, despite being skint. I have:

The Postman Always Rings Twice- James M. Cain
The Big Sleep- Raymond Chandler
Crooked Little Vein- Warren Ellis
A Pretty Face- Rafael Reig

And also Reig's Blood on the Saddle, which I read a while back and really enjoyed, so I though I'd invest in my own copy.

A whole bunch of noir/detective novels to devour. Yum! I don't no where to start... with a classic noir or a more modern book? I'm excited about Ellis's novel, especially, as I enjoy his surreal, dark, gory comic storylines.

Books=squee.

Also, I have started knitting a sleeve for my sick jumper (I'm making my first ever jumper and it's shaping up to be an ill-fitting, Weasley-esque monstrosity. I'm very excited about this fact. I want people in the street to go "ohhhh... Did you make it yourself? How.... nice." and throw up in their mouths a little, but secretly be really jealous that THEY don't have a hideous, candy-coloured, acrylic disaster to keep them slightly itchy). My first every sleeve! I'm excited, although I'm knitting it so slowly because I keep putting it down for ages... Still if I get enough work done this week, which it looks like I might, I can take an afternoon off to watch crappy films and KNIT. Yay!

Oh my gosh, I'm so BORED. They have me answering the phone, and that's IT. And it doesn't ring that often... I got here at ten to nine and so far I've taken six or so calls. And one walk-in. Oh, and I did about ten minutes of filing. How do people do this for a living?

Yesterday I spent the whole day reading my book, reading the paper (they get the Telegraph, ick!) and looking for jobs on the internet. And staring into space. At least they have Radio One on so I'm not doing it all in silence.

Actually my book is really good. It's set in futuristic Madrid, and centers around a detective agency investigating murders, missing fictional characters and a spate of thefts of the severed heads of magicians' assistants, stolen during the sawing-in-half trick. It's in noir style, narrated by an alcoholic private dick whose partner is obsessed with his ant colony and the ins and outs of male fashion. It's called Blood on the Saddle by Rafael Reig.

I'm still bored though.