Couple of books recently read

Including: 

• Lego: A Love Story (Jonathan Bender);
• Labyrinth (Kate Mosse); and
• Paula Spencer (Roddy Doyle)

Lego: A Love Story is an interesting book. Jonathan Bender spent some time with AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego), attending their conventions, building their challenges and just generally falling back in love with Lego (though not quite to the same extent as some of the others described in the book). Nicely written, it's a really intriguing and at times puzzling story about how grown-ups still play, model, and build with what is traditionally seen as a child's toy.

He describes the model Titanic built for a convention, the input that the AFOLs have on the kits that Lego develop and the obsessive compulsions suffered and enjoyed by collectors and builders as they buy and sell individual bricks and pieces over the internet. I recommend this for anyone who is still a little bit of a child, and for anyone who isn't (yet) still a little bit of a child. Enjoyed, 4/5.

Labyrinth is a Grail tale - 2 stories set centuries apart in and around Carcassonne in Southern France. One woman is a modern day archaeologist, another a mediaeval woman living in the time of the Crusades. I read this, and I think you might like it if you like the grail legend type of thing, but it was just too long for me. I had stayed attracted to it for about half of it and so I finished it but it didn't leave a lasting impression on me either way. So, I suppose 2.5 out of 5. 

Paula Spencer - fans of the Van, the Snapper and the Commitments might be surprised by this book, as it doesn't quite have the same style as those. An excellent character study, it watches Paula (a recovering alcoholic who's just got out of a difficult relationship) for a year of her life. Really astute dialogue between the characters (mostly Paula's children and sisters) builds their personae into something really believable. This one was well able to keep my attention and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 4/5 

I'm finally reading Catch-22, and enjoying that. It's superficially zany, but I think there's a deeper commentary on madness in there. I can see how it's such a classic, and I love finally understanding the phrase! More on that later.

Book review: The Christmas club

This book by Stephen Price is A decent read, well told. 6 people meet in Christmas 1989 in an abandoned house in Donegal, have a great time and prise to meet up every year. They don't of course, life gets in the way, but they do meet again in 2002.

Intervening years have brought change to them all, success in varying degrees - and stresses and strains in other ways. The events of their final meeting are perhaps a commentary on the way Irish society changed over those years.

Would recommend.

And lo, there was some nostalgic reading

I'll have to get off this nostalgia kick, it's getting in the way of photography... Just as a "challenge" I re-read "Danny the Champion of the World" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl recently.....and thoroughly enjoyed them. Yes, it brought back memories, but also, they're great stories. You all know about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, maybe you've also seen the films, but Danny is a brilliant story.

A mechanic and his son live in a caravan next to the workshop, scratching out an honest living off local and passing trade. As the son grows up, he realises that his father loves poaching, and catches him sneaking off one night. So the tale goes, and they describe many ingenious and clever (and Dahl-esque) methods of catching the pheasants - you may recall if you've read it that some of them involve horsehair and raisins - and how pleasurable it is to take a pheasant out of the forest belonging to the local nasty rich chap.

The story climaxes as the rich chap prepares for the annual shoot, that hundreds of the pheasant have been reared for. Danny and his father want to scotch the shoot (having rightfully developed a dislike of this guy during the book) and so they set about plotting to sabotage the whole thing by poaching all of the pheasant! Needless to say it is a success, but it's brilliant the way it all works out in the end.

I commend them both (and all of Dahl's stuff, I suppose!) to you, even if you're a "grownup". Enjoy! And yes, they were the original copies I had as a child....even seeing the illustrations brought some of my childhood back with a jolt. Great stuff.

Room by Emma Donoghue, and some useful links

I read Room, by Emma Donoghue, a couple of months ago. It's one of the books that stick in my mind, like the Life of Pi, or Sunday at the Pool in Kigali - well written, well driven and to reuse an oft-mentioned word, compelling. Room tells the story of a young boy who lives with his mother in a small room - this is (for most of the book) the entire realm that these 2 characters exist in.

The story is told from Jack's 5-year old viewpoint, so everything has a character and is anthropomorphised in the way that 5-year old boys do (well, as far as I can remember anyway) so well. But you can probably guess that Jack and Ma aren't in the room naturally, so to speak, though as usual I'm loathe to give away much of the plot as if you haven't read it I'll spoil it on you.

This book raises your heartbeat and is truly edge of your seat reading. I read it in one sitting, pretty much, only putting it down half way through to catch my breath. Definitely one for the must-read pile. Shouldawundabooker.

So, while you're reading that curled up next to a fire while the weather outside continues to freeze and snow and do unspeakably wintry things to us, you might be looking for some information on roads and stuff. These links below might be of use:

Kildare Co. Co. Emergency News webpage

Bus Éireann's travel information

Met Éireann's interactive 5-day forecast (winds, precipitation and temperature)

Irish Weather Online

Dept. of Transport Scary Weather Information Page with other links and stuff

AA Roadwatch (as if you didn't know this one already)

RTÉ's weather and transport feed

New pics announced, and a book finished

Just added a couple more pictures onto my pix.ie profile, taken this evening - go have a look and laugh!

Also, today I finished Asne Seierstad's One Hundred and One Days. This book was written by a journalist corresponding for Scandinavian press and media from Baghdad during the US attacks in the early 2000's, and gives a very close view of life in a city under attack, as well as the other bureaucratic and propagandist trials and tribulations of being a journalist in Iraq. Well written and compelling, worth a read.

It highlights the frustration that journalists encounter, and the realities of life for reporters working in a warzone outside the 4 or 5 minute report that we watch at 6pm in our cosy sitting room world.

The Lost Booker prize

Apparently, they didn't award a Booker Prize in 1970, for some reason, but recently they awarded one to fill the gap. The book that won was recently read by your correspondent -Troubles, by J.G. Farrell.

Set in a hotel in Ireland around the time of the War of Independence (early 1920s, methinks), it tells the story of the time through the metaphor of the hotel and it's occupants. Really, I didn't know what to expect, but I enjoyed it - it's well crafted, but I didn't find it as engaging as some other books I've read recently (e.g. Room). I don't know if I'd make it a recommendation, though you probably would enjoy it.

J.G. won another Booker Prize for his book "The siege of Krishnapur," so I must check the library catalogue for that one and put it on my list if I can!

Onwards and Upwards, Asne Seierstad's "A Hundred and one Days" is next on the list.

And tonight's posting was brought to you by a Deuchars IPA (mmmmmm, wonderfully moreish every time) and a Brewdog Pilsner. Not at the same time though.

Measuring the world, Or: A book review

I have just this evening finished "Measuring the World", Daniel Kehlmann's book about von Humboldt and Gauss - translated from the German, of course. Let me say from the outset that I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and even translated, it's writing is succinct, eloquent and very readable. It's a novel, told semi-biographially about the German explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt, and his explorations, and the German mathematician and scientist Carl Gauss.

These are 2 very different stories, one story centres on the wide-ranging explorations to South America, and Asia, that von Humboldt undertakes, discovering, naming, climbing and generally exploring his way around, compared to a more homely and less glamorous life that Gauss had, working on astronomy and of course, mathematics. In the end, of course, von Humboldt reflects on these differences and asks which, if either, of them, had the greater journey of discovery.

To be honest, I don't know enough about either man to know whether the book is highly fictionalised, or biographically accurate - it doesn't really matter though, I think there's enough truth in the book to make it believable. It evokes a wonderful sense of being in an age of constant discovery in all fields - geography, botany, anthropology, astronomy, mathematics, physics....you get the picture, and even as a translation it's brilliantly written and very very readable - I highly recommend it!

10 minutes to big lotto win!

I'm posting now, just before I win the lotto this evening. It's gonna be great!

This evening I came across project gutenburg, which I'd heard of before but never investigated. It's a Web2.0 project to publish ebooks for free - presumably out of copyright texts. Maybe more on that later. Anyway, through that, I joined up with distributed proofreading - as an important part of the Gutenburg project.

The way it works is this - someone scans a page, and uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to turn the scanned image into text. This doesn't always work smoothly, which is where the first stage of proofreading comes in (this is as far as I've got - you have to have 300 pages successfully proofread before proceeding, presumably to weed out the unhelpful). Your mission should you accept it is to ensure that the OCR has properly reflected the actual text - an image of which is presented to you on your monitor with the OCR text below.

I've done 3 pages so far, I reckon if I try and do one or 2 a day I'm helping bring books to the masses. And I love books, whatever about the masses......plus, I might get to read some interesting stuff?

I've bought some Guinness in a bottle - not the draught kind, the "old fashioned" kind. More on that experiment another time. When I win the lotto, I'll be able to proofread all day, while drinking beer!

Ambiorix, getting frothy

I opened one of my bottles tonight. It's a 500ml bottle, and I'd say it was about 450ml full of beer. I'm glad I opened it over the sink, because I got about 100ml left for the glass.....some of it got onto the worktop and some of it made it's way onto the floor, F1winner-esque. Such is beer. It's ok, i might get some reports from bottles soon.

Honestly, though, I put the same amount of sugar in it as the instructions told me, so it's not my fault.

I finished a book called Unspeak during the week, which discusses the way language has changed recently. It's pointedly concerned with the abuse of language that has evolved in recent times around wars, and invasions - Iraq, Afghanistan etc. Whilst interesting, and well-researched, I found it a little obvious myself. Most people know that words have been spun into new uses recently, renditions, collateral damage and so on being used to frame our view of the news.

That said, it does add a little depth, but overall a slightly tedious read. So, I'm off to warn the poor punters that got bottles....

I recently finished a couple of books. Not at the same time, that would be confusing, but within the last couple of weeks.

One was Daemon, a techno-thriller by a chap called Leinad Zeraus. I never had heard of him before, but judging by the ending there's probably another book either out there already, or on the way shortly. This was very enjoyable. I don't know how to describe the plot, so Ill tell you briefly what happens. A games developer dies. Strange things start to happen - like deaths and that. Turns out, the games developer had left a set of instructions on some computers about causing some mischief and mayhem after his (admittedly early) death.

It's believable far-fetched, or would it be fairer to say far-fetchedly believable? Anyway, it'll take more than AVG antivirus to solve this problem! Highly recommended.

The other book will be mentioned shortly. Today we were in Stradbally for the steam rally. Not as good as 2006, but maybe it's cos we'd seen it before. Beer 2 is bubbling away nicely...

Oh, I totally forgot and had to come back - we had some beautiful icecream at Stradbally. Rossmore home-made icecream. Delicious, creamy, and better value than a 99. I had chocolate and hazelnut (which was really tasty without being overpoweringly chocolatey) and toffee, while M had vanilla and honeycomb (which was really nice, not too sweet!). I can't link to them cos they don't got no website!

Further edit - this from laoisfoods.com,and more from the Kilkenny People from some time or other "The ice cream factory set up at Rossmore, Rathdowney by Aubrey and Rebecca Stanley is now up and running. Trading under Rossmore Farm House Ice cream it is a family enterprise. They have their refrigerated van and sell on Fridays to the Farmer's Market, Portlaoise and on Saturdays to the market in Thurles.Anyone can call to the factory and purchase ice cream."

Some books I've been reading recently

I hope I've not mentioned these already - that's reasonably likely to happen!

Nicholas Evans - The Divide. I spose you'd call this family drama, as it centres around a family. Missing daughter, eco-activism, and a mystery associated with the finding of a body. Family intrigue, secrets and all kinds of things like that. Good. Not exceptional, but no waste of time.

James Siegal - Detour. Imagine going to Colombia to adopt a child? You're bound to be kidnapped and blackmailed, being double crossed at every turn. Still, you might enjoy it - I did!

Giles Milton - Edward Trencom's Nose. Like cheese? Like the smell of cheese? See a Greek connection? Neither did I, but there is one. This is a very unusual book - slow to start and slow to end, but very nicely written. You can forgive this for the front 2/3rds of the book, but on completion you feel something else might have been more rewarding. Meh-ok.

Terry Pratchett - Strata. Nah, don't bother. It's not a Terry Pratchett book, well, not one you'd want to read.

HG Wells - The first men in the moon. The moral of the story is, be careful if your neighbour invents an antigravity metal, it will only lead to trouble. That said, it's an imaginative tale, told in a Victorian kind of style. Readable, and well written considering it was probably one of the pioneers of offworld travel writing.

Frank Miller - The Dark Knight Returns: Graphic Novel - a proper dark Batman tale. It's a long comic, read it with that in mind, and it has a good story. Recommended.

Trying to blur the lines betwen reality and silicon based lifeforms...

I came across a news story yesterday, which mentions the case of a young man who has been sentenced to death in Alabama in the US after murdering 3 policemen. Almost unthinkably, the defendant attempted to use a defence based on influence exerted on him by playing computer games, apparently Grand Theft Auto 3 chiefly among them.

Aside: Grand Theft Auto is a game wherein the player takes part in criminal activity generally involving homicide, gun crime and vehicular rampage in order to further his position within the gang system inherent in the game.

Of course, as an occasional and one-time frequent computer game player, I have never killed anyone nor considered it right to do so based on what I'd seen on the monitor in front of me. (no doubt many of you are relieved....) Nor indeed on things seen on the television, or even read (heavens forbid) in books, and the books can be worse than the computer games and telly.

I'm glad (but also gladly unaffected) by the decision of the court in this case not to accept that defence. Naturally I'm saddened at the sentence (it being capital in this case) but if a defence like that were to become legal precedent we'd be in awful trouble.

Interestingly, the family of the defendant in this case is pursuing the creators and vendors of the game in a civil action. We should watch that space.

Books.

Hugh Laurie - an author? I didn't believe it until I read the book. "The Gun Seller" was leant (loaned?) to me, and I picked it up slightly incredulously. That said, I laughed out loud on a number of occasions quite early into the book, however, once I'd become used to the comic style (think Christopher Brookmyre) it wasn't quite so funny. If you want to know what its about, I suggest you read a proper review somewhere - in brief, there's an ex-army soldier, some arms dealing and that kind of stuff. I seem to remember a love interest too, but presume that's by the by. I can't remember much of it, except it was at least entertaining. 13/16.

V for Vendetta - Alan Moore and David Lloyd put this one together. Another of the great graphic novels (grown up books for children) I've read recently (see my Watchmen review - that's brill by the way - the book that is....). As I said before, it's obviously a more visual medium than most wordsonly books, but that makes it different, not sillier. An interesting, if slightly complicated story - it only really became clear to me on seeing the film - revolving around a less than liberal (read semi-dictatorial) police state in the not too distant future (10 years or so in the future). Well-drawn, and only let down by a slightly complex (in my reading of it) story. Not as good as Watchmen, but not by much!

In fact, the film is very very good too. Watch it.

Am decking

Not blogging.
A Bookcrossing book was released by I in Maynooth, it was taken but has not yet been registered...

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has been finished and is a very powerful book. I shan't say anything more on it, to be honest anything I'd say might well ruin it. Would be happy to discuss it more privately if anyone wants to hear anything more about it. Other than that, it's not to be spoilt so....just read it if you want to read a book that leaves an impression.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman has also been completed recently. Very well written, NG must have put serious effort into research into this book. It's almost fantasy, but based in modernish America, where there's a war of will, or a war of worship being waged between the old pagan gods brought over by settlers (Norse gods, Gaelic gods and so on) and the new gods (materialism, television, you get the picture). I felt the book didn't quite have the climax it seemed to be building to, but I certainly enjoyed reading it. Put it in the "better than most" recommendation pile.

Was there something else....oh yes - Iain Banks' "The Steep Approach to Garbadale." Garbadale is the climactic setting for this part family saga, part forbidden love story set in Scotland. The family saga is to do with whether or not the family, which owns the rights to a seriously successful board game, is prepared to sell said game to a multinational for a serious amount of money. The forbidden love, well I try not to give too much away in this blog but it's a difficult story between cousins. As you're used to me saying, Banks is a fantastic writer and evokes great conversations and characters. As you're used to me saying, I thoroughly enjoyed this 'un too!

I bid you goodnight, as I return to the gradual onset of muscle fatigue. This better be worth it!

Ah. Here I am.

As in, I haven't been on blogger in a while, have I? Excuses here: Excuse 1 - We had Internet problems - in fairness to Eircom the first fault was cleared within 3 days, and the 2nd fault within 24 hours. Excuse 2: There is no excuse 2.

As the weather has been particularly bad of late, I have been doing a good bit of reading, so here's the low down on the literature.

This is Charlie Bird, by Charlie Bird and Kevin Rafter. The Household Name of RTÉ, you would assume that a man with a life as exciting and varied as they come would be able to write a humdinger of a memoir, wouldn't you? On the contrary, I found this book to be a little too dry and almost robotic in its presentation, and would find it hard to recommend it to be honest. There's no doubt that the content is interesting, everything from natural disaster to freedom fight has been covered by the man after all, but I think the writing lacks something.

The Cloudspotters Guide, Gavin Pretor-Pinney. This is a real gem of a book. Lovely asides, and a real easiness about it. I hope this guy writes about something else... Genuinely this book captivates and engages, and brings new insight and appreciation of the everyday picture show that takes place above our heads. Naturally, you mightn't take it all in after the first sitting, but it's the kind of book you might keep handy to identify clouds. Makes you want to sit outside of a summers evening, if we ever were to get one, with a couple of beers and watch the sky for entertainment. Highly recommended.

300 Frank Miller's graphic novel on which the recent, excellent, film was based. I saw this with a reduced price sticker on it in a bookshop. Sucker, it screamed at me. Yes, I replied. And I read it, or watched it - I'm not sure how you describe the act of appreciating a graphic novel (yes, it's a long comic for those of you who're thinking it...). (I've just come back up from the bottom of the post to say that the book is about the Spartans' defence of the Hot Gates in the battle of Thermopylae, against Xerxes and the nasty Persians. Wikipedia will sort you out for more background)

See, graphic novels are great, in a different way to "word-books". On one hand, the imagination is not so challenged, as you're shown graphically how characters and scenes look. But you can get a better sense of emotion from a well drawn facial expression, or a better sense of place from a well-drawn landscape - stories have a little more immediacy. Of course, the key is "well-drawn" - the genre wouldn't and doesn't work when the art isn't up to it.

I digress, however, but 300 is a well-drawn novel, and the film bears a great resemblance to the book. That said, it's easily read in an hour or so, and doesn't have the complexity of other books - so you don't feel so fulfilled after finishing it. Naturally, it's recommended as an easy read for an afternoon or something - though the book itself is a little unwieldy physically...

Around the World by Mouse, Harry Pearson. Harry tries to travel the world by using the internet. Hmm, this is certainly entertaining, if a little.....pointless? Maybe that's a little strong a word, but the book was more a "stream of consciousness" without any real aim. He mentions travelling on boats, or meeting people - but never actually says whether he was emailing these people, or viewing boats on websites - and the text seemed to be cut and pasted from the internet itself. Mildly amusing - mildly recommended.

The Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The second graphic novel (long comic) this post, and an excellent read it is too. The artwork is superb, the story is as engaging as any you'd find in an ordinary book, and it entertained me for a good long time. Characters are as deep and as "human" as in any other book, and the story is well stitched together. Genre-defining, according to the back of the cover - and agreed with by this reviewer. Most Highly Recommended. Out of 59, I'd give it 59, it's really good.

So, I'm going back to pray for rain, as the weather's been so bad this last month that praying for rain could only bring about an improvement. Goodnight, and sweat dreems.

The best bookshop....ever.

If a certain brewer made bookshops, then this would be theirs. Of course, that brewer doesn't make the best beer in the world according to the taste buds attached to the tongue of your intrepid reviewer, but assume they actually do. The bookshop of which I speak is Chapters which has recently moved to Parnell Street, Dublin 1. And it's heeeee-youdge. Massive. Lots and lots and lots and lots of books. With second hand ones upstairs. And books on fire engines, cars, puppies, classics, new fiction, old fiction, science fiction, science, everything, and somehow more. I could spend the day in it. Naturally, I was very careful not to pick up a book, as I knew that if I did, I'd be snared, and would end up buying lots of books. Luckily, I only bought one. M bought 2. It'd nearly be worth going in for Chapters alone. Top work - chaps and chappettes of Chapters. May I wish you ongoing success. Take it to the multiples.

Some more books and walks and stuff.

Some more recent conquests in the book world have been "Amo, amas amat... and all that" - How to become a latin lover, by Harry Mount, and A Book Addict's Treasury (yes, very fitting, I know).

The Latin one was very interesting, it's like a basic introductory course to Latin. The good thing about it is that even if you don't learn any of the verbs or declensions or nasty grammar stuff, it's full of amusing and interesting anecdotes about where some of our English words came from, and Roman emperors and contributions to society. I recommend it as a nice light read, and if you want to take it seriously you can refresh your Latin as well! Good stuff. 3 thumbs up.

The Book Addicts treasury is a collection of quotes and writings and tips on how to keep your books, catalogue them, lend them, find them, buy them and borrow them. Great to dip in and out of in between other books, and fantastic for finding arguments for keeping books! (Though you have to keep it under lock and key, as there are arguments against keeping books too....sssh don't let the Book Police find it)


Speaking of finding books, I found my first book from www.bookcrossing.com (tell them I sent you - prenderb there too). For those of you that haven't heard of book crossing, the principle is that you register the book on the website, and it's given a unique identifier. You make a journal entry, maybe review the book, then flag it on the website when you leave it somewhere public for someone to find (called releasing). People who look in that location (say it's Naas, or Newbridge) will then get an email notifying them, and the hunt is on! When it's found, in theory the finder should log it on the site as found, so you can follow the book on it's journey.

I got the email on a Sunday evening, saying that a book had been left in a large DIY/Interior shop in Newbridge-with quite specific instructions that it was in a drawer on a furniture display. So Monday morning (gotta love flexitime...) I was opening drawers in the furniture display at 9 am. I opened about 15 different drawers and presses before I found it - excellent! So it's being read at the moment, and I'll naturally tell you about it in due course. I plan to release it, and hopefully follow it onto the next reader. (I released a book before, but nobody logged it on the website awh....)

And I've been walking again in the Slieve Blooms. Another fairly serious 10-miler, at Hundredacre and along the Crumlin river. Great scenery and the weather was very kind to us - it didn't rain till I'd started the engine when we were finished! More details on www.slievebloom.ie/walking

Some books

The Chocolate one that I know sparked all of your interest a couple posts ago, is Paul Richardson's "Indulgence" - one man's selfless seach for the best chocolate in the world. This is an interesting book, and i can testify as to it's effect on the reader's appetite. Since reading this book, I've been experimenting with chocolate of higher and higher percentages of cocoa, and that's a noble pursuit. An acquired taste, perhaps, like coffee, but worth it ultimately. Also, less chocolate is required at 75% than at Moro% to satisfy a sweet tooth. I digress...

The book explores chocolate's beginnings as a health drink in the Aztec and other civilisations of South America. He moves on to describe the sensitivities of the cacao plant and the production of the beans themselves. Then it moves into talking about it's (chocolate's) migration to Europe and America and the corruption of the taste into the sweeter milk chocolate we see on the shelves of the local shop. The importance and growth of chocolate during the second World War is discussed, and this may well have been the boom in chocolate's fortunes that sees it being consumed in such quantities in recent times!

As a book, it's nicely written language-wise, but I'm not sure the author really maximised the potential of the story - that said, I'm not sure how he could have done that either - helpful, aren't I? What the book mostly did, was enhance my appetite for "dark" chocolate, and if you read this I would be surprised if it didn't happen to you! On the strength of the subject matter and the promotion of "real" chocolate, I recommend this book for your reading!

Also recently finished is Neil Gaiman's short story collection, "Smoke and Mirrors". I got a strong feeling of déja vu (déja lit?) while reading this book. Maybe I had read it before. Anyway, short story collections, as you know, are great for dipping in and out of, and this one has a good selection of weird and wonderful stories, some based loosely on traditional fairy tales, others being modern fairy tales (a woman finds the Holy Grail in a charity shop for example) - all will tickle the imagination.

John McGahern's "The Barracks" is in the blogabout pile aswell. This was one of a box-set of John's books that I have, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of them. The story is based around a Garda Barracks in the early days of the Garda Síochana, and the family attached to the Sergeant who lived there. It follows the struggle of the sergeant, Reegan, to disentangle himself from the police force, and also the struggle of his wife with illness, and the minutiae of the daily routine in the barracks. There is sadness and happiness, there is camaraderie and rivalry, love and distance. I can't say for sure, but most of the human condition is explored!

Apparently the Times Literary Supplement said the book was written with "a formal, graceful prose that rises effortlessly to the moving occasion" and I couldn't put it better. The story unfolds in front of your eyes almost without having to think about it. The author's style is descriptive without being overt, and the images are created almost subconsciously through his words. I hope if you read this that you enjoy it as much as I have.

On a final note, it's raining. Hope the grass benefits!

Photos will be uploaded soon

Those of you who wrote to ask for Rome photos hopefully won't have too much longer to wait. I'll try and get some uploaded this evening.

Some Hiking has been happening, courtesy of the Slieve Bloom walking festival. How I never walked in the Slieve Blooms before I don't know, but there's some nice walking for doing. I met up with a large group of about 60 walkers today for a nice hike at Glenfelly, near Kinnity. We split up into two groups but unfortunately amalgamated again - unfortunate as the reason was someone sprained their ankle. Luckily it was only a minor injury, but it brings home the importance of good quality walking boots for the hills - this woman wore only runners, and there was a lot of muck and stream crossings...Pics later, as I hope to go again tomorrow.

So, M's away in London, gallivanting no doubt. Little does she know she's been enrolled for the year's walking programme in the Slieve Blooms! That'll teach her.

Cross your fingers the rain stays off tomorrow afternoon. Books to be reviewed shortly and pictures to be loaded - watch this space!

Some books I've read recently

(BTW some info on Rome is being prepared behind the scenes, watch the space above this one...)

"Arthur and George" - Julian Barnes. I went through a brief phase of reading some of the shortlist of the Booker Prize. This one was there too, and for good reason. Again, like On Beauty it's well-written and engaging. Cleverly, the book starts with separate stories for Arthur (Arthur Conan Doyle) and George (George Edalji) but dovetails them elegantly about halfway through. The plot revolves around the conviction of George for crimes carried out in his village, but he protests his innocence - Arthur takes up his case and fights to clear his name. Justice, evidence, and human rights are all themes running through this story, and like the above, I really got involved in the book and found it very hard to put down. Top marks again for this one!

"Use of Weapons" - Iain M. Banks. Another of Banks' thrilling sci-fi outings, this one deals more closely with the Special Circumstances and Contact sections of the Culture, the organisations that try to "influence" the fates of other worlds and races. It's less technology-focussed than others of his books, - not that that would take away from the story, it's still set in the same universe - it concentrates instead on the subterfuge involved in trying to pre-arrange events on alien worlds (which we are all, no doubt, familiar with...!?). Thoroughly enjoyable, if (for me anyway) a little less so than Excession by the same author.

I went for a walk yesterday, along Glenbarrow and the ridge of Capard, in the Slieve Blooms. With fantastic weather and lovely scenery, I had a lovely couple of hours. Found the route here. And, the Slieve Blooms are much closer than the Wicklow Mountains. There's a full programme of walks starting in May, and I hope to tag along with at least one or two. (Some piccies below!)