The Year of the Three Winters

So this weekend the mother of all storms headed our way.  The thunder was so loud yesterday it shook the lab and had a really loud thud - I actually thought someone had dropped or managed to push over one of the rather heavy, expensive pieces of equipment we have at work.  So went out of the lab (which doesnt directly look outside) and looked out of the write up room windows and the rain was so thick you just about couldn't see through it.  Unreal - so was a complete surprise when I woke up this morning and there was blue sky to be seen.  I liked that a lot and started making plans to go into Wellington and grab B's Schoc chocolate and coffee beans to send to Shepshed asap.  Then it got very dark and the heavens (cause God hangs out in Totara Park) opened and gale force winds ripped through shaking the darling buds of September!  Then I thought well everything I wanted to buy can be found online and I will order them when I am in Napier.  That and my coat needed a clean so I whacked it into the washing machine this morning - just another reason not to go to Wellington today.

Earthoria

Which brings me back to that this year is notable for a number of things but will be remembered as the year of the three winters.  My first winter was in the UK - which was the coldest for 31 years and was memorable for lots and lots of snow, buses skidding sideways and a taxi putting on the brakes two houses away from our apartment and skidding to a halt directly outside our driveway.    Not having grown up in place where there is a lot of snow (I didn't really experience snow till I went to live in South Korea) - Napier is more known for sun, sun, sun.  I loved the snow - don't love the ice so much.  Decided I love our awesomely insulated and double glazed skylights as well - it makes a difference.  

Although to be fair when this hit B and I were swapping rings and the like but you get the idea and I suspect this weekends weather is looking very similar...

The second winter has been in the land of the long white cloud - or rather black grey clouds and freezing cold.  I forgot my thermals and had to get B to send them over - Doh!  And it has been sometimes decidedly unpleasant without a car (Upper Hutt is not known for its excellent transport) I took to wearing two scarves and hiding under trees whilst waiting for the bus (no bus shelter sigh).  The house I have been living in is quite light and sunny, but NZ houses aren't known for double glazing or insulation, so when it is cold, it is really cold.   But having said that the temperature has moved in an upwards direction just in time for me to make an exit stage left back to the UK in time for my third winter.  I must admit that it wasn't planned to be the three winters in a row - I had to come back to NZ to get a visa to stay in the UK - which took longer than I thought and was quite stressful really - but all sorted now and I have the lovely but expensive visa sticker in my passport and I will guard it well!!

I now have my eyeballs on a new winter coat and some wool tights for our trip to Glasgow to ring in the Christmas Party with Psychochicken and his most lovely woman.  Rock on with the snow!

S.

Spring is in the air...

Not known to be the cultural mecca of New Zealand, Upper Hutt's Spring Carnival (really a fair down the main street) was quite enjoyable.  I even bought a politically incorrect golliwog knitted by elderly members of the Upper Hutt Bowling Club.  Not for the faint of bogan's or crowds but kinda cool anyway.  Best picture of the day.

Seriously where else can you find Punch and Judy cavorting with the devil (or SATAN) as the voice person was quite keen to tell the audience....

S.

Come on Kindle, light my fire....

So in previous posts I have extolled the virtues of reading books as God first thought them out i.e. ink on paper and for all intents and purposes I don't think you can go past the whole book reading experience smells and all.  However, books cost money, and in New Zealand books are unbelievably expensive and I'm not as down with that as I once was - even going to the second hand book shop isn't as fun as it once was.  Truth is mostly it because I found a lovely little file sharing site which allows me to download whole series of books in pdf form, in very quick fashion for nothing.  Nada all free.   I am so, so okay with this - and as B said why don't you go to the library - trouble is they often don't have what I want, or if they do I have to wait for it, and the truth is I am a voracious reader.  I read a lot, in the last few months I have read 49 books (which reminds me need to update the list), which, if I had to pay for would have chewed into my budget a fair whack.  I have read them on my mac baby which I love, but lugging it around and reading at the bus stop or on the bus is less than thrilling or really practicable.   Which leads me to thinking that it might be time to invest in a kindle that will allow me to read my pdf's where and when I want.  

I think I may be being dragged kicking and screaming into the world of the kindle, sigh. Sob - Santa can I have one for christmas?  Or even as a pre christmas taster?

S.

Whew!

Wow - Christchurch had a rather large earthquake yesterday morning at 4.35am.  Jolting all and sundry out of beds, cupboards and shelves and onto the floor.  Scared the bejesus out of a lot of people I imagine.  

Have to say woohoo for our earthquake guidelines and building regulations because the majority of buildings didnt fall down and cause injuries and fatalities.  Yay too for the timing of the quake had it been in the afternoon and a weekday I dare say it wouldve been a different story.  Glad my whanau and friends were save and sound just shaken.

S.

Leaving on a Jet Plane 1

So yet again I am making preparations to leave the land of the long white cloud.  I have the UK visa (also known as "The very expensive sticker" in my passport.  I have my tickets booked - Wellington to Napier.  Spend a couple of weeks with peeps I love.  Then on October 15th Napier - Auckland and then Auckland to Heathrow via Hong Kong.

I like flying via Hong Kong it's generally shorter and you can get out and walk about the massive complex that is Hong Kong International.  Compared to LAX it's heaven.  Although I must say Singapore-Changai was really nice but AirNZ (who were cheapest) doesnt fly through Singapore on the way to London.   Am excited must say.  Just organising little things now such as getting a new drivers license and possibly organising a little care package for me to be posted before I leave NZ but in time to be back in time for the postie to deliver it to me.   Have been looking at jobs in the UK and writing apps - Yay - hope the job is forthcoming quickly!

And of course I have made a list of books that may accompany me on the plane :D at the moment it is only two: The Passage and Americans in Paris.   

S.

I thought it was warming up - I was wrong

It was freezing last night and its colder than cold tonight brrrr!  But warm on the inside cause my UK visa came through - hallelujah and thank the baby jesus!  Not necessarily well planned my timing as I will be enjoying three winters this year, but with double glazing and a hefty set of thermals I sense no real problems ahead.  Ewww and highly likely I will get a paper out of six months of work - which works for moi - Im liking that.

Have been reading a lot lately - I found out that around 15 books is the max my brain can tolerate in a two week period before I need a break.  Good to know my limits - will review them later.

S.

Sometimes Winter's just cool...

Upper Hutt on a very foggy morning.  I saw the photo I wanted but had to wait for bystanders to get out of the way.  It works though, it works.

S.

Back to reality, Ooops there goes gravity

I'm quoting Eminem - nice!  It has been grey, rainy and gloomy lately.  Not surprising really it's winter in the deep dark heart of the southern hemisphere.  Today was lovely though - blue, blue sky, but so cold if you came too close your eyes would be in danger.  Snow on the hills was the spectacular reason for the very low temperature last night.  So what does one do when it's cold and rainy and you have no car and the bus service to your suburb doesn't run on Sunday and public holidays?  You read lots of books, listen to music and watch fun movies.

La faute a Fidel! (Blame it on Fidel!)

A lovely wee movie by Julie Gavras about the upheaval a young girl goes through when her thoroughly bourgeois parents decide to take a step sideways and become far more proactive in left leaning humanitarian causes such as abortion in France and advocating for Chilean activists.  It's a really cool look into 1970's French society and social change from a child's perspective.  It is also a look at how parental choices affect children, no matter how well meaning they are.  I really liked the conversation about how group solidarity was different to be a sheeple.

I would say watch it!  It is in French with subtitles in English.

Lungs - Florence and the Machine (2009)

I love Florence's voice.  I love strong interesting female vocalists and Florence is definitely one of them.  I have to say Dog Days Are Over is my favourite song - that and Rabbit Heart (Raise it up).   I also quite liked Hurricane Drunk.  There is a very modified 80's feel going on in this album.  I keep thinking I can hear Talking Heads in Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up).  I like the harp in the background and the fact that she can sing is a definite plus.  Nice to have a boogie and chill out music on the same album.

We saw her live on Jules Holland's New Year's Hootenany and frankly it rocked - this album was a birthday present for my 30 mumblemumble birthday - thank you darling man!

As an aside I-tunes has flung up Fly My Pretties and Fur Patrol - I think I need to have a chillax music night me thinks.

Holysmoke - Gin Wigmore

Now I like her - I like that she writes her own lyrics and music and I like her crusty rusty voice.  It is a plus she is good looking and hails from New Zealand.  She does get a bit thrashed on the radio but Im okay with that cause when Im in the lab doing monotonous stuff singing helps drive away the lab bench blues :D.   Her songs have strong beats and they are very catchy songs that worm their way into your head such that you find yourself singing away to them all day.  I really like Oh My and Too late for Lovers.  She's funky and kinda hot - it will be interesting to see how she develops as a musician.  Her earliest offering Hallelujah was good and I think she's brewing like a nice nana tea.

The live video isn't that flash, you can find another better version here.  She wrote the song when she was 16 - I couldn't write my name at that age :D.

Wideacre - Phillippa Gregory

In the world of Wideacre (the first of a trilogy), it pretty much sucks to be a woman, with no real rights to anything in 18th century England.  Beatrice Lacey loves her bit of land farmed by her semi gentry father - he takes her everywhere teaching her the lay of the land and how to take care of it.  Turns out she is good at it, but she's a bit of a sociopath who will do anything to control that land and see her children inherit that land.  Anything includes murder (twice), attempted murder, fraud, incest, starvation of people on her land and lots of sex.  Oh and she forces her husband to become alcoholic and steals his inheritance.   It is not for the faint of heart and she isn't a particularly likeable character but it's a great to see a strong, dark character in the pages of a nicely, nicely author.  It was a good tale, it got a bit phaffy at the end of the book, felt a bit rushed.  I would possibly read it again.  I think I have to read the rest of the trilogy now.

That's all for now.

S.

Bored? No not I....

It started out as "Yes dear readers - your very absent blogger returns."

AFRIKAANS : Ja liewe lesers - jou baie afwesig is teruggekeer het blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes dear readers - your very absent returning blogger.
ALBANIAN : Po i dashur lexues - bloger shumë mungon tuaj kthyer.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes dear reader - the blogger much miss your turn.
ARABIC : نعم عزيزي القارئ -- المدون افتقد كثيرا دورك.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - the blogger much I miss your turn.
BELARUSIAN : Так, дарагі чытач - блогер я тугу ваша чаргу.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - I blogger anguish is your turn.
BULGARIAN : Да, драги читателю - аз блогър мъка е ваш ред.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - I blogger grief is your turn.
CATALAN : Sí, estimat lector - que pena blogger és el teu torn.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn penalty blogger.
CHINESE : 是的，亲爱的读者 - 轮到你了刑罚的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn penalties blogger.
CHINESE_SIMPLIFIED : 是的，亲爱的读者 - 轮到你了处罚的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn punishment blogger.
CHINESE_TRADITIONAL : 是的，親愛的讀者 - 輪到你了處罰的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn punishment blogger.
CROATIAN : Da, dragi čitatelju - na redu si kazna bloger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your fine blogger.
CZECH : Ano, milý čtenáři - je to vaše pořádku blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
DANISH : Ja, kære læser - det er din ret blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it is your right blogger.
DUTCH : Ja, lieve lezer - het is uw recht blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
ESTONIAN : Jah, kallis lugeja - see on teie õigus blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it is your right to a blogger.
FILIPINO : Oo, mahal na mambabasa - ito ay ang iyong karapatan sa isang blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it is your right to a blogger.
FINNISH : Kyllä, rakkaat lukijat - se on sinun oikeus blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it is your right blogger.
FRENCH : Oui, chers lecteurs - c'est votre droit blogueur.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it's your right blogger.
GALICIAN : Si, caros lectores - que é dereito seu blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, my dear readers - that's right your blogger.
GERMAN : Ja, meine lieben Leser - das ist richtig Ihrem Blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, my dear readers - that's right your blogger.
GREEK : Ναι, αγαπητέ αναγνώστη - ότι είναι σωστός blogger σας.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - the blogger you are right.
HEBREW : כן, קורא יקר - בלוגר אתה צודק.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger you're right.
HINDI : हाँ, प्रिय पाठक - एक ब्लॉगर तुम सही हो.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you're right.
HUNGARIAN : Igen, kedves olvasó - egy blogger, igazad van.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you're right.
ICELANDIC : Já, kæri lesandi - a blogger, ert þú til hægri.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you are right.


I love BAD Translation.  You should too.

Word to the wise

If you are a microbiologist or evolutionary biologist don't read Virolution by Frank Ryan.  It's pop science repetitive vomit.  If you have had any sort of genetics learning it becomes very boring very quickly.  Pity because I thought it would be good.  Now Im not a great decryer of pop science - I just like well written science books that dont read like a massive ego boost on the authors behalf.   For a really cool pop science book on microbiology read these books - I have read them and they are good.  Yes I am a scientist - so you know they're good.  The bold ones are written by author's I just could kiss - they are just that good.

10 Good popular science books (emphasis on the micro side)

1. The Coming Plague - Laurie Garrett (Awesome book - been out a while but still very, very good.  It is on the long side but dont let that stop you very good book)
2. Parasite Rex - Carl Zimmer (one of my favourite pop sci books - really well written and the parasites are just cool)
3. The Seven Daughters of Eve - Bryan Sykes
4. Stiff - Mary Roach
5. The Doctor's Plague - Sherwin B. Nuland
6. Plague's Progress - Arno Karlen
7. Viruses vs Superbugs - Thomas Hausler
8. Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
9. The Hot Zone - Richard Preston ( Very, very interesting book)
10. The Dark Lady of DNA - Brenda Maddox

There are more - I just have to remember which ones I have read - there is a really good one about antibiotics whose name escapes me.  I will return :)

S.

Eww look her eyelashes are fluttering!

Yes dear readers - your very absent blogger has returned. So what have I done since I last posted? Got married, promptly ran away to a faraway land, started a new work contract and moved house. Not much really. I have been reading - lots of science guff but also a few books as well. 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Moral corruption, theft of bodily tissues and the multi-million dollar business that is of the world that is HeLa. HeLa cells are quite frankly God's gift to this world - they have enabled a very large amount of life saving science to proceed eg Polio vaccine, cancer research etc. None of it would have happened if Henrietta Lacks had not contracted the HPV virus which caused cervical cancer. The tumour grew wildly and spread throughout her body eventually killing her. The short and the long of it was that the doctor who first cultivated the cells took them from her pathology without patient permission or any sort of informed consent. He then proceeded to send the cells around the world for a fee. Did I mention this occurred at John Hopkins? It is a really, really interesting book about the life and death and immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks. Oh and the really slack, pass the buck culture that has occurred within the Science community at large and at John Hopkins and Invitrogen in particular.

PS thank you darling man for my bday present.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

Who doesnt love a bit of Zombie gore and biowarefare? I liked it - good for reading on a plane - which is what I did. It is all about our main character chasing, killing and generally blowing up the terrorists and their pet zombies. Not too hard out Im in a thinking mood kinda book - but we all need a blow em up book every now and then.

The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

I like Tess Gerritsen.  I like her slight fluff style of murder thriller novels.  I liked this one too.  It has nuns, blood and gore, and dirty secrets.  Dr Isles and Detective Rizzoli on the case.   Good for killing time.

Eww and I have been watching some movies and docos:

The Bridge 

Compelling and disturbing is an accurate description of this documentary.  It revolves around the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the people who are determined to jump off it.  Literally the stood and filmed for a year people walking the bridge, some stopping, some jumping, some being hauled back over the bridge by worried citizens.  They took note of the jumpers and then went and interviewed the relatives and friends of the jumpers.  In one case it was a guy who stopped a female jumper, in another it was one of the jumpers who decided half way down he didn't want to die and changed his position on the way down,  so instead of dying he just shattered most of the bones in his body.   It was really weird watching these people walk across the bridge trying to pick the one who was going to jump - odd.  It also worried me that they were waiting for these people to jump to film it and not doing anything to stop them - icky ethical issues.  If you get the chance watch it.

Invasion

Im a microbiologist - I inherently wanted to watch it.   A space shuttle crashes bringing a type of alien virus with it and it spreads through blood or body fluid contact (loved the vomiting into coffee pots at a CDC conference).  Enter Nicole Kidman, psychologist and her son (who by rare coincidence has had a type of chicken pox from which he almost died and so is now immune to the scary virus).   The virus enters the human host and become symbiotic once the human enters REM sleep, they then start talking and feeling as one and talk about being harmonious because there is no Other - so no fighting or wars just everyone working together minus the emotions.  The fight is to keep Nicole awake and her boy from his infected father.  Fluff movie but I liked it.

That's all.

S.

Okay I will bite

I haven't been very ranty lately - quite mellow actually.  The thing is at heart I'm a scientist, in particular I am a Microbiologist.  I am also a parent of a teenage girl.  Several headlines and news articles caught my attention this week and annoyed the bejesus enough out of me that I am going to rant.   This rant is pretty much about Immunisation and the media's role in demonizing common good sense science.  Here goes:

Once upon a time a doctor and his colleagues thought that they would publish an article on a study they had carried out.  This study had no real scientific basis, had a small co-hort of 12 individuals amongst other later revealed disturbing unethical bits and pieces going on, but came to the conclusion that the MMR vaccine causes autism.  This piece of research was held up by the media in general, autism conspiracists and general wackaloon's as stone cold solid evidence that the MMR vaccine was mad, bad and dangerous to give your beautiful babies.  Pity of it was that almost as soon as it was published it was called into question and it's findings refuted - did the media want to know? Nope - they ignored the majority of scientists and went with the one study that was the proverbial "whistleblower".   

The result of the media's ability to cause calamity where there was none is that a large number of reasonable, otherwise smart parents were conned into believing that the MMR vaccine could put their child at harm.  Whereas, in reality the truth is that the MMR vaccine is necessary to protect your child from some potentially nasty diseases.  Much like the meningitis jab - had a great conversation with someone last week who said cause the epidemic had "gone away" it wasn't necessary to vaccinate her child.  WTF?? Are you serious?? I mean really - what did you think caused the decrease in cases??  What happens when the now vaccinated cohort grows up and the kids who are being born now aren't vaccinated?  Quite possibly another epidemic - just because we controlled (note I say control not eliminate) this one doesn't mean it wont happen again.  Bacteria and viruses survive because they change and try to dodge the immune system - if you don't give the immune system a heads up - your child has a higher chance of becoming seriously sick and possibly dying.   Am I scaremongering?  I dont think so - I think that is it almost criminally negligent of parents not to vaccinate their children.  We as parents have a responsibility to provide kids with proper care and attention - part of that is ensuring they are healthy and have access to proper medical care.

The other current vaccination scaremongering is concerning Gardisil - the HPV vaccine or rather a HPV vaccine which has been associated (via the media not scientific publications) with nasty side effects like death.   HPV causes cervical cancer - it does.  Part of the problem is that there are many different genotypes of HPV - this vaccination protects against the most commonly associated strains.   So while it is conceivable you may get one of the rarer ones - you will be covered for the most common ones.  You can only do so much.

Am saving the other part of the rant for another time.

Suffice to say vaccinate your child - herd immunity will only take you so far.

S.

Counterclockwise

xkcd

I love the UK's charity shops.  They have the best range of second hand books for the most reasonable prices ever 1 - 2.50 pounds - awesome.  I found Austerlitz on the shelf - love that.  The range of books I find is really cool - it's like people read them once and then give them away - I am so not that kinda girl.  I often read my books once, twice - sometimes three times.  Sometimes more if I am in love with the book.  Go figure.

S.

Ipad me baby!

If it had a camera so I could use it to Skype, it would be sex on legs.  I think I still want one.

Rocky Road Muffins

Rocky Road Slice

Have been tinkering in the kitchen again.  I was envisioning a rocky road inspired muffin and so i whipped up some chocolate muffins with a few additions and from what I'm told they're really yummy.  Sitting here at the moment the recipe with a few tweaks will be perfect - as is would make a nice brownie mixture.  I havent included nuts in this recipe.

Tweaked Rocky Road Muffins

60gms unsalted butter
2 cups of plain flour
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of white sugar

4 Tblspns of best cocoa you can find (im generous with my cocoa more is better than less in my book)

2 tspns baking powder
100gms dark chocolate bits
100gms white chocolate bits
handful of small marshmallows
cup of frozen raspberries

Cream sugar and butter.  Add the egg and mix well.  Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder.  Add to egg/butter mixture, alternating with milk until all mixed well.  Fold in the chocolate bits, marshmallows and raspberries.  Spoon out into muffin cases - makes 10 - 12 muffins.  Preheat oven to 190C cook for 20 mins or until risen.

Original recipe - tasted awesome but didnt rise that well (which might have been temp 180C and the baking soda) and may be more suited to a brownie:

1 cup of plain flour
1 tspn of baking powder
1 egg
1 tspn of baking soda
1/2 cup of milk
50gms of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
4 tblspns of cocoa
100gms of white chocolate
100gms of dark chocolate
handful of marshmallows
1/2 a cup of raspberries

Same directions as before.  Baked for 30 mins at 180C.

Very moist recipe - yummy according to B - king of the sweet muffin.

I was thinking that a dark chocolate ganache and marshmallow topping might be nice - if you were going for a once in a while treat.  No photos I forgot to take any, will next time.

S.

The Tooth Files

I have to admit having a sore (and when I say sore think excruciating pain) tooth can put you off doing pretty much everything else.  So I haven't blogged, nor read any books to blog on lately.  Then the pain stopped, cue abscess with fever and accompanying unbelievably fast swelling, making me look like I had a golf ball in the side of my cheek.  Literally pain stopped early Monday morning and by Tuesday afternoon when I saw the Dentist the swelling had gone from little or none to this large swollen gum and gland.  The lovely Polish dentist shot me full of drugs, drained it and prescribed me heavy duty antibiotics.   God Bless that woman - the swelling has gone down a lot - I don't look like a chipmunk.

Unreal.   I think it was the combination of me taking Nurofen and Panadol (a lot of it as my tooth hurt unbelievably) - downside to this is they also counteracted my immune systems own way of dealing with the cavity.  So when I ran out of Nurofen on Sunday and stopped taking the Panadol (cause I was concerned about the level my liver was processing) my immune system went a bit nuts and attacked the infection.

So feeling better this weekend - swelling hasn't fully gone away yet but haven't finished the course of antibiotics yet.    Off to the dentist again next week to get the tooth sorted out.

Am reading Shattered by Mavis March - is interesting as the autobiographical story of how their family coped when their son suffered a serious head injury and was deemed to be a vegetable by the medical fraternity.

S.

Jealousy will get you no where

Tom Gauld

My hard drive lives again - well that's not technically true.  It died a bad, bad, clicky death - but I have a new one now so my Mac Baby will start producing more blog entries now.  This is Tom Gauld's work - he's great.  He publishes for the Guardian.  Before my hd died I had started compiling a list of all the books I have ever read - that I could remember - scarily there were a large number of SciFi books in there and I hadn't really thought about all the books I had ever read.  Sigh I need to go and feed my habit now.

S.

The Trains are Terrible

The trains were hideous on Friday - but... I finished reading The Interpretation of Murder by Jeb Rubenfeld - awesome book I liked it a lot.  Will review it later.  I went to Oxford and loved the wonderful number of really good bookshops - it was like a test from God and I failed.  I caved and bought Wedlock (which is on the list) and If this is man/truce by Primo Levi (which is not on the list).  Am enjoying Primo Levi - but it's a bitsa book where you have to read it in bits as it's a bit intense and I need a bit of time to do justice to the author's words.  I felt the same about Crash, although the book content is worlds apart.

Hard drive is really, really dead.  Need a new one.

S.

Arrrggghhhh!

Stoopid hard drive died - the mac whisperer said it's probably fatal.  The hard drive is currently in the icu (otherwise known as the freezer).  The entries may be a little slower than I first anticipated.

Stupid hard drive.

S.

Other peoples must read lists

So I have read a lot of books in my lifetime.   Other people have booze, narcotics and quilting, I have my books.  However, each time I move house I do a cull on my books so I couldn't tell you all the books I have read (unlike this man - mildly disturbing but I really cant speak and I'm almost jealous).  I found this list, is quite interesting much more me, although apparently I've only read sixty-one on it, tell lies sixty two I have read the bible - although I am unlikely to read it again.

The list - Ones in green I have read and I agree that you should have read them by now.  Ones in blue have read and would read again, but they didn't rock my world, may not rock yours.  Ones in pink have read and in all truth wont read again.  Yellow I started them but for various reasons (boredom being the big one) didn't finish them and unlikely to finish reading them.

1. King James Bible
2. Quran
3. Abbey, Edward - Desert Solitaire
4. Abbott, Edwin - Flatland
5. Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
6. Adams, Douglas - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
7. Adams, Henry - The Education of Henry Adams
8. Adams, Richard - Watership Down
9. Aesop - Aesop's Fables
10. Agee, James - Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
11. Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women
12. Aligheri, Dante - The Divine Comedy
13. Amis, Kingsley - Lucky Jim
14. Anderson, Sherwood - Winesburg, Ohio
15. Asimov, Isaac - Gold
16. Atwood, Margaret - The Handmaid's Tale
17. Austen, Jane - Emma
18. Baldwin, James - Giovanni's Room
19. Barth, John - Lost in the Funhouse
20. Baum, L. Frank - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
21. Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot
22. Bellow, Saul - Herzog
23. Berger, Thomas - Little Big Man
24. Bester, Alfred - The Stars My Destination
25. Bissinger, H.G. - Friday Night Lights
26. Borges, Jorge Luis - Ficciones
27. Boyle, T. Coraghessan - The Tortilla Curtain
28. Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451
29. Bradley, Marion Zimmer - The Mists of Avalon
30. Bronte, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
31. Bronte, Emily - Wuthering Heights
32. Brown, Dee - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
33. Buck, Pearl S. - The Good Earth
34. Bukowski, Charles - Post Office
35. Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange
36. Burroughs, William S. - Naked Lunch
37. Calvino, Italo - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
38. Camus, Albert - The Stranger
39. Capote, Truman - In Cold Blood
40. Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Game
41. Carroll, Jim - The Basketball Diaries
42. Carroll, Lewis - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
43. Carroll, Peter - Liber Null
44. Carson, Rachel - Silent Spring
45. Cather, Willa - My Antonia
46. Cervantes, Miguel de - Don Quixote
47. Chabon, Michael - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
48. Chandler, Raymond - The Long Goodbye
49. Cheever, John - The Stories of John Cheever
50. Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
51. Clarke, Arthur C. - Childhood's End
52. Confucius - The Analects
53. Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
54. Pat Conroy - The Prince of Tides
55. Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
56. Coupland, Douglas - Microserfs
57. Cunningham, Michael - The Hours
58. Dahl, Roald - Danny the Champion of the World
59. Danielewski, Mark - House of Leaves
60. Davies, Robertson - The Deptford Trilogy
61. Dawkins, Richard - The Blind Watchmaker
62. Delany, Samuel - Dhalgren
63. De Beauvoir, Simone - The Second Sex
64. DeLillo, Dom - Underworld
65. Dick, Philip K. - The Man in the High Castle
66. Dickens, Charles - David Copperfield
67. Dickey, James - Deliverance
68. Dickinson, Emily - The Complete Poems
69. Dinesen, Isak - Out of Africa
70. Doctorow, E.L. - World's Fair
71. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - The Brothers Karamazov
72. Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
73. DuBois, W.E.B. - The Souls of Black Folk
74. Dumas, Alexandre - The Count of Monte Cristo
75. du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca
76. Eco, Umberto - Foucault's Pendulum
77. Eggers, Dave - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
78. Eliot, George - Silas Marner
79. Eliot, T.S. - The Waste Land
80. Ellis, Bret Easton - American Psycho
81. Ellison, Harlan - The Essential Ellison
82. Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
83. Ellroy, James - L.A. Confidential
84. Euclid - The Elements
85. Eugenides, Jeffrey - The Virgin Suicides
86. Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
87. Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
88. Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
89. Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
90. Fo, Dario - Accidental Death of an Anarchist
91. Ford, Richard - The Sportswriter
92. Forster, E.M. - A Room With A View
93. Fowles, John - The Magus
94. Gaarder, Jostein - Sophie's World
95. Gabaldon, Diana - Outlander
96. Gaiman, Neil - American Gods
97. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel - One Hundred Years of Solitude
98. Gibran, Kahlil - The Prophet
99. Gibson, William - Count Zero
100. Ginsberg, Allen - Howl
101. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust
102. Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
103. Grahame, Kenneth - The Wind in the Willows
104. Grass, Günter - The Tin Drum
105. Greene, Graham - The Power and the Glory
106. Grimm, Wilhelm and Jacob - The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
107. Haggard, H. Rider - She
108. Haley, Alex - Roots
109. Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
110. Hamilton, Edith - Mythology
111. Hammett, Dashiell - The Maltese Falcon
112. Hansberry, Lorraine - A Raisin in the Sun
113. Harris, Mark - Bang the Drum Slowly
114. Hawking, Stephen - A Brief History of Time
115. Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
116. Heinlein, Robert - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
117. Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
118. Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell To Arms
119. Henry, O. - 41 Stories
120. Herbert, Frank - Dune
121. Hesse, Herman - Siddharta
122. Hofstadter, Douglas - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
123. Homer - The Odyssey
124. Hornby, Nick - High Fidelity
125. Hughes, Langston - The Collected Poems
126. Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables
127. Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
128. Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
129. Ibsen, Henrik - The Wild Duck
130. Irving, John - A Prayer For Owen Meany
131. Jackson, Shirley - The Lottery and Other Stories
132. James, William - The Varieties of Religious Experience
133. Jin, Ha - War Trash
134. Jones, Edward P. - The Known World
135. Jones, James - From Here to Eternity
136. Joyce, James - Ulysses
137. Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
138. Keats, John - The Complete Poems
139. Kerouac, Jack - On the Road
140. Kesey, Ken - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
141. Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon
142. King, Stephen - It
143. Kingsolver, Barbara - The Poisonwood Bible
144. Kinsella, W.P. - Shoeless Joe
145. Kipling, Rudyard - Kim
146. Knowles, John - A Separate Peace
147. Koestler, Arthur - Darkness at Noon
148. Kohn, Alfie - No Contest
149. Kristol, Irving - Neoconservatism
150. Kundera, Milan - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
151. Lahiri, Jhumpa - Interpreter of Maladies
152. Larson, Erik - The Devil in the White City
153. Larson, Gary - The Complete Far Side
154. Lawrence, D.H. - Sons and Lovers
155. Lee, Harper - To Kill A Mockingbird
156. LeGuin, Ursula K. - The Left Hand of Darkness
157. Lem, Stanislaw - Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
158. Leonard, Elmore - Swag
159. Leopold, Aldo - A Sand County Almanac
160. Levy, Steven - Hackers
161. Lewis, C.S. - Mere Christianity
162. Lewis, Meriwether and Clark, William - The Journals of Lewis and Clark
163. Lewis, Michael - Moneyball
164. Lewis, Sinclair - It Can't Happen Here
165. London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
166. Lowry, Lois - The Giver
167. Mailer, Norman - The Executioner's Song
168. Marlowe, Christopher - Doctor Faustus
169. Martin, George R.R. - A Game of Thrones
170. Marx, Karl - The Communist Manifesto
171. Masters, Edgar Lee - Spoon River Anthology
172. McCarthy, Cormac - The Border Trilogy
173. McCourt, Frank - Angela's Ashes
174. McMurtry, Larry - Lonesome Dove
175. Mellick, Carlton III - Razor Wire Pubic Hair
176. Miller, Arthur - Death of a Salesman
177. Miller, Henry - Tropic of Cancer
178. Miller Jr., Walter M. - A Canticle for Leibowitz
179. Milne, A.A. - Winnie the Pooh
180. Milton, John - Paradise Lost
181. Moore, Alan - The Watchmen
182. More, Thomas - Utopia
183. Morris, Edmund - Dutch
184. Morrison, Toni - Beloved
185. Murakami, Haruki - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
186. Nabokov, Vladimir - Lolita
187. Nietzsche, Friedrich - The Portable Nietzsche
188. Oates, Joyce Carol - We Were The Mulvaneys
189. O'Nan, Stewart - A Prayer for the Dying
190. Orczy, Baroness Emmuska - The Scarlet Pimpernel
191. Orwell, George - 1984
192. Palahniuk, Chuck - Fight Club
193. Perez, Richard - The Loser's Club
194. Pirsig, Robert - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
195. Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
196. Plato - The Republic
197. Poe, Edgar Allan - Collected Tales and Poems
198. Pound, Ezra - Selected Poems
199. Pullman, Philip - Northern Lights
200. Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
201. Quinn, Daniel - Ishmael
202. Rand, Ayn - The Fountainhead
203. Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front
204. Reynolds, Sheri - The Rapture of Canaan
205. Rhys, Jean - Wide Sargasso Sea
206. Robbins, Tom - Still Life With Woodpecker
207. Roberts, J.M. - The New History of the World
208. Robinson, Kim Stanley - The Years of Rice and Salt
209. Robinson, Marilynne - Housekeeping
210. Roth, Philip - Portnoy's Complaint
211. Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
212. Rushdie, Salman - The Satanic Verses
213. Russo, Richard - Empire Falls
214. Sachar, Louis - Holes
215. Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
216. Schlosser, Eric - Fast Food Nation
217. Scott, Walter - Ivanhoe
218. Sedaris, David - Me Talk Pretty One Day
219. Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
220. Shakur, Tupac - The Rose That Grew From Concrete
221. Shaw, Bernard - Pygmalion
222. Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
223. Shirer, William - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
224. Shute, Nevil - On the Beach
225. Simmons, Dan - Hyperion
226. Sinclair, Upton - The Jungle
227. Spark, Muriel - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
228. Spiegelman, Art - Maus
229. Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
230. Stephenson, Neal - Quicksilver
231. Stevenson, Robert Louis - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
232. Stoker, Bram - Dracula
233. Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
234. Styron, William - Sophie's Choice
235. Sundman, John F.X. - Acts of the Apostles
236. Svevo, Italo - Confessions of Zeno
237. Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
238. Takami, Koushun - Battle Royale
239. Tan, Amy - The Joy Luck Club
240. Tartt, Donna - The Secret History
241. Thomas, Dylan - The Collected Poems
242. Thompson, Craig - Blankets
243. Thompson, Hunter S. - Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72
244. Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
245. Tocqueville, Alexis de - Democracy in America
246. Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Lord of the Rings
247. Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina
248. Toole, John Kennedy - A Confederacy of Dunces
249. Trumbo, Dalton - Johnny Got His Gun
250. Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
251. Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher - A Midwife's Tale
252. Updike, John - Rabbit, Run
253. Vergil - The Aeneid
254. Vinge, Vernor - A Deepness in the Sky
255. Voltaire - Candide
256. Vonnegut, Kurt - Slaughterhouse Five
257. Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
258. Wallace, David Foster - Infinite Jest
259. Warren, Robert Penn - All The King's Men
260. Watterson, Bill - The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
261. Waugh, Evelyn - Brideshead Revisited
262. Webb, Mary - Precious Bane
263. Wells, H.G. - The War of the Worlds
264. Welsh, Irvine - Trainspotting
265. Wharton, Edith - The Age of Innocence
266. White, E.B. - Charlotte's Web
267. White, T.H. - The Once and Future King
268. Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass
269. Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray
270. Wilder, Thornton - The Bridge of San Luis Rey
271. Williams, Tennessee - A Streetcar Named Desire
272. Wolff, Tobias - This Boy's Life
273. Wolfe, Tom - The Right Stuff
274. Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
275. Wordsworth, William - The Major Works
276. Wright, Richard - Native Son
277. Yeats, William Butler - The Collected Works, Volume I
278. Zinn, Howard - A People's History of the United States

Hmmm I appear to have a deep divide I have read a number traditional classical literature and tbh most of them I would read again, and contemporary literature.  I also am wary of so called contemporary literature (with a capital L) they just don't resonate with me (well most of them anyway).  I read a lot of historical fiction.  I also have a tendency to read the back of the book and if it doesn't grab me I don't buy it.  I'm not a big believer in if someone says its awesome I should read it (although The Time Traveller's Wife was indeed rocking).  

I need to work on my own list I think.

S.