Friday, January 29, 2010

Left on the shelf

As I have now found time to sort out the stats, here are the the surprising number of books I managed to get through last year. Those marked * were audio, which I get through on the way to work, when travelling to meetings or site visits etc which helps the total numbers no end!

A few comments to add along the way, and more on some of the others another day. Oh, and these are in order of finishing them which may go some way to explaining how there are groups of audio or paper together at random. Some weeks I just don't have time for one type or the other.

Ian Fleming - Goldfinger
David Eddings - Enchanter's End Game* (the series wrapped over the year break)
Gareth Roberts - Doctor Who: I Am A Dalek
Stuart Maconie - Pies And Prejudice
Martin Wainwright - Morris Minor: The Biography
David Eddings - Guardians Of The West*
J. K. Rowling - The Tales Of Beedle The Bard (I came to the Potter books after being talked into a group outing to see the first film and while I found the series quite derivative and the later books full of padding did enjoy them)
David Quantick - Grumpy Old Men On Holiday
Andy Summers - One Train Later (possibly the best music book I have yet encountered)
David Eddings - King Of The Murgos*
Ian Fleming - For Your Eyes Only
David Eddings - Demon Lord Of Karanda*
Bill Watterson - There's Treasure Everywhere (Calvin and Hobbes is the greatest comic strip ever created and while I applaud Watterson for dropping out rather than be mega-exploited I'd kill for some more)
Bill Bryson - Neither Here Nor There
David Eddings - Sorceress Of Darshiva*
David Eddings - Seeress Of Kell*
Bill Watterson - It's A Magical World
Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine - Last Chance To See* (Thought I had best re-visit this one before the Stephen Fry tv series aired)
Bram Stoker - Dracula (this was read in deliberate preparation for Paul Bibeau below)
David & Leigh Eddings - Belgarath The Sorcerer*
Andrew Collins - That's Me In The Corner
Mike Tucker - Doctor Who: The Nightmare Of Black Island (I have no problem with tv tie-ins if the story is gripping enough)
Mike Mullane - Riding Rockets
Ian Fleming - Thunderball (you may have picked up a pattern by now - more in a future post on this)
David & Leigh Eddings - Polgara The Sorceress*
Tim Fountain - Rude Britannia
David & Leigh Eddings - The Rivan Codex (Couldn't get this in audio so had to actually read it myself!)
Bob Kane et al - The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told Vol 2 (along with C&H I started to go back over comic collections as an alternative to magazines to accompany my breakfasts)
Paul Bibeau - Sundays With Vlad
Terry Brooks - First King Of Shannara*
Stephen Cole - Doctor Who: The Art Of Destruction
Nigel Slater - Toast
Ian Fleming - The Spy Who Loved Me
Jeremy Clarkson - Don't Stop Me Now
Terry Brooks - The Sword Of Shannara*
Terry Brooks - The Elfstones Of Shannara*
Bob Kane et al - Batman Vs The Riddler & Two-Face
Kim Stanley Robinson - The Years Of Rice & Salt (a hard slog but worth it)
Terry Brooks - The Wishsong Of Shannara*
Giles Chapman & Richard Porter - Top Gear: My Dad Had One Of Those (these were "Breakfast books" as well)
Don Hale - Mallard
Colin Brake - Doctor Who: The Price Of Paradise
Terry Pratchett - The Colour Of Magic*
Matt Master - Top Gear's Midlife Crisis Cars
Andrew Collins - Where Did It All Go Right?*
Terry Pratchett - The Light Fantastic*
Ben Fogle - The Teatime Islands
David Eddings - The Diamond Throne*
Ian Fleming - On Her Majesty's Secret Service
David Eddings - The Ruby Knight*
Bill Bryson - A Walk In The Woods
David Eddings - The Sapphire Rose*
Brian Augustyn et al - Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites*
Peter Ashley - Pubs And Inns
Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix Plus
Terry Brooks - The Scions Of Shannara*
Terrance Dicks - Doctor Who: Made Of Steel
Terry Brooks - The Druid Of Shannara*
Richard Fortey - Dry Store Room No. 1
Terry Brooks - The Elf Queen Of Shannara*
Alan Witton - ECW Buses And Coaches (As made in Lowestoft, and a crying shame that the factory was replaced by a retail park)
Ian Fleming - You Only Live Twice
Tim Fitzhigham - In The Bath
Frank Miller et al - Batman: Year One
Mike Barr et al - Batman: Year Two
Terry Brooks - The Talismans Of Shannara*
Terry Pratchett - Mort*
Eric Clapton - The Autobiography* (read by Bill Nighy, who has the right sort of voice for the job, but I can't get the hang of something as personal as an autobiography not being read by the author!)
Jacquline Rayner - Doctor Who: The Last Dodo
Charlotte Morgan & Stan Fowler - The Little Book Of Camper Van
Richard Porter - Top Gear: Crap Cars
Simon Schama - A History of Britain I: At the Edge of the World? - 3000 BC-AD 1603*
Christopher Winn - I Never Knew That About London
Neil Oliver - Coast: From The Air
Dan Kieran & Ian Vince - Three Men In A Float (Lowestoft to Land's End in a milk float, absolutely hilarious!)
Simon Schama - A History of Britain II: British Wars 1603-1776*
Brian Minchin - Torchwood: The Sin Eaters* (I took an audio break for a month after this due to being in Canada and having no guaranteed listening time)
Ian Fleming - The Man With The Golden Gun (and so we end the year where we came in...)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Not staying in

Although I'm not really one for New Year's Resolutions, I did decide while we were away that we need to get out and do more things during 2010. Not that we spend all night every night slumped in front of the telly or banging away at the keyboard - it just seems like most of them! I think it was partly realising that while we were in Canada we were out and about a bit more than we would be here. Now, I know some of that is the being on holiday syndrome, or there being more shops open late or just having relatives on hand with ideas of things to do, but we were definitely doing stuff. Here we seem to fall into a routine of, for example, shopping on a Sunday when we could just as easily go of an evening and then have the whole Sunday to do something else, go somewhere etc.

To that end we were out on Saturday night with friends for a nice meal and then to see Mansfield Park And Ride, the Christmas show from local theatre group Eastern Angles. The brief description on their page only gives a very faint flavour of the evening of laughs that awaited us. A quality cast of five managing to squeeze in at least 12 roles between them, song, dance and lots of breaking the fourth wall. Although as we saw them in a venue with seats on two sides of the stage I guess they broke the third one as well. We have heard good reviews of the Christmas shows in the past just never managed to catch them. This year I am very glad we did.

MrsB is a huge fan of the costume drama as perfected by the BBC, and I have been known to enjoy them from time to time as well (and sit politely through others!) so a send up of the genre was bound to make us laugh. Unlike any of the works of the Austens, Brontes or Dickens of this world it was set in the Ipswich Area and thus poked gentle fun at the Park & Ride services I look after in my daily life. And of course any play where the characters complain about the lack of production budget has to be worth seeing.

I am now very tempted by a show they are putting on at the old Bentwaters airfield in the summer which I am sure will not be a comedy but still worth investigating. In fact it sounds similar to something we saw at Landguard Fort here in Felixstowe last year which also featured a small cast in numerous roles, acting on the move between different rooms and ghosts.

Oh, and I popped out at lunch time to get tickets for Julian Clary next month. Never seen a proper stand-up in the flesh so this will be a first for both of us. Hopefully not a last.