Saturday 14 January 2012

Saturday quest for the bottle of milk

Living on the edge of a sprawling council housing village can be such an adventure at times.

To get a bottle of milk from the local shop you will have to dodge groups of vacant eyed neddetes in war paint erasing the last remnants of individuality, packs of feral children, already banned from the shop for shoplifting and craving their 10 a day nicotine fix, ballistic buggies pushed by bitter girls turning too quickly into their own mothers, flying fag butts thrown with certain knowledge that no one will dare to press for financial penalty, swaggering junkies freshly filled with their favourite drugs loudly honking at one another in geese-speech, burn out alkies temporarily soothing last night hangovers with a chippie and a bottle of face wash and bare-feet tussle-haired obese beings of no immediately recognisable sex gathering armfuls of fat-full sugary goodies.

Just to find out on return home that the milk you so bravely acquired has an expiration date of today...


Tuesday 3 January 2012

Books of 2011

The Best 20 Books of 2011

A very subjective choice, fellow geeks who still like to waste their time wonderfully with printed words - keep an eye out for these.

1. Fiona McIntosh - The Quickening trilogy: Myrren's Gift, Blood and Memory, Bridge of Souls
2.Philip K. Dick - The Zap Gun
3. Angela Carter - Nights at the Circus
4. John M. Ford - The Dragon Waiting
5. China Meville - Kraken
6. William Heaney - Memoirs of a Master Forger
7. Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake
8. Neal Asher - Orbus
9. Jack Vance - Lyonesse - Suldrun's Garden
10. Robert J. Sawyer - The WWW Trilogy: Wake, Watch, Wonder
11. Alan Campbell - Sea of Ghosts
12. Margaret Atwood - Alias Grace
13. Iain M. Banks - Excession
14. Jack Vance - Tales of the Dying Earth : The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga, Rhialto the Marvellous)
15. Charles Stross - The Fuller Memorandum
16. Iain M. Banks - Surface Detail
17. Sophie Hannah - Lasting Damage
18. Naomi Novik - Empire of Ivory
19. G. W. Dahlquist - The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
20. Robin Hobb - The Tawny Man Trilogy: Fool's Errand, The Golden Fool, Fool's Fate

Overall, a nice mixture of sf, fantasy and weird. Enjoy.