aight, tried to work on my backlog of books... instead bought new books. Gonna have to start reading faster or I'll never make it (or stop buying books.... but that'll never happen).

( books )

aah and last but not the least. The millennium trilogy. Saw the movie "män som hatar kvinnor" or in translated words men who hate women. Liked the movie a lot. Turns out my mom had the first book, so lent it immediately. Read it immediately too. When I finished I tried to lend nmr 2 and 3 of the series but alas, I was third in line. So I bloody well bought em! (told you so J, you can lend em if you want ;) ) And then read two and three in the next two days. In other words two thumbs up for the series, can't wait for the next two movies, curious to see what changes they made. I liked the changes of the book for the first movie. Not totally sure but I think this is the best "book made into a movie" I've seen ...so far. I never know what to do with myself when I finish a great trilogy (or larger), don't want to read and ruïn the euphoric feeling but also want to read because I dont want to feel sad that it's over. Well at least I have to movies to look forward too.

#19 Mannen die vrouwen haten - Stieg Larsson (english title: the girl with the dragon tattoo): 560/9194
#20 De vrouw die met vuur speelde - Stieg Larsson (english title: the girl who played with fire): 568/9762
#21 Gerechtigheid - Stieg Larsson (english title: the girl who kicked the hornets' nest): 651/10413

Scandinavian detectives or maybe even scandinavian writers always seem to have long winded prose. The page count is not that big though... not sure what it is. Anywho it just takes me a little while to get into the writing style. (Also thought it was strange that the full name of the characters got used so often. I mean I know who you are talking about with just the first name mentioned.) Once you get into the writing style and get down to the plot it's nothing but good. Basically I loved the characters and wanted to know how it all turned out. Excellent thriller that keeps you entertained.

Book one is a stand alone story that introduces us to the two main characters.
Book two and three should be read back to back (or at least you can't read three without having read two), you could quit after two (but you will not want too). It has murders, romance, big conspiracies, engaging characters, evil governments, spies and best of all revenge! God I love me some good revenge plots. What more do you need? (can you tell i really liked this series, gonna have to look into reading some more of stuff like this).

Alright off on holiday on tuesday too budapest, looking forward to it, haven't been out of the country since... december of 2007. It's about time I see some more of the world.

*goes off to see about booking some opera tickets*

just found this, thought it was cool!

8# breaking dawn - stephenie meyer: thank god that's over but I liked it, very satisfying ending. In the beginning there I was a bit disappointed what with the 'plot twist' and everything but eventually it made a good build up for a confrontational ending. At least, good enough for me p. 754/t.3947

what am I supposed to read now...? I guess I'll go see what treasures my pile holds for me.

I forgot one!

#7 William Goldman - The princess bride: I think I actually like the movie better, but that might be nostalgia. I liked the way he set up the book, I had to look up stuff about Morgenstern and can't wait for the sequel :) He once said it would be out at the 35th anniversary, which is this year. One can hope! p.399/t.3193

right finally got around to reading some stuff!

1# Artemis Fowl and the time paradox - Eoin Colfer: good one! still like 4th book the best and was hoping this would be kinda a sequel with some of the characters introduced at the end of the 4th. Maybe we'll get to read more on that in the next one. The time travel gimmick was well worked out though. Wonder if it is accurate with information given before, don't remember the specifics of the previous books. p369/t369

2# the short victorious war - David Weber: number 3 in the Honor Harrington series. good ol' fashioned space battle soap opera. yum! p.402/t.771

3#field of dishonor - David Weber: number 4 in the Honor Harrington series. I think better than 3, they went for character depth in this one and it worked out well. I love it when the characters go for personal vengeance! payback! p. 398/t.1169

4# twilight - Stephenie Meyer: first in the sparkly vampire series. Oh god, I know! I shouldn't but I couldn't help myself. It's like 'morbid curiosity'. Ah well, it wasn't that bad I guess. Reads easily enough. p.434/t.1603

5# new moon - Stephenie Meyer:  2nd in the sparkly vampire series. Well I always want to finish a series when i start one so, you know... p.563/t.2166

6# eclipse - Stephenie Meyer: 3rd in the sparkly vampire series. I'm rooting for Jacob, Kick Edwards ass! come on! GAH, you see that I am actually getting into it...why!!! the agony! the horror! p. 628/t.2794

what to read next....hmm maybe I'll wait to start something till I can lend number 4... *shudder*

but mostly from sacred_dark

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise 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 read 6 and force books upon them.

( list )

came across this video and really liked it:


haven't read a book yet this year... don't like it at all.

Well had a nice new years bash. Didn't even have time to plug in the nintendo wii (which I lugged all the way there). It was kind of fancy dress. So bought a hideous shirt and some accessories and ended up like this:



It has finally gotten cold enough to get some ice on some of the lakes and small water ways. Before it thaws again I met up with some friends and got to skate on "natural ice" (so to speak). My friends live near a nature reserve which normally isn't accessible. When there is enough ice to skate on they make an exception. It was a beautiful setting to skate in. I was dead tired after about 1 and a 1/2 hours. Really have to work on that so I can hold out a bit longer. We did one scary bit, not a lot of people had skated there and with all the crackling sounds the ice did when we skated over it we understood why. Brrrrr. It kind of looks like it's dusk in the picture but it was about 12 in the afternoon, it was like that the whole day. Fantastic! Hopefully the weather will allow me to go again this winter.

on the finish line:

28. J.K. Rowling - the tales of beedle the bard: The tales did remind me of fairy tales but didn't think they were that entertaining but the 'notes by prof. Dumbledore' were very nice since they tie into the potterverse. (p. 105 / t. 11887)

trying to get the comic pile down... its not going very well.

last post of the year, books! surprise surprise...

24. Kurt Vonnegut Jr - Slaughterhouse Five: don't know, it was very good but somehow I thought it was going to be about something completely different. I think I kind of mixed it up with Iain Banks' the wasp factory, or at least though it would be a bit more like that. Weirder. (p.215/t.10448)

25. Charlaine Harris - Dead until Dark: After finishing true blood I thought I'd read the book to compare (having bought it couple of weeks earlier for 2 euro's at a big book sale). And must say, book is WAY better then the series. I understand there has to be some extra plot in the tv show otherwise you'd be bored real soon but I just like the main character in the book better then in the show. Less of the whiny and the slutty more of the sexy but shy. Also the side characters were better and better explanation of 'vampirehierarchie' though maybe they want to get rid of that in the series as well... could be. Haven't read the rest so don't know if later plot point were introduced earlier on tv. Will probably pick up the rest if I can find em dirt cheap :) and watch the show anyway. (p. 292 / t. 10740)

26. Neal Asher - The Skinner: I was wanting a bit of Ian Cormac so picked up one of the Asher books I had in my to read pile... No Ian in this one! Should have judged the cover better :) Story was set in the verse that was introduced to me via Cormac, so a bit of a sidestory. Pretty good and liked the characters. Especially liked the sniper - warden dynamic and how that came to conclusion, very satisfying. (p. 474 / t. 11214).

27. Neal Asher - Brass Man: As I said before, I was looking for a bit of Ian Cormac, had another one in the pile and better luck this time. Strangely I am reading the Cormac saga in order ( i think) while I don't especially look to buy them in order when I buy one. Lucky! Anyway Ian is back, the old enemies are back, the sidekicks are back. Lots of techno babble, which got the better of me in this one, don't remember that from the earlier books. Mostly you can distill it from the context but was slightly harder this time. (do not know if that is a good or a bad thing yet). Liked how Ian Cormac is ... evolving and curious about how that will end up in the future. Will have to wait to find out, the Asher pile is depleted and promised myself not to buy myself more books until I've thinned out the pile considerably. (right, like that will last..har) (p. 568 / t. 11782)

argh! seeing the figures from last year I am 646 pages short, thats like two books, same number of books though 27 again...I'll try to do better next year (uhm, maybe). *maybe I should start counting comics, I'd be well over :P*

on the agenda: x-mas cooking, little new years shindig, some work in between that. hopefully some reading in there as well...and a movie maybe? We'll see. For the two of you out there reading this Happy Holidays.      
 

My interest got peeked...

hmmm

http://denofgeek.com/television/138128/the_next_doctor_who_bookies_reveal_odds.html

stephen fry, anthony head! ... hahaha! Jason Statham. 

WHY????

http://www.denofgeek.com/television/137920/confirmed_david_tennant_quitting_doctor_who_in_2009.html

So went to a beer festival yesterday and drank "bokbier" which was good, after we went to get some chinese food, there was this cute 4 (?) year old at the table next to us. He did not want to give me a high five... did stick his tongue out at me though, was it something I said?

I've got a mini-holiday, took a week off from work. yippee for me! I planned on reading lots and watching lots of tv (to catch up on some shows) but somehow I've got loads to do. I don't know how this happened... argh!

books:
20. Marie Phillips - Gods behaving badly: greek gods in a current setting, with a strangely familiar plot-twist straight out of a Terry Pratchett book. So the means to resurrect the gods was not very interesting and since the book was building up to this.... Overall though nicely written, liked the greek gods in a family dynamic, fighting and plotting. (p.277/8463)

21. K.J. Parker - Devices and Desires: good, a sort of fantasy book where the protagonist is a engineer who escapes from being executed for improving on a machine. He takes his knowledge to a neighbouring state, an act of war. Everything to the protagonist is a machine, he engineers a plot to get his own back and does not care that some components get lost along the way. The writer makes these components really like-able, so when these people get caught up in the plot it is hard not to dislike the protagonist. Will definitely read the rest of the trilogy. (p.706/9169)

22. Terry Goodkind - Confessor: Last in the sword of truth series. Good ending. Not as grand as I would have hoped for but still ties up all the lose ends, so very satisfying ending. (757/9962)

23. Neil Gaiman - The graveyard book: Very nice. Loved the story and the art. Will have to read it again for some of the nuances because I was more interested in knowing how it ended then what happened along the way. I would love a sequel though... or maybe that's better left up to my imagination, not sure. (307/10233)

Wohoo passed the 10.000 mark! Started reading The slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut and also started on the pile of comics, can look forward to some queen and country, gantz, vikings and batman. Sigh.. So much reading material so little time.

This week will consist of brother coming over for dinner, dentist, shopping with parents, japanese class, dinner with friends, visiting opening day for a shop from a friend, concert with brother (the subways). Which will neatly flow over in a concert (blood red shoes) with friends next monday.

Hopefully I can fit in some odd jobs I need to do around the house, but I highly doubt it. Since I will probably filling the rest of the time with SG-A, BG, Weeds, Deadwood and other series.

lots and lots of books... had a good run:

14. Yann Martel - Life of Pi: Pretty good I guess, quick read. Started with a brief introduction to the major religions out there, veered off to a survival story of a boy in a lifeboat with a man eating tiger and ended with a question of faith. When there is no proof, who is to say which story is real? The plausible one or the better told one? To be honest I like my stories fantastical and unrealistic and my reality plausible but somewhere else if possible. Does that make sense? (meh *shrug*) (p.428/5669)

15. Scarlett Thomas - The end of Mr. Y: Liked it, wasn't  a masterpiece though. Our main character is writing a thesis about thought-experiments (like schrödinger's cat and the turing machine - at least those are the ones I know of). She stumbles on a recipe to get to another "dimension", this dimension is based purely on thought. There is men who want to use it for bad and other such plots afoot. Keeps the pace going. I guess the story is (or tries to be) a thought-experiment in itself. The book got me kind of interested in philosophy again though. Probably won't last though :) (p.502/6171)

16. Chris Bunch - Knighthood of the Dragon: Book two of the dragonmaster trilogy, good military fantasy with dragons in it. Rough soldiers, idiot commanders and warfare. The usual really but I really like the way he tells the story. (p.408/6579)

17. Chris Bunch - The Last Battle: Book three and the last of the dragonmaster trilogy. The war is over but our hero doesn't know what to do with himself. Al he knows is soldiering, he gets himself into a bit of trouble and ultimately decides to see why dragons came to his part of the world in the first place. Back to the motherland so to speak. Fighting ensues and all ends relatively well. (p.326/6905)

18. Chris Bunch - The last Legion: The first in a series, can you tell I went to a book fair and scored a bunch of books (ahem). Anywho, good introduction to some science fiction warfare. We see our two main anti-heroes being molded into formidable soldiers. I like that. I will probably enjoy the rest of the series. (p. 344/ 7249)

19. David Farland - The sum of all men: Book 1 of  "the runelord": standard fantasy fair. anti-hero prince forced to grow up fast when thrust into a war. Armies magically enhanced by runes fight the evil hordes coming from the south. Though the evil hordes might not be THAT evil after all, I expect to find out in the rest of the series. *just checked the internetz to see its length:  Well crap! it is on book 7 and I thought it was a trilogy....if this ends up like that evil wheel of time thing I'm going to be pissed* (p.661/7910)

20. Warren Ellis - Crooked Little Vein: I've followed this guy from comics onto the internet, so why not to the book as well. Fun little story that takes you to the underbelly of America. The main character (a private detective) gets a job based on the fact he is a "shit-magnet". Where he goes the sexually weird - I think it's weird anyway - crawl out of the woodwork. It seemed a bit contrived at first, thought up to shock those with poor sensibilities but in the back of the book he says he didn't make them up but found out about them on the internet. I don't know if it's true or not but I am too scared to look them up for fear of ruining the little sensibility I have left. (p.276/ 8186)

Let's see if I can keep running along, next up: Gods behaving badly by Marie Phillips.

top ten ghost towns, lovely....

well I think it is cool

battle of the batmans



If I had a car I'd want this!



book:
13. Michael Chabon - the yiddish policemen's union: noir detective thriller set in a alternative history setting. Where there is a big jewish settlement on alaska. Chess, murder, drugs & booze, and cold grey weather. What more could I ask for? I enjoyed it but I think I missed a bit because I was too lazy to look up the jewish/yiddish terms and/or slang used. (p.411/5241)

Joined postcrossing and really enjoy getting postcards in the mail! Have 6 now I think and strangely most of the ones I've sent went to Finland.

 
 

Right so, went to indiana jones this weekend and thought it was great. What the skull ultimately stood for was a bit too far out there for me but it was fun with old school indiana moments. What more can you ask for?

More importantly went to the closing day of the pinkpop festival. And damn it was fantastic! Rage against the machine was GREAT!

in this video you can see the opening track. The guy (or girl) filming this is standing against the fence of the second ring and films a bit of the crowd in the pit in front of him. That is where I was standing! It took a little bit of doing. We went there right after the previous act was over. Which was Queens of the stone age and they were fabulous as well (by the way). Anyway, they let people out and we were standing in one big ugly crowd who wanted to push their way in. Once the guy manning the fence said we could go in, we had to stick our hands up (so there was less pushing). Then the fun of pulling and pushing began. But we got in eventually. After about an hour this is the opening we got:



They security is being a bit aggressive at the end there, looks like.
They closed with "killing in the name", the sound is a bit harsh in this vid but you can almost feel the crowd. It went ballistic. Fucking fantastic!



here is an overview of the whole crowd going crazy:



Bought myself a ratm t-shirt to remember by :D With the help of a friend, cause I'd already run out of money. (thx C.)

Here is a Queens song, someone taped it from the tv I think. We are to the left of the camera in the middle of the crowd. We tried to get in the pit then, but we were too late.

Got my bicycle yesterday. Went back to the store ten minutes later. I'd broken it already!!! no not really, apparently they hadn't put the correct length of ehm metal rod thingie in the gearshift thingie. (excellent technical description there). I've picked it up again today and it seems fine now. Will try a proper ride on it on monday.

Why monday? Why not sooner?? Well, I've actually got a busy weekend ahead of me. I've no idea how this happened all of a sudden.

Tomorrow I will have a indiana jones marathon. We start watching the first three movies at about 12 o'clock and go to the 4th one later that night.

Then sunday I am going to "pinkpop", actually going to a popfestival again. It has been a while. It was totally random, decided to go yesterday, got a friend crazy enough today and ran out to buy tickets immediately (before she could change her mind). Great line up, with RATM and QOTSA.  Maybe I can score some new shirts from those bands because my old ones are a bit ragged. Worn em too many times.
The train travel is gonna be bad though. I think the festival is over at like half past ten but before we get home it will be about 3am. Oh well, good thing I took monday off work XD


James, sorry about that, I kind of dropped of the world there for a bit. Sometimes life gets in the way (not that much happens but *shrug*). I was planning on seeing if you were on tonight but there was this program on tv about haruki murakami. It was great, really liked how they set it up. I really should watch that tv program more often. (I'll probably forget about this come morning).

I'll write you a proper e-mail one of these days :)