pebblerocker

My library asked me to do a survey and it was all going nicely until I got to question 10: Do you think it's important for people to have access to a library? [yes/no] Why?

Because people need AIR. And PARKS with TREES in them. And LIBRARIES DUH. Should I answer this question as if explaining to a three-year-old who asks "Why do we breathe?" I should probably answer as if explaining to a soulless public servant who is looking for ways for the government to save all that money it had to use up on tax cuts for rich people. I don't know how to answer.

I haven't actually been to a library for quite some time because I'm going through a phase of re-reading books I have in my house in order to prove that I need to have them. Later this month there's a book sale on and I have already arranged for a day off work specifically so I can go. I have also donated THREE whole books to the sale to make room for the AT LEAST TWENTY that will come home with me. I can't wait.

1. I like my dentist, he's very cool. He's really into his subject and loves talking about it, a bit of an Adrian Anorak only more personable. After my check-up he was telling me all about different types of bacteria that exist in the mouth and why some cavities progress faster than others, and I was really interested in it, I was fascinated by fun science. If only it was fun science that didn't have Lots Of Pain as a consequence.

2. I like gaming with other women! My guild used to have lots of women when I joined, women moderating and mentoring and women just playing. With attrition the active playerbase has gone down over the years (the game's ten years old after all) and for the last couple of years I've been gaming in several overlapping groups in which I'm the only woman, and I know of one other woman playing on the same server whose sessions don't usually overlap with mine. Now, with the release of Diablo 3, there's an influx of new players; I'm playing regularly with the niece of a long-time D2 friend, I had a game with an LJ friend this week, and there are more women around in my guild which is GREAT. I want there to be even more.

3. I like Scrapheap! We're watching the first series, before it became Scrapheap Challenge and got a new format and more money for sets and a different pair of teams every week and semi-finals. In the first series Robert Llewellyn is the only presenter and there are only two teams, trying to win the most challenges by the end of the series. I love that it's low-budget and doesn't care. I love how everything is dirty and they eat lunch with greasy hands and wear grubby grey uniforms. I love Anne the hovercraft champion and I love Major Dick's moustache. I love all the welding and bashing things. I love that it doesn't try to hype everything up and make you wait two ad breaks to see anything interesting happen like some shows I could mention, it's actually exciting and doesn't need hype because everyone just wants to see which tractor is strongest and whether the trebuchet will work better than the mangonel.

4. I like not being at work. I had to work 6-day weeks for a year due to constant ongoing staff shortages and it was really hard and I was getting depressed because I never had the energy to do anything fun. They've finally managed to hire two new people and I haven't been needed to work at all for a month, which is longer than I'd normally like to be away from work but since I've been overworked for so long I'm really happy about it. I haven't exactly been an explosion of industry and making the house perfectly tidy and writing all the stories I never got around to and being organised etc, but I am doing a little gardening and reading a lot and I'm able to do fun things that also need physical effort rather than having to save up energy to get through work. And my strained wrist is recuperating nicely.

5. I like reading the same books my mother is reading, working our way through a series together and swapping books back and forth and going to the library to collect books for each other and talking about them. I'm amused when she's read a book and I'm partway through and I say I don't think things will go as well as Certain Character hopes and she just says Hmmmm.

You have to think carefully when going shopping on a pushbike. I'd looked over my shopping list and decided that what was on it would fit into my bag, but only if I went past the library and dropped off my books first. Dropping off books turned into "just" having a little look around inside the library, which turned into "just" seeing if there was anything interesting withdrawn on the sale trolley, which resulted in three books from an exciting military SF series coming along with me. Then I couldn't fit my shopping into the bag on top of them. Lucky I had a calico bag folded up small and it didn't rain hard enough on the way home to make my new stories soggy.

Proof-reading a three-part epic fantasy novel can't be an easy job, especially with lots of character names and frequent words in made-up languages. I could pick the point at which the proof-reader said sod this, I'm going to the pub - it was a big clue when the main character's name was mis-spelt. In the last chapter or two there was barely a page without a mistake; it's a great story but it's getting difficult to decipher. Who said what, which lines were transposed, where did they say they were riding to next?

This being an older book (The Chronicles of Morgaine, C J Cherryh, 1976-79), the many errors are all typesetting ones. I find that a lot easier to put up with than recent books I've come across that appear to have been put through a spell-checker instead of proof-read, or ones where the best efforts of the publishing house have been unable to cover up the author's basic illiteracy.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Put an asterisk next to the books you'd rather shove hot pokers in your eyes than read.
5) 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 ;-)
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I'm putting EVERY book I read on the book list, not just ones that make me look cool. Up until now it hasn't been hard to keep to that plan, but it's tempting to leave a couple out of this lot.

I See Red: the shocking story of a battle against The Warehouse by Judith Bell
Bell's gas cylinder company was bankrupted by The Warehouse pulling out of a contract and engaging in some shady dealings against her. Turns out their commitment to NZ-made products is mainly hot air. It was an interesting read and explained a few concepts I hadn't managed to pick up by osmosis (economics is not on my exciting subjects radar). Also I now have an idea of what people are talking about in all those discussions about Wal-Mart: that's what The Warehouse is imitating.

Tapestry of the Boar by Nigel Tranter
I read every Tranter book I can get my hands on. He's written about ninety of them, all set in Scotland at various historical periods. This one was set in the twelfth century, a nice change after reading several about Mary, Queen of Scots and James I. The monarch of the time was Malcolm IV, who comes across as a bit of a soft king, not a good leader and in poor health for much of his reign, but a nice young chap anyway and good at founding hospitals and monasteries.

Daja's Book and Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce
The Circle of Magic series is really enjoyable. I think the quality of writing has improved since the Alanna books. Now I've finished these I can carry on with the same characters, whom I rather like, in The Circle Opens.

Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm by Enid Blyton
My mother was getting rid of a pile of books and I wanted to go through them before they were biffed. All the Enid Blytons were in the pile, so I rescued them. Can't get rid of all the Famous Fives! I did pass on the Secret Sevens, I never enjoyed them as much--too many characters in such short books, couldn't remember who was who and most of them didn't get a chance to develop personalities. There were assorted other Blytons in there too, including Six Cousins--plenty of character development in this one, despite the six major characters. Jolly good!

Six Cousins Again by Enid Blyton
The cover pictures for these two are in a very different style to the illustrations inside; they must have been done for the 1987 reissue. This one's cover shows a smashing Christmas dinner scene with silly hats, crackers, nuts in the shell and a big flaming Christmas pudding, and on the table is a little toy car, obviously from one of the crackers. Looking closely I saw that it was Noddy in his yellow car!

Learning the Ropes by Eric Newby (Author's name apt for the title?)
In 1938 Newby sailed around the world in one of the last commercial sailing ships, a steel four-master on the grain trade between South Australia and the British Isles, at the time the largest sailing vessel in the world. He was on board as an apprentice seaman, and found time to take wonderful photos when it wasn't his watch. The book is full of black and white photos of sails and rigging, decks and high seas, crewmen relaxing and crewmen working two hundred feet up the mast.

It looks like a lot, but I've been reading short books lately. And I've been saving them up until I had time to write something about each book, rather than just listing the titles.
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