I've stopped counting the books

Last year I managed to read 92 books, all told. I was keeping a tally this year, too, but have decided to stop doing so, because it was turning into a competition, and that shouldn't be the driver in terms of why I read.

In similar vein, I cleared out the bookshelves at Castle Fox a while back, and got rid of several hundred books by donating them to charity (Oxfam in the town centre were sorta overwhelmed, and would, at least for a short while, have had a Titanic library to rival many). The reason for this was because I had a dark suspicion that the only real purpose most of the books had been serving was to sit on the shelves and crow 'Look! See us? We've all been read, we have...'

Obviously, some books I've kept - the World Press Photo annuals (must pick up this year's), reference books and the various series that I know I'll re-read (HP, Alex Rider, Liveships, Saga of the Exiles, Lord of the Rings and so on). That wasn't as easy as it might sound, and some tomes were disproportionately agonised over, but with the exception of one book (Peter Hamilton's The Reality Disfunction, which I did get an urge to re-read over Christmas), I seem to have struck the right balance.

Currently reading Stephen King's The Stand - it's the first of his novels that I've tried, actually, and whilst I'm liking the post-apocalyptic stuff, I'm not wholly sold on the good/evil thing.

Linkfest

Whilst I will not ride on pavements (sidewalks for those in the colonies), and, frankly, disapprove of those who do, I still have to hold my hand up and say Danny MacAskill is amazing: Danny MacAskill doing some unbelievable riding.

A while back, The Grauniad featured this set of pictures of light graffiti by Michael Bosanko. Briefly, guy sets up camera, at night, on long exposure, and then runs around in front, pointing a torch at the camera to 'paint' pictures with light over the scene.

Still on Teh Grauniad^* and its 'In Pictures' gallery stuff, here's a selection of pics from the Australian Bush Fires of February.

Being something of a Harry Potter fan in days of yore, even if I was only ever (350,000 word fic aside) on the fringe of fandom, I still feel that for truly geeky obsession, few people can match the fervent ardour of Star Wars fans: proof, if proof were needed, that yes, that is the exact Stormtrooper helmet from the 'Move Along' moment in Mos Eisley spaceport. Colour me impressed.

I'm sure most of you have played with it already, but I ought to mention gmap-pedometer, a Google Maps mashup that measures routes and stuff. The neat bit, for me, is the elevation profile for when I'm on the (push)bike. Definitely worth playing with, if you're into self-powered locomotion.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I listen to various podcasts whilst walking the Mali-dog - I feel honour bound to confess, however, that not all of them are wholly learned, Your Honour: specifically, The Bugle - An Audio Newspaper for a Visual World is awesome (if sometimes a little crude). Read by John Oliver in New York and Andy Zaltzman in London, they have their own take on world events. In truth, John Oliver's the funny guy - Zaltzman tries a little too hard, but it's definitely worth checking out.

I seriously got into Battlestar Galactica during my journal sojourn - have watched the pilot, S1, S2 and S3. I've got Razor but not yet watched it, and am trying to decide whether to pick up S4 in two parts, or wait until it's released properly as a single boxset. Whatever, this column seemed to sum up what was good about the show, and why those of you who haven't seen it yet should consider doing so.

For the geeks amongst us (I'll let you know if I see any), xkcd_feed is an essential addition to one's DW Circle - I particularly, particulary, particularly liked this one from a while back, although this last week's Firefly sequence was killer, too :D

And speaking of Killers, I must continue to subvert convert any vanilla Sudoku fans to a purer form of the puzzle: Daily Killer Sudoku Puzzle at djape.net.

ETA: Continuing the xkcd_feed props, this slant on the 'bay was amusing, too: http://xkcd.com/576/.

ETA²: Whilst I absolutely refuse to disclose how I came by this link, I have no such qualms about sharing it: My Little Pony, Hollywood Stylee. Share and Enjoy!™ (note for linaelyn: there's a Captain Jack Sparrow MLP in there...)


* The Guardian was legendary for its sloppy proof reading Back In The Day, and is often referred to as 'The Grauniad' by the cognoscenti. In self-deprecating acknowledgement of this, they actually redirect www.grauniad.co.uk to the main site :-)