More books and improving my blog

Hello everyone. Turns out going away and making an effort not to cough through a theatre show and spending all day Saturday on my feet even though I had a bad foot didn't do me all that good. I've been lounging and coughing on a settee all week. But now I am getting better and will make an effort to post more regularly.

I had an hour in the largest bookshop in Europe which has 250 000 tomes in it's many floors (according to my guide book) which is Waterstones Piccadilly. My only slight gripe is the assistant who, while helpful, intially just said upstairs in response to my query concerning the location of the sci-fi section. It turns out it was only one floor up (very useful as I didn't have much time) but as there's 8 floors you can see how it could confuse me.

Never have I seen so many sci-fi and fantasy books in one place. I wish I lived closer. Though this is probably a good thing as I spent £50 in there in half an hour.

I bought:

1. Doctor Who comic: The Betrothal of Sontar.
2. Helix  by  Eric Brown
3. Geist and Spectyr  by  Philippa Ballantine (These two are the same series and came from the imported section)
4. Shadow's Son  by  Jon Sprunk 

I shall let you know what I think of them as I read them. First though I am ploughing through the third Game of Thrones books, which at the moment is memorable due to typing errors that crop up quite often.

Also, on a non-book note, I got to spend a morning in Camden market! I bought a corset for £5, and a great winter coat.

I've also added a small page about me. The only thing is I am unsure how to change the colour of that bar. It's pink and should not be so.

And I'm away....in a few days

Hi everyone, I'll get round to some long posts next week. I have a couple of ideas but as I'm away this weekend, real life stuff must take precedence. I have also picked up a cold.

I fear we shall soon have to mourn the passing of the "3 for 2" offer on books. Nowadays it's buy one get one half price. If you live in the UK, head towards your nearest WHSmith outlet for the 3 for 2 offer, and also, they do books for £1! Not even second hand shops sell books that cheaply.

At the outlet, I bought three Doctor Who books for what I thought was £3, then it turned out it was £2, as the 3 for 2 offer even covers those books.

Apologies for the rambly post, my head is a bit fuzzy. Back to normal (or at least coherent posting) next week.

Doctor Who and the Asylum

I recently read this adventure about the Second Doctor and the first time the Daleks were introduced to the Who universe. It was interesting to read about a more serious Doctor with a hint of his mischievousness that we see today.

Somehow, the Daleks seemed a lot more menacing on paper than they do on television.

The first episode of the 7th series aired on Saturday (yet I will not be able to watch it until Friday, so I am trying to avoid spoilers) and it was called Asylum of the Daleks which made me think of the song by Fun Boy Three.

Sophistique Noir's Monthly Theme: Someone Special

This is my post for Sophistique Noir's Monthly Theme: Someone Special.

I've chosen the author Anne McCaffrey as she was one of the first sci-fi authors I discovered and if I had to choose one author to take with me to a desert island it would be her. It helps that she has written quite a lot of books.

Growing up, my favourite time of the week was friday after school when we'd go over the road to the library and choose books to read for the coming week. I would usually go straight to the fantasy/sci-fi section to see if there were any unread books by Anne McCaffrey. At lot of my copies are ex-library ones.


Anne McCaffrey (1926 - 2011) wrote over 70 books and I own 29 of these. Not even my Terry Pratchett collection can match that. She's my go-to Author if I need something comforting or familiar to read.



This is part of my Anne McCaffrey shelf. Apologies about the lighting.

My favourite book is The Ship Who Sang, which is about a girl who is locked in her own body with an exceptional mind, and is built into a spaceship to become a brain ship. The book follows her adventures about the galaxy.





If you like fantasy/sci-fi and haven't read any of the books yet but would like to here's where to start:

If you like science-fiction, read The Ship Who Sang. According to wikipedia, the author considered this "the best story [she] ever wrote."

For a more fantasy-ish story, try Dragonflight. This is the first story of the Pern series which follows people who can bond with dragons and have to defend their planet from the red star in the sky.