Happy New Year, Flist!
It's belated, because I suck, but Happy New Year, flist! I hope your holidays were awesome. Mine were great. Christmas Day here was rainy and even a bit thundery (which was lovely, since I worked until midnight on Christmas Eve and then went out a drink with workmates, so spent until midday on Christmas curled up in bed enjoying the sound of thunder rumbling outside while I was all sleepy and cozy). Had lunch with the family, made an epic three layer chocolate and raspberry mousse cake for dessert, then hung out with my Dad Christmas night. For New Years, I went into the city with some friends, and watched the fireworks at midnight. It was pretty amazing. I've been into town on NYE before, but never right by the harbour, and omg THE PEOPLE. We arrived around 6pm and secured ourselves a nice windowsill spot in a pub, which wasn't a great vantage for the firworks later, but it was an amazing vantage point for watching the all the people pouring along the street. They estimated something like 2.6 million in Sydney CBD, and I don't doubt it. About quarter to twelve, we pushed our way through the crowd to get a better position for firework watching, and were literally packed in amongst all the other people like sardines. It was great, though. Fun to be there, and we got home surprisingly easily and quickly when we were done.
So yes. There's my holidays in a nutshell. I have been reading all of your posts, but more frequently on my phone than on my computer, which makes commenting often not very likely to happen. My laptop is currently in the thankfully-under-warranty-shop for repairs, so I am on the family PC, which is less fun than being on my laptop in bed. Also I'm right at the bottom of the stairs, and can hear my stepfather snoring, which sets my teeth on edge a bit, so I've been doing a lot of reading things on my phone from in bed, and also watching movies. So apologies for all the comments I haven't left, lately. I will be getting on that very soon. Hopefully I'll get my computer back soon, too, but I'm not holding my breath just yet, since with all the public holidays since they picked it up they probably haven't even had it two weeks.
Anyway, yes. Since it's now January, I have dusted off dysfuncentine for its third round. You'll find my Mod post with dates over here, and of course, here is the pimping banner so you can tell your friends if you want :)
dysfuncentine dysfuncentine dysfuncentine!
Another thing I've been meaning to do, since it's New Year, is a list of all the books I read in 2012. I've often wondered how many books I read in a year, so at the beginning of 2012 I created an account at Goodreads to keep track (I also got the app for my phone, which is an amazing thing for one who likes to keep track when someone says 'I read this awesome book and you should read it too', because you can look it up and add it to your list like a boss). And so, here's the list. Of course, I'm not sure how indicative this is of an average year, since I did so much reading for uni this year, but whatever. It'll be interesting to compare to the list I make this year, when I won't have books to read for English class (sadface). The count was 41 altogether.
* indicates re-read
Italics for things I didn't quite finish (not because they were bad, mostly, but because I ran out of time)
bold for things I read for uni
This list is fiction only. I read many other academic works, but I lose track of those almost immediately after the essay is done *g*.
Books Wot I Read in 2012
Kim Harrison, Black Magic Sanction (The Hollows, #8)
Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
*Anthony Eaton, Nightpeople (Darklands, #1)
Anthony Eaton, Skyfall (Darklands, #2)
Anthony Eaton, Daywards (Darklands, #3)
Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (exception to the rule, I stopped reading this one because it bored me)
James McGee, Rebellion (Matthew Hawkwood, #4)
Kim Harrison, Pale Demon (The Hollows, #9)
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince (uni happened before I could re-read DH)
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Jack Kerouac, On The Road
Matthew Lewis, The Monk
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Richard Brautigan, A Confederate General from Big Sur/Dreaming of Babylon/The Hawkline Monster
Julain Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Edgar Allan Poe, The Selected Writings
J.M. Coetzee, Foe
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn
Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
*Michael Cunningham, The Hours
Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Ian McEwan, Saturday
Andrea Levy, Small Island
H Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
George Eliot, Adam Bede
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
David Lodge, Thinks...
Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study In Scarlet
My favourites from the uni novels were probably The Monk, The Big SLeep and Jamaica Inn from the Gothic, Foe and the Brautigan collection for postmodern, A Study in Scarlet and Wuthering Heights from Victorian, and Saturday and Small Island for Narrative and Novel. Small Island was probably my favourite of the lot, and I would encourage everyone to read it. For the non-uni stuff, Anthony Eaton's trilogy is just fantastic (he's joined the ranks of many other great Australian fantasy and sci-fi writers, IMO), and Pale Demon was my favourite Harrison so far.
There's a whole heap on my to-read list this year, but I am currently reading a combined edition of The Advenures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, which is very fun indeed.
So yes. There's my holidays in a nutshell. I have been reading all of your posts, but more frequently on my phone than on my computer, which makes commenting often not very likely to happen. My laptop is currently in the thankfully-under-warranty-shop for repairs, so I am on the family PC, which is less fun than being on my laptop in bed. Also I'm right at the bottom of the stairs, and can hear my stepfather snoring, which sets my teeth on edge a bit, so I've been doing a lot of reading things on my phone from in bed, and also watching movies. So apologies for all the comments I haven't left, lately. I will be getting on that very soon. Hopefully I'll get my computer back soon, too, but I'm not holding my breath just yet, since with all the public holidays since they picked it up they probably haven't even had it two weeks.
Anyway, yes. Since it's now January, I have dusted off dysfuncentine for its third round. You'll find my Mod post with dates over here, and of course, here is the pimping banner so you can tell your friends if you want :)
dysfuncentine dysfuncentine dysfuncentine!
Another thing I've been meaning to do, since it's New Year, is a list of all the books I read in 2012. I've often wondered how many books I read in a year, so at the beginning of 2012 I created an account at Goodreads to keep track (I also got the app for my phone, which is an amazing thing for one who likes to keep track when someone says 'I read this awesome book and you should read it too', because you can look it up and add it to your list like a boss). And so, here's the list. Of course, I'm not sure how indicative this is of an average year, since I did so much reading for uni this year, but whatever. It'll be interesting to compare to the list I make this year, when I won't have books to read for English class (sadface). The count was 41 altogether.
* indicates re-read
Italics for things I didn't quite finish (not because they were bad, mostly, but because I ran out of time)
bold for things I read for uni
This list is fiction only. I read many other academic works, but I lose track of those almost immediately after the essay is done *g*.
Books Wot I Read in 2012
Kim Harrison, Black Magic Sanction (The Hollows, #8)
Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
*Anthony Eaton, Nightpeople (Darklands, #1)
Anthony Eaton, Skyfall (Darklands, #2)
Anthony Eaton, Daywards (Darklands, #3)
Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (exception to the rule, I stopped reading this one because it bored me)
James McGee, Rebellion (Matthew Hawkwood, #4)
Kim Harrison, Pale Demon (The Hollows, #9)
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
*JK Rowling, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince (uni happened before I could re-read DH)
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Jack Kerouac, On The Road
Matthew Lewis, The Monk
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Richard Brautigan, A Confederate General from Big Sur/Dreaming of Babylon/The Hawkline Monster
Julain Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Edgar Allan Poe, The Selected Writings
J.M. Coetzee, Foe
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn
Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
*Michael Cunningham, The Hours
Julian Barnes, A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Ian McEwan, Saturday
Andrea Levy, Small Island
H Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone
George Eliot, Adam Bede
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
David Lodge, Thinks...
Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study In Scarlet
My favourites from the uni novels were probably The Monk, The Big SLeep and Jamaica Inn from the Gothic, Foe and the Brautigan collection for postmodern, A Study in Scarlet and Wuthering Heights from Victorian, and Saturday and Small Island for Narrative and Novel. Small Island was probably my favourite of the lot, and I would encourage everyone to read it. For the non-uni stuff, Anthony Eaton's trilogy is just fantastic (he's joined the ranks of many other great Australian fantasy and sci-fi writers, IMO), and Pale Demon was my favourite Harrison so far.
There's a whole heap on my to-read list this year, but I am currently reading a combined edition of The Advenures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, which is very fun indeed.