There's yet another Sam Neill red meat ad. Still with the orangutan. Sam Neill tries to convince me that red meat is vital to cognition. Here's a thought: instead of paying Sam Neill to do these ads, subsidise the cost of meat so I can eat a steak every day and improve my brain function.

In The Word Meme That Wouldn't Die, rebness gave me some words she ( Read more... )

I am (almost) freed from the tyranny of Latin, which is a huge relief. I am enrolled for the sequel subject for next semester, but at this point I've had about as much Latin as I can take, and surely as much as I could ever need, so I hope to be able to get out of it. I mean, it was self-inflicted to begin with, but I was just pre-empting the ( Read more... )

In the end I managed to move, of course, and things worked out. I quite like my new place, a swish apartment in a building with a lift, sharing with a music producer who keeps long hours but is good company when he's around. So far, so good. I feel much happier and settled here, even though I haven't got a proper bed yet and the flat as a whole ( Read more... )

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AKA: The Vampire Wants a Wife Librarian

This novel was an absorbing read, but ultimately its slow pace frustrated me. It is a much more literary and realistic academic thriller, on the same page as Indiana Jones or The Da Vinci Code but so much more grounded in reality (it's closer to Possession, actually), and yet, that reality was what weighed ( Read more... )

In England last year I had a white Easter, the last of the snow before the daffodils arrived. Last year I went to Holy Thursday Mass at York Minster, in darkness and quiet, and to the Saturday Vigil in downtown Leeds, all lights and noise. I missed my family terribly. I disdained English chocolate. I was alone in the flat and freezing. But it was ( Read more... )

I laughed my arse off through Confessions of a Shopaholic. Isla Fisher is much better at comic acting than she is at novel-writing (yes, I've read it), and she is so endearingly funny in this film. Hugh Dancy was cute but rather bland, actually. I remember him being much prettier in The Jane Austen Book Club. The big surprise was the ensemble cast ( Read more... )

This may seem like harping, but it has actually been several months since my last round of bitching on Jodi Picoult. I recently came across an article about her which contains the following lines:

It bothers Picoult that she is pigeonholed as a commercial writer - the kind who never wins literary awards ( Read more... )

Book meme taken from palelaura :

What's your bookstore?
I don't feel any particular loyalty. Dymocks' Book Lovers reward scheme isn't as good as it used to be, so I don't care.

Hardback or Paperback?
Hardback's usually too expensive, but I like it. I have a lot of trade paperbacks.

Bookmark or Dogear?
Bookmarks!

Keep, Throw Away or Sell?
I keep or give away/donate.

( Read more... )

palelaura first told me about this and it's been doing the rounds of Austen sites and such, especially now that an excerpt has appeared:

“I would not be as fastidious as you are for a kingdom! I never met with so many pleasant girls in my life as I have this evening; and several of them are uncommonly pretty ( Read more... )