Weekends where all you do is sit around or lie around doing not very much at all are just wonderful. I spent all day yesterday doing just that. In the morning I built up a mighty empire, led by Gandhi. I played Civ 4 – the empire is now on hiatus because I can’t decide whether to follow historical Gandhi’s pacifist ideals and subsume the world by the sheer strength of my rich and superior culture, or just rampage through and take over by brute force. (Ok, so historical Gandhi is unlikely to have wanted to take over the world by any means, but you get my drift.)
After that I spent the rest of the day reading, and finished the second part of book three in George R. R. Martin‘s A song of ice and fire series. I read it in one day, despite it being a rather large and involved book. I’ve been reading this series since mid-January and have been enjoying it very much, although some of the brutality is disconcerting. I’ve read (and abandoned) too many stories where there are identifiably stereotypically evil and good characters, and it’s refreshing to read something with well-rounded but flawed characters. I’m now feeling a bit peeved because I went and read the author’s website and have just discovered that the series is going to consist of seven books, and not four books, as I’d thought. There are so many characters and so many twists in the plot that it’s going to be hard to remember who did what to whom and when over the next few years as the next three books are published. I should have just done what M does, and refused to begin the series until all the books were published…
For a change of genre and milieu I’m now reading Henning Mankell’s The man who smiled. This is the latest English language translation of Mankell’s Kurt Wallender books. I haven’t read any other Swedish authors, but Henning Mankell’s writing makes me want to visit Sweden.
This morning I’ve been reading blogs. I also finished the intro to my questionnaire, and have sent it off, so Kit, Morgan, Fiona, Ivan, Michelle, Laura, and Alison (I couldn’t decide which of your blogs to link to!), you should find something from me in your inboxes. Isaak I left a comment on your blog because I just realised I don’t have your email address – please contact me if you would like to participate! I haven’t emailed anyone else yet because I am, strangely, feeling a bit shy about contacting librarians I have only met via blogs. It doesn’t make sense because of the seven whose names I’ve mentioned, I’ve only met two of you!
* Lately, I seem to have lost all ability to give my posts titles.
Categories: games, reading, writing, relaxation