reading and tving

I think I'll read The Agency next, about Victorian girl spies. A coworker picked up a free reading copy for me at a Random House show. I've still got White Teeth on the go, but after reading a couple sewious litewawy books, I'm due for something light.

If it's good I'll save it for the step-mommy. I bet she would have liked to have been a girl spy.

In the meantime I'm also reading that book on the music industry, some business books, and a book of/about poetry that my brother left behind when he moved.

The Husband and I finished watching all the Entourage series last night--can't wait for season 6 on DVD, cause we don't have HBO. But the entire set of Vicar of Dibley arrived, so maybe we'll move on to that. This is often how we spend time when he's not in Warcraft mode--sitting at opposite ends of the couch, playing with our respective toys (me the internets, and for him at the moment Dungeons and Dragons.)

Why do we say we "can't wait" for something when we clearly have to, and therefore can?

1 star! How dare they!

The experiment--find the worst review of your favourite books:

A Fine Balance: I didn't find this book to be crushingly depressing at all, but the 1-star reviewers on amazon disagree with me -- "This book is a piece of trash. I've never read about so much death and destruction. Someone dies, gets raped, or castrated on every other page. At times, instead of making me sympathetic to the plight of the severely unfortunate characters in the book, I found myself laughing, and waiting for the poor fools to fall into their next hilarious misfortune (again, always only a few pages away)."

Pride & Prejudice: I think this review is by Mr T -- "Like others, I really did want to like this book. I tried and tried to read it, but it was all nonsensical jibber-jabber. I may try again, but doubt it. It's torture!"

Adrian Mole -- "This book was so hard to believe, and I'm easy. It's the first book I plan to thorw in the garbage. I thought about writing in the front cover to warn people how bad it is, but then decided against it. It goes nowhere. Why is it a hit?!?!"

The Evolution of Jane -- "Was I disappointed. I thought the characters uninteresting and boring (glad I wasn't on that trip,) and the stuff on Darwin didactic and boring.If I wanted to know about evolution I'd go to Darwin direct andIf I wanted to know about lost friendship I think I'd search the Internet."

The Scarlet Pimpernel -- "I had to read this in 7th grade for English, and I could barley stay awake for it. It takes the character about 5 pages to do something as simple as pour themselves a glass of milk." Well I admit I think the movies are better than the book.

The Doomsday Book -- "Initially I enjoyed the historical part of the book but there was absolutely no dramatic tension to be found anywhere."

Couldn't find 1 star reviews for:
- me fave Georgette Heyers
- my fave Sarah Caudwell (The Sirens Sang of Murder)
- only 1 for a Jeeves book, but the person liked other Jeeves books
- Kate Ross' mysteries
- Jane Langton's Homer Kelley mysteries

crappy pol pot!

I'm reading a book that takes place just after the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, so it's quite depressing. (The Disappeared - Kim Echlin.) To be expected--the reason I wanted to read it in the first place was to pique my interest a bit in the country. I took one South Asian course in university, so I only learned about so many countries, and Cambodia wasn't one. I like watching a movie or reading a book, or writing a paper on a specific country, and then it sticks in my head after.

Anyway. I'm not crazy about her writing style, but I care about the characters, and it's interesting and sad. And if YOU want to take a chance on it... it's a Heather's Pick which means Chapters/Indigo will refund you if you don't like it, no matter the state of the book. (Or "after you've dropped it in your bathtub and rolled over it with your car" as I like to say.)