Today is

Launceston Cup day, a half-day holiday. I remembered this when I was in town earlier, because half the shops were shut & there were groups of girls wobbling around in skimpy dresses and tiny hats. Also some walking around in skimpy dresses & sensible shoes but I didn't notice them until I started looking.

If I was bored, I could walk down to Mowbray in a bit and watch them staggering around with their hair over the face & shoes in hand trying to get a taxi home. I'm sure they're enjoying themselves :)

100 Books - February

16 Books read by 27th February, so I'm two days behind. Block comments are from Good Reads.

Thieves' World

I picked up (for meanings of "picked up" that mean spending a few hours searching for this on the web, before buying it from a UK bookseller who shipped books from the US) "Thieves’ World: First Blood" which is a recent (2003) reprinting of the first two of the shared world anthologies (from 1979 & 1980). As they were originally published as two different books, I am counting them as two (as per the rules I gave before I started).

Also, I didn't want to read it all at once as it took so long to get here

If Angels Burn: A Novel of the Darkyn, by Lynn Viehl

One thing I'm trying to do with the 100 Books things is read different books to usual.

It was easy to get into, and read.

Obviously, I don't get the whole vampire thing, but something else was bothering me. We have the modern, independent female main character, who gets pushed around/dominated/forced to have sex with big, strong (but very handsome) male main character. And this is considered sexy? Appealing? Fulfills the reader's inner fantasies?

Stalking Darkness, by Lyn Flewelling

Definitely better than the first one.

I think it's better written e.g. it doesn't stop in the middle while the MC spends a chapter riding around the city for no apparent purpose than to show the city to the reader. Also with familiar characters, less time is needed on their set-up & more time can be spent on developing them & their relationships.

The Far Side of the World, by Patrick O'Brian

This is a weird one.

Very slow at the beginning too.

I am David, by Anne Holm

This is one of the kids' books I've got sitting around waiting to be read, one day. It was worth waiting for though.

The Reverse of the Medal, by Patrick O'Brian

My review/comment for this has disappeared. The predominantly land-based Aubrey-Maturin novels aren't usually as interesting as the sea-based ones, but this one is an exception. But the end... It's one thing to finish immediately after the main action, but to finish just before something happens? Gah.

Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn

This is the second part of the Thieves' World book. When I started reading, it didn't grab me. So I skipped the first few stories. Later, I came back to them and found them more interesting. Overall, I preferred it to the first part.

If I want to buy the rest of the series though, I'll have to buy the originals, which apparently means paying $10 for a skinny, well-worn little paperback.

Blaze of Glory (The Laws of Magic-Volume 1), by Michael Pryor

This is very slow read, esp as it's a YA/mid-grade/whatever.

It picks up about halfway through, once things start happening. Still, the writing is loose in places, the characters don't really do much other than run around finding out things and just when it seems Something is going to happen, it turns out the action is over.

Certainly read less interesting books though, and I'll give the next one a try.