Thursday, June 23, 2005
Tagged

Total number of books I own: roughly 800 (250 gn's/tpb's, 150ish HB's and 400 or so PB's)

The last book I bought:.The Authority - Warren Ellis/Mark Millar

The last book I read. Deception Point by Dan Brown (distinctly average less-than-thrilling thriller, the guy is seriously over-rated)

1. Legend by David Gemmel - the book that started this mad jaunt through sf&f and lead to my involvement in far more sites than I really have time for. Classic heroic fantasy, Druss was a character of endearing appeal placed in a setting that only had one end.
2. The Descent - Jeff Long. A random shot in the dark on Amazon one night that turned out to be one of the biggest page-turners I've ever read. Made me believe horrorbooks could be truly scary and innovative at the same time. If you ignore the somewhat far-fetched premise then what you get is a classic mix of horror, epic grandness and intrigue, this is how Dan Brown should have done it.Considering the author has done nothing else, it remains for me a rare piece
3. The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Millar. I was already a Batman fan and then I read DKR and never looked at 'comics' in the same way again. Distilling the same essential question as The Watchmen, DKR is the most compelling reason I continue to buy gn's and tpb's like they are going out of fashion.
4. Wasteland -T.S Eliot. Not so much for what it is, though it is a work of brilliance, as for the fact that I met someone reading it whooccasionally gives me that smug smile that shows who is boss and why I'm not about to disagree ;)
5. Pandora Star/Nightsdawn - Peter Hamilton. Genius, pure genius, this guy writes sf that blows my mind, the scale is beyond epic and the way he holds so many threads, characters and plots together with effortless tension defies belief. The main reason I have started avidly writing sf

Three people I tag to continue: MatthewL, Sammie and Edea

Oh and I passed my CIW Site Designer exam today, one more to go and I will be right whereI want to be :)

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-23 07:38:51

Tuesday, June 21, 2005
I told you so

It had to be said - you know who you are ;)

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-21 19:12:23

Monday, June 20, 2005
Cliffhangers

One of the worst ideas in TV history, let's set it all up so everyone is itching to see the next episode and then .... end the series and make all our viewers wait an interminably long time to see the conclusion, by which time they have probably forgotten what happened. I admit I like nice, clean endings but I don't much care as long as there is an ending. Some series - 24 springs to mind as the best example, have the format nailed on. Set it up, spring it out and resolve it.I want termination not extension. What makes it all worse is that you know, almost without question, that when the new series starts there will be some lame solution to all the various threads left up in the air - see Alias Season 3+4 on how the writersutterlylost the plot, literally. That's why mini-series are so good, it's like an extended film where you cangain a better understanding of the characters and world, not some reproduced nonsense of a series with generic episodes that follow the same format. And when a series throws the mould somewhat - Firefly, Space Above and Beyond ... anything that Fox has butchered in the last few years, it gets taken off air. I hate cliffhangers.

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-20 17:36:55

Sunday, June 19, 2005
General stuff

Clive Woodward is a muppet

Dissolve the EU because the French and German leadersare hyporcritical sacks of poo who don't know which side their bread is buttered on (WE'REKEEPING THE REBATE ASSCLOWNS)let's hope they both lose their up coming elections so sanity prevails.

Come on the Welsh players and all those in form but not in the test 22on Tuesday, shove it up the one-eyed Englishman.

Octupuses have three hearts, camels are born without their humps and theletter Z is only worth one point in the Polish version of Scrabble.

Australia lost to Bangladesh and Englandat cricket and over the course of the weekend I watched 8 rugby games, two cricket games, an NBA basketball game, two nights of boxing and a grand prix - pretty much a normal three days then :)

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-19 18:23:01

Saturday, June 18, 2005
Halfway

So the year is almost halfway done and talk about a snowball down a mountain, the days seem to be picking up serious speed. I don't know how it's been for most of you guys but I can't believe summer (in the northern hemisphere) is just here. Absolutely gorgeous day today, although it does mean some sweaty nights with much throwing off of duvets. It's been an up and down year so far, no real surprises there, the ups have in the main outweighed the downs and the next couple ofmonths really do look promising from my point of view. Enjoy the sun, enjoy your holidays and bring on the next six months (and the return of the ice-cream man :))

Posted by Owen Jones 2005-06-18 18:39:15