The Month In Review and of Things to Come

This month has been crowned by illness. I’ve had a two week flu, or something to the effect, caused by the forty plus degrees variance in a twenty-four hour period that we see in the southeast. The “what do I wear for the day” time frame that assists in inducing illness is called, ‘spring.’ Happily, it only last about a month; then we all complain about how ungodly hot it is... Which will be tomorrow.

The bum wine party went well, but then again, I didn’t have to drink Thunderbird. Not that Wild Irish Rose is any better, but fun was had by all. As far as entertainment goes, I saw my first film in the theaters since The Dark Knight, more than two years ago: Avatar. It was fun. It definitely had more of a focus on ‘awesome’ than storytelling. Perhaps the makers of the film assumed viewers had seen Dances with Wolves or Pocahontas before and they crammed the plot into twenty minutes at the beginning. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it. A fun way to spend a few hours.

I got a few new guitar slides today. I have thick knuckles and long skinny fingers. I had decided to make my own until I remember that there is a glass working studio beneath where I work. I went in thinking to ask, “How do I make a slide?” Turns out they have a hundred already made. Much to my surprise, it’s a pretty regular request for them. The two I got are really thick glass, and slightly flared for extra awesome on the bottom strings. They have a 'rapture' inducing tone, I must say.

As far as book acquisitions go, I broke last months oath and bought a few. I finally tracked down all of Edward Whittemore’s work in hardback. Kinda broke the bank with the first two of the Jerusalem Quartet, about $15 each, but the other three of his works were only around five dollars. Here’s to hoping they are as good as the critics say…I needed to hit the free shipping magic number for the one of the Whittemore books and Amazon was having one of there random as hell, twenty-four-hours-only-blue-light-specials on the Graveyard Book. I love/hate Gaiman but for $3.99 in hardback it was hard to say no.

At a Barnes and Noble I’d never been to (after seeing Avatar) absolutely buried under about one hundred pounds of books was GGK Tigana for $1.99 Needless to say, I bought it. As far as forth coming acquisitions go, I’m gonna try to con some one into buy me A History of White People after reading this. Perhaps the non fiction thing is catching. After two books by Arturo Pérez-Reverte I have uncovered why I like him so much, or at least why I like the Alatrise series: each book is complete within it’s covers and there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ guys; there's really not much moral ambiguity. All characters are at an equal state of 'wretched' and do what they gotta do. (Perhaps Joe Abercrombie writes like this too, it seems to be what everyone hints at.) This series is a bit of a mash up of James Clavell and David Gemmell's best attributes: action, adventure, a stunning foreign setting, and depraved anti-heroes. I've also pinned down that Pérez-Reverte has an amazing ability to write without a true plot; crazier still, it doesn't bother me.

Also, I WON a book! A sure to be awesome book.

I’ve noticed that I read more when I tell myself (in my blog) what I going to read. I’m testing that theory this month by not doing it. I am gonna sift through my library of unread books and pick out the ones that have never been on the top of the stack. That’s right: I’m bottom feeding on my bookcase… It's a bit like looking for neglected treasure in what I consider to be my treasure trove.

April is looking very sexy right now. There is rum, reading, hopefully a return to full-time employment and to top it all off, bar golf in the Highlands.

I'm ready.