I was tagged by Jack on the grounds that I’ve “not done a meme for a while”.

Total Number of Books Owned

According to my LibrayThing profile, 858. I know I have at least one more to add to that list and I’d also need to subtract the 27 tagged as !borrowed or !sold. So 832. Minimum, as there may be more hiding somewhere that I haven’t added yet.

Last Book Bought

A couple of out of print role playing games from eBay. Last ‘real’ book would appear to be Clarissa Oakes by Patrick O’Brian which I found in a bookshop in Amsterdam and made Lettice buy because I’d only just bought something else there and the shop assistant was a bit on the scary side.

Last Book Read

I finished re-reading Human Nature this morning. I’ve been wanting to refresh my memory since the TV version came out. The book is bloodier and does a better job of creating the historical context. However it does have a number of elements that are really superfluous and which the TV version correctly ignored.

Five books that mean a lot to me

In reverse chronological order in my life:

1. Life by Richard Fortey

   I bought this whilst on holiday in Tennessee visiting gleet and littlebun so it reminds me of a great time as well as being a great book. Fortey takes a look at the history of life on Earth from the moment if started to the dawn of human history. Richard Dawkins did the same trip backwards in The Ancestor’s Tale but for me Fortey’s book is more engaging.

2. Ships of the Star Fleet, Volume One

   Very, very geeky. But as well as being one of the best Treknical fandom works ever it’s also the first book I bought online.

3. Thieves’ World

   I could have listed several works of fantasy or science fiction that I read during my adolesence - The Lord of the Rings, Dune, the Pern novels and The Colour of Magic prime amongst them, but this collection of low fantasy stories set in a seedy city at the arse end of an empire is the one that stuck in my mind the most.

4. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

   I was the pefect age for this when it was first published. And from this book sprung my interest in RPGs and wargames. It has a lot to answer for.

5. 

   Read About Me and the Yellow-Eyed Monster

   A childhood treat - a book with me and my family and my friends in it.

Four People You’re Tagging With This Meme

• Chris at The Virtual Stoa
• gleet
• pink_weasel
• Tony and his Random Thoughts

Dreadful first half. Much more promising in the second half.

Why is the South Africa match on ITV1 and the Wales and Scotland matches on ITV4? I don’t think I’ve ever watched ITv4 before, the reception is, predictably, only adequate. (I live very close to the Crystal Palace transmitter, is my dreadful digital reception due to interference from analogue signals? In other words will things get better or worse when they switch the analogue signal off?)

Oh, and itv.com need to get a clue. System requirements to watch the match online are:

• Windows
• Internet Explorer
• Flash 8
• Windows Media Player 9

I have all that, but why should I need to use IE and WMP when I have far superior alternatives? This is 2007 and insisting that people use a precise combination of four proprietary technologies is so last century…

Do ITV actually want anyone to watch the Rugby?

Very True Mood:  restless

Reading the new SFX Heroes special and this:

Jayma Mays (how sad her name makes her sound like a female version of the gorilla-faced car journo)

made me hoot with laughter and made pink_weasel very indignant (she’s a bit of a fan, you know).

Very True Mood:  amused

I’m watching the first episode of Dirt on the telly, and suddenly realised that Don the paparazzo is played by Ian Hart and not, as I thought, Max Perlich.

Oh, and last night I was apparantly saying “stupid, stupid, stupid” in my sleep. I wonder who I was dreaming about, but where do I start drawing up the short list?

The thing I really love about Doctor Who fandom is that it’s very, very, very good at getting itself worked up into a good froth. And the reactions to the latest piece of casting news (not be confused with the day before’s news) are exceeding all expectations.

Very True Mood:  mischievous

When you see this post, quote from Doctor Who on your blog/journal.

Points at the top of the page, I have a quote from Doctor Who there all the time, but here’s another one:
“My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters and you don’t like my tie.”

Anyway, The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords — A bulging set of homages to SF/Fantasy - Harry Potter/Wizard of Earthsea; Captain Scarlet; Peter Pan; Flash Gordon; Return of the Jedi.

Harold Saxon, PM seems more based on John Culshaw’s Tony Blair in Dead Ringers than the real thing, and the “Britain, Britain, Britain” opening to one of his speeches was highly reminiscent of Tom Baker’s voice overs for Little Britain.

All of which briefly makes it all seem like some sort of attempt to screw with the minds of the media studies/crossover/slash/post modernism/irony obessessed sectors of fandom. Which actually makes me like it slightly more.

( talking about actual plot points that may be spoilers  )

A final observation: In many ways the John Nathan Turner years didn’t happen as far as Russell T Davies is concerned. Most of the references to the Master’s and Doctor’s past came from the Third Doctor era. The depiction of the Time Lords picks up in 60s and 70s aspects and avoids the 80s (not such a bad move). The returning villains (Autons, Daleks, Cybermen (sort of), Macra, The Master) all predate 1975. The way the Daleks and Cybermen are portrayed owes more to their early appearances than their later ones. The Doctor’s lost at least a few decades and probably a few hundred years if he’s ‘only’ 900-odd in the new series. Just how much of his history did the Time War wipe clean away?

Very True Mood:  thoughtful

I don’t do squee. I’m male and an old-school fan and sensible and self conscious. But….

How bloody amazing was that?

About ten minutes in I was wondering whether this was a sly remake of the DWM comic strip End of the Line and was expecting a similarly downbeat ending.

Then Derek Jacobi started dropping hints and any thoughts about this episode’s supposed plot went straight out of my head. Instead I was on the edge of my seat pointing at the screen, and maybe, just a little, going …

squee

Ahem. Sorry.

Very True Mood:  bouncy

I’ve managed to get the washer-drier to dry without beeping at me and flashing error codes. First time in weeks. I gave it a good thump.

Everything I know about engineering I learnt from watching Patrick Troughton.

Very True Mood:  pleased

Managed to watch some Battlestar Galactica last night. I’m still in the middle of season two (and my brother gave me West Wing season seven last weekend so I’ve got enough DVDs to last a fair while). Anyway, it was the “Resurrection Ship” two parter (which with “The Pegasus” really makes a three parter).

Wow.

Wow.

Let me see if I can explain. In almost any other SF show the battle between the two battlestars and the two basestars would be at the centre of these episodes. But here it’s a background element. We’re treated to a series of brilliant chararcter moments that build and then destroy and rebuild the plot with a few softly spoken words. This is what all television should be like. The closest comparison I can think of is The Sopranos. It’s really that good.

But minor niggle… (and this applies to much of the Boomer storyline in season one as well) … are CCTV cameras somehow subject to Cylon infiltration and thus distrusted by the Colonials? Otherwise Baltar should be in a lot of trouble.

And a digression: it’s been said by other people that American fiction is obsessed with father-son relationships in a way that British (and European in general) fiction isn’t. And the Adama family saga certainly fits the bill. But look at cop shows. US cop shows are all about more or less equal partners, but UK cop shows are often about an older detective and his younger sidekick (i.e. a substitute father-son relationship) and I can’t think of many US cop series that fit that model and no UK shows based around equal partners. (Oh, and then there’s CSI where Gil is a clear father figure, but does that make his relationship with Sara substitute-incest?). Thinking about it, this may in part reflect the way police forces are organised in the two countries but seeing as how TV rarely cares that much about realism I think there’s something a bit more to it. Am I seeing made up patterns or is there something here?

Very True Mood:  relaxed

Father Sidney, Mother Verity? Priceless.

Best of the season so far. Fingers crossed for part two.

Very True Mood:  cheerful