Achievement = smugness

I won NaNo! For the first time ever, I have won NaNo! Yay, go me, etcetera.

Off to recover.

"such a fanciful, troublesome creature"

Watched the first episode of the new Emma on iPlayer last night. Still not sure what I think. It's beautifully shot, the actors are good, the music is nice, and there are bits that are very close to Emma but...I'm just not sure. For the first ten minutes I was getting annoyed and texting a friend who had recommended I watch it, because I a) couldn't work out why Knightley was narrating* and b) wasn't sure why they were presenting it as if Emma, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax were all entwined by destiny OMG. I half-expected an evil sorcerer to turn up and curse them or for a dragon to start spouting about how they were, er, three sides of the same coin (I may have watched too much Merlin).

Once I got past the opening ten minutes and on to the part that is actually the book it improved. I did think Emma's taking up of Harriet Smith suggested that she found her more than just platonically attractive, and there were occasions when Emma looked ready to strangle her, but otherwise that was done quite well. The whole thing with Mr Elton is greatly improved knowing he is Justin from The League of Gentlemen. And Johnny Lee Miller wasn't as gratingly bad as Mr Knightley as I was expecting (I based my prior opinion solely upon the film of Mansfield Park).

I will watch ep2, but I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I am, however, hoping that we get Mrs Elton riding a donkey. I want to see that.

Other points:

- Mr Elton's hair is as well styled as his counterpart in Clueless, so it turns out there was hair gel in Regency England.

- When Mr Weston said he always carried a spare umbrella in Spring weather I imagined him lurking down country lanes waiting for unsuspecting young women to be caught in sudden rain showers.

* I know he's always watched over Emma and is very aware of what she does, but that got interpreted as slightly creepy in my head.

50 'new' books in 2009

Challenge I set myself at the beginning of the year: to read 50 books I'd never read before. As the list below shows, I have fallen far of this target (and I have two and a half months to catch up, right...). I have read over 50 books, but some of those are of the leisurely, comfort, repeat read type and I don't count those; that's me being lazy.

01. Lord John and the Hand of Devils - Diana Gabaldon*

02. Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

03. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

04. Naomi and Eli's No Kiss List - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

05. The Thursday Kidnapping - Antonia Forest

06. The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

07. Gingerbread - Rachel Cohn

08. Shrimp - Rachel Cohn

09. Cupcake - Rachel Cohn

10. Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets - David Simon

11. The House That Jack Built - Guy Adams**

12. Into the Silence - Sarah Pinborough**

13. Bay of the Dead - Mark Morris**

14. Silverfin - Charlie Higson

15. My Family and Other Disasters - Lucy Mangan

16. Death in a White Tie - Ngaio Marsh

17. Artists in Crime - Ngaio Marsh

18. Hopscotch & Handbags - Lucy Mangan

19. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie***

20. Silksinger - Laini Taylor

21. Consequences - assorted but James Moran = dude**

22. Lips Touch - Laini Taylor

23. Private - Keep Out! - Gwen Grant

24. Peril at End House - Agatha Christie

25. Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild

26. The Big Four - Agatha Christie

(updated 17/10/09)

I am not even halfway through. I may review some of these, though. As another form of procrastination.

EDIT 17/10: over halfway through. Hurrah.

* Although the only short story in this collection I hadn't read before was 'Lord John and the Haunted Soldier'

** Yes, these are Torchwood tie in books. Yes, I admit to reading those. Yes, I am pissed off about the events of 3.4.

*** I actually read my mum's copy, which has the original title and the most politically incorrect cover I've ever seen.

Book addiction

Goodreads is far too addictive, could easily waste hours on there adding books (like all my Terry Pratchetts, which I've just done) or playing the trivia game (which shows that I've gleaned a good working knowledge of books I've never read - how to blag your way through an English degree).

But then I get wondering about some books which I'm not adding, or books which I should add as some sort of "well, I *own* it even if I haven't *read* it" - on this list stick almost everything that's won the Booker in the last fifteen years, a ton of literary stuff I picked up in 3 for 2s or second hand shops (why yes I will try some Ishiguro if it's £1.50). Also other books which I should have read, either because they're classics or because they formed part of the curriculum at schools I didn't go to, or because all my friends have read them. And then I stare at my bookshelves and wonder how much stuff lurks behind the double stacking which I'd love to read but which I don't get to.

This is rambling. And yet another way to avoid getting on with The Novel of Doom (as it has now been renamed; may leave it like that, it's catchy). Have to restart whole thing from beginning, change plot, add new character, kill off a character mid-book rather than pre-book and generally look towards NaNo as a time to work on a shiny new thing. But then by about November 15th I'll be wanting another shiny new thing to work on because I'm getting annoyed with NaNo Project. Ah, fickleness.

Was going to avoid posting a video, but (slight swearing):

A Gentleman Does Not Conga

Can think of nothing overly witty to say as a (new) first post, so shall allow Mitchell & Webb to provide entertainment for me:

(One use of the f-word, but if you know Pride and Prejudice you know it's justified).