Why This Is Hell

Can. Worms.

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:29:33 GMT

1970s Disney Films. Rather more than I realised. Some of them I have seen. Even in the last thirty years. I thought having to acquire a copy of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was going to be traumatic enough. I hate having to reach for secondary sources but... I remember the Herbie films and The Strongest Man in the World, even have the novelisation somewhere, but... I am going to have to scour charity shop videos in children's sections.

1970 ~~The Aristocats~~
1971 ~~Bedknobs and Broomsticks~~
1971 The Barefoot Executive
1971 The Million Dollar Duck
1972 The Biscuit Eater (May bear comparison with A Boy and his Dog)
1972 Now You See Him, Now You Don't
1973 ~~Robin Hood~~
1973 Charley and the Angel
1974 Herbie Rides Again
1974 The Island at the Top of the World
1975 The Strongest Man in the World
1975 Escape to Witch Mountain
1976 Freaky Friday
1976 The Shaggy D.A.
1977 The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
1977 The Rescuers
1977 Pete's Dragon
1977 Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo
1978 Return from Witch Mountain
1978 The Cat From Outer Space
1979 Unidentified Flying Oddball/The Spaceman and King Arthur
1979 ~~The Black Hole~~

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SL Days 38-42

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:35:31 GMT

It all feels like I'm not achieving enough - which is a familiar OCD complaint, so I'm not sure if it's valid. I have finished a novel and watched a film today though, so the tiptoeing continues. I am worried about three trips to London and one to York before the end of the month, but at least these offer several hours' reading time if I can focus on the train.

On Saturday, I needed to get out of the post code, so I went to Faversham with a friend in the morning. I had checked in advance to discover the book fair, but took that as omen rather than an invitation. It's a very familiar set of stock, and is dullsville. This it proved. We had a quick look in the bookshop on Preston St, Books of Faversham, which keeps erratic hours, and nothing jumped out as a purchase, then looked round the market, and shot down to Past Sentence, where I picked up half a dozen items which I needed, and failed to buy Andromeda, one of those books I seem to wrongly assume I have. I got two follow-ups though, and a new copy of The Atrocity Exhibition to replace a lent one. If it hadn't have been so hot I might have hung round to do tourist stuff, but instead I bought cheese (a Kentish brie and a goat's cheese) and a pork shoulder to slow roast, before hitting the train back to the pub.

( LXXXVII: William S. Burroughs, Blade Runner (A Movie) (1979) )

( LXXXVIII: Michael Moorcock, Breakfast in the Ruins (1972) )

( LXXXIX: D.G. Compton, The Electric Crocodile (1970) )

( XC: D.G. Compton, The Missionaries (1972) )

Word count:

50100 / 120000 words. 42% done!

I notice many of my sections begin "[subject] is also explored in [title of text]." I must edit these down.

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SL Day 37

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:51:59 GMT

My sleep pattern is shot again, and the news is depressing. I see Henning Mankell was on the flotilla intercepted by the Israeli. The Israeli state depresses me, especially in the dealings with Palestine. Every time I hear an Israeli spokesperson it turns out that it wasn't their fault, and it was some bastard doing it to them. Sometimes it must be their fault. I gather that it would all come down to proportionality as the flotilla was in international waters; it didn't look or sound proportional to me. Meanwhile, reading old newspapers, I see it was David Laws who didn't appear on Question Time due to Alastair Campbell appearing to ~~promote his new book~~ represent Labour. I wonder if we were spun on the excuse, given the story which then broke?

Some reading on Robert Silverberg - all Extrapolation so far - and a cheat count...

( LXXXV: Heinrich von Kleist, "Michael Kohlhaas (From an old chronicle)" (1810) )

( LXXXVI: Robert Silverberg, Lord Valentine's Castle (1980) )

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SL Days 33-36

Mon, 31 May 2010 23:36:57 GMT

Curiously, a couple of days away in Chichester gave more reading opportunities than staying at home - three hours on a train with nice, ten minute connections one way (a train waiting at Tonbridge), three and a half hours back (a generous half hour at Redhill, and a nerve wracking four minutes at Tonbridge).

If I were really insane, I could do it as an offpeak day trip even in the week - in Chichester for just gone one, lunch in The Fountain, peruse of Kim's Bookshop, two hours in the gallery, maybe a circumambulation of the walls, back to the station for about six. A Saturday would add hours according to how early I could rise. Return fare avoiding London, with Network Card £13.20. Bargain.

I note that I've never really read Robert Silverberg. I can think of no reason why - I am rereading Lord Valentine's Castle, which I see I was bought for my sixteenth birthday for reasons which escape me, but I never got on with the subsequent volumes. I might have tried his novel of Nightfall. Which may be reason enough. Oddly, a couple of times I thought "How heteronnormative", only for a reference to homosexual to occur. Still, the plots are about men, and there's a quivery attitude to race.

( LXXXII: Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside (1972) )

( LXXXIII: Robert Silverberg, The World Inside (1971) )

( LXXXIV: Robert Silverberg, Tower of Glass (1970) )

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SL Day 32

Fri, 28 May 2010 00:35:05 GMT

More about Yes Prime Minister and Henry Goodman and David Haig channeling the late great Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington later, indeed more on John Tunnard. I am excited about rumours of a Frida Kahlo exhibition. I saw a copy of Love Labours Lost, but it didn't meet the £2 rule, nor am I sure that I don't have the Arden edition. I did find a copy of Dying Inside Robert Silverberg.

( LXXIX: Barry Malzberg, Overlay (1972) )

( LXXX: Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes (1971) )

( LXXX: Robert Silverberg, Downward to the Earth (1970) )

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SL Day 27-31

Wed, 26 May 2010 20:52:08 GMT

Is this an ant burying in sand? I seem to not be reading this week, and the word count isn't progressing quite as I'd like. Two books to report reading, but I'm still thirty pages off finishing Overlay and 150 off A Time of Changes, Silverberg's answer to Babel-17. I have at least six hours' worth of reading time in the next two days, and I must be tough over the bank holiday weekend.

I've seen - and briefly noted - Shivers, Carrie and Alien, and I probably ought to rewatch The Exorcist if I can find the time, even though I've already written it up. I suspect I also need to turn the internet off and write some chunks.

( LXXVII: Doris Lessing, Shikasta (1979) )

( LXXVIII: Suzette Haden Elgin, The Communipaths (1970) )

The Communipaths and At the Seventh Level came in the post this week. I just ordered some Larry Cohen books (thanks, Roger), and I've been pricing more Malzberg, but he's expensive.

Seasonally adjusted word count (10,000 for biblio added)

48800 / 120000 words. 41% done!

End of first draft 14 October at this rate.

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SL Day 26

Fri, 21 May 2010 22:59:10 GMT

A day off, although I did have a couple of hours reading Shikasta. Odd, and a little round the houses. I wonder who coined "space fiction" and when. Shall look up. The post brought Aurora: Beyond Equality, and Star-Anchored, Star-Angered arrived on Tuesday. US and Canadian posting is slow, although Aurora was last thing ordered.

I nearly talked myself out of going to see Kick-Ass; good job I didn't, too, as whatever you think about Jonathan Ross (and I think a move out of the mainstream would be to the good), his missus is a sharp talent. I am wearing a broad grin, and caught the bus with a couple of mins to spare, after a long wait to get up there.

Meanwhile, I spoke three little words to someone, and ( got the response: )

More to come.

And thus home, and the realisation that I can't go to Chichester for a day because I'm seeing a stand up Saturday night. Will have to think about staying over night (and thus it doesn't have to be a Saturday). Shall discuss this with Tilda.

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SL Day 24 and 25

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:35:22 GMT

Yesterday was a bit of a trudge, not settling to write, but today, despite an expotition to Paddock Wood and the other Tunbridge Wells, has been more productive of reading. Tomorrow I shall tackle Shikasta.

I awoke this morning to birdsong and a crunching noise; the crunching outlasted the birdsong briefly. A sparrow sang as it went, leg by leg. The trip to Paddock Wood was to see a crucifixion exhibition, the centrepiece of what was designs by Marc Chagall for stained glass windows in Tudeley church. There was another Chagall, a recent discovery, a Gilbert Spencer, a Graham Sutherland or two, a Lee Miller, comic books. Interesting. Then I walked back towards the station and caught a bus to Tunbridge Wells where I was made angry by being diddled out of change and had a sneaky pint of Harvey's Sussex Best. I'd not done this end of Tunbridge Wells before - oddly at the Pantiles, I'd had the sense I was missing something, in fact I thought finding the Pantiles was the rest of Tunbridge Wells, but I hadn't gone uphill from the station before. Despite the coffee shops, I think I prefer my TW. But I found a Julian Graves and bought dried fruit and a Rooks and bought some pork, which even now is slow roasting and smells delicious.

( LXXIV: William S. Burroughs, Port of Saints (1973) )

( LXXV: Doris Lessing, Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971) )

( LXXVI: Barry Malzberg, The Destruction of the Temple (1973) )

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SL Day 23

Tue, 18 May 2010 23:23:41 GMT

A productive day, leavened by some bad news. I've also caught up another episode and a half of Ashes to Ashes, which seems to be hinting at the it's-all-a-spaceship solution, and thus more "Major Tom" than "Life on Mars".

I watched - probably rewatched - the first two Omen movies, which would be on the very edge of sf, but for the presumably 1982 (or maybe 1989) setting of Damien: Omen II.

( LXXIII: Kilgore Trout, Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) )

And now the bad news: Tom the Cheese Man is to retire. I shall have to go to Whitstable more to use the cheese shop there, or Faversham market. I am not happy, but unsurprised.

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SL Day 22

Mon, 17 May 2010 23:24:37 GMT

Apparently I have to fill in a leave form, and retrospectively claim for any I have taken. H'mmm. Spot the faulty assumption. I also figure with the evening, weekend and statutory days I end up working it's a bit of a moot point. No way do I take thirty days off a year.

A bit of writing, and going through the database to track down the articles I have on Tiptree, and work out which ones are written about. I think she will be spread through the book, but obviously needs a chunk in the gender/feminism chapter. "The Women Men Don't See" and "The Girl Who Was Plugged In", I suspect. I will try for one story a day over the next couple of weeks. It's a rich brew.

I was also staring in a depressed manner at a pile of William Burroughs volumes. I have a 1980s edition of Blade Runner, but I think it was written in the 1970s, the Port of Saints volume I have is the second edition (although still 1980) and The Wild Boys is dated 1969, but has copyright dates up to about 1973. Only Ah Pook is Here looks unproblematic.

I watched The Mind Snatchers (1972) this morning, and then:

( LXXII: Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday (1973) )

Venus on the Half-Shell next?

And I note I've reached my tag limit on Dreamwidth. Who knew?

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SL Days 20 and 21

Sun, 16 May 2010 23:27:54 GMT

Reads, not rereads, for once.

( LXIX: M. John Harrison, The Committed Men (1971) )

( LXX: M. John Harrison, The Centauri Device (1975) )

( LXXI: Gardner Dozois, Strangers (1978) )

End of week three, and twenty-seven novels read (nine this week). I need to watch some films and tv, and get a bit of a grip on time out.

Seasonally adjusted word count:

46100 / 120000 words. 38% done!

11 October is the projected end date, so I've pulled back a day, but I have some chunks I need to get written.

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SL Day 19

Fri, 14 May 2010 23:12:16 GMT

Today turned into a rest day - the alarm went at 7.50, and as is current practice I fell asleep with the pips at 8.00. I got up, did the stuff you do, and took two books to Cafe Nerd. As it was, Brisingamen turned up almost immediately, and we chatted in the sun, then the shade, and watched a dalmatian hybrid walk itself by, and some Carnage-type women, and some stroke symptom people. Thence to the new sticky cake shop (because we're short of places to eat) and then the Thais r Us shop. I picked up a couple of noddle packets and a block of coconut, because, then let Brisingamen find her bus. I did Aldi, picking up a couple of tidy pots, the purpose of which I've yet to pin down.

Then I joined D in the pub, who was stuck on the Daily Fascist cryptic, and we polished that off in a hour, before moving onto the big boy's cryptic - The Grauniad, today by the monkey puzzler Araucauria. In part thnaks to being able to look up Gray's "Elegy" on line (the two fragments I remembered not being the ones called for) we more or less finished this by 4pm, with AIRMAIL taking a little longer ("A sweet French girl I left, being sent overseas" - is Irma a French girl? I guess so - but I only just saw it).

I stayed for most of the rest of then evening, until my knee started twinging again. It's happier for the exercise, and I suspect it's the bar stool (and I think the support is cutting off something in that position). Have popped another pill, and assuming lights out by 12.30 I can get an early night. I shall retire with a Gardner Dozois.

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SL Day 18

Fri, 14 May 2010 08:57:43 GMT

I got a couple of pieces of good news over the last 48 hours - the one of which I can say unlocked is that Ardal O'Hanlon is going to be performing at a gig near me.

( LXVII: Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker (1980) )

( LXVIII: Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird (1979) )

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SL Days 15-17

Thu, 13 May 2010 15:28:51 GMT

Reading, writing, and catching a suntan through the window of a coffee shop.

( LXIII: Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974) )

( LXIV: Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction (1971) )

( LXV: Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976) )

( LXVI: Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, Or Lonesome No More! (1976) )

I've been trying to track this quote down for years - I'd thought it was Doctor Who or Douglas Adams, or both, in fact it was Slapstick

[A safety officer has looked at the mess and chaos in Bernard's lab, and shouted at him.]

"My brother said this to him, tapping his own forehead with his fingertips: 'If you think this laboratory is bad, you should see what it's like in here.'"

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SL Day 14

Mon, 10 May 2010 10:20:56 GMT

There's a cost for good fortune - and managing to catch the Darwin bus to the campus on the hill was balanced with there being no 23.50 bus after all and having to get a cab home. Somewhere in that I lost £5-£10, either literally or being short changed. I'm trying to convince myself that in an alternate world I drank it, but it isn't working. Yesterday I got half of The Dispossessed read, and two short stories, but I won't cheat and claim it for the statistics. I also realised, again, the merits of rereading rather than depending on memory.

End of week two, and eighteen novels read (nine this week), two films watched, and one series - The Clangers. Seasonally adjusted word count (a fake 10k for biblios):

42200 / 120000 words. 35% done!

If I write 500 words a day, I finish 12 October, dropping back... I am about to write another two chunks.

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SL Days 12 and 13

Sun, 09 May 2010 09:42:24 GMT

I need to get back on track next week, but writing is being done as is reading.

I seem to be working on the gender and feminism chapter, so I'm going to have to have another go at reading Tiptree. I'm painfully aware, however, that this chapter ought to be 6,500 words longs, and there's still much more to go in. I'm hoping stuff will be decantable - obviously it won't just be this chapter that has women writers in it, but this is the obvious place to discuss gender.

( LIX: Joanna Russ, We Who Are About Two... (1977), LX: Joanna Russ, The Two of Them (1973), LXI: Joanna Russ, The Female Man (1975) )

( LXII: Richard Bach, John Livingston, Seagull (1970) )

~~52 up!~~ 62, even. Can't count.

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SL Day 11

Thu, 06 May 2010 23:26:16 GMT

In May 1997 I had my hair cut - probably for the first time in two years. Since then - aside from a bit of growing to an inch - I've been no. 4 to no. 0. I don't want have to start growing my hair down to my ass again.

I'm surprised I got anything done today, given a stuff up over the council tax which came to light today. I am still waiting for the council to phone me back.

Mostly today has been reading around feminism, and failing to find all the stuff I was convinced I'd written six months ago. Today's question: who coined the label second-wave feminism and where and when? The first part appears to be Marsha Lear, who so far evades Google fu and doesn't show up at the Library of Congress catalog, nor in Lisa Tuttle's Encyclopedia of Feminism. I suspect I'm also going to need a copy of "The Image of Women in Science Fiction", which ought to be in To Write Like a Woman but isn't. I once had a photocopy, but now? H'mm. A copy of Images of Women in Fiction: Feminist Perspectives, ed. Susan Koppelman Cornillon will be sought. [Campus on the Hill: PD 826.W6]

Meanwhile:

LVIII: Farah Mendlesohn (ed.) On Joanna Russ (2009)
I suspect that if I'd sat down and analysed the contents page and seen some abstracts I could have predicted the way I'd react to each chapter - I wasn't entirely convinced by Paul March-Russell's connection of Russ and Loy (but perhaps I don't know Loy well enough) and Brian Clarke's Deleuze/Guattari's theories left me cold as always. I didn't expect to like Delany's use of DW Griffith, but he convinced me, but in part the connection didn't matter save as performance. I was amused by one writer quoting Russ talking about how (male) reviewers see her work as violent, and then Jason P. Vest writing about how violent her work is. I spotted a few glitches - Bakhtin 1968 seemed to become Bakhtin 1965, "The Second Inquisition" was 1968 or 1970, Women of Wonder 1974 or 1975. I reread my own piece, and didn't hate it, but it felt a little overpowering. If I recall a reviewer suggested I goofed by saying the narrator murders all the characters in We Who Are About To... - "she is not averse to hastening the extinction of the passengers and crew by killing in self-defense" doesn't say all.

This sounds all more negative than I want - it is a good solid collection, with no obvious gaps - but I took fewer notes than I expected to. I'll be dipping back in, of course, but I didn't quite get what I want for the current project; I'm not sure what I wanted, but... On the other hand, the early chapters about the sf community sparked some useful thoughts, and I will be using that. I need to scratch my head a bit more about Vonda McIntyre.

Here's a thought: I've always had the notion that We Who Are About To... parodies the shipwrecked rebuilding society/crashed spaceship rebuilding the world. One chapter here makes good links to Lost in Space and Gilligan's Island, but surely there's more solidly sf there. I've gone blank. Robinsonades? No reproduction for Crusoe.

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SL Day 10

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:08:24 GMT

A frustrating and then pleasing day. Some writing achieved, some reading done - though not as much as hoped - and I had to decide whether to go for a coffee or the pub before catching a bus to the Carbuncle. Since there were rumours of waistcoats in the YMCA I went there - only to find it's closed down. I popped into the Children's Society Shop, only to find a DVD with the film on that I'd ordered an hour earlier. At least the one I ordered was cheaper, but this had three more films on it. I would imagine them all turkeys. Then to Bux to work and read - and I ordered the wrong coffee. Still, good typing, another couple of books ordered, and some useful research. I went for the bus and missed the one I wanted by 30 seconds. More work in the cafe and then Bring Me Sunshine, a one man show about Eric Morecambe. Brilliant, funny and sad, with a ventriloquist's dummy as Ernie Wise.

( LVII: E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime (1975) )

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SL Day 9

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:37:02 GMT

You know, I've lost track as to whether I did any writing today... Not a good sign. Tinkering if any. Mostly reading - I tried to watch Heroes but the snooker overran and I only got the first five minutes of the two episodes. Better record them Saturday morning. An unusually Tuesday without the therapy session, and tried to get into town asap after lunch to drink coffee and read, but after paying bills and diversions to Chaucer Books and Oxfam, it was four o'clock. Finished a book and started another, mind. Oxfam finally yielded Ragtime, which obviously I'll read next.

( LIV: C.J. Cherryh, Well of Shiuan (1978). LV: C.J. Cherryh, Fires of Azeroth (1979). )

( LVI: Ursula Le Guin, Lathe of Heaven (1971) )

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SL Day 8

Mon, 03 May 2010 23:05:20 GMT

Week two - day one. And just after I wrote yesterday's entry, I looked to see that there's a copy of The Road to Corlay on top of the four piles of books on the shelf to the left of my desk. And this is the 1980s reprint which includes "Piper at the Gates of Dawn". So a) I think I may have three copies of this book (in two states) and b) I could have reread "Piper" before The Road to Corlay. Heigho.

A day of thirds - in the middle I was down the pub - with about half of it given to writing, something in excess of 3,000 words, as I wrote on Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, King Kong, and all but the Kinship novels of Cowper. So let's see, bits in three chapters. Seasonally adjusted, that makes:

41300 / 120000 words. 34% done!

I am not going to do a word count every day.

I also read the second Morgaine novel - which I will comment on after reading the third - and ordered or tried to order six more books I've missing.

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SL Day 7

Sun, 02 May 2010 22:50:00 GMT

Apparently a day of rest (but I'll go to bed with a C.J. Cherryh).

Have written some stuff up - I need to make time for the writing or take better notes.

End of week one, and nine novels read, two films watched, and one series - The Clangers. Seasonally adjusted word count (a fake 10k for biblios):

39500 / 120000 words. 33% done!

If I write 500 words a day, I finish 10 October. I think that's ok, but I'd rather that was 30 September.

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SL Day 6

Sat, 01 May 2010 23:18:13 GMT

Last night I found my copy of The Custodians, so I read "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" in the bath today. I thought I had a copy. It was on my dining table, and bought in Windsor in 2001. I have no memory of being in Windsor then. Ah, Windsor, Melbourne. Good job I checked.

Reading:

LII: Richard Cowper, Twilight of Briareus (1974)
Thriller set before and during a new ice age - more psi powers on display and more time travel ish stuff. Disappeared into a manuscript to avoid a proper ending.

LIII: C.J. Cherryh, Gate of Ivrel (1976)
First of the Morgaine trilogy - with pages that are bad Scrabble hands ("Delo'ruv was in Addhgno..."). Volume two tomorrow, volume three Monday.

I also finished watching season one of The Clangers, which gets political toward the end. I might watch season two next.

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SL Day 5

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:46:46 GMT

So today was sort of fail - the morning was spent failing to read all of The Twilight of Briareus, which seems to be a slower read than the others. Then at noon I headed for the pub and, for reasons which need not detain us at this juncture, I stayed there. Coffee and orange/soda all day. Buzz buzz. But fun. Two Daily Hate Mail crosswords, one Grauniad (by Aracauria, no less). Tomorrow I need to get back on the horse, finish The Clangers series one and start on the Cherryh trilogy. Oh, and write up - bit then I hope to have read all the Cowpers.

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SL Day 4

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:02:02 GMT

Today was very much a reading day - although I'd hoped to get one more read as these are all rereads, and tend to come in at the 160 rather than 200 page count.

XLIX: Richard Cowper, Kuldesak (1972)
L: Richard Cowper, Time Out of Mind (1973)
LI: Richard Cowper, The Road to Corlay (1978)

Kuldesak is the real disappointment - postholocaust humans living like rabbits in underground tunnels. Time Out of Mind is a retread of Domino, with the protagonist having a vision of someone he has yet to meet and an instruction to kill someone. Finally - yes I skipped chronology - the first volume of the White Bird of Kinship trilogy, where the pipes of the martyr Thomas in a post-diluvial Britain are passed to a new leader. I had forgotten the present/near future thread of the narrative, and confess I can't see what purpose it serves beyond Cowper likes these double time schemes.

The post brought The Feminine Eye, which covers the right people, at least:

Arbur, Rosemarie "Leigh Brackett: No Long Goodbye' Is Good Enough", pp. 1-13
Mathews, Patricia "C. L. Moore's Classic Science Fiction", pp. 14-24.
Schlobin, R. C. "Andre Norton: Humanity Amid the Hardware", pp. 25-31.
Brizzi, M. T. "C. J. Cherryh and Tomorrow's New Sex Roles", pp. 32-47.
Frisch, Adam J. "Toward New Sexual Identities: James Tiptree, Jr.", pp. 48-59.
Barr, Marleen "Holding Fast to Feminism and Moving Beyond: Suzy McKee Charnas's The Vampire Tapestry", pp. 60-72.
Schwartz, S. M. "Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ethic of Freedom", pp. 73-88.
Chapman, E. L. "Sex, Satire, and Feminism in the Science Fiction of Suzette Haden Elgin", pp. 89-102.
Yoke, C. B. "From Alienation of Personal Triumph: The Science Fiction of Joan D. Vinge", pp. 103-130.

Looking through, however, I see there are a couple of names I've overlooked, and more books need to be ordered. Sigh.

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SL Day 3

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:56:07 GMT

Much of today was taken up with London, and a cunning plan to go to a bookshop in Blackheath en route. It would also yield four hours of travelling (and thus potentially reading), plus time in coffee shop. What I hadn't reckoned on was they close Wednesdays - I'd not thought to look for opening times on their website, which are helpfully hidden on their Contact Page. The journey was not entirely wasted as the Oxfam yielded The Shield series two - not that I've watched the first yet, and possibly minus disc two - and NYPD Blue series three and four (which no doubt the rest to collect as and when). Blackheath has the world's crappest Bux, with more staff than seats for coffee drinking, hence I suspect being given a cardboard cup which very soon I was to spill. Train to London Bridge, tubes to Holborn where I walked to a certain architecture museum to see an exhibition of a certain bluestocking. Word of advice - travel light for this as they really don't like bags.

Back to Kingsway and Cafe Nerd, where I indulged myself in my free coffee from a fortnight back, finished a book and was amused by the tale of the amateur sailor who got stuck going round the Isle of Sheppey having decided to keep the land on his right. Smirk. Started second book, then walked via Oxfam Drury Lane and Lovejoys (four more Wordsworth horrors, one a duplicate alas) to Piccadilly 'Stones to wait for Roger in the cafe (which I note is now ruined by Too Much Service). Clarke Award and dash to station - I should have gone to Victoria and waited half an hour, instead Charing Cross train caught with a minute to spare and a taxi home to a bath.

XLVII: Richard Cowper, Domino (1971)
XLVIII: Richard Cowper, Clone (1972)

Both very much of their time - the one apparently a psychic thriller, the other a satire on overpopulation, The EU, and (metaphorically) immigration and race (especially post Planet of the Apes). Clone has aged less well than Domino - as if I recall correctly as had Profundis, but I'm a couple of days away from that. Back to Cherryh at the weekend, but I'll read all the seventies Cowper, even though I think it's going in three chapters by the end. Well, certainly two, maybe three. Stretching geography a little - the secret scientific research unit is where Pfizer is based now (that is if Sandwich were six or seven miles from Folkestone, so very stretched then...). Of course, for strict chronology I should have read Kuldesak, but I jumped the wrong way.

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