I’ve been reading alot lately. Alot more than I’ve been doing since Keira was born.

I think I’m averaging a book a week… this is alot for me these days considering I only have about an hour a day to read. But back in the good ‘ol days, I used to finish a book a day.. yes, I was that much of a bookworm.

Now I have re-discovered my collection of sci-fi books, which we packed up into boxes two years ago.

My memory is so bad that I don’t even remember the storylines of each book, so it’s like I’m reading them for the first time again, and wow, they’re good.

Even after experiencing the practical realities of motherhood, I’m defintely still impressed and inspired by fantastical futures and worlds beyond our ken.

I started with Jack McDevitt’s Omega. Got hooked and quickly followed with his Cauldron and Nebula Award Winner Seeker. He is a true STORYTELLER, which is what I like best in an author. There’s adventure, mystery, well paced dialogue and absolutely fascinating explorations of alien cultures and encounters.

I couldn’t put Omega down. From the discovery of an alien civilisation to the mission to save the aliens from the world destroying Omega Clouds - it was a smart rollicking space adventure.

I then moved on to Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog, a time travel comedy of errors which amazingly combined science fiction with another of my favourite genres - the historical romance, Jane Austen style.

To Say Nothing of the Dog (full text in google books) is densely packed with references to key historical events, personalities and books, so at some stages I’d go “Huh?” since history isn’t my strongest suit, but the attempts by Ned and Verity, our pair of intrepid historian/time travellers, to fix a potential rip in time by making sure a certain young
Victorian lady meets the love of her life sure was entertaining.

Now, have just finished Idoru by William Gibson. This is science fiction in a whole different direction - the cybertech future.

A pop star has decided to marry a virtual reality celebrity, the repercussions of which drag Colin Laney a guy with special research abilities and Chia McKenzie, 14 year old fan to post earthquake Tokyo, where they become embroiled with the Russian mafia and the Otaku (cybertech fetishists).

This was a neon-lit read featuring nanotech buildings, virtual cities and really cool computers. Fairly intense but still accessible, it teases you with the beginnings of something radically new and slightly disturbing. The way all good Sci-fi should.

And now I’ve just started Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, the 2005 Hugo Award Winner. Keira picked it out for me at Borders. Well she was taking books off the shelves and throwing them on the floor and I was tidying up after her. This book wouldn’t have caught my eye otherwise!

Looks very promising, about how suddenly the moon and stars disappear from our skies because “something” has captured the earth and frozen it in time.

I’ve read the first few chapters and am looking forward to reading the rest of it. I just love it when I have that kind of book. You know, something you can snuggle down with and transport you far far away at the end of a tiring day

I’ve just taken Keira to get her hair cut by a professional for the first time this week.

After the last time when we made a mess cutting her hair, decided to take the easy route, and get someone else to do it for us.

I took her to a barber shop, because they advertised that they do children’s haircuts, and they were well equiped for it. They had a baby haircut chair, lollipops, toys, a remote control car and more to entertain the kids.

Keira of course went through them all and still cried. At one stage, I carried her to look at the fish in the tank while the barber tried to snip at her fringe.

She has quite a short boyish cut now, but the fringe is still zig zag. Ah well.

Here she is with new hairstyle watching advertisements.

Baby news aside, I got my hands on Terry Practhett’s new book “Nation“, yesterday, yay! It isn’t a Discworld novel though, but still written in the familiar, funny Pratchett style we love so much. Yay!

And now to TV - the best thing that has come out of America - lovely, addictive Heroes, and Supernatural and Prison Break and Ugly Betty and Smallville and Grey’s Anatomy, they’re all back!

Going to talk about Heroes now, just my reaction to the new season, no plot points, but don’t read on if you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know.

There was something wrong with the first two episodes. The storyline didn’t work. It was choppy, disjointed, not up to the standard I have come to expect from Heroes.

I was disappointed, but I can’t quite put a finger on exactly what was wrong. Seems like all my favourite characters were not likeable anymore and the new premise of the show is uninspiring, and it just didn’t pick up from where it left off at the end of season 2!

Disappointed. I HOPE the writers buck up real quick and get Heroes back on track!

Yay!  I’ve finally got Terry Pratchett’s latest book, Wintersmith. For some reason the bookstores here haven’t been selling it, altho I’m quite sure it has been out for about 1 month already.

But I got a copy when CY came back it was 19.95 euros. About the same price as what i would have had to pay in RM.

Can’t wait to read it!

I’ve also just finished another pretty good book in the young adult fantasy genre - Diana Wynne Jones’ “The Merlin Conspiracy”. I found it as entertaining as Harry Potter. DWJ is a prolific writer of children’s fantasy, I remember liking her when I was a teen, and amazingly her books are still great reading for an adult!

In other news, we’re having a wedding weekend this week - saturday and sunday are friends’ weddings. And I’ll be helping to “guard the door” again on Sunday morning. What to do to “challenge” aka torture the groom this time. hmm…

One of my favourites from previous times was asking the groom to do a William Hung. ahahaha!