Spent the last couple of months working my way through all of Anne McCaffrey's books. As can be expected, it is rather poigniant considering she died a couple of weeks ago

Also, considering she wrote and co-wrote over 80 novels this is not exactly a quick job!

Of course everyone thinks of the Dragonriders of Pern books, and while I really enjoy them for the most part (All the Weyrs of Pern should be a t-shirt - Dragons - IN SPACE!) they are far from all she wrote.

Other great series include the Crystal singer series, Acrona, Talent etc. Some of the series don't work (The Freedom series went nowhere fast) but in general she was a pretty good author. In general her sci fi is pretty lightweight, and she had a depressing tendancy to wrap books up abruptly in the last 20 pages. But for intreaguing stories, and the ability to make interesting books without proper antagonists, she was first class.

Only got 10 or so books to go now, best force my way to the end at this point!

Have started re-reading one of my favorite books Hermann Hesse's brilliant Siddhartha

Currently reading a biography on THe Cure; titled Ten Imaginary Years, my aunt sent it down to me along with Songwords 1978-1989 and a few Cocteau Twins LPs and it's an excellent read. Highly recommended if you like the band.

Finished Blue Blood. Comparing it to Homicide was a mistake as it is far more autobiographical. It made me laugh and disturbed me at points. Good read.

Right now I'm reading A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan which is just brilliantly written.

Reading Colour Me English by Caryl Phillips. A great read for anybody interested in identity and how people/society constructs and reacts against it.

To be honest I prefer his essays to his fiction which is just too harsh and bitter for me.

While trawling online Psychology journals, researching for an essay I'm currently doing. I came across this:
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/197/4/28 ... 7c715fedd0

I guess it's not overly interesting really. But I did find it interesting that lower potency cannabis actually has an anti-psychotic agent in it that could be potentially counteracting the psychosis inducing (and highly desired by smokers) THC element. The paper doesn't prove that smoking normal weed is less likely to cause psychosis than skunk due to this, but it does seem likely. Especially considering how mental health disorder's caused by smoking cannabis has rapidly shot up since skunk began to dominate our streets (it currently accounts for something like 90% of the cannabis on the streets of the UK).

I don't actually smoke and never will do. But I do have a couple of friends from back in the day, who suffered/suffer from full blown psychosis due to smoking too much skunk from too young an age. It sounds like it was a real shame that more normal, lower potency cannabis (what we used to call weed or mersh) wasn't around as opposed to (often laced) skunk that was always around in abundance.

Currently reading The Makioka Sisters (yep, yet another Japanese classic). Only about 80 pages through or so, but am enjoying it.

Finished Tehanu, and so thus finished The Earthsea Quartet.

I liked the pacy, snappy storytelling and the trials for Sparrowhawk as he got older. The Farthest Shore was the best book, while Tehanu was the weakest (really nothing more than an extended epilogue for the first three books).

You can see where the Ghibli film screwed up so dramatically, and where it didn't have a clue at all about the main story and lore, not to mention the dire way Cob and his scheme were messed up.

A brilliant four books with an interesting prose style. Yet the near 20 year hiatus between The Farthest Shore and Tehanu sort of shows.

So it goes...

A Wizard of Earthsea: 5/5
The Tombs of Atuan: 4/5
The Farthest Shore: 5/5
Tehanu: 2/5

Overall 4/5

1984 - George Orwell

For the first time!

And oh what a book it is. I'm at Part 2: Chapter 4 now!

Last night I finally finished 1984- and what a fantastic book. It's up as one of the best I've read. The ending is sadder than I'd imagined, though. Tempted to follow this up with Huxley's "Brave New World" now, not quite sure yet though.

I'd say do it, but I accept no responsibility for feelings of paranoia which may arise from reading such books in quick succession.

If you can take any more, you should finish off with Yevgeny Zamyatin's We.

So, I got given a well worn copy of James Clavell's 'Gai-Jin' (damn these Japan themed books, when will it end!) earlier this week. I loved Shogun and am eager to get stuck into another one of his epics. However I'm not really too sure if there's a desired order in which to read his "far east saga" books, or whatever they're called.

Finished reading Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games recently. I really enjoyed Game of Thrones, and The Hunger Games wasn't too bad. Reading A Clash of Kings now.

Which crossover would you rather read: HUNGER THRONES or THE GAME OF GAMES?

Game of Games has a nicer ring to it.