Steph's Scribblings

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:18:02 GMT

"What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Here's the twist: add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend. Even if you read 'em for school in the first place."

Type your cut contents here.
Addendum
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell *
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses - bad timing, intend to read when my books come out the attic
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice *
Jane Eyre *
Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife - I didn't enjoy this
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin - I'd recommend it if I could cut 100 pages or so
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods *
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha - Filed under 'dreadful purple prose'
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West * - not amazing, but quirky, so I'd recommend it anyway
The Canterbury Tales
Frankenstein - thought this was awful
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange *
Anansi Boys * - preferred American Gods, but still good
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984 *
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray * - this was a favourite when I was a teenager
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune *
The Prince - I'm reminded that I ought to pick this up some time
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon - circumstances - must buy a copy
Neverwhere *
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel *
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita *
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey * - as a teenager, I thought this was her best, but I've not read it for years
The Catcher in the Rye - just didn't get it
On the Road - another one I plowed through but never really got into
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything *
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid - about 15 years ago, so I don't remember a thing about it
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit *
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island - this was more like 20 years ago, so I really don't remember any of it
David Copperfield

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:46:12 GMT

I feel the need to go clubbing soon. Goth or industrial (but preferably more tuneful / less noise).

Failing that, going in a completely opposite direction I'd take psytrance, but I haven't seen much of that ilk in Edinburgh of late.

It really has to be a Friday or even better, a Saturday in order to fit in with the horrors of adulthood.

Where should I go and when?

Nil illegitimi carborundum

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:41:04 GMT

Tonight, Eddie Meyer uttered the word 'bastard' more times within one episode of PM than I have ever heard it used in several years of listening to Radio 4.

Announcement

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 23:09:56 GMT

We like the mooooon!

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:25:09 GMT

Not at pub with colleagues.

alienspacebat's parents are about to turn up for the weekend and the place is extremely untidy.

Eep!

PC World

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:55:53 GMT

PC World's website is being most odd. It seems to accept my password in order to change said password. Nonetheless, regardless of what said password is, it obstinately refuses to accept that it is correct when I wish to use it to alter a delivery address.

Veils, Crosses & a Lot of Hot Air

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 16:41:46 GMT

I would like to live in a society where logical judgements reach without recourse to religious texts were given the same respect as those based on religious requirement.

In reality, I couldn't care less whether or not someone covers their hair or wears a cross and I'm not going to fight for my equivalent right to wear a hat or particular jewellery at work. I understand the reasons that we make allowances for religious beliefs and try to accommodate them, though I may not understand those particular beliefs myself.

Nonetheless, in my ideal world, my desire to wear a hat all the times because I choose to - for example - would be given the same weight as someone else's insistence on wearing religious garb.

It's a bizarre society in my view where a request that young people not wear hooded tops because they are 'threatening' and 'obscure the face' is seen as reasonable, whereas a request that someone remove a garment that covers most of their identifying features is seen as intolerant.

I can now understand how France came to the position it did, though it would not be my own position.

I do not wish to live in a society which says 'same rules for everyone except the religious'. I do not wish to live in a society which tiptoes around making exceptions and concessions based only upon religious belief, but will not make exceptions for other kinds of deeply held conviction. Such a society is one where I as an atheist will undoubtedly be expected to be understanding of such beliefs without reciprocity. That, I find grossly unfair.

Right now, I am becoming enraged with this increasingly nonsensical and thin-skinned debate.

Moonwalk!

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:53:48 GMT

Hello you lovely people :)

As some of you know I'm taking part in The Edinburgh Moonwalk this weekend, in aid of breast cancer research. The event's a power-walking marathon around Edinburgh, starting at midnight, so spare a thought when (some of) you are out getting pissed!

If you feel able, I'd be delighted if some of you would sponsor me.

My employer will be matching the sponsorship pound for pound up to the first £500, so I'm looking to get as close to that target as possible.

Thanks!

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:12:25 GMT

Michael Buerk sounds off about women & society. I may have to watch this, although alienspacebat might have to remove all the pointy / tv damaging objects from the house first.

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 08:47:25 GMT

Happy Birthday alienspacebat

Mon, 11 Jul 2005 20:59:28 GMT

The sun sets slowly over Edinburgh. I'm sitting in the Meadows, book in one hand, beer in the other. I've just done some poi, but I'm a little tired - out of practice. Sitting next to me is Tim, intrepid explorer hat {tm} on his head, also sipping a beer and grinning, as we watch a pair practicing acrobalance nearby.

Suddenly there's a great wheezing sound, a honk and then a loud droning. I'm awakened from my dreamy state by a short, bearded man with wiry ginger hair. He's huffing and puffing into an unfeasibly large set of bagpipes (or perhaps he's just unfeasibly small), while doing a little jig around his group of lager-swilling, sunburnt anti-hippies. His friends cheer him as he goes shrieking up towards young couples lying on the grass; groups of students with guitars and drums, valiantly continuing to play as he makes his presence felt. The entire Meadows are aware of him now.

Someone shouts, 'Gie it a rest', but he continues unabated - wild-eyed and dancing as though were he not to dance, the pipes would take him over with their sheer weight.

The mood shatttered and the midges out in force, people start packing up their things. He finally lays down the bagpipes. I finish my beer and head home.

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 18:11:57 GMT

I have sent alienspacebat for wine, chocolate and flowers. Admittedly the latter are for tomorrow's flat viewing, but the first two are definitely for me.

We will then watch Lost in Translation, as my Amazon order finally turned up today.

I will not be in theauldhoose, since I'm unfit for human company, being as spiky as a hedgehog with piles.

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:28:00 GMT

Given that I couldn't go out while waiting for a gas engineer, I decided to eat fairly chewy pizza and drink beer. This was clearly an error, as I'm now filling out rather large size 14 trousers quite nicely, would like to go to sleep and facially, bear some resemblance to a hamster.

White bread is bad.
Most beer is at least non-good.
The combination was foolish.

Voting Systems

Thu, 19 May 2005 20:44:52 GMT

If you've not already seen this, The Independent are launching a campaign for electoral reform, including an online petition.

Make Votes Count and the Electoral Reform Society also have a petition.

This is something I think is desperately needed - especially after the recent general election result.

Mon, 02 May 2005 19:01:09 GMT

Tim: You combine a lot of demographics - a bit geeky, ex-goth, bit of a hippy...
Me: Am not! And if you say that again, I'll throw this shoe at you!
Tim: *hysterical laughter*

*looks down at 'Birkenstock' label*

Oh dear.

Thu, 25 Nov 2004 20:43:47 GMT

Went to the pub last night for the first time in ages. Fun was had (and terribly serious conversations with scunthorpe. Politics, religion and no casualties - excellent :)

Also good to catch up with figg. Hopefully catch up with more people at the weekend: I've been hiding for too long (and December is likely to be more than a little crazy).

Wine, gymming and song

Thu, 02 Sep 2004 10:10:03 GMT

Had a fabulous meal out last night at Librizzi's with alienspacebat. I'd never been along before, but I'd definitely go back. It's a Sicilian restaurant and I found it refreshing to go to an Italian restaurant that doesn't have the standard Scottish-Italian menu with lots of pizza. It wasn't too expensive either, despite its appearance and the fact that it seems to be popular with suited New Town types.

This morning I went to see my old singing teacher, since it seems likely that I'll be able to afford the odd singing lesson now that I'm working. I haven't arranged anything yet, since I don't know my hours, but it'll be good to get back into things. Unfortunately I don't know what I want to sing: I've always done opera in the past, but it doesn't look like there's much amateur opera of interest going on in Edinburgh right now (well, there's Aida, but I'm a little young for that!). I had even toyed with the idea of trying some jazz or something, but I'll wait and see what Irene says when I've actually been for a lesson. My voice has almost certainly changed over the past year and a half, so I'm not even sure what would suit me nowadays.

This afternoon I shall go and get girly eyebrow dying stuff done and possibly have another attempt at shopping for work clothes (yesterday being an unmitigated disaster in that respect), before heading out to the gym with a certain blond physicist who has offered to show me what I should be doing with free weights. After my cycling up hills embarrassment the other day, I'd really rather not do anything foolish like drop the damned things on my foot (or worse, his). This could be an adventure :-)

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 10:41:47 GMT

Good weekend so far: highlight including Ed Byrne on Friday night (go see, he's very funny) and dinner last night at The Waterfront in Leith for alienspacebat's birthday. Unfortunately this involved eating rather later than expected and erm, being in Leith, so there was no way we were going to make it to martling's party by a respectable hour.

Don't go and see Wendy Spero - Who's Your Daddy? - possibly the worst Fringe show I've had the misfortune to sit through. I don't know, maybe it would have been funnier if I were (a) American or (b) Jewish, but somehow I doubt it. (I mean, in what country is going on about what a stoner you are funny in and of itself? Unless that is, you're one of Cheech and Chong. She wasn't.)

Today I will take my boy out for birthday breakfast and hope that the weather lifts sufficiently to go out in the sunshine. Somehow I have my doubts about the latter.

Have a meme

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 15:19:57 GMT

Since I'm sitting around bored, waiting for B&Q to call, have a meme:

Ask me two questions. The first one HAS to be "What do you think of me?" but the second one can be anything you want. And as with any memes of this form, do the same thing in your own journal after you post the questions. Or not, whatever.

Wed, 16 Jun 2004 10:13:17 GMT

Meh. Something is punishing me for having such a good day yesterday. In the afternoon I read in the Meadows before cycling out to the gym for yoga. Now I have the cold and feel as though someone's trying to blend my brain.

Today's entry is: bah.

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:02:45 GMT

Ah, all is good with the world (except my bank balance) BUT I have Massive Attack tickets. Unfortunately it's in August, which seems ages away. I also have Cylob tickets, although I'm somewhat amused that they're playing the Subway of all places. Usually though, this simply means that one must vacate the premises immediately after the bands have finished, in order to avoid drunken hen parties coming in for the cheap drink and cheesy music (this holds double if any of your party are young, presentable and male).

Not terribly much to do today, so I think it's time for lunch in the Meadows with a good book.

Wed, 02 Jun 2004 15:18:14 GMT

Cycled to Leith and had a nice lunch with kisin earlier. I'm horrendously out of practice at this cycling malarky and I'm sure I was very ungainly huffing and puffing my way up the hills. That said, I still managed to get there at least as quickly as if I had gone by car, if not moreso. Spent most of the rest of this afternoon running errands and I suspect I should do a bit of the housework as been putting off, as I no-longer have exams as an excuse...

Exam joy

Wed, 26 May 2004 13:28:06 GMT

What I failed to mention earlier of course, was that prior to my exam yesterday, I managed to burn myself on the iron getting my clothes ready. I then ensured that I had absolutely everything with me, since I managed to forget a pencil, my matric card and my glasses on Monday.

Leaving plenty of time to walk there, I sauntered off on my merry way through the Meadows. When I reached almost half way between my house and the exam venue, one of my shoes decided to fall to bits - coming away at both sole and heel simultaneously. The result of this was that I had to walk back to my car, across the Meadows barefoot, then drive to the exam venue wearing my ridiculous shoes that I keep in the car for when my other shoes are less than suitable for driving. I got from Old Town to Merchiston in about 3 minutes and thus made it one time. I was not amused.

The phrase 'anything that can go wrong....' springs to mind.

Sat, 08 May 2004 11:35:31 GMT

Just got utterly thrashed at chess by oldnik, which was not entirely unexpected. Hopefully I'll improve a little, as I'm actually quite ennjoying playing. At the moment I seem to start off well enough and then just flail randomly after about the first six or seven moves.

Oh and turning your house into the starship enterprise is just wrong.

Thu, 06 May 2004 18:19:26 GMT

Mmm, gin & tonic and cuddles and GTA Vice City. *yay*

I probably shouldn't indulge in the latter until I've finished my work though.