So, now that I have the trailer for The Desolation of Smaug out of my system, momentarily anyway, I can write about other stuff. Like how the Internet crashed at my parents place in Alberta so I caught up on reading various old books from the 70s and 80s. I was pretty much reading a book in a day or a day and a half. It was pretty great being able to do that again. I started off with finishing The Return of Sherlock Holmes in preparation for series 3 of Sherlock. The first episode The Empty Hearse is obviously based on the Case of the Empty House but I haven’t been able to work out the hearse bit. The Sign of the Three I believe is going to be The Sign of the Four and The Three Students but, I guess we’ll see.
After that, I read my favourite Xanth novel by Piers Anthony, Night Mare. The writing is so simplistic and a real joy to fall into. It’s nice reading books that don’t require a lot of thought, that you can just escape into. The Mark of Merlin by Anne McAffrey was one I hadn’t read before. It was pretty good and, a bit of a departure from her usual. I think it was one of her first books though.
I had four other books earmarked to read but didn’t get around to them. A Whale for the Killing by Farley Mowat, The Inedible Woman by Margaret Atwood, The Sword of Calandra by Susan Dexter and another book by Farley Mowat whose title escapes me. I also finished Life After Life by Kate Atkinson of Case Histories fame and was sorely disappointed in the ending. It was incredibly frustrating as the book took awhile to get into, but once I did, I was invested and felt very let down by how it ended. It was made worse by understanding why it was ended in that way.
While I was abroad, the bbc series Case Histories with Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie aired. I’m currently playing catch up and watched episode 2 last night. It’s rough going waiting so long for excellent programming to come back (I know Sherlock fans will agree with me here!) but it hasn’t disappointed. The first episode had at least 5 instances me going “oh Jackson” in complete exasperation, but the second episode had me feeling sorry for him. Poor guy just can’t catch a break. Looking forward to watching the final ep tonight. I hope they do more!
Also while I was in Canada, a few friends and I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. I was that girl with the large root beer and pot of poutine. I got chills down my spine when I heard Benedict’s voice go “I can help you”. Yes, I have a serious crush on him. I’m smug to say that a friend didn’t understand the Benedict attraction until I told her watch Sherlock, and now she gets it. And doesn’t he make a good villain?!
The Geeky Canuck 