I had recently finished The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde. I've really enjoyed Jasper Fforde's witty Thursday Next series and this new series is another winner. There's heaps of puns, satire and fantastic verbal plays, all around various "nursery crimes". Worth a read!

Talking about books, it's time for another Amazon order. The US to Australian dollar conversion rate is just fantastic - currently sitting at 0.85146 at the moment!! I'm even thinking of getting some threadless t-shirts.

Did I mention that I've fallen in love all over again......with Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series? I initially read this series (most of it) when I was going through high school. I used to yearn for a dragon who could read my mind and vice versa.

The yearning faded away as I discovered new books and other interests in life, but upon reading Dragonsdawn for the first time this weekend, the yearning came back. I love getting lost in the beautiful Pern world.

The number of my Pern books is sadly very minuscule but I'm motivated to start adding to that collection again. This time, I'm really keen on reading the books in order, as opposed to the order determined by the availability of the books in the library.

Browsing through the rest of Anne McCaffrey's books, I was surprised to see how many of her series I have read as a teenager, and truly enjoyed. The Ship series were fantastic and I really enjoyed The Talents Universe. I recently gotten into the Acorna series which is also enjoyable, but not quite in the same class as the Dragonriders of Pern. I've read a few books from her other series, but didn't enjoy them as much.

Ahhh, the love of reading a good book on a chilly day!

In other news, I've done a load of washing, some cleaning up, and have also been cleaning the glass shelves of my fridge. I love the sense of accomplishment I get from seeing the nice shiny and clean fridge shelves! I'll be off in an hour plus to run some errands, and to get over to my gig this weekend (a Living Wake).

I've finally finished reading The Difference Engine, written by two of the most well known cyberpunk SF writers, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. I admit that the only reason I picked up this book in the first place was due to Gibson's name on the front page. Despite my intense dislike for the alternate history genre (just not my cup of tea), I thought I'll give this book a go.

The story is set in Victorian England, with a great premise - what would happen if the computing age arrived a century ahead of time? The book sets out to explore this concept around a series of some-what coupled vignettes around a mysterious set of reportedly very powerful computer punch cards. The characters in the story are all based upon real people, i.e. Laurence Oliphant, Charles Babbage, Lord Byron and Texan Sam Houston, just to name a few.

Great concept in theory, but the whole story felt too incoherent. It has taken me weeks to finish the book, when normally, I can go through a book over a few nights. I finished the last page this morning, put the book down by my bedside table, sighed, and said aloud, "I hate it". Perhaps I just don't get it. Perhaps it's to do with my general bias against the alternate history genre. The thing is, I like Gibson's other books. So why am I struggling with this one?

The SF Site writes a more favourable review of the book which you may want to check out. I also came across The Difference Dictionary, which is a supplement to help enjoy the book. I'm not sure if I can stomach more of that world for now but I may go back and check it out via The Difference Dictionary.