157.5cm / 155cm (101.6%)

Doctor Who: Amorality Tale by David Bishop
I quite like the Doctor and Sarah undercover in this. Although what I found really interesting was the smog in it - since it was set during a particularly bad bit of London smog in 1952.

His Dark Materials 2: The Subtle Knife
My sister told me the first book was the best and they go downhill after that. But I liked this one better than the previous one. I think because we get to see how our world and Lyra's compare and it's really interesting.

Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma
I read this one because it was free. And it's a Sixth Doctor episode I haven't seen yet. I've heard it's not very good and it bored me, even though there must be loads of extra information in the novelisation. And since it has giant slugs in it, and I hate slugs at the best of times, I'm not at all sure I want to see it now.

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147.4cm / 155cm (95.1%)

What Katy Did at School by Susan M Coolidge
This one bored me a bit. Possibly because I got used to other boarding school books, but the school in this one sounded horrible. And it wasn't the same without all the other kids in it, I don't think.

Pulling Princes by Tyne O'Connell
This is ladyvivien's fault since she mentioned it's a boarding school story with fencing in it. I liked it, it was entertaining fluff. Only trouble is there are three more books that come after it, so I'll have to read those now.

Human Nature by Paul Cornell
I thought I'd read this before the episodes of it. I did read it over a long period of time so that could be why I found the ending confusing. It was an interesting story, although I didn't quite understand why the Doctor decided to be human. I'm not sure how it'll work without Benny in it, but then that could be because I really like Benny.

The Bad Mother's Handbook by Kate Long
I picked this up in Smiths while waiting for a train because I thought the title was interesting. I read the first chapter and meant to come back to it. Then I forgot about it until the version on TV. Since I liked that, I thought I'd read the book. It is quite similar, although the book was more realistic, I think, and I preferred the book.

Can Any Mother Help Me? by Jenna Bailey
This was reviewed in the copy Guardian Weekend that I picked up in America and sounded so good I bought it. And I was right, it was very good. It was mostly stories that women had written to a secret magazine, organised by topic and between 1930s to 1970s. It was really interesting to see what their lives were like and to hear about some of the things they got up to. The magazine really was just like a message board or forum, just on paper and posted around.

Doctor Who Short Trips: Companions
These were a bit variable. I liked most of them, especially the Jo one and the Sarah one, which surprised me. But some of them were just weird and I didn't quite understand what was going on. It was really interesting, though, to get the views of the companions and their lives before or after the Doctor came into their lives, and in some cases, while they were travelling with him.

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135.2cm / 155cm (87.2%)

Jo Returns to the Chalet School, A United Chalet School, The Chalet School at War by Elinor M Brent-Dyer
It was so nice to go back to the last Chalet School book I hadn't read set in Austria still. The other two were so sad, though, it seems like so much has changed. I still can't quite get to grips with the Robin having mostly grown up as well.

The Broken Bridge by Philip Pullman
I thought I should try some Philip Pullman given that he came up quite often in Redemption panels, and I'd enjoyed the Ruby in the Smoke adaptation. I happened to find this one in the charity shop, and it turned out to be a good find because I really enjoyed it.

What Katy Did Next by Susan M Coolidge
I've read this one before but I still liked it. I only realised once I'd started that I'd missed one of the books in the series but it didn't seem at all necessary to understand what was going on. I kept losing track of all the relatives anyway. The book mostly concerns Katy's travels in Europe. Which means they go to England, which is foggy all the time. Honestly.

The Twins at St Claires and Second Form at Mallory Towers by Enid Blyton
I know I read boarding school books as a child, I just can't remember which ones. And can't remember enough to identify them either. But since I read a lot of Enid Blyton, chances are it was these. The plots to both of them were remarkably similar, and though they weren't too bad, they weren't as good as the Chalet School books.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
I'd heard this one was good and happened to see it in the second-hand bookshop, so I thought I'd try it. It was quite interesting. All the characters were much more rounded than in the Gemma series. Although I think the ending is supposed to be happy, I found it really sad.

Doctor Who: A Device of Death by Christopher Bulis
This is a Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry book, although they spend the first half of it split up. The Doctor's third seems most important but is less interesting because he's lost his memory. Sarah does her standard escaping and befriending the right people stuff, but Harry's is most interesting. They were all very well characterised, so I liked it. The plot was quite complicated, but I think I just about understood what was going on in the end. I could do with reading it again really, but I like that in a book.

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124.7cm / 155.0cm (80.5%)

lots of Chalet School books: A Rebel at the Chalet School, The New House at the Chalet School, Exploits of the Chalet Girls, The Chalet School and the Lintons, The New Chalet School
I thought these were change enough with Jo being head girl, and a new building, then more in the way of new buildings and new pupils (not helped by missing a book). And soon they're going to be moving because of the war. It's going to be so strange.

a few of Bernice Summerfield: The Dead Men Diaries, The Doomsday Manuscript, The Gods of the Underworld
These were patchy. Two were okay and I quite enjoyed, but The Gods of the Underworld I do not know how I got through. There were too many characters to keep track of, I had no idea why they did the things they did and it never seemed like it got started until about 20 pages before the end.

Doctor Who: Evolution
A Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane book that I quite enjoyed. They went off and did their own investigations and the mystery was all solved just before the villain managed to kill Sarah. Pretty much standard Doctor Who stuff really.

Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins
I didn't finish the introduction because I lost the will to live, and the conclusion I only skimmed through. The rest was interesting though, as each chapter went through a different book/film/tv series to show how it was changed through the internet and the interaction of people on it. I certainly had no idea Survivor was so popular in America. I'm sure it bombed after one series here.

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110.7cm / 155cm (71.4%)

Star Trek: New Frontier 12: Being Human by Peter David
I've mentioned this book before. I liked the New Frontier series at first and I've missed books 5-11, which I'm thinking is a good thing, because this one bored me. I just can't bring myself to care about any of these characters any more. Or any of the plots.

Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal by Jacqueline Rayner
I loved this one. Benny gets body-swapped into a bloke and hilarity ensues. It's exactly what you'd imagine being a bloke is like, when faced with a pretty girl. And the ways Benny tried to deal with it were funny as well, typical Benny really.

Doctor Who: Endgame by Terrance Dicks
The trouble with this one was that it's Eighth Doctor, who I don't like outside of the audios, and the plot follows on from some other books I haven't read. So I was hopelessly lost. And the Doctor wasn't even being like the Doctor, for which I gather there is a reason. I just can't really bring myself to read any more EDAs just at the moment.

Bernice Summerfield and the Infernal Nexus by Dave Stone
This one took quite a long time to get going, once it did it was interesting. The plot was complicated, so kept me entertained with its twists and turns. I didn't like it as much as the other Benny BF book I read but this was alright.

A Simple, Decent Place to Live by Millard Fuller
This is about Habitat for Humanity by the guy who started it up. A friend of mine lent it to me since I'm thinking of going on one of their trips (really must get round to signing up) and it was quite interesting to hear how it all started. It was very American and Christian orientated though, so there were large parts of it I skim-read.

Growing Pains by Billie Piper
This had good reviews and I read the first chapter while waiting for a train, so when I saw it half price in Smiths, for which I had a gift voucher from work, I bought it. And I'm glad I did because I couldn't put it down. Before she was in Doctor Who no-one ever took any notice of her, because the records she'd made were so abysmal. She agrees with what everyone said about them at the time, so that made me like her. It was really interesting to hear about her family and her life as a pop star. And by interesting, I also mean horrible, because it didn't sound nice at all.

The Good Women of China by Xinran
This is the sort of book that gives you nightmares, it was horrible. It's written by a woman who was a radio presenter in China and she went and found out what women's lifes were like in China. And they were more horrible than you can ever imagine. It's the attitude to women over there at the time, along with the attitude you were forced to have towards the Party that is just impossible to imagine. So it was very enlightening.

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97.0cm / 155cm (62.6%)

The Bill: Killjoys and The Bill: Never Too Young by Marc Gasgoigne
These are novelisations of two half hour episodes. They're really short, and designed for kids, but they really highlight how easily solved the crimes are, and how the two were always connected. It was much better before they switched to half hours and when they switched back to hours again.

What Katy Did by Susan M Coolidge
This book was quite slow, being as the first half is more about what she's done up to that point, and only halfway do you get to find out what she actually did. The aunt dying was really sad, though. I don't remember how many of these books I read, but I definitely want to read the rest in the series now.

Five Children and It by E Nesbit
I not only remember reading this but I also vaguely remember a TV series of it. Although the only thing I remember was the 'It' and that the (male) baby was caleld Hilary.

The Railway Children by E Nesbit
This one I remember too, so I have no idea whether I guessed where the father was from the book or whether I remembered it. I definitely remembered the eldest being called Bobbie, short for Roberta.

There's quite a strange style with these two because it's definitely being narrated, as the text sometimes refers to the reader. I liked it though.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri
I know I read this one but remembered nothing of it. It's good, though, I liked it.

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91.6cm / 155cm (59.1%)

An Open Book by Monica Dickens
This is her autobiography. She's lived an interesting life. She was a debutante but had no interest in growing up and getting a husband, so instead got a job. Or quite a lot of jobs since she wasn't very good at them! It was a bit disappointing when I found out how much of My Turn to Make the Tea was fictional, though.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnnett
I did read this when I was younger but discovered I remember nothing of it. Which was probably because it's quite boring. In the whole book, pretty much nothing happens. It doesn't help that it contains improbable robins that think like humans and three kids that are obssessed by gardens, which is something that doesn't interest me at all.

The Head Girl of the Chalet School
Since I've read some after this talking about Grizel's time as head girl, reading this makes them make more sense. Or would if I could remember them. I'm starting to wonder if these are getting a bit samey but I'm enjoying them all the same. They really make me want to go to the Tyrol though

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86.6 / 155cm (55.9%)

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
I read this partly because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about (I'm a few years late, I know) and because someone (I can't remember who) told me she came out a man in it. Basically the book is utter shite and spends 200-odd words saying that people should say what they mean. Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
Yay! And not only because it's in hardback with big words, so gives me more centimetres. I really like Tiffany Aching and all the witches, with their different varieties of witching. I could really hear the Scottish accent in the Nac Mac Feegles in this one, don't remember if I did before.

Millennium Shock by Justin Richards
I didn't realise but this is a sequel to System Shock, which I enjoyed. I liked this one as well. It had Harry being an MI-5 agent and therefore really useful in a crisis, which we all knew he could be, if he just got over the shock of the TARDIS. The politics in it seems such a parody of what's going on now but it was written in 1999. Which only goes to show nothing changes, only the names.

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782 / 1,550 (50.5%)

Woohoo, I'm halfway through!

Doctor Who: System Shock by Justin Richards
This is a Missing Adventures book, with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah, but they go to the future and meet an older Harry. The plot was quite interesting but it was really nice to see what happens to Harry and how he and Sarah interact. I really liked it.

Sex Tips for Girls by Cynthia Heimel
I think the extracts I've posted tell you everything you need to know about this book

Doctor Who: Island of Death by Barry Letts
The only Sarah book in Oxfordshire's library system. Probably because it was only published in 2005. It's got the Brig in as well and Jeremy Fitzoliver, who I've just discovered was in the two Third Doctor radio plays. I liked this one. It was a bit bizarre but interesting.

The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold
I wasn't entirely certain if I'd like her fantasy books. Plus I'd got so attached to Miles and his family, but I really liked this. She's done some serious research into aspects of this, which impressed me. And I liked the two main characters from the start, which helps. So, I guess I'm going to be working my way through her fantasy ones now, then. (this was a rare Lois McMaster Bujold find in the second hand bookshop in Reading)

Doctor Who: The Invasion by Ian Marter
I had just been reading about this story in the latest Doctor Who mag and when I saw it in the Oxfam bookshop in Belfast I couldn't resist. I've never seen the episode, so it was interesting to see the beginnings of UNIT and this was my first look at the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. It didn't seem that exciting but that might be partly due to being in book form. Doctor Who is one of those programmes you actually have to watch.

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69.7cm / 155cm (45.0%)

Bugs: Out of the Hive
This is the novelisation of the first two episodes of Bugs. I thought it'd be interesting to see what extra things got put in about what the characters were thinking, given that at the beginning it was pretty much just action. And it was, although definitely not as good as seeing it on screen - action never translates to quite as exciting when written down.

Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown
I've read this one before but I remember the film too well to remember how the book differed (the film was based on this book). I like the book, it's got the same tone as the film only with a bit more realism and there's more in there throughout the year, so it feels like it takes longer.

Perdita by Paula Byrne
This is about Mary Robinson who lived in the late 18th century. She married young, became an actress, was the Prince of Wales' first mistress, was a celebrity - just like we have now - and ended up as a poet and an author. What's most interesting about this book is seeing how attitudes have changed since then, and what's the same - they had their equivalents of Heat magazine! Then later on she becomes a feminist (her opinions are difficult to disagree with in this day and age!) and she contributed quite a lot to poetry - there's a metre that she invented.

Doctor Who: Bullet Time
This is the Seventh Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, so can't go wrong. Although means before I even started reading I knew it would be jossed by School Reunion. It's a bit of a weird book because there are a whole load of OCs and Sarah pretty much gets equal time as some of them. The Doctor gets hardly any time at all because he's doing something behind the scenes. Looking at the Discontinuity Guide I can see there's a whole load of things I'm missing through not having read some of the other books, so I was confused at the end but I enjoyed it anyway.

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61.7cm / 155cm (39.8%)

And these books have been:

Lois McMaster Bujold - Komarr, A Civil Campaign and Diplomatic Immunity
And now I have finished the Vorkosigan books! Komarr was interesting because every other chapter was from Ekaterin's point of view, and up to that point we'd only ever had Miles, or Mark when Miles was incapacitated. A Civil Campaign gave even more points of view within the same chapters and I really liked getting Ivan's especially. Of the three I didn't enjoy Diplomatic Immunity quite so much. I'm not sure why because it's very like the good old days of the Dendarii. But it just didn't hold my interest as much and I can't put my finger on exactly why.

Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora
I read this one because it was 50p, the episode is relevant to the Sarah Jane Smith Big Finish audios and it's a lot quicker to read than to watch. Not least because I didn't get distracted quite so much. It's the first Doctor Who novelisation I've read and it was interesting to see how it was done. It was basically exactly as it was on screen with a small bit of people's thoughts but not much.

Doctor Who The Scripts: Ghost Light
Now this one was really interesting because even though I've seen the episode twice and listened to the commentary on the DVD and watched the documentary, it was only reading this script and the notes that went with it that I realised there were whole loads of other things I missed. Which I really like - I love reading books that you have read twice to understand. Only trouble with reading this is I now want to re-watch the episode to see if I spot things in the script I never picked up on on screen.

Doctor Who: The Audio Scripts Volume Three
Of the four scripts in here I've only heard two (The Rapture and The Chimes of Midnight) but it's only in reading these scripts I realised there were things I missed - I'm going to have to listen to them again. What was most interesting in this book were the introductory essays by the writers and directors of each one saying what they were trying to achieve, and original outlines, some of which were so different, and the notes on what they changed while recording. The other two scripts in here (Spare Parts and The Spectre of Lanyon Moor (with the Brigadier!)) I really enjoyed reading - I will have to add them to my ever growing list of Big Finish audios to buy.

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I did have to get up in the middle to work out who the journalist was (Brian from Teachers, which was a bit surreal) but I really enjoyed it. I've not seen the original to compare it against, mind you. It was quite creepy towards the end but I was a bit disappointed by the way they wrapped it all up neatly. Mind you, I was waiting for the world to end and didn't expect them to save it at all.

I've also read a whole load of books, so will put them behind a cut-tag thingy.

Suddenly I'm nearly a third of the way there!

49.7cm / 155cm (32.1%)

Too Many Mothers by Roberta Taylor
In a bit of irony I borrowed this from my mother who had borrowed it from hers. This was really good. Roberta Taylor's many aunts and granmother seem to have led interesting lifes. It's not really a surprise when you get to her as a child at the end and she's a bit odd. It's amazing, given her background, that's shes got where she is today. I'd love a sequel to know how she got from there to here.

Gemma and Sisters and Gemma Alone by Noel Streatfeild
These are old so it's a slightly odd world these people seem to live in. Although when I was little most of the stuff I read was written in the 50s/60s so that seemed normal to me at the time. The Robinson family are just too good to be true but they're interesting anyway. Now I want to read the last one in the series, Goodbye Gemma.

The Prime Minister's Brain, The Revenge of the Demon Headmaster and The Demon Headmaster Strikes Again by Gillian Cross
I've just discovered that I didn't read these in the right order but it doesn't seem to matter. I'm not sure these are as good as the first one because you know the Demon Headmaster is behind it, even if you don't know exactly how. Mind you, his plans for taking over the world are always interestingly thought out and executed and I like how the kids foil him - without the adults even realising anything is up!

Nancy Drew: Smile and Say Murder
Unless this one was an exception I don't know how I ever read Nancy Drew as a child. I think at the time she seemed very grown up, now she just seems like a strange amalgam of a teenager and a young adult that doesn't quite work. Plus it was blindingly obvious whodunnit early on. And why her boyfriend stays with her I don't know, because she's a complete bitch to him.

Shards of Honor and Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Shards of Honor was actually the first book I read on this quest this year but I have these two as one volume so I didn't feel it should count until I read the second. Having worked my way through my childish books quite quickly and as I'm waiting for the next one from the library, I thought I'd go back to Barrayar. I read these books right at the beginning but always meant to go back to them to understand the world more. What was most interesting in these was rediscovering characters I'd read in later books and had forgotten were in these.

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39.1cm / 155cm (25.2%)

I am finally a quarter of the way there!

Sadlers Wells - Dress Rehearsal and Back Stage
Standard Wells books by this point with the extra excitement of some of it being set in the Lakes District, where I've been. Plus I only have two to go now, although we are getting quite ridiculously rare (I haven't seen the last one for less than £40 yet...)

Lois McMaster Bujold - Memory
It's interesting that the previous book was about Mark trying to work out who he is, then this one is about Miles trying to work out who he is. As much as I enjoyed that part the main plot of Illyan's assasion sort of doesn't start till halfway through and it's blindingly obvious whodunnit, given we only have one suspect. Only three to go now!

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34.1cm / 155cm (22.0%)

Doctor Who - Unnatural History
This is the second Eighth Doctor book I've read and manages to be another parallel Earth type one. It's a good introduction to Sam because the one in this is an alternate one. Sadly, though, I didn't like this Doctor or Fitz or the original Sam. Or the story. It was good for a couple of days and 2cm and the charity shop.

Sadlers Wells - Principal Role and Swan Feather
I read somewhere that all the Sadlers Wells books are the same story. That's certainly true of Swan Feather: Sylvia Swan has pretty much exactly the same story as Jane and Ella and Rosanna. These are the first two of the series I hadn't read originally. They're quite interesting for a day, though. After this they get quite horribly expensive, for books.

Lois McMaster Bujold - Mirror Dance
I was slightly intimidated by this being 600 pages and having lots of Mark in. It seemed to go by quickly, though because I really liked this one. There were some horrifying things that Mark did, and had done to him, that were...horrible. I was really interested to see Mark discover who he is. And it had Cordelia in it, yay! And I loved Miles thinking, near the end, that although he doesn't pick up nearly as many women as Ivan, he can't seem to put them down.

I was expecting last night's Doctor Who to change my opinions of their cliffhangers. But then it was resolved in 2 seconds and took me 2 minutes to work out what was going on (I spent most of that 2 minutes being annoyed it had been resolved so quickly). But I liked the episode, though. It was only when watching it with the commentary that I noticed the Doctor was still wearing his trainers with his DJ! Yay, for the Doctor has made it cool to wear trainers with trousers.

I was supposed to go on the Winchester slouch yesterday but there was engineering works that meant it would have taken three times as long to get there as it should, and I needed the sleep so didn't set my alarm. And consequently woke up too late to get there. So I finished my spring cleaning instead. My haul in the end was:

• 4 black bin bags of rubbish
• 4 carrier bags of charity
• 2 carrier bags of stuff to take home
• 1 dead moth and 1 live spider (it didn't live for long) and 1 wasp that briefly came in and was persuaded to go back out the window
• more space on my bookshelves than I actually know what to do with (it won't last)

So, today I decided to have a day of doing nothing. I ended up watching most of an episode of The New Avengers that was on the bonus disk due to having an Emma Peel cameo in it. Except that the cameo was completely pointless. And I couldn't quite see the point of much else of the episode either. It seemed a lot like they'd given Gambit Steed's character and Purdey Cathy/Emma/Tara's. Which made Steed a bit pointless. In all fairness it might not have been the most interesting episode for all I know, but it's certainly not made me want to watch any more.

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I read two books while I was away, experiencing long train journeys and long waits for buses:

26.1cm / 155cm (16.8%)

The Colour of Love by Preethi Nair
When I was at Rotary District Conference last month Preethi Nair spoke about how she became an author. It was a really interesting story, and she spoke really well, so I thought I'd try this book. It's a fictionalised account of what she did to follow her dream. I don't know how much of this is real and how much she made up (although the main character's dream is painting rather than writing) but the characters are so realistic. Nina's dad particularly sticks in my mind. The only thing I had trouble with was that it's just straight fiction - I've read nothing but sci-fi & fantasy and history for so long it was strange!

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
This was one of my mum's she recommended to me. She makes good recommendations because this was really good. It was slightly surreal at times, though to be reading about Georgiana in the 1770s and going to houses set up like they would be in the 1770s! Georgiana was a really interesting person, and it was quite an interesting to be a female member of the aristcracy back then. Their lives were so different from ours, in terms of what rights they had.

And a starship meme from Una that has some quite funny options to choose from. This result gave me the funniest weapon and defensive system:

The Detailed Starship Quiz LiveJournal Username Spaceship Name Spaceship Size VW Bug Sedan Jet Fighter Fishing Yacht Tractor-Trailer Attack Submarine Nuclear Missile Submarine Aircraft Carrier Queen Mary Luxury Liner Manhattan How is the spaceship piloted? Yoke Stick As above, plus plenty of two-pole switches and buttons that light up when pressed Touch screens There's one guy with a joystick in each hand, and we all just watch him Neural interface A full-body harness The pilot must be suspended in goo Some inscrutible alien attached to the ship does it Rock Music Marvin Gaye's Sexual Piloting The main control is a teddy bear; piloting is by strategically hugging it Passive-aggressive banter with ship's computer The Time Lords or Somebody tells us where to go Thinking really hard about the destination How is the spaceship powered? Fission Fusion Antimatter Irradiating Crystals Rock Music Coal-fired Steam Wood-burning Steam Gasoline Love Forcing two people who can't stand each other to make out on the bridge Baby seals Smiles Dimensional Anomaly By feeding the alien creature that's the engine Sexual Frustration Earl Gray Tea Milk Water Garbage Tickling a member of an alien species while it's hooked up to the reactor Ostrich or Chicken Critters on Treadmills What's the upholstery like on the seats? Hard Plastic Soft Plastic Cloth Upholstery Leather Upholstery Cloth like a Louis XIV Couch That gel stuff they put on bike seats Beanbag chairs Inflatable chairs Vinyl Baby Seal Brushed Aluminum How do you see outside the spaceship? Portholes Large, hopefully sturdy windows Big flat screen Holographic projector in center of bridge Small screens near each station Wristwatch TVs The power of imagination The computer narrates like a movie for the blind The computer sings an Australian songline What's the spaceship's primary purpose? Pleasure Exploration Combat Cargo Hauling Garbage Disposal Science Agriculture Raw Materials Extraction Transportation Communications Smuggling Gambling Spreading Love and Happiness Rock Music Other What's the Captain's catchphrase? Main Weapon System: Christina Aguilera Main Defensive System: A layer of modern American fiction. Impenetrable. Chance of catastrophic failure at critical moments 94% Voice of the ship's computer: bodkin_ra Finds mandatory uniform unflattering: altariel1 Looks sexy in mandatory uniform: descended_sg1 Ripped sleeves off mandatory uniform: tanaquilotr Spends an unhealthy amount of time in the weapons locker: melyanna This Fun Quiz created by Akhmed at BlogQuiz.Net

Up to the minute Sport News at NewsDump

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21.2cm / 155cm (13.7%)

The books I've read are:

The Chalet School and Jo/The Chalet School in Camp
I like the Chalet school books, they feel like adult children's books. It's very strange with Jo as Head Girl, though, I still think of her as a naughty middle.

Useful Toil
This is one of mum's and it's short autobiographies of working people from 1820s to 1920s. The introductions to the book, and to each section had useful information but were really boring. The autobigraphies were really interesting, though. Some of the domestic servants were so badly off: they worked unbelievably long hours and were treated quite badly. Some of the people were so badly off they were admitted to hospital with malnutrition. What some of the women did during the First World War was interesting as well, as they found new lives working in factories.

Doctor Who: The Domino Effect
This was free with the SFX Doctor Who special. I got all excited with it being the Eighth Doctor, but then I remembered I was thinking of the Big Finish version with Charley. The actual thing was quite interesting but I didn't understand the mystery there, or whodunnit, and I felt like I missed something important before the book started, and it didn't quite finish either. Perhaps that's why they gave it away.

At lunchtime the other day someone was talking about organising her upcoming wedding in July, and how she didn't have many more weekends left to do it in. And her and someone else agreed you don't want to do that sort of thing in the evening because it's too much like work. I was slightly stunned at this because:
a. what else can you do in the evening (you can't go out every night unless you're made of money)
b. that's actually what I do, specially when it comes to Rotaract.
If I didn't do that, I'd be bored, though. When I wrote a meeting down in my diary the other day I realised I've got Rotaract meetings on the last three Mondays in May.

Anyway, I'm off to the Lake District on Friday, and not back till St George's Day, so you won't be hearing much from me till then. I'll be avoiding all Doctor Who spoilers until I've seen the episodes as well (probably first thing I do while I'm downloading my spam emails).

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15.2 cm / 155 cm (9.8%)

Two of them were Cheerleaders ones - good for if you don't have a brain. One of them I think I've read before. It was still mostly about the love lifes, though, so pretty standard stuff. The other I quite enjoyed because it was a bit different - about the whole team and how they're affected by what's going on around them. It was a bit quickly solved, though, despite being a thicker book than the other one.

The third book I raced through too: Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton. I've been reading his blog for a while, so it was interesting to get all sorts of backstory into what was going on in his life. He is a good writer and very easy to read. His other book's on my amazon wishlist now!

Also, a writing update! One day before deadline, I have posted by entry to the Lost City Found Free Your Mind challenge: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and is a Jack/Elizabeth Atlantis non-AU fic. Yes, really.

8,402 / 20,000 (42.0%)

In theory, I should manage 20,000 words by the end of the year, no problem. Specially as my Remix fic is now in beta.

I am working on something for Back to Middle-earth month, too. What I mainly meant to do was catch up on my LOTR-related reading, but got entirely sidetracked by The Avengers. Which is too full of Steed & Peel getting together for my liking. I have been inspired to write some LOTR though! So expect some later this month.

In entirely unrelated events, in the latest episode of Bugs they had a timer set on releasing what were essentially killer beetles. Given all the high-tech stuff they had in it (including their first CD-R), it was really strange that they were ordinary kitchen timers. Hmm.

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9.7cm / 155cm (6.3%)

There's nothing quite like reading children's books that get your count up quickly. Recently I've read:

The Princess of the Chalet School - The Chalet School books seem a lot less easy to read than the two I've listed below, yet no less interesting. It's interesting to see how their society is structured, because it's written quite a long time ago and set in Austria.

Sweet Valley University (Billie's Secret) - Like everyone else at the time I read Sweet Valley High when I was younger. I think Sweet Valley University started coming out just as I stopped so I've been curious since then to see what they're like. I know this is book 18 but loads seems to have happened since then. Can't beat the original though, I won't be reading any more of them.

Cheerleaders (Feuding) - It's strange, when reading this, how much of the story comes back to me. Mind you, it's all related to their love lives so it's not exactly complicated. It's not bad, though, because the characters are actually interesting.

I seriously need to get back some proper books soon, although it's nice to get through one in a lunchtime.

I felt much more awake for a break. After scrabbling around trying to remember where I put Quantum Leap I moved some CDs and other assorted crap and came across Thought Crimes, which Sel had given me a copy of. The Andreas Katsulas tribute was on there too, and it's really good. I'd forgotten how many stirring speeches G'Kar made. It was very sad to watch.

Thought Crimes, though, I enjoyed. I did spend most of the time trying to work out where I recognised the main character from and eventually decided it must be from Angel. I was right, she was in Angel, and Roswell High. But I was recognising her from The OC. I feel so much better for knowing. As the first episode of a series I'm not certain it had anywhere to go from there, but it was really interesting seeing how she grew and changed.

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6.2cm / 155cm (4.0%)

I've just finished British Science Fiction Television: A Hitchhiker's Guide. I couldn't remember why I'd put it on my Amazon wish list, but bought it anyway. I discovered why, when I read the chapter list, and discovered the Blakes 7 chapter author. There were some interesting ideas in it that I hadn't considered before.

Overall I enjoyed it. I really liked the historical aspects of the Quatermass chapter. The nuclear war one is really depressing, though. I'm not entirely convinced by the parallels in the Sapphire and Steel chapter. But as I've not seen it and know very little about the state of the country & politics around 1979 I can't really comment. The only chapter I really disagreed with was the Red Dwarf one. The author talked about how it relates to gender and race. I like it because it's funny, so am admittedly uninteresting in taking it any deeper. But she did go on about the Cat acting the way he does because it's alluding to black Americans. And there was me thinking it was a parody of a cat.

Easter: I had a surf round last night at the Lake District. Which looked vaguely interesting until there was a mention of Hadrian's Wall being not far away. So I'm so going. As my last holidays were in America and Australia I had entirely forgotten the whole point of holidays is castles and bookshops. Although I did get unreasonably excited at going to a Barnes and Noble in America. I've not booked for Conference yet, and my boss was off so I couldn't book any time off. I did establish that because he has holiday I can't do the Lake District and then recover(!) at Conference, so I'll be doing Conference, then the Lake District. I'm amazed it's only a couple of hours from Birmingham, though, because it's a long way North.

Bugs: I sat down to watch Bugs with dinner and all of a sudden there was Robbie! (as in DI Robbie Ross from Taggart). Sounding decidedly un-Scottish, but very cool anyway. Possibly some other stuff happened but frankly who cares. It's Robbie.

And thingy, whatshisname from Yes Minister was on The Avengers last night, looking pretty much exactly the same.

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Saturday was the Blakes 7 Dorset group Christmas party, which was good fun. Although I could have quite happily fallen asleep in front of Hitchhiker's. I could have quite happily fallen asleep in front of Rosemary and Thyme later on as well. As it was cold the cat decided to come to bed with me and slept all night, despite having slept all day (it's a hard life being a cat, obviously). A warm cat on one side is no substitute for quilt on the other, but he did wake me up from a bad dream, so he was forgiven. And also didn't take over too much.

Me and dad had an argument about the CD drive in the Atlantis episode Michael that involved watching the relevant bit of the episode three times, and we still disagree. He thinks Trip just took the CD out with no trouble at all, I think it did involve the usual pulling you have on laptops (well, Dell ones at least, which is what they have on Atlantis). This did, though, lead to a discussion about how they were powering them and just how many they had in the place anyway.

I also made good progress on reading my height in books. I read the latest Seven & Ace Doctor Who on the train on the way home and the other half on the way back. And I read Three Men in a Boat while I was home (which was really funny, if confusing because he keeps going off on a tangent, so you never quite know whether he's talking about that trip or another one). So I am now 4.1cm into my 155cm.

4.1cm / 155cm (2.6%)

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