Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Blue Monday, the rescue and more steampunk.

1. Blue Monday went well. Kent Libraries handed out blue bookmarks on which people wrote a cheerful thing. The bookmark was then randomly slipped into an outgoing book. I was stationed in Tunbridge Wells Library to help the uninspired. The gent who put "Meeting the blogger" down as his cheerful item made my day; as did the naughty old man who wrote an off-colour joke as a rebellion against the enforced cheerfulness.

2. My mother appears and takes me out to lunch.


3. Sinking into a hot and bubbly bath. I am reading Scott Westerfield's Leviathan -- which is thrilling. It's 1914 -- but not the 1914 we know. The warmongering Germans are ranging their war machines across Europe, while across the English Channel, the Darwinists are preparing to join the fray with their engineered animals. The stories of an Austro-Hungarian prince and a midshipman with a secret run parallel, switching back and forth with some brilliant cliffhangers.

Book treasure, worn and speaker.

1. Finding treasure in the Oxfam bookshop. I only popped in to look for a card. 2. Bettany doesn't wear makeup out and about, but noneth...