Books, books, books…

A small blog post on books I’m reading currently or books I intend to read… very soon or books I’m interested into purchasing in an eventual future.

I’m not reading as much as I used too, and honestly now I’m not seeing huge -over a thousands pages- book the same way as before. Sad but true.

I also must add that before, I was reading in my bed, during the day when I wasn’t working, or all through the night, or also on weekends. Now, I tend to read during my commuting time, which represents about 2 hours every day, that is, when I can find a seat.

Okay, current read: The Light of Ages by Ian Mac Leod.

Edward Miller’s gorgeous cover for Ian MacLeod’s splendid Dickens-tinged fantasy The Light Ages.

I’ve struggled a little with the introduction, and sincerely hoped that the rest of the book would not be written in the same prose because otherwise I wouldn’t have stood a chance as a non English native speaker, but it was just the introduction (thank god).

I’m not gonna attempt reviewing it, since I’m still only at the beginning, and really, Gabe Mesa from the SF site did it much better than I will ever do :

“I was born Robert Borrows in Bracebridge, Brownheath, West Yorkshire late one August Sixshiftday afternoon in the seventy-sixth year of the third great cycle of our Ages of Industry, the only son and second child of a lower master of the Lesser Guild of Toolmakers.

The reference to West Yorkshire and to the month of August places this fantasy in our world, but the mention of a “Sixshiftday” hints at a very different England from the one we know. It is an alternate England, in fact, one in the middle of its own Industrial Revolution, albeit a revolution powered not by coal but by a magical substance called “aether” which serves not only as an energy source but as an all-purpose industrial helper, woven into materials to allow them to last longer and maintain their shape. Aether requires handling with care; it is dangerous, akin to a radioactive material, but the consequences of improper handling are not merely physical. Victims of direct, prolonged exposure to aether begin to change, to lose some of their fundamental humanity and take on some of the magical qualities of the aether itself, until they end up as changelings — creatures of magic and, to humans, horror. Changelings have no rights. They are the untouchables of this alternate England, placed in asylums, subjected to abuse and mistreatment and eventually exploited, for in their changed state they have a special, mysterious relationship to aether that allows them to perform tasks no human would dare attempt.”

(…) You can (or not) read the rest (spoilers though!) at this address :  http://www.sfsite.com/09a/la159.htm

 

And I know I said “a small blog post” at the beginning of this one, and yet, I’ve barely scratched the surface. *sighs* So I guess it’s gonna be a little more longer… if you don’t mind. (Or until I fall asleep for good and will morsel the post into several posts… and finish it tomorrow or later)

 

Second book I wanted to talk about is a book I would have never thought buying some day. It was recommended to me by my boss (my job consists of tracking oil movements in the whole wide world)

FUEL ON THE FIRE oil and politics in occupied Iraq by Greg Muttitt.

I’m actually not really sure what it is about because I can’t remember what my boss said or the excerpt I read on Amazon, but it must have been interesting otherwise, I wouldn’t have bought it. *grins* More when I finally get around starting it.

 

Normally after Light of Ages, I should have started on “Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson, who is really a very good author. And i’m thanking Robin Hobb (mentally) every time he’s getting a new book out.

And then, keppet just made me want to add to my list “Prince of thorns” by Mark Lawrence. (Who also has a quote from Robin that says this is a real page turner.)

Just watching the tvshow “Pillars of the World” also made me want to read the Ken Folliet books from which the series are inspired. But these are HUGE books. Understand now my concern with over a thousands pages books? heh.

And of course, I absolutely have to read Kate Lattey’s very first (and very promising!) book “Flying Changes“.

And I guess, it’s about it so far. But I may have forgotten one or two other. Yeah, so many books, so little time…

Sick day

The good thing about being sick at home, is that you can finally do (that is, have fun) the things you can’t do when your everyday life sucks up all the time (and energy) you have otherwise.

About a week ago it was my birthday, I had this wonderful box of Prismacolor Premier colored pencils and instead of watching tv or reading or even sleeping, I decided to try them out. (click on thumbnails below to enlarge pics).

   

J5 Old books

On Stage Jackson 5 by Harriet Lake 1976 (16x22cm)

In this tiny schoolbook, there are some pretty photos of the Jacksons but weirdly, they are all from around 1969 to 1972 in spite of the book being published in 1976.

      

And Jackson Five by Charles & Ann Morse Jan75  (19x25cm)- Actually not really any photos in this one, but mostly illustrations (Beautiful watercolors by John Keely) from well known photos or rare ones.

     

thoughts & middle of the night ramblings

Come to think of it… that was how my new blog post was starting in my head this afternoon when I came back from my groceries shopping. Right now, about 7h later, it’s almost completely gone from my mind.

It was some kind of realisation and deep thoughts on Money. How living on a (really) tight budget is somehow more “fun” than living on a “comfortable” one. How… I, almost feel tired and blasée to have, well, not too much but enough money to live well and decently. *sighs* I’m sure it would have been a great blogpost but unfortunatly it’s all gone now. But then again, I’m not sure it would have been interesting for anyone else but me. So… no big deal, heh?

Night night everyone.

J5 compilations

I rarely buy CDs and when I do, it inexorably falls always on a J5 compilation or album. My two latest purchase are these two compilations:

The Jackson 5 : 4 albums (Diana Ross Presents, ABC, Third Album and Dancing Machine).

Although I would perhaps have prefered if they had put Maybe Tomorrow instead of Dancing, which, after all is a more later album, but I was still glad it was this one as all I had is the LP and since my record player is broken, I haven’t listened to that one in years. But honestly I was very disappointed by the packaging, I thought the box-set would be more solid than mere cardboard, but it seems that lately, all they do are cardboard packagings. Which is probably more ecologic in a way, sure, but it’s also not very solid and time proof. So I would have voted for something more ‘durable’ in time. I could have forgiven them the fragile and thin packaging if what was inside the box-set would at least have been more interesting, but I’m sorry to say, nothing new or exciting there. Just only the cds in each a separate (once again) cardboard folder, with (just!) the front cover of the LP printed on it. (ho!) No photos or anything behind. I’m finally finding that my two other cds for ABC and Third Album (that I bought years ago) had a lot more to offer and were much more accurate in reproducing the original LPs. (and backcovers).

Mind you, I have the feeling that some of the songs (mostly for the Diana Ross Presents) are actually a little bit longer (mere seconds but still!) but I could be wrong, I need to check that.

Here are two photos of the box-set:

 

Holidays

Yes, I’m finally in holidays, oh not for very long but a good whole week, plus the two week ends on both sides, so that’s 9 good days. *Bliss*

So what am I gonna do with all this free time?

I have no idea. Yet. First thing though, Geneva’s Bookfair. hummm yees.

And it’s starting with the sun, and a new Stephen King book. *growls with happiness*

I love holidays.

Latest works…

I did this drawing very quickly and it was mainly inspired by Stephen King’s book “Duma Key”.  It gave me a good excuse to use up my prismacolor pencils that I was offered last christmas, and that are still fairly new and usued.

I’m marvelling at how good they are everytime I use them and I wish I could draw with them all day long. The main reason why I love them is because they are so soft, and tender, and are covering so well all kind of surfaces. They are fantastic.

Here’s another sketch I did using the illustration cover of a workbook by comic artist, Philippe Delaby (Le bain de Poppée).

What a day.

I woke up at 6.30 am this morning, and didn’t really get back to sleep afterwards. I usually get up at 7.30 am, because I must take a bus about an hour later to actually start work at 9.30 am. I need to change at the border and get into a swiss tram at around 8.55 am.

Nothing really different this morning until I got down the bus at 8.57 am. I had not yet put my foot down that I heard a girl on the boardwalk talk to a girl next to me. “There’s no tram! there has been an accident downtown and the trams are stuck and can’t come up to the border anymore! They say it’s gonna take 20 minutes to make things right again.”

Aaaalllriiiigght. I stubornly got down anyway, and started to form a plan in my head. First call the boss to say that I was stuck at the border so I’ll be late at work. Then, go up to the bank to resplenish my purse and see how much left money I had. And then, go have a good breakfast at the coffee place near the bank. That should keep me busy for 20mn and then I would be ready to go to work like usual.

Well. My timing was perfect, but the trams people timing, was far from it. Luckily it was very sunny, if pretty cold and windy. I found a seat on a bench and waited for the tram there, even talking to an old woman and letting go the bit of information I had heard, as, she had no idea what was going (as many others who were also waiting). I suppose that the girl I heard it from got it from the tram’s driver that was stuck at the border too.

So I was of course an hour late at work, on the only morning I have a big report to do before midday. oh joy. Plus my boss was stressed because they had a meeting at lunch, and had some complaints against me, although it turned out, they were groundless. And I realised I had forgotten to do a table for the big report. *sighs*

And I had so much work all day that I barely had time to eat. Ahh what a day.

Since Saturday, I heard about 3 accidents happening with the tram, I didn’t think there were that many.

Hello*

*If you read or have read Duma Key by Stephen King**, you’ll get it.

So the winter is finally over. The sun and warm temperatures are back, I’ve started a new job that sucks up all my time (45h a week, 2h of commuting every day… you get the picture.) Yeah. me too, but at least the work is not too exhausting, and the pay is much better than with the last job, hell, a lot better but that wasn’t particularly difficult. Anyway, the result of that “change of life” is that I’ve dived head first in the sea and was sucked up to the bottom directly. Half a year later (yeah! Amazing how time flies!) I’m finding myself a little bit more touching the surface and even breaking it, so I should be posting on there again….. from time to time…… and even add some new art….. from time to time too.

Actually I must say thank you to Fedwren for reminding me I had a blog. *hides shamefully*

All right and just to prove you i’m still alive, here’s a pic I took last Saturday. I kinda like it (ok, now how do we do for inserting pics in posts.)

Jet d'eau - Genève 2011

**Current book I’m reading . (Commuting has this only good thing, if you manage to get a seat, you can do some good reading!)

Final piece & Prismacolor

Had to rush from work to buckle up the painting before going to the birthday party, I’d been sick like a dog all week and really not in good shape to work on it, which explains the ‘kind of empty’ space and the missing part of the brush. Ooops. But i’m pretty satisfied with my ‘teddy bear’ plush texture and the ‘orangey red sunset color’ of the right heart.

****************

I received some pretty cool pencils for my birthday, the Prismacolor coloured pencils, and of course I had to try them out, didn’t I?

I’ll do a proper scan of it (and some fixing too probably) later.