Resistance is futile
May. 2nd, 2013 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susie_floWell, hello there, livejournal...
It's been 8 months since my last confession, though I do very occasionally pop in for a read (and often write imaginary posts that I haven't got time to write in real life, which would be too long for FB and not really suited to my other blogs).
Anyway... I am popping in now to ramble on a bit (probably to myself) about books and films and the news.
First of all - books. Finding myself incapable of high culture at the moment, I made a plea on FB last week for a semi-trashy book recommendation with a bit of espionage that I could read without zonking straight off to sleep. In response, one of you lovely ladies suggested a book called Jackdaws by Ken Follett, which appeared dutifully on my Kindle 30 seconds later. So far it has me simultaneously gripped and appalled. Plot-wise, it's exactly the ticket - I can't resist the resistance. It's rollicking along and ticking all of my boxes and I even slunk off to bed early last night to read a bit of it and almost missed my tube stop this morning. But, once I've finished it, I might have to betray it to the authorities and get it court marshaled for crimes against writing. Here are a couple of its more special paragraphs... just for lols.
"Dieter Franck had noticed the girl at the café table the moment he drove into the square. He always noticed beautiful women. This one struck him as a tiny bundle of sex appeal [....] Beautiful women were like the gorgeous French impressionist paintings he collected: having one did not stop you wanting another."
Oh yeah, baby. I look forward to more...
As for films, things are even less highbrow as I've started watching the Twiglet series and am forcing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sara_lou to watch them with me. I have to confess that, when I watched the first one a couple of years ago, it was a bit of a guilty pleasure cos I expected it to be more dreadful than it was - but the second one sent me to sleep so I had to re-watch the last hour of it last night. Has anyone sat through all of them? I'm planning to doggedly watch the lot now I've started. Teenage me would have fancied the pants off Edward but 40-year-old me is unable to see past his ludicrous pained expressions. I'd find myself offering him some laxatives and a lie down... and maybe a go on my Touche Éclat. These days, were I feeling cougarish, I'd probably prefer the button-nosed wolf boy, whose steroidy body would have freaked me out at the age of 16. As for Bella, I assume at some point we'll find out the secret of her special allure. So far, besides a pretty face, she comes across as the most vacuous, forgettable, non-personality ever to grace a movie screen.
A much better recommendation to look out for is an Argentinian crime-ish drama that we watched the other week. It has a dreadful title like The secrets in their eyes but it was v. good and they may well repeat it on BBC4.
In small-screen news, we've started season 2 of Game of Thrones but G is forcibly rationing it so that we don't watch it too quickly (jeez, I know!) I'm also slightly addicted to Pointless, an early evening quiz show that has managed to sneak above Uni C as my fav quiz. We've got into the habit of recording it every day and having it on in the kitchen while we're cooking dinner. Meanwhile, as a temporary fix until we can watch the last series of Breaking Bad, we had a go on a new US skiffy series called Revolution (which has the man who plays Gus Fring in it) but it's a bit pants so we probably won't bother continuing with that.
Moving onto less fripperous matters, I said that I was going to ramble about the news... but what I probably ought to do is hide from it for a while. Leaving aside my sheer bogglement this morning at someone giving a five-year-old child a loaded rifle as a gift, the recent run of prolonged stories about families perishing in arson attacks has broken me. It's not that it wouldn't always have done so but, of late, it's as if someone has removed all of my outer onion skins and everything is extra raw. I suspect it's probably hormonal since I had James. Things that used to disturb me now send me into a sort of meltdown and make me feel physically sick for days at a time. I honestly didn't think I could feel any worse about a crime than that Mick Philpott disaster until a similar incident turned up this week with dreadful details about the poor victims thrown in.
Be thankful that I'm not in politics, fiends, because I'm starting to have emotive opinions - for shame! Having spent my entire adult life intellectually opposed to capital punishment, I'm finding myself believing that maybe some people, after all, don't deserve the right to live. And, on top of that, I really can't think of a reason why a crime as reckless and stupid as arson should should carry less than life imprisonment - ever - regardless of whether anybody died. (Oh dear. I promise I've not started reading the Daily Fail)
Well, on that cheery note, I shall pop off again. I'm sure normal service will be resumed imminently. Given all of the evidence above, I think I'd probably better inject some high culture into my veins soon before it's too late...
It's been 8 months since my last confession, though I do very occasionally pop in for a read (and often write imaginary posts that I haven't got time to write in real life, which would be too long for FB and not really suited to my other blogs).
Anyway... I am popping in now to ramble on a bit (probably to myself) about books and films and the news.
First of all - books. Finding myself incapable of high culture at the moment, I made a plea on FB last week for a semi-trashy book recommendation with a bit of espionage that I could read without zonking straight off to sleep. In response, one of you lovely ladies suggested a book called Jackdaws by Ken Follett, which appeared dutifully on my Kindle 30 seconds later. So far it has me simultaneously gripped and appalled. Plot-wise, it's exactly the ticket - I can't resist the resistance. It's rollicking along and ticking all of my boxes and I even slunk off to bed early last night to read a bit of it and almost missed my tube stop this morning. But, once I've finished it, I might have to betray it to the authorities and get it court marshaled for crimes against writing. Here are a couple of its more special paragraphs... just for lols.
"Dieter Franck had noticed the girl at the café table the moment he drove into the square. He always noticed beautiful women. This one struck him as a tiny bundle of sex appeal [....] Beautiful women were like the gorgeous French impressionist paintings he collected: having one did not stop you wanting another."
"Dieter recounted yesterday’s attack at Sainte-Cécile: the imaginative planning, the plentiful weaponry, and most of all the bravery of the fighters. The only detail he left out was the beauty of the blonde girl. Rommel stood up and walked across to the tapestry. He stared at it, but Dieter was sure he did not see it. ‘I was afraid of this,’ Rommel said."
Oh yeah, baby. I look forward to more...
As for films, things are even less highbrow as I've started watching the Twiglet series and am forcing
sara_lou to watch them with me. I have to confess that, when I watched the first one a couple of years ago, it was a bit of a guilty pleasure cos I expected it to be more dreadful than it was - but the second one sent me to sleep so I had to re-watch the last hour of it last night. Has anyone sat through all of them? I'm planning to doggedly watch the lot now I've started. Teenage me would have fancied the pants off Edward but 40-year-old me is unable to see past his ludicrous pained expressions. I'd find myself offering him some laxatives and a lie down... and maybe a go on my Touche Éclat. These days, were I feeling cougarish, I'd probably prefer the button-nosed wolf boy, whose steroidy body would have freaked me out at the age of 16. As for Bella, I assume at some point we'll find out the secret of her special allure. So far, besides a pretty face, she comes across as the most vacuous, forgettable, non-personality ever to grace a movie screen. A much better recommendation to look out for is an Argentinian crime-ish drama that we watched the other week. It has a dreadful title like The secrets in their eyes but it was v. good and they may well repeat it on BBC4.
In small-screen news, we've started season 2 of Game of Thrones but G is forcibly rationing it so that we don't watch it too quickly (jeez, I know!) I'm also slightly addicted to Pointless, an early evening quiz show that has managed to sneak above Uni C as my fav quiz. We've got into the habit of recording it every day and having it on in the kitchen while we're cooking dinner. Meanwhile, as a temporary fix until we can watch the last series of Breaking Bad, we had a go on a new US skiffy series called Revolution (which has the man who plays Gus Fring in it) but it's a bit pants so we probably won't bother continuing with that.
Moving onto less fripperous matters, I said that I was going to ramble about the news... but what I probably ought to do is hide from it for a while. Leaving aside my sheer bogglement this morning at someone giving a five-year-old child a loaded rifle as a gift, the recent run of prolonged stories about families perishing in arson attacks has broken me. It's not that it wouldn't always have done so but, of late, it's as if someone has removed all of my outer onion skins and everything is extra raw. I suspect it's probably hormonal since I had James. Things that used to disturb me now send me into a sort of meltdown and make me feel physically sick for days at a time. I honestly didn't think I could feel any worse about a crime than that Mick Philpott disaster until a similar incident turned up this week with dreadful details about the poor victims thrown in.
Be thankful that I'm not in politics, fiends, because I'm starting to have emotive opinions - for shame! Having spent my entire adult life intellectually opposed to capital punishment, I'm finding myself believing that maybe some people, after all, don't deserve the right to live. And, on top of that, I really can't think of a reason why a crime as reckless and stupid as arson should should carry less than life imprisonment - ever - regardless of whether anybody died. (Oh dear. I promise I've not started reading the Daily Fail)
Well, on that cheery note, I shall pop off again. I'm sure normal service will be resumed imminently. Given all of the evidence above, I think I'd probably better inject some high culture into my veins soon before it's too late...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 11:57 am (UTC)I'm glad I'm not the only one to really dislike Ken Follett :-D
I wish I was still apolitical. I get so emotionally involved in arguing with People Who Are Wrong on the Internet. Takes up all my time.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 12:15 pm (UTC)As for politics... what really bugs me, more than anything, is the sneaky suspicion that I have become a bit less *rational* since I had James. (Agh! I hate the idea even as I am typing it...)
no subject
Date: 2013-05-10 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 12:35 pm (UTC)I have sat through all of the Twilight films, though I found the books unreadable. The third one is my favourite. The second one was boring and the fourth and fifth a whole new level or ridiculous. I hate Edward. Jacob is aesthetically pleasing in a jailbaity way, but just as much of a whiny, self-indulgent, controlling prick. Carlisle is pretty but short and a bit too good to be true, but I will admit to having a bit of a crush on Bella's dad - he gets funnier throughout the series and has most of the best lines.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 12:48 pm (UTC)I shall await the Yew Tree scenario with baited breath. (I did wonder this morning whether there might be some 'bad sex awards' material coming up soon) :-)
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 12:52 pm (UTC)Definitely some very bad sex coming up. So to speak.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 01:58 pm (UTC)I have seen but one Twiglet - the first one - and had no real desire to watch anymore, though I do like Michael Sheen and am curious to see what he looks like as a vampire (I've seen him play a werewolf). Kristen Stewart - P saw the trailer for that Snow White film she was in and said 'Isn't Snow White meant to be hotter than the wicked stepmother?'
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 05:03 pm (UTC)By contrast, I nearly got passive-aggressively glared out of the cinema for laughing at Twiglet, the bit where she announces the baby name made me laugh out loud. Surely some Twiglet fans have a sense of humour?
PS I can post you The sunne in splendour if you like, which is a lengthy Richard III novel. Very good on the whole but with some anachronisms thrown in to make it palatable for the US audience.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 05:25 pm (UTC)That's really kind of you to offer the book but, alas, I am such a woeful old biddy these days I can only cope withreading on my kindle in GIANT font. Normal paperbacks, especially fat ones, send me straight off to zonk land within a page or two...
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 06:03 pm (UTC)OTOH, I wouldn't watch Twiglet if you paid me.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-03 12:09 pm (UTC)