Last Book Read: 'Of Fire and Night' By Kevin J Anderson, which is book five of his 'Saga of the seven suns' series. You have to really like science fiction to give this set a go as the first book is simply tedious....basically introducing a raft of characters and placing them in the framework of the narrative. Most single books will achieve this within a chapter and sometimes a page or paragraph so imagine a BOOK of introductions.....worse than the opening chapters of the Bible, (Then again the Bible has gone on to sell a good few books despite its awful start, lack of plot or storyline, huge numbers of contradictions and complete lack of cohesion...as a novel the Bible is not a good read.....but still it has sold well over a dozen copies now I hear....so perhaps there is method here?), The books, as they progress, do pick up pace. The series is inventive and thought provoking, its scope is vast and it is well paced to keep you turning pages...as space operas go this is indeed up there with the best.

Worst Book Read : is STILL 'Firewall' By Andy McNabb. A bleak  soulless book set in post communist Eastern Europe.

Favorite Book: George RR Martin the song of Ice and Fire series, ANYTHING by the Late David Gemmell but especially the Legend, Ghost king and Waylander series.  Anything by Stephen Donaldson and Raymond E. Feist. The Green Mile by Stephen King (A good film but the book is extraordinary).

Last Film Watched: Last film watched in the cinema was 'Hellboy Two'  which was......butt numbingly bad....I had no great expectations of this movie so shouldn't have been surprised but the film turned out to be worse than I had hoped....this is the first move for years I have considered walking out of (being Welsh and as a nation being a bit....thrifty....shall we say:  having paid for something we will usually try and avail ourselves of that  product... regardless of comfort or quality...but this....). At one point my eyes actually bled. There were two redeeming features I suppose (1) in that the film was visually stunning, the monster make up and effects, the troll market for example, was excellent. Its just that after 10 minutes you just didn't care about ANY of the characters at all. (2) it mercifully finished before I could gnaw my own leg off to get out. As an indication, it was not 'Joe versus the volcano' bad, (A Tom Hanks film that remains my benchmark for just the worst film in all ways....ever...and bear in mind I have been forced to see 'The Doug Movie' and Pokemon movies by my then young daughter... so just think how bad 'Joe versus the Volcano' must be), but bad it was.... Awful may be closer to the mark. Give your money to the local tramp, or use it for toilet paper... it will be more enjoyable than this film.

At Home was: 'The Incredibles' by Pixar / Disney. Basically a pastiche of late 50's- 60's spy films and the American publics continuing love affair with superheroes...so saying this was actually one of the best things Pixar Animation has done...It was funny, the style of the film never strayed from the period, never resorted to outside references for a 'gag' and the story moved along at a pace that kept you from looking too hard at the remote control. Again far from a great film but entertaining and worth a look....If you really have nothing better to do with 11/2 hours.

Favourite Movie: Not really got a favorite. Last decent film we saw in pictures was the above 'The Dark Night' . I enjoy lots of different types of film but no real favorite in genre or individually. If forced at gunpoint to chose then either the original Alien or Blade Runner (both by Ridley Scott).  

We have recently purchased an interesting new smell for the house whom my insane daughter has lovingly named Hemmingway. I had no intentions of having another dog after Buffy (my old dog) died... but simply put I missed the company, inconvenience and odour. As such I have procured a new supplier of said inconvenience and smell, a black Labrador puppy who has made it his sole purpose in life to destroy my home and garden and has already developed an arresting stench all of his own, Buffy would most definitely approve.