Further Musings Of A Book Whore

Having bought Redemption Ark on Thursday, I have proceeded to make further book purchases on a daily basis. This means in the past week, I have purchased:

• Chasm City, Alastair Reynolds
• Redemption Ark, Alastair Reynolds
• Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, Alastair Reynolds
• Two copies of The Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
• Empire Of Bones, Liz Williams

So yes, I continue to be a total book whore. Not only that, but I am now well and truly J. K. Rowling's bitch. Having started Order of the Phoenix on Thursday evening I am now well and truly engrossed in it. I must've read at least 300 pages of it yesterday. Yes, I know some of you are faster readers than that, but tchah! - go figure. Now on page 481 of 766. As someone wanting to get published, in some ways it is quite intimidating to read it. In others it's just great fun. It's also quite gauling to hear people who have never read any of the books scoff at them. Yeah, they're overhyped, no question. But the fact of there being any hype in the first place? That's well deserved.

So Anne and Jess are stopping over tonight following a meal out and general socialising to celebrate Anne's birthday earlier in the week. This is one of the reasons for the hectic book buying of yesterday, when I got two copies of the new Jasper Fforde. One was for me, using the left-over book tokens she got me for my birthday for this very purpose. Well, most of them. The remaining tokens were used today to by the Liz Williams book. Then I had to get a copy for her. Hopefully she is still blissfully ignorant of the fact that the JF book is out already and is still expecting to go and buy it on Monday night. Getting her a copy also confused the Waterstones lady. I'd already got Anne's present, see? Book tokens, again. So I then proceeded to spend half the book tokens I'd bought her last weekend to pay for the book instead. Make sense? No? Tough shit. Hopefully by the time I've finished this entry it'll be too late for her to see it before she gets here. I could always play safe and not post it until she either tells me she's leaving, or just as she arrives.

It was the signing exam this morning. I think it went better than the one two years ago, but I'm not entirely sure I did well enough to pass. I'm not going to get my hopes up, less chance of being disappointed that way. We wandered around Stratford afterwards, during which time I bought the Liz Williams book, a pair of posh shoes for the wedding, and my brother's birthday present. On the way back to the car afterwards we saw a young guy, late teens or early twenties, wearing a t-shirt saying "Who's The Daddy?". Not funny. Pathetic, in fact. However, it struck me then that it would've been highly amusing had it been a pregnant woman wearing a t-shirt with the same slogan on. Is that twisted of me? Probably. But it's still funny.

Just one last anecdote I think. Why is it that 90% of people you find in a supermarket on a Friday evening think it's perfectly acceptable to behave like total cunts? I witnessed one person in particular being quite shockingly unpleasant. It was at the deli counter. She had asked for some ham cut off the bone, and she wanted it sliced thin. While slicing lovely thin slices, the shop assistant encountered the bone at the centre of the ham joint, which obviously made the slicing a little more awkward, but she did her best. The customer, however, took one look and said "No, I'm not having that, it's too thick, it's rubbish" and stormed off. Next time I think she can slice her own fucking ham. I encountered the offending woman later on in the shop and found it very hard not to have words with her.

And I leave you with this. I'm not convinced there's more than one possible outcome because Alison and I both got the same thing despite giving fairly different answers. Still, good to know my reputation precedes me.

what warning label are you?