Booking Through Thursday 2

This weeks prompt from Booking Through Thursday:

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

I don’t have any books on top of the table next to the bed – there’s no room, what with the clock and tissues and drink bottle (and chocolate) and a wee bit of space for glasses.  Underneath the drawers is a different matter – there’s a shelf at the bottom that houses a very small, rarely touched collection of books, mostly by Nancy Friday (or collated by her, at least).

I tend to not leave books in the bedroom, as I’m never in there during the day.  My book is either on my armchair or in my handbag, within reach.  At the moment I’m carrying around a book called The Lightstep, which I’ve only just started, by John Dickinson.  So far so good, although the story is really only just starting.  This weekend should be pretty nasty in terms of weather, so hopefully there will be lots of time to curl up on the sofa and make a dent in this novel!

Booking Through Thursday 1

Stumbleupon rocks, by the way.  It’s how I found a blog about book memes, and a whole host of other journalling odds and sods that will keep me occupied for weeks.  But for now, my first foray into Booking Through Thursday: (and no, not on a Thursday either – talk about a promising start!)

What’s the most useful book you’ve ever read? And, why?

Cookbooks are the first things that come to mind, but I don’t know that I’ve ever sat down and read one cover to cover.  I’ve got a couple of those ‘how to clean everything’ and ’1001 uses for vinegar’ type books as well, but it’s not exactly riveting reading.  I can’t even claim any self-help books, although that’s probably not a bad thing.  I’ve never been able to get into them, although I have a bunch of writing/journalling ones on wishlists across the web…

As boring as it is, the most useful book I’ve actually read completely is the user manual for our DVR.  I didn’t read it because I was starved of the written word; rather, we couldn’t figure out how to get it to record for more than 30 minutes at a time.  I scoured the book from cover to cover to try and figure out why, and eventually posted to a .comp newsgroup.  I got the answer within half an hour, and then read the stupid manual again to see if I’d missed it the first time, but no.  Apparently, it’s a quirk unique to all Philips recording devices that the entire universe knew about except us.  (In case you’re wondering, you have to press the record button once for each half hour – 90 minutes means three hits to the red button).

Terror Firma

I’m getting stuck into Terror Firma, a fantastic book by Matthew Thomas.  While I’m aware that it’s satire, about things that no one in their right mind should be taking seriously (or perhaps the complete opposite, I can’t decide), there’s a passage that has stuck in my mind:

The most efficient way to subdue a population is to make them believe that they’re free as they construct the chains that bind me.  Throw them at the rag-doll of political debate and allow them to waste their energies tearing their apparent leaders to pieces.  Free speech counts for little when those with the true final say don’t give a damn what they hear from below, and didn’t need your vote to get them there in the first place.

While the rest of the book is turning out to be a fun ride, this bit screams so much logic at me I think I’m taking the rest of the story a little too seriously.  At any rate, I’m only halfway through, but I think I can safely say it’ll be on my mind for a long while.

So many books to choose from…

Last month was my worst month, reading-wise, in years.  I finished absolutely nothing.  To be fair, I only actually started one book, Drood, which was put aside when hauling it to work every day started having serious consequences (that thing is heavy; I’d hate to see the size of the large print version!), so it wasn’t like I tossing books left, right and centre.  Instead, I turned to logic puzzles and magazines, so the fact my page count hasn’t moved in a month is purely my own laziness.

Thing is, I’m now out of the habit, of both reading and of choosing books.  I’ve gone right back to the basics, and a book that is both an old favourite and complete fluff – the first Red Dwarf book.  I have no idea what I’m in the mood for next though, in spite of having a TBR list about two hundred pages long.  Time to get out the dart set and take pot luck!