I know I has been a-quiet...

... but I've been busy with my other blog.

Now that the cat is out of the proverbial bag, I share the link with you all:
http://blogthesprog.blogspot.com

Poem

My friend Tanya (who lives in England now) wrote a poem last year. I think it's one of the best poems I've ever read, by anyone. I have asked her if I can post it on my blog. I find it chilling and sad, written about her father who was dying of emphysema. Unfortunately she didn't make it back in time to see him before he passed last week.

The Colonel is Dying

The Colonel is dying
Hanging by a thread
Oxygen tank whispers:
"Soon you'll be dead."

The Colonel is dying
These his last days
I have to see him
Before the funeral plays

The Colonel is dying
They are playing his song
Must see the Colonel
Before the Colonel is gone

This makes me really angry!!!

Children left in car for six hours

East rand police will not charge a mother for leaving her two young children in the car while gambling and drinking at a casino. That is unless new evidence comes to light.

It is alleged the woman locked her two daughters aged one and two in her vehicle for six hours on Tuesday night while she gambled at Carnival City Casino in Brakpan.

Officers discovered the crying children after Carnival City management called police in the early hours of Wednesday morning to remove the drunken woman from the premises.

She was arrested for child abuse but was not charged due to a lack of evidence.

Confession time...

Worst Books of 2006

I forgot, I did read a couple of awful book last year! The only reason I stuck the one out was because my mother begged me to (I have since decided we have very different taste!) - and it was a holiday read so it didn't really matter. The other was Bret Easton Ellis, who has totally lost it in my opinion...

The Last Nazi by Stanley Pottinger
This book is stupid, horrible and extremely predictable. My mother said it has "lots of amazing twists". It doesn't. Don't read it.

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
As much as I disliked this book and as much as it disturbed me (and not in the usual 'normal' Bret Easton Ellis disturbing way either), I still admit he's a very good writer - and I will probably read his next book! Lunar Park starts out great, but then it suffers from the same fate as his previous book, Glamorama - and that is that it seemed to me that he had NO idea what do with the stories and they ended really stupidly. Unless I'm really missing something...

My Best Books of 2006

I don't usually keep track of what books I read in a year, but am going to start now. I've been inspired by Tanya's list of goals for 2007 - I don't know how many books I read in 2006 but I know it wasn't enough! I'm not going to set a number for this year, but will just try read as much as possible. I also want to try read some old 'classic' books that I've never got around to before.

I don't have a list of worst books 'cos if I'm not enjoying a book I stop reading it. As a friend said to me years ago, "There are too many good books in the world to waste time reading bad ones."

Here are the books I enjoyed most in 2006 (that I can remember):

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This automatically became one of my favourite books of all time - I have yet to find anyone who didn't love it and didn't cry like a baby while reading it.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
One of his best in my opinion, although I was a bit disappointed by the ending. Not a good one to start with if you haven't read him before... I recommend 'Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World'.

Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson
It took a while to get into this one - and it is FAR from her best work - but it moved me on a personal level and in the end I really enjoyed it.

Sun Dog by Monique Roffey
This was a bizarre book. I'm still not sure what to make of the actual story, but it is written SO beautifully! One of those authors that make me never want to even try writing 'cos she makes it look so damn easy to say such amazing things...

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Dry by Augusten Burroughs
Both these memoirs are easy reading in terms of style if not in content. The man has lived a very weird life, making "truth is stranger than fiction" the most appropriate thing to say about these books. I read 'Dry' first and am even more impressed with his writing now that I've read 'Running with Scissors' - considering he basically never went to school! A most interesting character who I would love to meet in the flesh. And yes, I do want to read all his other stuff now too. See his website.