
I missed last weeks ‘Monday’ meme, partly because I forgot (oops) and partly because I’ve been obsessed about the filming of the new ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 4’ movie that’s taking place in Greenwich. I’ve been travelling up there since Monday to see if Johnny’s arrived yet (excitement!), but no… it was just production setting up bluescreens, castle facades and other piratey stuff. If you’re interested you can check out my blog post complete with pictures.
I heard through Twitter that Johnny’s going to be there today. Whether I’ll go to see him is another thing entirely. For one I’ve got a sore throat which will probably turn into a monster cold! But I suppose that’s what you get for standing around in the cold waiting for a celebrity to turn up! I’d hate to have a job as a London paparazzi. If I do see him, I’m going to *hopefully* have him sign my copy of ‘The Rum Diary’ and ‘Fear and Loathing’ by Hunter S. Thompson. He’s supposed to have the filming rights for it (Hunter gave it to him before he died).
That aside, I’ve also been busy writing a guest review for The Blue Bookcase – the first one for me, so I’m pretty excited about that! About my 50 Books a Year thing… yeah, I’m on no. 50 at the moment and I’ve got about 3 books on the go. So it’ll be a surprise to see which one gets it!
Enough of the banter, more about the books.
Books Read
1. ‘Lavinia’ by Ursula Le Guin
This gets 4/5 stars. Review can be found here!
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Although executed in a masterful way, this gets 3/5 stars. Review can be found here.
Currently Reading
1. The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter

This wasn’t really on my list of reads, but my curiosity got the better of me. And would you believe it, its explosive stuff. It’s a novel of beautiful contradictions which looks like it’ll get the full 5/5 from me. A literary buffs heaven. Who said Women’s fiction was all romance and barbie-doll stuff. Angela Carter will eat you for breakfast! Djuna Barnes, read it and weep!
2. Retromancer by Robert Rankin

…And now for something totally different. Fancy a bit of Monty Python on tap? Then I recommend Rankin. He’s awesome. Can’t believe I haven’t come across him earlier. He totally takes the crap out of big, blockbuster novels. This one is a play on WIlliam Gibson’s famous cyber-thriller ‘Neuromancer’. Another 5/5’er, methinks.
3. The Room by Hubert Selby Jr.

We’ve had comedy and we’ve had uber-feminism. To counterbalance all this we have: the Selby. Which by the way, is beginning to irk me very much. I’m skipping pages. Too, much, graphic, gore. I’m not the squeamish kind, but I kid you not when I say that if I didn’t have a firm grasp on what Selby was actually trying to do as ‘writer’ in his art, I’d put this book away and never touch it again. This one will be a tough review indeed.
That’s it for now. Happy reading everyone!