Friday Five on Books

1. Do you enjoy receiving books as holiday or birthday gifts?

I do. I quite often get books from my Dad and from a particular friend and they are always interesting. When I was a boy and lived in Australia, where books are expensive, I was always very keen to get books as a present. Some of my favourite books have been gifts. Terry Pratchett from my grandmother for example.

2. What book are you reading (or, what is the last book you read)?

I am currently reading

Getting to Yes by Fisher and Ury

Birds Without Wings by de Berniers

Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin (on audio book)

Clarkes World Magazine back issues (on Kindle)

The White Box Essays (on Kindle) about game design.

3. Are you enjoying (or, did you enjoy) that book? Why or why not?

I am enjoying Getting to Yes (or at least finding it useful and accessible). I am enjoying Birds Without Wings. The fall of the Ottoman Empire and the fall out from that is something I don't know much about and I really enjoy  de Berniers comic sketches of his characters.

I'm struggling a bit with Three Body Problem. This might be because the audio book format doesn't work well for me or because I really struggle to keep track of characters if their names are culturally unfamiliar to me. I had it with the Alliette du Bodard novels, which I enjoyed, but I had to work a bit harder than I usually do to keep track of the Aztec names.

I'm not delighted with the White Box Essays. They are perfectly good but are pointed more at the process of selling a game rather than board game mechanics than I was hoping for.

4. About how many books do you read in an average year?

Before the Captain about a100, after the Captain about 30.

5. What are some of the books on your to-read pile (or list)

I have a book about Socialism and Science Fiction called Red Mars. There are some Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks books I've been putting off reading. I have a book on the March Through Georgia and Sherman's campaigns against the First Nations after the Civil War.

On the Strictly Final

I was a bit meh about the result of the Strictly Final this year.

Back on 15th October I predicted that the finalists would be Ashley, Faye, Joe and Stacey and that Ashley would win. Lo! Those were the finalists but Stacey (and Kevin) won. Regular readers will know that I have a lot of time for Kevin but, for no good reason, not so much time for Stacey.  Ashley top scored on the night and across the whole competition scored the most points, 598, out of a total of 647 on offer. Her points % is 92.43. Five 40's. Faye was 590 for 91.19%. Four 40's.  Stacey 548 for 84.70% and Joe 529 for 81.76%. Ashley survived three dance offs to reach the final. There's a bit of moral victory for her. But not an actual victory. The public are the final arbiters of Strictly victory and they have plumped for Stacey and I am disappointed. I thought Ashley the best dancer, Faye the most joyful to watch and that Joe had come on the most. I'm not saying that Stacey isn't a good dancer, or a better dancer now than she was but I am a bit flat about the result.

So, meh.

I enjoyed the series. There were some lovely dancers this year. I enjoyed Danny John-Jules, the much under-supported Charles Venn, Ashley and Faye. Some of Katya's choreography was superb (and it's nice to see that her unfortunate snog with Seann has resulted in her husband getting some more prominent roles in the show).

I'll do some  more number crunching and some more thinking and I'll have another look at the racism question following Charles Venn's experience in later posts.