Happy birthday, lcohen…

…and many happy returns of the day!

Science Fiction I've Read or Not

Thanks, serene. I've read 29. I decided not to further characterise them. I will not read anything by Orson Scott Card, ever, and as much as I think Sir Terry Pratchett is a great person, I tried to read some of his stuff and absolutely couldn't stand it, sadly.

Have read

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand, by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series,by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

Tidbits

The arthritis in my hands has gotten so bad that it became difficult to open a can with a manual can opener. So, over the objections of HWMBO, I bought an electric can opener. It is fabulous. I wish I'd bought it in time to open the four cans of minced clams I used in the last clam chowder I made for HWMBO.

I am going to begin shedding some of the offices I hold in the Diocese of Southwark. I will be 61 in a few months, my health, while OK, isn't great, and I'm getting tired of always attending meetings. As I announce them publicly, I'll mention them here and on Facebook.

I'm having these stirrings that I really need to return to the Southern Hemisphere to visit some of the places I didn't get to in March and April. Queensland, Perth, and Darwin in Australia, the South Island of New Zealand, and who knows where else? I do have a bit of cash left from that trip and I've not spent any since I returned. Watch this space. I am conscious that I've not written up the rest of my trip here. I do have kind of a Facebook record of it so I'll be visiting that as well as uploading pictures to Flickr.

I am continually amazed at how much I am enjoying The New Yorker. I've done without it for almost 20 years, since I moved here from San Francisco, but the fact that I can read it on my iPad or iPhone means that I don't even have to take the paper magazine out of its wrapper. I don't seem to be able to get them to deliver it to me solely online, but I expect that as time goes on they will allow that.

The New Yorker also seems to have become an Anglophile since I read it last. This is good, in a way, as being in England I have a vested interest in things English, but I wonder whether the US readership is as interested.

I have also downloaded lots of ebooks to my Kindle/iPad/iPhone. This will stand me in good stead when I am mired in a waiting room, or the next time I'm imprisoned in the hospital. There are some books that are just too interesting to keep around for those eventualities, though. Zealot, by Reza Aslan, is one of those books. There was an interesting video of an interview Faux News did of Aslan, in which the interviewer seemed to believe that only a Christian could write a book about Jesus. This is nearly the silliest assertion I've heard this year. I've also seen a set of tweets from Aslan in which, while defending himself, he has kind of a potty mouth. That, of course, doesn't bother me. But it all makes me wonder what brings out the foul language in people when they sit in front of a computer monitor and keyboard.

So far, the book is quite interesting and, while I don't agree with everything he says, I do think that he's a serious scholar who does need to be taken very seriously indeed. Future writers who wish to touch on the historical Jesus question will have to engage with what Aslan has written. Those of us who are people of a Christian faith will have to engage Aslan's book within ourselves. I also downloaded his book about Islam, which I will read after this book.

I also have bought some dead tree books, but I'm really getting annoyed with authors and publishers who are not allowing their books to be sold as ebooks. I have shelfloads of dead tree books here, and I'm tired of it. Ebooks, for better or for worse, are the way the future looks and publishers and authors who aren't allowing their books to be digitised risk being left behind. It is amazing to start reading a book on my Kindle Fire, then continue it at the place where I left off on my iPad, and then continue yet again when I'm out and about on my iPhone.

The weather here's been frightful. We had a three-week heatwave after the wettest and coldest spring in a while. Now the heatwave has gone away (at least for now), but who knows what August will bring.

HWMBO and I will be travelling to Marblehead in October. I would have preferred September but his job heats up in September so he's not free to travel. We will be trying to get to the Topsfield Fair. After he departs for London I will probably go to New York City and Buffalo to see friends and perhaps even Niagara Falls (...slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch...) This is all assuming that my health remains fair to good.

I continually think of tidbits that I resolve to post here, but don't get around to. If I think of any more, I'll try to be more assiduous.