What I'm Listening To
Finally finished the Ulysses audiobook. The last few CDs have been a struggle: I think Joyce knows that having come this far we're not going to give up now, so he saves up the most tedious stuff for last: a giant going-to-bed scene all done as a question-and-answer session; and Molly Bloom's insomniac mutterings. Gah again.

Overall, not too bad though. Seems strikingly contemporary still, and does give you an impressively detailed glance at the inner lives of the male characters. The female characters didn't seem so realistically depicted to me, but apparently that's deliberate as some of them are just Bloom's imagination.

Wouldn't particularly recommend it though: it's great in sections like the journey through Dublin (ch10), the language experiments (ch14) and the conflict with the soldier (ch15); but has just such huge stretches of absolute tedium and repetition, that it's somewhat gruelling to get through. It's much harder to read than action-packed joyrides like War and Peace, Moby Dick, Middlemarch and so on. It's still intellectually rewarding to read, but you'd need a lot of additional knowledge to understand most of the references. I got some of the references to Malory and the classics, but missed most

There are good guides to what it's about here and here; a very short overview here and a hyperlinked concordance of all the words. If you're reading it for the first time I'd recommend reading these guides after every chapter, or even in advance. I usually like to avoid reviews and come to things fresh; but in this case there are just too many obscure points, and it's too long to really go back to. For instance, I can understand once it`s explained to me that Stephen Dedelus represents Telemachus; but Telemachus only turns up right at the end of the Odyssey, and starts Ulysses; so it`s pretty tough to expect me to work that out from the start.

Have had a look at the printed version and I think it's pretty much equally hard to the audiobook. The audiobook helps clarify the punctuation and who's speaking, but you lose the flexibility of re-reading and slowing down.

What I'm Reading
Finished SF novel The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, which has gotten some good reviews. Seems rather old-fashioned though it was only written in the late 1990s. It's a book in the alien-ambassador subgenre, which I find it hard to read without thinking of Bob Shaw's dismissal of it which went something like this. "I can't write alien ambassador books: they always have the guy wandering around for 400 pages not getting anywhere, and at the end you find out it's because when they have sex they stick it in their ears so every time he says 'lend me your ear' he's been committing a horrible faux pas".

Even so, this is a rather well done example of the genre: very strong on the relationships and the angst of a Jesuit space mission gone horribly wrong; and I didn't spot the ear-sex gimmick until it was revealed at the end. Main downside was that it's hard to believe in some of the older tropes these days: the motley and unprofessional crew of explorers, the compatibility with alien life forms including eating the same food, the rather awkward science and tech stuff. What`s the power source that gets this asteroid up to near light speed? Does she have any idea of the energy involved? Do they really think special relativity is uncertain? How can two (even badly-trained) pilots both just forget to think about whether they`ve enough fuel for the return trip?

Anyway, worth a look if you want something that's fairly entertaining, fairly intelligent, and don't mind that it's not a barrel of laughs. Doesn't seem to be particularly aimed at SF readers: though it follows the genre templates rigidly, it carefully explains even very familiar tropes like time dilation and moving asteroids. This seems to have given it quite a lot of crossover success.

Oddly, while it's very reminiscent of James Blish's "A Case of Conscience", Russell claims not to have read that, despite being familiar with SF. John Clute review, review, interview.

What I'm Reading 2
Also read the very short volume: Someone Like Me by Tom Holt. Taut, Beowulf-based novella about a hunter's conflict with a monster: gripping, realistic, bleak and cynically humorous. Well worth a look if you see it, would make a good introduction to his non-crappy-comedy books.

What I'm Reading 3
Got through another comic: Superman / Batman / Supergirl. Another lightweight action-based one, apparently bringing back Supergirl after an absence. Krypto the Superdog is already there: why don't DC just have everyone wake up, yawn, stretch and realise that Crisis on Infinite Earths was just a bad dream? Dumb but moderately entertaining. Artwork definitely objectifies the female characters in a salacious manner, with some distorted poses and anatomy. Which apparently bothers some people.

Operation Become Less Fat
CW: 11st 8
SW: 14st 4
Loss: 38 pounds
Weeks: 27
Loss per week: 1.4 pounds

Saturday 3 June 2006
Breakfast: Sausage roll, 1.5 slices bread, slice tongue, 2 olives.
Supper: 350g potatoes, ratatouille, M&S "special reserve" dry-aged steak (400kcal). M&S "Count on Us" chocolate overload
Second supper: 3 slices bread, 1.5 slices ham, 3 olives
Booze: 1 beer, 1.5 whisky
Snacks: 1 Feast ice cream (290kcal)
Exercise: 5BX Chart 4 Level A+.

Sunday 4 June 2006
Breakfast: 2 huge slices bread, potato and leek soup, 1 slice tongue, half slice ham
Supper: Steak (400kcal), 350 potatoes, 1 parsnip, 1 carrot, mangetout peas. Orange.
Second supper: 2 slices bread, 1 slice ham, 3 olives
Snacks: Strawberry cornetto (196 kcal). Hot choc with splash whisky
Booze: 1 whisky
Exercise: 5BX Chart 4 Level A+. Dumb-bells: light 5kg 3x10, medium 10kg 3x10, heavy 14kg 3x10. 3.5 miles walking

Monday 5 June 2006
Breakfast: 2 slices toast, slice ham, 3 olives
Lunch: Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel
Supper: Chicken Jalfrezi, rice. "Count on Us" Choc and black cherry dessert
Snacks: 1 apple, 1 orange, hot choc
Booze: 2 whisky
Exercise: 5BX Chart 4 Level A+. 3.5 miles walking

Tuesday 6 June 2006
Breakfast: Coco Pops Crunchers with skimmed milk.
Brunch: Small egg, sausage, bacon sandwich.
Lunch: Lentil and vegetable soup
Supper: 2 Waitrose beefburgers, 380g potatoes, half Swede, mangetout peas. Milky Way.
Second supper: 1 slice toast, half tin sardines, 2 olives
Booze: 1 beer, 1 whisky, half Bailey's
Exercise: 5BX Chart 4 Level A+. Dumb-bells: light 6.5kg 3x10, medium 10kg 3x10, heavy 14kg 3x10. 3.5 miles walking

Wednesday 7 June 2006
Breakfast: 2 coffee, 1 grapefruit juice
Brunch: Small bacon sandwich
Lunch: Chicken and sweetcorn soup
Supper: Chicken breast, 420g potatoes, half swede and one carrot mashed. Milky bar.
Snacks: 3 Ryvita, half tin sardines, 2 olives. Hot choc splash whisky
Booze: 1 beer, 1 whisky
Exercise: 5BX Chart 4 Level A+. 3.5 miles walking

Thursday 8 June 2006
Breakfast: 1 coffee
Brunch: small chicken caesar sandwich
Supper: 200g spaghetti, meatballs, 35g cheese
Second supper: 2 Ryvita, piece Brie, mango
Booze: 2 whisky.
Exercise: 5BX Chart 4 Level A+. Dumb-bells: light 6.5kg 3x10, medium 10kg 3x10, heavy 14kg 3x10. 3.5 miles walking

Friday 9 June 2006
Breakfast: 1 coffee
Brunch: Small egg, sausage, bacon sandwich
Lunch: Duck breast, noodles.
Supper: 4 slices bread, Beef Broth soup, small piece camembert, 2 tomatoes
Booze: 2 beer, 1 whisky
Snacks: 1 orange
Exercise: 5BX Chart 4 Level A+. 3.5 miles walking

Londoner in Paris
Haven't forgotten: just can't be bothered typing it up. It's not really the weather for it, and I can't transcribe my handwritten notes at work without getting attention.