Very light, escapist reading, but fairly well done. Does insist on grinding through every single sub-Raymond Chandler cliché, thought the protagonist Harry Dresden is more hapless than hard-bitten.

The mystery stuff isn't too well done: it's pretty obvious who the villain is. The magic system is worked out a lot better, with all the elements slotting neatly into place in the plot and finale.

Overall all not bad though: the sort of thing you can read in a couple of sittings. Might well look out for some of the later ones.

What I'm Watching
Saw Hidden Fortress on DVD. Didn't really work for me: it's self-consciously epic and probably demands a big screen. Some very good scenes of warfare and chaos, especially as the slave-workers revolt near the beginning. The humorous bickering got a bit much after a while.

There are quite a few elements that seem to have borrowed by George Lucas for Star Wars, but it's far from being a direct copy. You've got one hero instead of Luke Skywalker/Han Solo, a couple of weak villains but no Darth Vader equivalent. Apart from standard McGuffin chasing the plot doesn't have that much in common :no gold to transport in Star Wars, no Rebel counter-attack in Hidden Fortress.

Listening
Finished the 48-lecture TTC course Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age by Thomas Childers. This one covers 1750 to roughly now, which means I've now gone through the whole of European history from the Roman empire to the present.

Was getting to be a bit of a struggle. The trouble with this being the most recent period was that a lot of it was pretty familiar: the WW1, WW2 and UK-centric stuff especially. On the other he was pretty good on the Enlightenment; the French Revolution; and Italian and German unification.

He's not a bad lecturer, though he's most passionate about later stuff. As someone seeking pure entertainment, would have been nice to see more on personalities. The geo-political manoeuvrings are interesting but frustratingly complex: it's all in one ear and out the other.

Not sure what's next audio-wise: I think I'm pretty much historied out for the moment. Don't have any more Teaching Company lectures lined up, but there are a couple of audio novels hanging around. There's a Carl Hiessen thriller, but that might not work at the slow audio-book pace, and "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini.

What I'm Reading 2
Finished Conqueror by Stephen Baxter. Second in the "Time's Tapestry" historical series. This has three sections, covering the Viking raid on Lindisfarne, Alfred the Great disappointingly not showing any culinary failings and William the Conqueror.

Pretty poor actually, though it interests me because I was reading about these periods relatively recently. The plot concern a prophecy from the future which acts as a perpetual McGuffin. You can't really get into the characters since you know they'll all be dead of old age, and you always know pretty much what's going to happen.

It's also all quite depressing, with Britain undergoing wave after savage wave of ethnic cleansing, warfare, rape and pillage between Angles, Saxons, Danes and Normans. Completely accurate of course. Might be more interesting if you didn't already know it, or had bought into Victorian myths of a eternally green and pleasant England.

Not sure whether to keep reading the series. There are another two volumes planned, but it's pretty clear what the final plot twist will be from this and the summaries. The last book is set in WW2, the Weaver is trying to create an Aryan Empire by changing history.

Review, review.

Web
Girls with skinny figures: there is hope.

Blair the Hero.

4 minute video of camera on a Tokyo sushi bar conveyer belt.

Stolen from an infuriated Metafilter: Italian teacher groped in class.