What I'm Reading
Still working my way through the library's Dresden Files: number 5 was Death Masks. Another good one: I haven't gone through a series so fast in ages. This time Harry has to track down the missing Turin shroud, and deal with a threatened duel from a vampire. The war with the Red Court is still pretty cold: not sure whether the author isn't sure how to handle it or is just putting it on hold.

Very addictive series: fortunately I think I'm running out of library's stock. Have two more volumes on the Unread Stack, then I think I'll have to look elsewhere.

Interlude
In the first period of World War Two, not a lot happened. The British called it the Phony War. The French called it the Drôle de Guerre: the Funny War. The Germans called it the Sitting War: the Sitzkrieg.

Coming Soon on What I'm Reading
I am working my way through some slightly heavier stuff too. Couldn't tear myself away from history after all: gave up on The Kite Runner and went for the Teaching Company's From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History by Kenneth J. Hammond.

Have also just started The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace by Ali A. Allawi.

Might restart the Kite Runner, but it seemed a bit lugubrious to work as an audiobook. Plus all these ethnic exile novels start to blend into one after a while: it's hard to remember which bittersweet childhood anecdote and First Encounter with Adult Prejudice is which. Also it's rather badly read by the author in a dull, droning voice: stick to the damn professionals willya.

Museums
Went to see the Artists’ Self-Portraits from the Uffizi exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, after reading this write-up. Interesting to see them all lined up like that: they all seem to veer either between vain self-aggrandizing or warts-and-all honesty.

Highlights: Antoine de Favray who makes himself cheekily look like a music hall comedian. Also Michelangelo Pisti who has the interesting gimmick of putting his upper body on a mirror, so if you get the angle right it looks like you've been transmogrified.

Not too crowded, no queue for tickets, few noisy kids. Worth a look if you can be bothered getting there: there's no Tube so you have to arse around with either buses or South-East Trains. Who had adopted the mysterious policy of having all their trains leave from Blackfriars instead of Victoria. But only before 12:18 when they resumed from Victoria. This inconvenienced and annoyed me.

Random
Why can't Marks and Spencers be consistent in their mis-sizing? One of the things I like is that while in a normal shop I have to get trousers with a 34'' waist, in Marks I can comfortably fit into trousers labelled 32''.

With underpants though, the 30''-32'' are too tight, and I have to go for the 33''-35''.

I wanted a second belt though, and when I tried that I couldn't even fasten the 33''-35'' belt. Didn't dare try the 36'' to 38''.

More narrative consistency, please.