January Reading

I read two book this month Anna Karenina and War of the Worlds.

I'm not sure what to write of Anna Karenina. I have tried to explain why I like it, and every time I try it reads like irritating dribble. I will say that between War and Peace and Karenina, this is the better book. I loved War and Peace because made me think about big questions, but I love Anna Karenina even more for its story and narrower scope of themes, and Levin. Levin is a great character of Tolstoy's moral ideas and ideologies. To me, Tolstoy is right up there.

I found War of the Worlds in a second hand book shop in town. A short read, it was pretty much what I expected. I wish the movies were more like the book. Get rid of cruise. Set it in the 1880-90's. Get some cannons and maxim machine guns. I want to see an ironclad ram a martian! It would be nostalgic like the new Sherlock Holmes movie but with aliens.

Reading next: Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

Old Compost Heap

Clearing out this old heap for good or for worse. It's been there by the shed before I was born, but the past few years its become a dumping ground of various things and home to rats. The mobile phone picture is terrible, poor lighting, but it gives you an idea of the mess.

So far I've found:

• A sprouting avocado.
• Enough plastic to fill a skip.
• Two kitchen knifes.
• Dandelion and burdock can.
• Enough wood for a bonfire.
• A pane of broken glass.
• Rubble, rubble, rubble.
  
• Huge nettle roots.

Who knows what I'll find next.

The soil is going to be sieved of crap and spread around the garden especially for potatoes.

I built a new compost bin before Christmas and placed it further down the plot in a more open space to discourage rats.

Lookout

Monotonous Snow

Too ill to hike so ventured 3 metres from the house.

Jack London is King

Kurt Vonnegut on writing

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyQ1wEBx1V0?wmode=transparent]