The Year In Review: Books

This was a year of sequels - the long-awaited sequel to Steven King's 'The Shining' was the standout for me. A dedicated King fan, I was never not going to read it, but the sequel to 'The Talisman' was rather disappointing (at first read), so I approached it with few hopes. And it was a masterpiece.

Also out this year was the sequel to 'A Time To Kill', 'Sycamore Row'. I wasn't as keen on this, but there will - inevitably - be a movie.

And the year I rediscovered an old friend.

*sighs* Yeah, OK, I can wait until you stop laughing! I know, I know. It's become a joke, sometimes for good reason, but, damn it, I wanted to know how it all turned out for Tarl Cabot.

And isn't that the hallmark of a damned good story?

I'm not sure why Norman's 'Gor' novels upset the left so; with their central theme that women crave a strong master who tells them what to do and wear and eat, they really ought to be right up their alley...

He also seems to be the last professor in the US who can actually teach without interjecting his personal agenda, which, as David Thompson reminds us, is rather unique:

He's 82 now, and it seems he's written his last 'Gor' novel. A pity...

Absent Friends, And New Ones...

So, as 2010 draws to a close, time to look at the blogroll.

Sadly, this year some huge blogs decided to throw in the towel. Letters from a Tory was the first, followed by Constantly Furious and then Mr Eugenides, who is still commenting and Tweeting.

To Miss With Love closed down when Katharine Birbalsingh outed herself in a storming performance at the Tory party conference, but happily, she now blogs for the Telegraph under her own name.

Other blogs went quiet, hardly updated at all since the supposed 'change of government'. Others considered throwing in the towel, but reconsidered.

And then we had new blogs springing up or coming to prominence to re-inflate my sadly depleted blogroll; long-time commenter Woman on a Raft, Fuel Injected Moose, The Grim Reaper and Going Fast, Getting Nowhere.

So the toast, as we see out 2010, is 'Absent friends! And new ones...'

The Year In Review: Part IV

October

This was the month that eco-schemes continued their hard-won tradition of benefiting absolutely nobody – except for the people getting rich on the proceedes.

November

This was the month that Obama faced his worst nightmare.

December

This was the month that snow returned to prove that we’d learned absolutely none of the lessons from the last time it happened. And suddenly, everyone was begging for assistance from owners of four-wheel-drive Gaia-raping death machines...

The Year In Review: Part III

July

And then we come to July, and another loser decided that ‘Indiana Wants Me’ wasn’t just a cool record from the 70s, but a code to live by.

August

This was the month that loony liberals were still hard at work justifying their tag.

September

This was the month that posts were light, because my Dell went to PC heaven! And Obama’s continued bid to become the Jimmy Carter of the Noughties began to worry the ‘Guardian’.

The Year In Review: Part II

April

This was the month that started the avalanche of ‘celebrities’ using Twitter as a brand new way to stick their foot firmly in their mouths…

May

This was the month that the weather started getting warmer, and the underclass showed off the critical thinking skills instilled by the comprehensive education system…

Oh, and there was an election, and the government changed. Or, did it?

June

This was the month that we joined the US in seeing spree killing used as a panacea for the woes of inadequates.

The Year In Review: Part I

January

This was the month that Labour unveiled their election plans for May’s showdown. Went well, didn’t it?

February

This was the month that ‘Bullygate’ made most of the headlines, and we can now see that it really does get you nowhere. Gordon who?

March

This was the month the government ran into yet more problems as it floundered over its drugs policy, and advisers started to decide this ‘Titanic’ was heading for a large iceberg labelled ‘election’…