Keris Stainton

Out the window

Well the reading list's gone out the window.  Bloody Amazon - doesn't really matter if a book costs a penny if you've got to pay £2.75 postage on top, does it?  So all the cheapo ones are out.  As is Lion Boy - I couldn't wait, I'm reading that now.  (Seem to have drifted off A Trip to the Stars.) 

Still haven't managed to watch a film - almost went to see Love Actually on Saturday night but realised I wasn't up to it and went home to bed instead.  Sigh. 

Did finally manage to see the last episode of Six Feet Under though.  And without anyone spoiling it for us in advance.  This series has been so good.  Need to know what happened to Lisa though and I'm going to have to cheat and look it up on t'internet.  Can't wait the 9 months or whatever until E4 decides to show it.  Only three more West Wing's left too.  What will I do?  Apparently ER is back in January.  It'd better be.

Company

Finally some decent celebrity pregnancy company!  So far there's been Sophie Ellis Bextor (three months pregnant to her boyfriend of four months - yeah, that'll work!) and Geena Davis (twins at 48 - what is she thinking??).  But today I hear Gwynnie's pregnant.  Due around the same time as me by the sound of it.  Now there's a pregnancy I can aspire to.  I can just imagine her wafting around with a teensy little bump, looking gorgeous and glamorous and self-satisfied.  It's going to be great. 

Still have nothing to report - all I do is watch Friends repeats and sleep.  Still reading Nicholas Christopher and getting a bit bored of it now.  You know when something is so relentlessly exciting that you think, 'yeah, all right, that's enough'? 

Oh, I've got my Christmas books sorted out!  Much like summer holiday reading, Christmas reading must be specially selected.  So much time is spent over the holidays sitting around in front of The Great Escape, nodding off and listening to family members breaking wind, that I need a good selection of distractions.  This year I've got: 

She Went All the Way - by Meggin Cabot (grown-up Romance from Princess Diaries author) 

Dude Where's My Country - Michael Moore (which I started, got stressed out and didn't finish)

Inkheart - Cornelia Funke (comes highly recommended)

Open House - Elizabeth Berg (read and loved one of hers and now I'm pacing myself with the rest)

Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss (zero tolerance guide to punctuation - right up my street - and "surprise Christmas hit" apparently)

The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud (sounds fantastic)

Babyface - Fiona Gibson (had to be a baby book in there somewhere, and at least it's fiction)

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson (once again, started - on holiday! - but didn't finish only because it's so good I wanted to savour it.  And - ooh - the US cover is so much nicer!)

*An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears (been meaning to read it for years and I love a good historical mystery at Christmas)

*The Barrytown Trilogy - Roddy Doyle (I've read them before, but they're so hilarious I'm reading them again on the offchance it'll transmit and make the baby happy - if you haven't read them, read them now!  Now!)

*Behaving Like Adults - Anna Maxted (loved her first, hated her second, but apparently this one's good)

*Didn't plan to buy these three but they were sooooo cheap on Amazon I couldn't resist - Anna Maxted was 1p!  A penny!  How can you possibly not buy a book for a penny?!