Intertext the Tattooed lady

It has been a week of birthday celebrations, capped with last night at Azuma Sushi surrounded by my delightful, wonderful "film night" friends, who ganged together and bought me a tattoo!!! Or at least the wherewithall to get one. I positively squawked with surprise, and was almost overcome, not with horror but with delight at the conspiracy and with the very notion that I should be considered a cool enough 53-year old person that it would be considered not only appropriate but absolutely essential that I be given a tattoo.

This arose, by the way, out of a conversation one night quite some time ago, in which I think I mentioned that I had thought once or twice about getting one, maybe to celebrate my 60th birthday or something, and superfoo expressed some surprise that I didn't have one already.

Apart from this wondrous surprise, I was also given lovely cards, and ate delicious Japanese food, which is still my very favourite, and enjoyed the company of Kelly and Brianna and Marri and Eli and the elusive Baz, and Eli and Baz' beautiful and charming girlfriends whom I don't know well but who both professed to be delighted to be invited to this gathering. I am genuinely touched and grateful for the friendship of such lovely people!

ETA: I can't believe I forgot to mention that lidocafe, as if she hadn't done enough already (being a flower fairy, organizing tattoo, coming to dinner dressed in pearls), gave me a dvd of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which is one of the films that made me who I am today and which I have seen about 20 times but never get tired of and thought only existed on VHS. So that was another wonderful thing.

I said at the beginning that this has been a week of celebrations, and, indeed, it has been, because on Friday night we all gathered at a small coffee shop in James Bay to hear Eli perform, and he was, to coin a phrase, awesome. He has a kind of unassuming charisma that held us all spellbound for an hour. After this, we assembled at a nearby pub for drinks and hilarity and I met Eli's stunningly beautiful girlfriend for the first time.

Today, I find that I seem to have done something rather dire to my back and need to sit still and not bend or twist at all. So I am glad that all these celebrations happened first.

And now, it remains to consider what and where to have myself tattooed. I'm leaning towards a bee, which represents my full given name. I want something that is me, not necessarily something that captures a moment or a year or even something fannish (I would consider something in Elvish, but suspect it's Been Done rather a lot and I want something private and individual). I'd be interested to know what you-all think: it's almost a memish kind of question...

Sunday Book-Meme: Genres

Via lady_schrapnell

Genre fiction book meme -
1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Mark those you have read however you want.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.

I've bolded the ones I've read, put a star beside particular favourites, and put in italics ones I've started but never finished or have only read one of.


In no particular order:

1. **The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien But of course. Essential.
2. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
3. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien (I'm ashamed to admit)
4. Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
5. Robot series, Isaac Asimov
6. Dune, Frank Herbert
7. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
8. **The Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin Also, for me essential. At least, up to and including Tehanu
9. Neuromancer, William Gibson
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury Does the movie count?
11. The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham I like The Chrysalids better. And Chocky
12. A Book of the New Sun series, Gene Wolfe
13. Discworld series, Terry Pratchett
14. Sandman series, Neil Gaiman
15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams I've read all these, but ... meh.
16. Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McAffrey (somewhat ashamed to admit these. Liked the Harper Hall ones best)
17. Interview with the Vampire series, Anne Rice Not if I was paid to, I'm afraid.
18. The Shining, Stephen King One of only two SK books I've read, and surprisingly good.
19. *The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin I've even written scholarly paper on this one.
20. The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny I know I read a bit of the first one - should try again, I think.
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
22. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
23. Ringworld, Larry Niven
24. Elric of Melnibone series, Michael Moorcock
25. The Dying Earth series, Jack Vance
26. Lyonesse series, Jack Vance
27. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson Both series! Liked the second series marginally better than the first. HATED Thomas Covenant with a passion, but liked the world.
28. A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin Have not actually read the most recent one - am becoming disillusioned after being blown away by the first one.
29. The Worm Ourobouros, E.R. Eddison
30. Conan series, Robert E. Howard
31. Lankhmar series, Fritz Leiber
32.Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
33. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
34. The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells
35. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
36. Eon, Greg Bear
37. Book of the First Law series, Joe Abercrombie
38. Miss Marple stories, Agatha Christie
39. Hercule Poirot stories, Agatha Christie
40. **Lord Peter Wimsey stories, Dorothy L. Sayers Every single one. Twice, at least. Love them.
41. The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
42. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
43. Sherlock Holmes stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
44. Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft
45. Inspector Wexford stories, Ruth Rendell Not all of these, but a fair number. My mother adored them.
46. Adam Dalgliesh stories, P.D. James Overly plotted, and Dalgliesh is too lugubrious.
47. Philip Marlowe stories, Raymond Chandler
48. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
49. The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
50. The Fourth Protocol, Frederick Forsyth
51. Smiley series, John le Carre
52. Gentleman Bastard series, Scott Lynch
53. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson
54. Watchmen series, Alan Moore
55. Maus, Art Spiegelman
56. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Miller
57. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
58. Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling I wish these were better
59. **Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne-Jones AND all the others. Several times.
60. Ryhope Wood series, Robert Holdstock
61. Wilt series, Tom Sharpe
62. Riftwar Cycle, Raymond E. Feist
63. Temeraire series, Naomi Novik I gave up after... two? three? can't remember. Liked the first one, though.
64. *Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
65. His Dark Materials series, Phillip Pullman Not as good as he thinks he is.
66. Dragonlance series, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
67. Twilight saga, Stephanie Meyer Sparkly vampires and a flat heroine - what can I say? I gave up after the first one, thankful that synopses available elsewhere made it unnecessary for me to read the rest.
68. The Night's Dawn trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton
69. Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer only one, and not madly impressed
70. Honor Harrington series, David Weber ditto
71. Hannibal Lecter series, Thomas Harris
72. The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
73. It, Stephen King
74. The Rats series, James Herbert
75. Dirk Gently series, Douglas Adams
76. Jeeves and Wooster stories, P.G. Wodehouse
77. The da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
78. The Culture Series, Iain M. Banks
79. The Duncton series, William Horwood
80. The Illuminatus! trilogy, Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
81. The Aberystwyth series, Malcom Pryce
82. Morse stories, Colin Dexter only one - have seen all the telly ones, though.
83. Navajo Tribal Police stories, Tony Hillerman
84. The Ipcress File, Len Deighton
85. Enigma, Robert Harris
86. Fatherland, Robert Harris
87. The Constant Gardener, John le Carre
88. The House of Cards trilogy, Michael Dobbs
89. **The Dark is Rising saga, Susan Cooper Wonderful
90. Psychotechnic League and Polesotechnic League series, Poul Anderson
91. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
92. Star Wars: Thrawn trilogy, Timothy Zahn
93. Ender's Game series, Orson Scott Card
94. Gormenghast series, Meryvn Peake Believe it or not, all three, though the first is the best.
95. **Miles Vorkosigan saga, Lois McMaster Bujold I love these a lot.
96. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
97. Fighting Fantasy books, Ian Livingston & Steve Jackson Before computer games, there were these. I don't know whether "read" is the right word, but, yes, I've played quite a few of them.
98. The Stainless Steel Rat series, Harry Harrison
99. The Lensman series, E.E. 'Doc' Smith
100. The Cadfael stories, Ellis Peters only on telly :)

So I'm not quite sure what that proves; I've read more fantasy than science fiction, and more of those than mysteries. Reginald Hill should be on this list (have read ALL of his). I also vote for Moomins and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series and the Tiger and Del series by Jennifer Roberson.