I thought I was more behind than I was. Only one entry that I didn't actually post to the site. I don't know why I keep doing that. Well, I do know, actually: I'm lazy. So I write something late at night, and then I think I should probably proofread it before I put it online, and then I'm not in the mood to do anything with the site for a week or two, so I don't. I'll try to get better about that.

One other technical note: I'm getting a new computer! Whee! It's been shipped. Maybe I'll have it by Friday, and then I can spend all weekend playing with it. I'm so excited. I got an eMac, even though I adore the cute li'l iMacs, because they aren't quite cute enough to justify how much more they cost. But I'll have current technology! That might inspire me to get some more of the old site back online, and tidy things up generally. I might even be able to play those games the kids talk about. In my free time. Okay, but it sounds possible theoretically. All right, back to the media.

Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone: I'd picked up a copy on my last visit to the Book Alcove, and forgotten I had it, and then ran across it when I couldn't decide what to read. I started it on Saturday, I think, and then I stayed up most of Sunday night reading it. It wasn't just because I was enjoying it -- we're having a little Indian Summer here this week, so I didn't have the heat on, which meant there was no circulation in my apartment, which meant that my bedroom was an airless tomb. So I ended up on the living room sofa, which is by a poorly insulated window and therefore at least 10 degrees cooler. ("Open a window," you say, but firstly the windows in my bedroom are painted shut, secondly I'm on the ground floor, and thirdly I don't need more insect encounters. I seem to have digressed a little. Sorry about that. Anyway, it was too warm to fall asleep, so I read until I finally passed out, and then finished the last little bit on Monday. And then tonight I slept all evening.

It's a fun book. I'd heard a lot about it-- it's originally ran as a serial in the 1860's, and was hugely possible, and is considered the first English mystery novel. The moonstone itself is a rare diamond stolen from India, which eventually is given to a young upper-class woman, and then vanishes one night. The mystery of its disappearance is told from the viewpoint of a number of characters, who have been asked to retell the events by one of the main characters. A lot of the fun comes from the different narrators. The family's steward, Betteredge, does several sections, and is just wonderful. He starts things off in a very rambling way -- it takes him three tries to actually get to the diamond, but his digressions make a wonderful introduction to his character. Plus, he keeps apologizing to the reader, and making side-comments and warning you not to believe one of the other narrators, and it's just lovely. His obsession with Robinson Crusoe is extremely funny. And he's quite proud of his ability to put loyalty to the family above the detective's view of the facts of the case: "I am (thank God!) constitutionally superior to reason. ... Cultivate a superiority to reason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people when they try to scratch you for your own good!"

Because it was a serial, all of the large sections are broken into little chapters that are maybe 4 to 8 pages long. Which was one of the reasons I read it so quickly, I think. With books like that, I tend to say "Oh, I'll just read this next bit and then stop" a lot, and suddenly I'm halfway through it. Plus, being a serial, something has to happen in every little section, and most of them are designed so that there's some suspense about what will happen next.

The mystery itself is fun, too. I suspected half of the characters at different points, and even when you know whodunnit, there's still over a hundred pages left because there's still how and why to explain. And some of that explanation is less satisfying, because there's a lot of disbelief to be suspended at that point, but the journey is so entertaining that I don't really care. (Hey, that's why I liked last year's Angel so much, after all.)

Hm, what else. I also got the latest Lemony Snicket: The Slippery Slope. It, too, was fun, although I don't have too much else to say about it. Mostly I'm just terribly impatient for the books to be done so I can reread them all in a row. A few days ago I was trying to think of some good Halloween reading and ended up with a Robert Bloch collection that I've talked about before. I don't know if his stories hold up so well on rereading, since I get a few paragraphs in and then remember the ending "twist." Maybe I need to let a few more years go by. Oh, and I also reread Donald Westlake's The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution, and Other Fictions. Which had some of the same problems, since most of the stories are also big on ironic twists. But the important thing (for me) is that it has "No Story," which is the nested story I was trying to identify way back here. What a relief! I was partly right; one section is set in WWI. And it's still funny, too.

In movie news: I watched Mystery Men, which I think took too much time establishing things before it got moving. It doesn't really take off until the whole team forms, and I think that takes at least half an hour. Or more. It felt like more. It definitely has moments, though, I just think it needed to have a faster pace.

Suicide Kings is better than I expected it to be. Although I don't really like any of the endings (there are a couple of alternate versions on the DVD). It seemed to much like someone watched Wild Things too many times and needed to keep piling surprises on, or something. I picked it up at the mall-media-mega-store because it was cheap. Oh, and I also got a used copy of the super-deluxe A Hard Day's Night DVD set for $15, but I haven't had time to do more than skim some of the extras.

I think that's all. Wait, one more: games. We played The Perilous Parlor Game last weekend. For a while it looked like the guardian was toast, but the Baudelaire's saved the day in the end. Hooray! It played pretty well, although I think that for Olaf to win, he has to win early on. Once the Baudelaires have had time to collect a lot of items, the odds definitely tip in their favor. Actually, I guess Olaf's strategy should be to hit the guardian as much as possible early on, and then try to capture the Baudelaires so that they can't run round and thwart you. That's my advice for the three people who have the game. Let me know how it works.