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book meme 2012 World Book Night — which have you read?

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Below is the list of the twentyfive books chosen for World Book Night 2012. According to the site, these books “were selected partly by a public vote for the World Book Night top 100, with an editorial committee whittling down the list”, which may explain some of the odd nature of the list. I thought I’ll keep it simple for this meme: everything I’ve read is in italics, everything I’m not planning to ever read is struck out.

  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • The Player of Games by Iain M Banks
  • Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
  • Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  • The Take by Martina Cole
  • Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell
  • Someone Like You by Roald Dahl
  • A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  • Room by Emma Donoghue
  • Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
  • The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Misery by Stephen King
  • The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
  • Small Island by Andrea Levy
  • Let the Right One In by John Ajvde Lindqvist
  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  • The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
  • The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
  • The Damned Utd by David Peace
  • Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
  • How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
  • Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
  • I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

Only four out of twentyfive read means this is not the list for me. A weird mixture of genres, established classics and recent blockbusters, yet not very diverse considering this is supposed to be for World Book Night. It’s certainly not all Dead White Males, but as far as I can tell these are all authors writing for/firmly established in the UK/US book markets.

To be honest, I never like this sort of list and if anything makes me less inclined to read a book, it’s when it’s being promoted as part of something like this.

(Meme found via Nicholas Whyte, originated by Ian Sales.)

Sandra update

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Last week Sandra stopped her treatment, she’s now getting only pain relief and the bare minimum of medication necessary to prevent nasty complications. She’s not eating much anymore and also drinking less, getting more tired and weak each day. Even so, it’s hard to say when it will all be over. Her doctors cannot say with any certainty how long it will take for her to die this way: it could be within the coming, it could take several more. This uncertainty is the worst aspect of the whole process, both for her, waking up each day still alive and in pain and for me too as, crude as it may seem, I would like it all to be over too. Every moment with her I’ll treasure, but the waiting and uncertainty is eating at me too. We’ve done what we can to deal with the aftermath, we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.

It has begun

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Sandra has had a final talk with her doctors this morning, they’ve taken out her central line and therefore stopped the antibiotics and extra fluids she was getting through it. We don’t know how long it will take for her to …. cross over to the western lands, but the end game has begun.

I’m not happy about it, but I do understand it. And anyway, at least we got to celebrate her birthday yesterday: a proper Sunday roast with all the trimmings.

EDIT: speaking of that Sunday roast, a big shoutout to Hoopman Irish Pub on Leidseplein. We had no luck in finding a pub or restaurant which could cater something like this until my brother’s girlfriend rang them up and they immediately said they would be more than happy to do so. They quoted a price of some 170 euros to provide a meal for twelve, but when it was actually time to pay they said it was on them. There was no reason for them to do that, I would’ve been more than happy to pay for what was an excellent meal, but they went through all that trouble just because they wanted to show some kindness to strangers. So erm, if you’re ever in Amsterdam, look me up and we’ll have a pint there.

Least I could do.

(As somebody whose sentimental side mostly comes out through music, Fairport Convention’s “Meet on the Ledge” always had the chills running down my spine, but this last year it never fails to choke me up.)

She’s going to die

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Justin Hayward’s “Forever Autumn” may be naff, but it sums up my feelings quite well at the moment. She’s going to die and I can’t help her and I’ll be alone when she does. Sandra has fought long and hard for three long years, but she’s tired of fighting and can’t go on. She wants to go on her own terms as soon as possible, now that she still has a choice to die with dignity. It’s tearing me up inside and can’t help but not want this to happen. I want her to stay with me, not leave me alone, but I don’t want her in pain anymore either.

I want to make her happy so much and if that means she has to die when she wants to, than I’m going to support her. But I don’t know if I can hack living without her again.

I’ll just have to cope by fleeing into power fantasies about groups of men in uniform fighting each other for meaningless honours only understandable to insiders; yes, I’ll have to watch more football.