(no subject)

An oldie but a goodie. Take away from this list any authors who do not grace your shelves with the presence of their works, and then add authors that do, so that the total comes back up to 10. The ones in bold are the ones added. From nisaba:

J.R.R. Tolkien
Douglas Coupland
William Gibson
Michael Marshall Smith
Steve Erickson
Margaret Atwood
Rich Hall
Roald Dahl
John Wyndham
Nick Cave
Dorothy Dunnett
Neal Stephenson

Festive Cheer

Something strange is happening to me.

I really am feeling generally benevolent and forgiving towards humanity, like it says I should on all those cards. Why, only the other night I found myself verbally defending a noisy child*! And I have been smiling at random strangers. And have not kicked any of my fellow consumers, nor dropped copies of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell / The System of the World on them, nor sprayed them with Poison, nor tried out my newly-reheeled boots on their tender insteps.

Surely it can't last: but while it does, Merry Christmas to you all!

*ladymoonray was there: she can verify this. Small child was singing along, loudly but in tune, with the Covent Garden carousel. Perhaps I would not have been so generous had it been off-key.