Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange

Blimey, I'm about 50 pages from the end of one of the longest books I can ever remember reading. Its an odd story set in the early nineteenth century whereupon two magicians battle it out over the best way to return magic to England. At 782 pages, it is longer than the fattest of the Harry Potters (and has much smaller print!)

But what makes it stand out is the author's use of postscripts. Almost every page has one, and in even tinier print. Many of them take up far more of the page than the actual story, and even take up two and even three pages. One memorable page had six of them. Now I don't mind a postscript, perhaps a reference or bit of extra information that would otherwise have broken the flow of the story. In this book, the postscripts occupy a whole extra novel and must account for a third of the page count, and at times rendered the book unreadable - one aside about the Raven King wrapped around three pages, and by the time I returned to the main story I had to reread a couple of pages to remind myself what was going on. Quite extraordinary! And no wonder the author looks so grumpy...

Good book, though.

Escape The Room

I was unlucky enough to get a summons for jury service, starting on Monday. Some may enjoy the idea of taking part in the judicial system, but aside from the inconvenience of being away from work at a rather important time, I can think of many other things I'd prefer to do.

Thankfully, those pesky criminals saved the day. Here is my entire experience of jury service:

Day 1 - sit around until 3.30pm, getting only an occasional update from a court usher, until finally the judge calls us (40 of us by the way!) into court to apologise for our boring day, but the defendants finally put in a guilty plea that satisfied the prosecution.

Day 2 - sit around until lunchtime waiting for some action (on page 200 of my book by this time) and told we can go home for the day as the bad boys have yet again pleaded guilty. Get home, warm up laptop and do work.

Day 3 - as day 1 without the excitement and variation of going into court, and we are told by the court usher that due to circumstances beyond their control there will be no further cases and our jury service is over. (300 pages read, nearly halfway through the book).

So in answer the the question "What is jury service like?" It is like being held in a room for three days with a really big book to read.

And in honour of my experience, stumbleupon (set for games) kindly offered up a list of the 50 best room escape games. I like these - the good ones are tricky and imaginative puzzles with a genuinely enjoyable ending. (The bad ones are truly awful).

Enjoy!

http://www.mytechmix.com/2009/06/25/the-best-50-room-escape-games/

Sublime Movie Moment

I know I've posted about Classic Cinema Online before, and I know equally well that you'll forgive me for reminding the you that they exist - because this week they have listed one of the finest films ever made - A Matter Of Life And Death. Fast forward to the scene where the table tennis game is frozen in time - way ahead of its time. And how many fantastic images can you list from that film? The stairway to heaven? The teardrop on the rose? The courtroom in heaven? The change from colour to black and white? The operating theatre? Brilliant from start to finish.

Enjoy!

http://www.classiccinemaonline.com/1/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=921:a-matter-of-life-and-death-1946&catid=45:drama&Itemid=883

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..or Hello to you non-robot readers. I Stumbled upon a website that translates anything into binary. I have no idea which of my preferences caused this to pop up, but felt compelled to share.

I'm on the first day of 24 days away from work today. I booked a week off after Easter, then got a jury service summons through the post which happened to be for the two weeks following my hols, so with bank holidays and weekends. 24 days! I am full of trepidation about the jury service, and would much rather be back at work. Its the What Ifs. What if I get a trial that has stomach churning evidence we have to look at/hear? What if its a complicated one that could go on for more than two weeks? What if I don't get a trial at all and have to sit around bored senseless for two weeks? What I need is a bloody good book.

Anyway, have to go, so here's the website.

http://nickciske.com/tools/binary.php

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