Flying To The Stars

Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds by Stephen Nicholas & Mike Tucker Nicholas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Bookshelves: art, doctor who, reference, science-fiction, television,

An outstanding book and a must for any Doctor Who fan. A glorious collection of all the magnificent concept artwork and designs from both the original series and modern one - though the bulk of the book does focus on 2005 onwards, as expected. A lot of work has gone into every aspect of this, from the production of the book itself to the immense talent in the artists who created the work.

What have you just finished reading? The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
And it wasn't quite as good as I remembered, sadly. Very little happens from beginning to end, the book being largely strings of conversations or flashbacks, but every chapter builds upon a growing tension and provides more depth to the characters and the worlds they inhabit.

What are you reading? Disturbed by Jennifer Jaynes
An average thriller, an easy read. The characters are well-thought out and intriguing but the author needs to do more research on dissociative identity disorder. Pretty sure I know the outcome.

What is your next book to read? Doctor Who: Impossible Worlds by Stephen Nicholas & Mike Tucker
All about the creative team, the sets, the props, models, sketches, storyboards and concept artworks.

I don't normally have my to-read pile in alphabetical order so not really sure what's going on here!

I'm not normally one for insomnia. Sleep and me, we're good friends. And so I have no idea why I'm wide awake at 5:15 on a Saturday morning, and have been awake since about 3:30. Something woke me and I couldn't get back to sleep. I've given up trying and so coffee.

I suspect the fact we're all off schedule due to the Christmas break. Routines have gone out of the window, as they often do when work isn't happening. Samantha goes back to work on Monday though so hopefully we'll get back to what resembles normal around here.

This current bout of insomnia has me actually reading emails and I came across my year in music report from last.fm - I scrobbled 575 tracks, averaged 1 scrobble a day and spent a total of 1 day and 10 hours listening to music.
My top played artist was Franz Schubert with 27 scrobbles, my top played album was Die Schöne Müllerin, Op. 25, D. 795 by Franz Schubert and my top played track was The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
I scrobble most between 9 and 10 am, and listen most on a Sunday. My top genres were classical, piano, instrumental, romantic and ambient - although I'm not exactly sure what 'ambient' really is. Last.fm defines it as

Ambient music is a musical genre that is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric and environmental in nature.

which to be perfectly honest doesn't exactly help!

If anyone's on last.fm and wants to be my friend, I'm jackjanderson - I know, I'm very original when it comes to usernames!

I also came across my Year In Books on Goodreads. I read 23,761 pages across 66 books. I'd challenged myself to 70 so didn't quite make that. I'm aiming for 65 this year.
The shortest book I read was The Simpsons Annual which was 72 pages and the longest book I read was The Blood Gospel by James Rollins at 802. The average length of book I read was 360 pages.

1) How did you choose your LJ/DW username?I'm a very boring and unoriginal kind of guy when it comes to usernames... it's my name.
2. What has been your favourite day this year and why? July 3rd definitely stands out as one - Samantha was offered what is basically her dream job. May 17th when I went over to France with some RAF buddies to go fishing is another.
3. What is your favourite film you've seen in the past year and why? I think Wonder Woman. I'm not good at the explanations and the whys - but it was everything I could have wanted from the film and more
4. What is your favourite book you've read in the past year and why? Hello, is this planet Earth?: My View from the International Space Station by Tim Peake. Just amazing
5. You get to program a half-hour of music videos on MTV. What videos to you pick? The music I listen to doesn't really have videos per se and I'm pretty sure MTV's viewers wouldn't be impressed. Perhaps some 2Cellos or Lindsey Stirling to draw them in gently?

I like to think of myself as being a fairly open-minded guy. I try not to be to judgemental of other lifestyles, considering mine is doubly alternative but I have to admit that every so often I come across something that I simply don't get.

On the internet, recently, I have discovered one of those things.

Fan fiction.

From what I can gather, it appears to be imagining characters from a tv show or movie or even the actors playing them are gay and writing porn about it.

Lucy is quite taken with it at the moment. She assures me it's 'hot'.

On one hand, anything that can get Lucy reading is a great tool. She wants to read and gets very frustrated with herself when her attention span doesn't allow her to.
I also keep meaning to speak to Samantha about reading books vs reading on the screen if it's the format that's helping her concentrate, and would be worth getting Lucy a Kindle?

On the other hand, however, I... don't get it.

I'm pleased to report that I remain an utter embarassment to my son. I feel this cements the fact I'm doing an excellent job as a parent. Today he told me, with all the wisdom he has garnered from his 29 years on this planet that I need to 'grow up' and 'start acting my age'. He didn't seem all that impressed when my response was that I'd never been 64 before now and had no idea how I was supposed to act.

Apparently, I'm too old to be watching 'silly' superhero and science-fiction movies - we were watching X-Men when he dropped in for an unexpected, unannounced visit.
Please I was watching Star Trek and Doctor Who the first time around, and reading Marvel and DC comics in the 1960s. I was a geek before it was 'cool' and the current revival is only making my love grow. You'll be prying my Captain America action figure from my cold dead hands. Actually, scratch that, he'll be coming in the coffin with me.

I'm also too old to be reading a kids book about space.
I'd just finished reading The Planets - a DK Publishing book about, well, the planets. Absolutely fascinating book, and it's made me want to know more about NASA's Solar & Heliospheric Observatory

I'm also too old to be blogging or playing Candy Crush Saga - because God forbid I find new ways to spend my day, find new hobbies to entertain myself with.

I do though have suitably 'old person' interests and should only fill my time with crosswords, chess, gardening, fishing and listening to classical music.

I probably shouldn't tell him I'm thinking of going back to school....


(Please don't take any of this the wrong way. I have a really good relationship wiht my son and he's very much like I was at that age. I'm mostly just amused that he believes people's personalities and interests are dictated by how old they are!)