Saturday, June 23, 2007

Day 24

Pages 503

As mentioned below, I'm in France for the next two weeks. Therefore this very blog will be affected by
1) possibly having no Internet
2) having something better to do.
So I will provide some guesses to what my posts during the the two weeks will be.

Day 25
On ferry today. They should remake Speed but on a Ferry.

Day 26
Arrived in France. lot more squirrels than I would of thought.

Day 27
Started Moby Dick

Day 28
Finished Moby Dick. Mere child's play of a book. Turns out it is really is only about a whale.

Day 29
Who knew wood could float?

Day 30
Wow Joyce really disliked Dublin. If he had written it in Cork, he would been like "Wow Cork is Kooool." Wouldn't of made much a book though.

Day 31
Invited to the weekend in the mansion of a mysterious gentleman, Lord Snootington to partake in a bridge contest. Some say its haunted.

Day 32
Lord Snootington has been murdered. All my fellow bridge players have both means and motive. I suspect Mr. Cutberry, the suave gun salesman who was having an affair with Lady Snootington

Day 33
Found a clue today. Gun powder behind the pendulum. Also Mr. Cutberry's alibi is exposed to be false. He claimed to have been in conservatory with the candlestick, but he was in fact in the libray with the rope.

Day 34
Turns out I killed Lord Snootington, I frame Mr. Cutberry.

Day 35
Played Connect 4 today.

Day 36
Tried to speak French, Instead said a combination of Irish, Greman, Latin and Old English.

Day 37
Few days left so I decide to steal the Pink Panther Diamond. Clouseau will never catch me.

Day 38
Turns out neither Pink Panther or Clouseau existed. Try to raise spirits by looking for the last Gaul village to hold out against the Romans using a magic potion that gave super strength.

Day 39
On my way home again. Got very little reading done.

Line of the Day:
Can't say really. I've neither read or watched anything yet today.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Day 23

Pages: 503

This time tomorrow I'll be on a ferry thinking. "This time tomorrow I'll in France."

Line of the Day:
Let's just say I'm looking for a more rabbinical explanation.
(Death and The Compass, the weirdest 2 euros DVD in Vibes and Scribes)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Day 22

Pages: 503

On Saturday, I head to the contenient for a Furious France Fortnight. But don't worry I'll attempt to keep up my reading

Dubliners, In case I get homesick, I can read it and remember how bad Dublin is.

Hollywood Babylon. In case I need to know what actors were in smack orgies in the thirties.

Moby Dick. In case I feel ambitous

The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In case... What's this book about?

Slaughterhouse 5 and Blow-Up and Other Exaggerations In case I feel like finishing a book.

Line of the Day:
I thought you just really liked your new couch. (Friends, It's on the background as we speak)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Day 21

Pages: 501

I read one page today. This is due to me purchasing the book's worst enemy, the video game. XIII for PS2. (1.48 euro for it. It's like buying Commodore 64 games again.) Not only that, it is based on a comic book, the scourge of literature. Although in it's favour there are speech bubbles that require reading and the story seems to been stolen from Robert Ludlum. (A man wakes up with no memory and later finds out he is a government agent. Mmmm...). So my point is...ahh...I'd say I forgot the point but I don't really think I had one.

(Oh in case you are wondering, The one page is that of Peter Falk's autobiography "Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life" Which I read while standing in Easons.)

Line of the Day:
Pope Julius II tells Michelangelo on the completion of the Sistine Chapel that that his painting is very good. He responds (according to Peter Falk at least)
"It's all in the drawing, I could of done the rest by pissing on it."
(Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Day 20

Pages: 500

Today I read nothing. Nada, Zip. Nothing to say really. Nothing I write today will provoke to any kind of thought. Yep. So Everyone enjoying their summer?

Line of the Day:
No pulse, no heartbeat. If condition does not change, this man is dead. (Murder By Death)

Monday, June 18, 2007

Day 19

Pages: 500

I finish a book today, I, Lucifer. It's like that song "What if God was one of us" but about Satan instead. It's blasphemous to say the least, but oddly touching.

Line of the Day:
There's a exclamation mark on this keyboard which shares tab-spaces with the number one. Shift+1=! It's insufficient. Radically inadequate as the denotation of my surprise. Even in bold. Even in underlined bold italic. I need something else, some punctuation mark not yet invented. (I, Lucifer)

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Day 16,17 and 18: Baile Atha Cethan

Pages: 432

Random Observations on My Weekend.
  • The train to Dublin arrived early. Impossible to tell if it's a good omen or not.
  • I realise that every opera song I've heard of comes from Carman. (By the way, the song I thought had like lyrics that sound like "Hey Figgro, Ay figroll, da da da" (turns out the actual lyrics don't match remotely) is about love being like a bohemian child)
  • Despite it being abridged and with subtitles above the stage, I don't really know whats going on in Carmen...
  • ...other than Carman should cut down on the violent suitors.
  • The french film, Tell No One, may be the greatest ever, totally on the fact It's the first film I've seen with people playing Pro Evo in it. (the old "You gave me the broken joypad excuse"
  • Whoever was playing Smalltown Girl in their car, has impeccable taste.
  • Shopping Centres in Dublin are frightening places
  • Hybrid cars are much bigger than you would think.
  • You can say "Shite" on Irish children's programming on Sunday mornings. (Disgrace, I remember when B*witched were banned for life from Nicklelodeon for saying "Feck Off" on air. They truly were the Sex Pistols of the mid nineties girl band scene)
  • I'm far too tired to describe more
  • Oh I actually read something on the train....
  • ...but the book isn't on the list.
Line of the Day:
I was looking for an answer, not a song. (Carmen)

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Day 15

Pages: 230

Very poor showing bookwise today (I'm on a train tomorrow to our capital so I'll be back on Sunday with many a page read). Speaking of those things that contain pages, Has anyone been in the UCC library recently? The only difference I can tell it now takes longer to get to the books. (And the lift no longer instills the liftee with fear, but loses some personailty I think).

Line of the Day:
Blue Shoe Area Only (Sign in the UCC library)

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Day 14

Pages: 230
Poor showing bookwise today. I did watch Billion Dollar Brian today as "research" for my spy movie, (currently called Untitled Cethan Leahy Spy Project). I need more communism and people being knocked out.

Line of the Day:
Goodbye Harry. We would have made nice babies together. Good bye. (Billion Dollar Brain)

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Day 13

Pages: 230

Ocean's Thirteen is not as good as Ocean's Twelve.

Line of the Day:
I'm trying to think of a good line from it. Maybe tomorrow...

Monday, June 11, 2007

Day 12

Pages: 230

I'm reading on average 19.166666667 pages a day. I must up the pace.
Line of the Day:
"It's just the tiniest bit better than Ocean's Twelve. To be worse, or as bad, the film would have had to have been a single 122-minute shot of 13 dead haddocks on a slab." Guardian review of Ocean's Thirteen.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Day 10/11

Pages: 216

Didn't update yesterday as nothing really noteworthy happened. But today is different. On page 34 of the Sunday Independent supplement, someone in the fashion shoot is wearing the very same shorts that I'm wearing. It could of been the best day ever if it wasn't, you know, the Sunday Independent. Also sabotaged my plan by buying a new book today. Ah well.

Line of the Day:

Quiksilver. Boardshorts, £65, Reef. (Sunday Independent LIFE)

Friday, June 8, 2007

Day 9

Pages: 186
The garden, Shorts, Sitting, Corona, Sun. Throw in Duckie from Pretty in Pink and his sonand I lived the dream of being Charlie Sheen in Two and Half Men.

I also temporaily abandoned David Hemmings for the more interesting Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.

Line of the Day:
We were the Mutt and Jeff of the war. (Slaughterhouse 5)

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Day 8

Pages: 169

You know what's very similar; draining stagant bin water and draining pond scum.

Line of the Day:
That puzzles me. An appreciation of butterflies, which has stayed with me for life, was established even then, but not pinned or in my stomach. I also hated underpants and I affectionate towards socks. Or feet. Or toenails. Or Teeth. Teeth very especially

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Day 7

Pages: 161

Several things distracted me from reading today. Mostly cleaning related. I did get a little further in "Blow-Up and...", As a lad, David knew a blacksmith that looked like a pirate. Also Ack Ack Beer Beer is short for Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloons.

Line of the Day:
"Had I been party to this decision, I think I'd have expressed grave doubts as to whether Hitler have any particular interest in Tolworth." (Blow-Up and Other Exaggerations)

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Day 6

Pages read:156
Poor showing on the reading front. David Hemmings' description of all the girls he met isn't as riveting as you imagine. I did tag along for Job Hunting. Instead of looking for a job, I had Gino's ice cream instead. It was like a U version of Harsh Times. I also found out from Brain Power, My brother and I are combined Super Middleweight brains

Line of the Day:
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die. (The Princess Bride, I was watching it last night.)

Monday, June 4, 2007

Day 4/5

Pages read:156
Went to West Cork for the weekend, So I didn't get much reading done. I did read the first couple of chapters of David Hemmings' autobiography, Blow-Up and Other Exaggerations. Interestingly despite being the lead, David doesn't know what the film Blow-Up is about, doesn't think it's very good and also misremembers the most famous line. It is understandable though as the director had told all the extras to get as stoned as possible during the scene to make the party more realistic.
Line of the Day:Thomas: [seeing Verushka, the model, at a party the evening of the day she had just told the photographer that he'd better hurry because she had to catch a plane to Paris] I thought you were supposed to be in Paris.
Verushka: [taking a toke of her marijuana cigarette] I *am* in Paris! (Blow-Up)

Day 3

Pages read:124
I did myself little favour in my quest today. I negelected to read anything, I found another book in my room and I bought David Hemmings' autobiography. So I'm now further from the finish than when I started, 3 days ago. It may end in tears.

Line of the Day:
"What is your occupation, Baron?
"I'm a very busy man." (Frankenstein Created Woman, the movie I watched instead of reading.)

Friday, June 1, 2007

Day 2:

Pages read:124

Daisy Miller is a scandalous novel. Young ladies (UNMARRIED LADIES) going for walks with Italian gentlemen, unaccompanied by their couriers. Clearly Henry James is some kind of smut merchant. I've moved on to the more innocent subject matter of The A-Z of Classic Children's Television. I'm up to "Alberto Frog and His Amazing Animal Band."

Line of the Day:The news that Daisy Miller was surrounded by half a dozen wonderful moustaches checked Winterbourne's impulse to go straightaway to see her.

Day 1

Pages read:0

To ease myself in, I begin with Daisy Miller by Henry James. Don't know much about this other than it's about a girl or a baker who makes bread from flowers.

It begins...

One day, when I spied a pile of books next to my bed, I realised I hadn't read most of them. Then I look at other stacks and the ratio of unread to read is also worryingly lopsided. So I made a decision to read every unread or incomplete read book in my room before the summer ends. Turns outs there is a lot.
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Specimen Days
Michael Cunningham

The A-Z of Classic Children’s Television from Alberto Frog to Zebedee
Simon Sheridan

Dubliners
James Joyce

The Mark on the Wall and Other Short Fiction
Virginia Woolf

Halliwell’s Film Video & DVD Guide 2005
John Walker

Empire Film Guide
Colin Kennedy

Tender Is The Night
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hollywood Babylon
Kenneth Anger

The Illustrated History of Art
David Piper

Paradise Lost
John Milton

The Best Short Stories
Guy De Maupassant

The English Language
David Crystal

The Cutting Room
Louise Welsh

A Child Called It
Dave Pelzer

The Big Sleep and Other Novels
Raymond Chandler

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

Moby Dick
Herman Melville

Book of Urban Legend
Rodney Dale

The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Babes in the Woods
Ruth Rendell

Hamlet, Bananas and all that Jazz
Alan Durant

100 Selected Stories
O Henry

A Drama in Muslin
George Moore

Seventeenth-Century British Poetry: 1603-1660

The Scarlet LetterNathanial Hawthorne

Daisy Miller
Henry James

Insomnia
Stephen King

The Talisman
Stephen King/Peter Straub
Black House
Stephen King/Peter Straub

The Gunslinger
Stephen King

The Bear and the Dragon
Tom Clancy

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley

Special
Bella Bathurst

The Christmas Mystery
Jostein Gaarder

Star of The Sea
Joseph O’Connor

True Tales of American Life
Paul Auster

Downsize This!
Michael Moore

True Stories
Terry Deary

What is Opus Dei?
Noam Friedlander

Timeline
Micheal Crichton

By the Light of the Moon
Dean Koontz

Dark Angel
Virginia Andrews

Robbers on T.V
Carolyn Swift

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain

The Eye of the Tiger
Wilbur Smith

Lectures in Modern History
Lord Acton

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen

Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad

Marlon Brando
Patrica Bosworth

Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings
Ingo F. Walther Rainer Metzger

The Bedroom Secerts of the Master Chefs
Irvine Welsh

Fields of War
James Webb

Chaucer to Spenser An Anthology
Derek Pearsall

The Fog
James Herbert

Dog Eat Dog
Edward Bunker

The Birds and Stories
Daphne Du Maurier

Slaughterhouse 5
Kurt Vonnegut

PS I Scored The Bridesmaids
Ross O’Carroll-Kelly

One by One in the Darkness
Deirdre Madden

New Beginnings
Lots of Authors

On the Road
Jack Kerouac

Songbirds, Truffles and Wolves: An American Naturalist in Italy
Gary Paul Nabhan

Johnny Depp: A Kind of Illusion
Denis Meikle

In Cold Blood
Truman Capote

Student Handbook su.ucc.ie 2005/006

Port Mungo
Patrick McGrath

I blame the scapegoats Guardian Columns: The Final Sequal (Part One)
John O’Farrell

Animation Now! Julius Wiedemann

White Teeth
Zadie Smith

A Sense of Freedom
Jimmy Boyle

Adventures in a TV Nation
Michael Moore

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick

The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Arthur and George
Julian Barnes

Truth & Beauty: the Story of Pulp
Mark Sturdy

The Cinema Book
Pam Cook & Mieke Bernink

Film Noir: reflections in a dark mirror
Bruce Crowther

Cell
Stephen King

The Autograph Man
Zadie Smith

Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift

Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy Of The Roman Republic
Tom Holland

Michael Caine: A Class Act
Christopher Bray

The Beach Boys The Definitive Diary of America’s Greatest Band on Stage and in the Studio
Keith Badman

The Joke Museum

A Short History of Myth
Karen Armstrong

The Client
John Grisham

The Colour of Magic
Terry Pratchett

Scorpion Trail
Geoffrey Archer

Lisey’s Story
Stephen King

The Shape of Snakes
Minette Walters

Point Horror Collection 3

Republic
Plato

The Exorcist
William Peter Blatty

Who The Hell’s In It: Portaits and Conversations
Peter Bogdanvich

Harm Done
Ruth Rendell

The Trojan Women and Other Plays
Euripidies

The Wasp Factory
Iain Banks

The Last Time They Met
Anita Shreve

The Oxford History of Western Art
Martin Kemp

Christmas Books
Charles Dickens

Jarhead
Antony Swofford

Animation Art
Jerry Beck

Birds of the World

The Complete Poems
Walt Whitman