a. beautiful. kind. of. hurt.

I haven't read a good book in a while. I mean one of those books that you devour in one sitting because they're just so goddamn good. And I really need something new. I've re-read my entire bookshelf in the last month and now I'm getting antsy!

Oh, and as you can probably tell by this entry, I'm not dead!

I completely forgot to mention the 30 Seconds to Mars gig!

( 30 Seconds to Mars Do Nottingham. )

I don't often use the New Year as an excuse to start afresh etc. I make resolutions but I don't really believe in wiping the slate clean and forgetting everything that came before.

Still, I made a vow this year that I would be more healthy. I tied myself to this vow by signing up for a four-month trial at my local karate group, which I start on Monday. Not only do I think it'll be a good work out for me, but it also serves the double-purpose of strengthening my bad leg and providing me with adequate self-defense skills. I can pretty much hold my own when I get hassle from people of the male variety on a night out, but I have no doubt that one day one of them is going to take it a step too far and I'd like to have something to back-up my sharp tongue.

I've also signed up for a six-week Burlesque dancing course. Random, I know, but a friend of mine did it last year and she said that not only is it fun, but it's a great work out and it loosens a lot of unused muscles. I like the idea of Burlesque, too. I like that this is something I can do for myself, something that will make me feel sexy and confident in my own body, and that it's not necessarily something I have to share with anybody else.

Last night I had a sex dream about Kevin McKidd. I've therefore realised that watching Rome before bed is probably not such a good idea.

Nothing much else to tell you, folks. I haven't written anything lately, not for quite a few months, and that's very strange for me. Even if I'm not posting out finished products, I'm always reeling something off at any given time, so not having written a sentence in over three months feels peculiar. Originally I wasn't writing because my laptop packed in (God, I'm just absolutely cursed when it comes to computers) and I can't write on anything but my laptop (which is bad, I know; a writer should always be versatile). But my laptop is back to new now and one of my resolutions is to start writing again, even if it's nonsense.

Other than that, I've very little to share with you all. Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year.

Mine was a relatively quiet affair this year. Christmas Day is traditionally a big family affair for us but we moved it to Boxing Day this time around. I spent Christmas night with Martyn getting drunk and watching bad Christmas TV and that pretty much set the bar for the rest of the holidays. I got intoxicated a lot.

New Years was our usual house party with games and quizzes etc. I was flat-out drunk by 1am and in bed by 1.15am (more out of tiredness than anything, as I'd had to work that day). It was very fun, though.

Oh, I forgot to mention my birthday. It wasn't a crazy one this year as I was poorly. It was the usual fancy dress affair, however, although maybe dressing as Aphrodite in the middle of winter wasn't the best idea. Still!

Andddd that's my life to date. Not a whole lot of excitement but there's been some great nights in there.

I've turned into a book junkie lately. Not that I don't already read a lot, but for the past two weeks I just haven't took my head out of a book. I have e-books littering my Desktop at work. I come home, I eat, and then I disappear with a paperback. And it's been so good. Sometimes I go through periods (only short periods, thankfully) when I don't read at it, mostly because I haven't managed to find a book to keep me interested. This happens sometimes. My attention span tends to shrink. Then I go through what I call my junkie periods, like now, when I devour one or two books a day simply because I can't stop reading. The only problem with these periods is that the good material eventually runs out. It doesn't help that I'm a little fussy about what I read; unlike my mum, I can't read just anything. Part of me wishes I could. So then I get this push-and-pull thing going on, especially when one of my favourite authors releases a new book, where part of me wants to just sit and read the whole thing right then and there, while another part of me needs to draw it out and make it last.

I've been re-reading old series for the past few weeks (as mentioned in my previous post). I read the previous Kim Harrison book and then White Witch, Black Curse, which I've had for a long time. I do love Harrison and I think she's at the top of her genre, but I'm starting to feel like her series is stretching a little bit too far. While the last couple of books have been revelations in themselves, I felt that the latest book didn't really build on the drama of the previous book all that well. But ( spoilers )

I made my way through Karen Chance's Cassandra Palmer series again (and Midnight Daughter) and finally, finally removed the fourth book from my shelf, dusted it off and cracked the spine.( Curse the Dawn. Spoilers inside. )

I also re-read Karen Marie Moning's Fever series again. I think it's definitely up there in my top ten. I can't really describe what it is I love about it. I think it's because I genuinely like and care about the lead character, Mac, and I'm finding her transition into a "hero" believable. The whole series (well, thus far) is fascinating, dramatic, tense, gritty, dark, fun and unpredictable. I find myself almost unable to wait until the 18th for the next installment. The next book is going to lead to one of those push-and-pull things. Part of me will want to lock myself in my room and never come out until I've devoured the whole thing. The other part of me knows that this is the second to last book in the series (another thing I think works for this series; Moning already has it planned out and she knows what she wants to say with it) and it's a year's wait until the final book. I don't want it be over and I'm not really a fan of her Highlander series, so I know I should pace myself, even though I won't.

And this is the downside of being a book junkie. I don't know how long it's going to be until I find another series of books that drags me in so completely that I never want to leave my room. There's something almost addictive about the feeling of absolute satisfaction that you get when you reach the end of a mindblowing book.

Until then I have the new Vicki Pettersson book to read. I re-read the first three Zodiac books and didn't realise how much I'd forgotten about the third book. I think because so much happened in it and I only read it once (I usually re-read a whole series before the next book comes out, so the first two were drilled into my brain), only the big plot points stuck with me. But The Touch of Twilight is definitely evidence that Pettersson is getting more comfortable with her world and her characters, because it was of those books that started off so puzzling and twisted, and then the pieces finally, finally clicked in the end. I love this series because each book is a puzzle, a mystery, the outcome completely unknown and unexpected. I hope the fourth book is just as exciting and unpredictable.

Okay, a whole post about books. I think that pretty much says it all, folks. Despite what it mean seem, I do still have a life. Sort of. I'm out getting drunk at least once a week. I call this Socialising, though I don't know if conversing with a brick wall while intoxicated counts. No, I'm exaggerating. I haven't been drunk in a long time but I have been out, because I find that if I don't go out and interact with real human beings (work colleagues and family not included) at least once a week, I start to feel my brain seeping out of my ears. And plus, I love to dance. I'm also a dancing junkie. A dancing book junkie.

I've applied for a job in my office (I'm actually covering some of the duties of this particular position as a temp) and I have my interview on Wednesday. Eep. I'm quite nervous. There's a twenty-minute Excel test, and while I'm pretty spiffy on Excel, I'm paranoid that they're going to spring something on me that I totally don't know how to do despite my experience. But we shall see. If I get this job, my life will be so much easier. Temping is starting to make life a little difficult.