Sprouting

Here you see the new shoots of dill that Mrs tsuken planted a week or so ago - with the assistance of the kiddies, who were very interested in the whole process. There's this dill, some basil, and chives, planted from seed and all beginning now to sprout.

I'm reading 'Infected' by Scott Sigler at the moment. I felt a bit bad the other day: I complained on twitter about wanting to like a book but just not, and then in response to a friend's enquiry, I mentioned the book by name ... and shortly after I got a message from the author expressing regret that it "didn't resonate with" me, but thanking me for giving him the chance to entertain me. Everyone seems to have twitter searches for themselves set up nowadays. xP Anyhoo ... as I told him, I haven't given up on it, because the story is excellent. I figured out today what it is about the writing that I don't like. It's the same thing that grated when I recently re-read 'Timeline' by Michael Crichton: it feels like I'm reading a screenplay for a movie. Everything is (for me) over-described and over-explained. Nothing is left out, or even left until later. That is in stark contrast to something I found in common between Iain M. Banks and George R. R. Martin: they leave things unsaid - till later, or sometimes completely.

Anyway, as I said, I like the narrative - just not the style of it. So I will continue. And really, I think if I'm going to demand that everything be as good as, say, Banks' 'Player of Games', I'm not going to have too much I can read. xP

I'm also reading 'Paradox' by Jim Al-Khalili. It's excellent, using various (sort of) paradoxes to illustrate some interesting science. Serves as a nice counterpoint to 'Infected'; if I get a bit meh on the latter I can turn to Paradoxes for a bit.