1. Must tidy living room

This post has the title of the one job I most need to do and have been successfully avoiding for the past five days. I got back from my holidays last week and have managed to avoid to fully unpack my suitcase ever since. The most important stuff is out of it... the laundry (which is still awaiting a spin in the washing machine), the licorice (more than half way through that now) and the biscuits (devoured by myself and the colleagues at work). There are just some random things that have a home to go back to... oh and there is my bag of toiletries that still needs to be put away. But hey.... it will all get sorted out in the end. It better as I have about 10 people coming over for lasagna at the end of the week!! 
On the good news front - my lower back and sacroiliac joint are a lot better. I do not know what muscles the physio leaned on last Friday but it seems to have helped a lot. It was a bit achy during the day and it seems that the longer I sit the worse it gets but overall in day to day life it is soooooo much better. Now on to the business at hand...


### SPOILER ALERT ###


Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
This is only the second TP I have read but I think I may venture into some more of his adventures. He has a great style of writing which is snappy and pacey. His characters takes things literally sometimes and this leads to some very funny dialogue and some double takes in reading.
This one is actually very fitting for the time of the year as it is all about the Hogfather who has a striking resemblance in appearance and actions to Father Christmas. Whilst writing this I actually realise I am getting this wrong. This book is about the absence of the Hogfather. It seems that some hilariously deranged group of entities has given an assignment to some vague groups of assassins to kill the Hogfather. The assassins have sent their best man for the job to go and complete the mission: Mr Teatime - his tombstone is likely to include the words "total nut job" and "demented lemming". Mr T has gathered a group of tough guys to implement his plan which involves getting to the tooth fairy.. who turns out to have set up a lovely and profitable franchise for collecting teeth. At the start of the story we also meet Susan who is Death's granddaughter and who is destined for greater things than she imagines, much to her chagrin. Susan is a very plucky governess who felt she needed a change from being rich and posh and has decided that children are where her talents lie. She is good with kids and very good at keeping the bad monsters under the bed at bay. I would not want to get on the wrong side of this girl while she is holding a poker... nor would any self respecting ghoul.
The story is really several story lines woven into one. It all starts with the request for the Hogfather to be terminated. He ends up not exactly getting killed but more.... forgotten. This motivates Death to take up to cause for mankind and start pretending to be the Hogfather because belief must not die. It seems that there is a certain amount of belief in the universe and as the belief in one (The Hogfather) diminishes it allows for all sorts of other Gods and fairies to turn up and vie for the Hogfather's crown. Throughout the book we have all sorts of weird fairies and gods turning up (the Oh God of Hangovers is great!!). The University plays a part in all this as well. There is the bathroom under development and a very clever Dean (despite all appearances). Our reluctant heroine in this book is Susan who ends up trying to save the world and mankind's belief in the Hogfather so the sun will come up tomorrow. It really is a wonderful mixture of stories and at times it is hard to try and figure out who are the important characters and which the not so important ones. You almost have to focus on things this way as there are so many in the book that it hurts your head trying to keep track of them all. Fortunately the stories all interweave in the end and it comes together in a heady mix of human happiness.
Death is one of the funniest characters in this book. I love him. I love how he tries to be human, how he takes thing literally, how he does no seem to get the joke and yet... he does save the world.
Susan is great too. She is a independent woman who is making her own way in the world. She is trying to break away from her past but finds that this is not always possible.. nor, perhaps, should you want to. She may not show it but I feel she loves being Death's Granddaughter. She feels some of the power that that brings with it and she understands that it is part of who she is.. for better or for worse.
There is a lot going on in the book that you have to try and keep track of and perhaps not all the characters are as well developed as they could be but is is a good read and the end is suitably festive.


Title: Hogfather
Author: Terry Pratchett
445 pages
Corgi Books
ISBN nr 0-552-14542-4

Books to be read: 101.. .as indicated in previous post. 
Only 13 more days until the year is done and I am managing to stay away from the cheap books.

Final purchases

The other week my last purchase arrived. Umberto Eco... it is going down as my first second hand purchase from Amazon and as it has now arrived in my house it is going to have to be added to the list of books to be read. That list is actually in balance as I finished one as well. 
Bought one: 102
Read one: 101
I vaguely remember the days when I worried about getting over 60.... that seems like a distant dream now. Will I ever get below 90? 
I have told myself that Eco is the last book I will buy this year but as it is only early December that might be a bit of an ambitious task to set myself. I will have to wait and see how I go. Bookshops are dangerously omnipresent, relapses are not unknown to me and the evenings are long and dark.

Work and my sacroiliac joint have kept me busy and in pain respectively so I have not had much chance to update this blog over the last week or so. But.... physio is going well and work is...well, work and still busy but I should have some more time soon to let you know what I thought about The Hogfather... I will say this for it, I really love Death in this one!