Crimbo!

I'm off to Devon for ten days or more of sleeping in late, reading, munch fine foods, guzzling fine booze and not going to work. I'm going to try and make some serious headway into Ulysses.

Have a bloody Merry Christmas and jolly spiffing New Year. See you in 2007.

More hot meme action

The delectable Suw has tagged me with the following all-action meme thingie:

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
3. Post the text of the next three sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the book and the author.
5. Tag three people.

So, here we go...

He hesitated, watching the technicians lift the plastic motorcyclist - 'Elvis' - on to his machine, and then strode on towards us, beckoning to Helen Remington and myself. He scanned the visitors with a somehow offensive gaze. Once again he struck me as being a strange mixture of personal hauntedness, complete confinement in his own panicky universe, and yet at the same time open to all kinds of experiences from the outer world.

- Crash by J. G. Ballard

There you go. It took me a few minutes to decide if Crash was hanging over the edge of my bookshelf a little more than Jack Womack's Random Acts Of Senseless Violence (a wonderful book, by the way, which you should all read).

Right, I think I'll tag Jai, Kathryn and Em. Job done.

Curious

So many blogs, so little time... I'm interested in the reasons why people read blogs in the first place and what exactly hooks a reader to a particular blog. I'm also intrigued by which blog posts provoke the most comments. On this humble blog, for example, posts about Scorsese's decline* or the Death of Robert Altman return no responses yet I have a whinge and a moan about failing to get a job, failing to get a woman or how generally goddamn grumpy I am and everybody chimes in. Not that I am ungrateful for everybody's encouraging comments on such occasions, of course, but I wonder why the personal posts provoke a response more often than the general ones.

As a rule, I try to avoid writing about the everyday minutiae of my life - "When I came out of the supermarket, my shopping bags got all tangled up in a dog's leash. Oh, what a palaver! And then when I was back at the office the toner ran out halfway through printing an incoming fax so I had to go to the stores cupboard but they had run out of the right kind of cartridge so I have to wait two days for a new batch to arrive and I only have half a fax message..." - and I wince a bit when I look back and see some whinge about past-their-sell-by-date johnnies. The only time I decide to post something personal is when something exceptional happens like being accused of fraud and bullying by paranoid co-workers, situations that could have a wider relevance to people than which brand of toothpaste I prefer.

So, I wonder what it is that makes people respond in greater numbers when I have a good moan than when I talk about some artist or book or filmmaker.

* By the way, I never did get around to reviewing The Departed but I was disappointed by it.

Not the best day I've had...

I'm not quite sure which is the more depressing:

• receiving yet another "despite the fact you clearly possess all the skills we require for the vacancy, we aren't even going to interview you for this job" letter
• discovering an old packet of unused condoms in a drawer that have passed their use-by date

Please cast your votes now.