My two trips this month were both pleasure rather than business: my aunt Nora's 70th birthday at the start of the month, and a Worldcon preparation trip to London at the end. Spoiler: Nora sadly died only a few months later, so it was more special than we realised. Here she is on the right, with another aunt, an uncle and my cousin who is also my older godson, singing away.
As usual my own pictures largely failed to get the birthday girl, apart from one dynamic shot with her two daughters.
In London later that month, I tried a couple of unusual means of transport - a water taxi which gave me a good view of the Tower of London:
And the Emirates Air Line cable car for the last step of the journey, the ExCeL, visible here.
I read 22 books that month.
Non-fiction 4 (YTD 13)
The Crocodile by the Door, by Selina Guinness
“I have an Idea for a Book ...”: The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg
A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor
Miracles of Life, by J.G. Ballard
Fiction (not sf) 2 (YTD 9)
Doors Open, by Ian Rankin
The Judas Pair, by Jonathan Gash
SF (not Who) 6 (YTD 32)
Redshirts, by John Scalzi
The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Peoples of Middle-earth, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
Toward the End of Time, by John Updike
Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone
Doctor Who 5 (YTD 27, 34 counting non-fiction and comics)
Deadly Reunion, by Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts
Toy Soldiers, by Paul Leonard
Escape Velocity, by Colin Brake
Magic of the Angels, by Jacqueline Rayner
Tip of the Tongue, by Patrick Ness
Comics 5 (YTD 13)
Final Sacrifice, by Tony Lee and others
Vincent van Gogh: De Worsteling van een Kunstenaar, by Marc Verhaegen and Jan Kragt
Vincent, by Barbara Stok
Grandville: Bête Noire, by Bryan Talbot
Aldébaran 4: La Groupe, by Leo
~5,800 pages (YTD 24,800)
3/22 (YTD 23/95) by women (Guinness, Rayner, Stok)
2/22 (YTD 2/95) by PoC (Ahmed, de Bodard)
The best of these was Neil McGregor's fantastic History of the World in 100 Objects, accompanying the BBC podcast; you can get it here. I also really liked my old friend Selina Guinness's A Crocodile by the Door, which you can get here, and Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, which you can get here. Non-fiction Hugo finalist I Have an Idea For a Book... was a total waste of time, but you can get it here.
