A Bug's Life

Books read (1-9)
The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (2010)
The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham (1951)
The Kraken Wakes, John Wyndham (1953)
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess (1962)
Stolen Faces, Michael Bishop (1977)
Millennium People, J.G. Ballard (2003)
Foiled, Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallaro (2010) (graphic novel)
The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, Mark Chadbourn (2002)
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jules Verne (1864)

Films watched (1-7) 3 at the cinema, 3 DVDs, 1 video :-)
King Lear
Eight Legged Freaks
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Puss In Boots
Dark Star
The Artist
Young Adult

Books incoming 2 (1 purchase, 1 loan)

"Go and read A Clockwork Orange," I want to say. I found it powerful in a different way from the movie; the shock is in your imagination, you can look away if you like. But you can't get away from the youth of the protagonist. He's only 15, and does terrible things, for what reason? You are compelled to follow him in, to pick up his language (at the beginning I was turning to the glossary every other sentence, by the end I could govoreet about bezoomny cheenas and giving a starry a tolchock, real horrorshow). Malcolm McDowell was in his late 20s when he played Alex, and I was in my early 20s when I watched him, that immortal youth where you think people who are 27 are really old, so that sort of violence and behaviour seemed terribly distant. Now I'm old enough to have book-Alex as a child, and be responsible for him. Much of the book is about free will.

Also recommended: The Dervish House, and the Wyndhams.

Surprise hit of the films was Eight Legged Freaks, an affectionate and silly homage to monster movies. I enjoyed Puss In Boots, enough humour for adults and lots of well observed cat behaviour that had us giggling. Plot, schmot.