Foreign language books

I have a growing collection of foreign-language books... and they're all either Asterix or Tintin.

It started in July 2005, when I was in Tromsø, Norway, with the purchase of "Asterix og Vikingene" (Asterix and the Normans) in a local bookshop. I thought the choice appropriate. It's also the most readable of my foreign-language books. With grammar not as far off English as you'd think, combined with context (I've read the English version countless times), I understand most of what I'm reading.

Asterix og Vikingene

Mum and Dad just got back from a holiday in Europe, travelling through Switzerland, Austria and Italy. I'd asked if they could look out for some specific Asterix titles in specific languages while they were there, and they delivered!

2013 Reading: Part 1

I'm usually pretty good at keeping track of what movies I see during a year. I've never been that good at keeping a list of the books I read. In the past I've often had two or more books on the go at the same time. I've decided that I'd like to keep a log of what I read (starting from February/March, because that's the first time this year I remember reading a book cover to cover).

Books read so far this year... (that I remember)

1. James Patterson & Mark Sullivan, Private Berlin

James Patterson's "Private" series is an interesting one, in that so far only a couple have featured the same characters. The Private of the title is an investigation firm with agencies around the world, so there have been novels set in LA, London, Sydney and now Berlin.

On a side note, "Private Oz" had some great little phrases and characterisations included that made it look like Patterson and his co-writers had done their research. And then a paragraph later you'd come across something so Americanised that would never be said/seen/done in Australia, that you'd start to wonder if Crocodile Dundee II was their "research".

Holidays, Day 1

FRIDAY 8 MARCH

My first day off was also the first night of WOMADelaide, but I had a slight clash of timetables - Friday 8 March was the first Broncos game of the season, and was being played at home!

Being season ticket holders (for a second year), Kara and I of course went. But due to my Saturday flight plans (departing 6am), I stayed up late Thursday and had a really long sleep-in on the Friday to prepare for my all-nighter.

Alex Cross

This afternoon's viewing was the thriller-that-wanted-to-be-an-action-movie "Alex Cross", based (according to the end credits) on the novel "Cross" by James Patterson.

The character of Alex Cross, featuring in a series of twenty Patterson novels to date, has been seen onscreen before in the films "Kiss The Girls" and its sequel "Along Came A Spider". (Although in book form they are in reverse order.) The detective with a psychology degree who does profiling work as a consultant for the FBI was played then by the great Morgan Freeman. Personally, I think Morgan Freeman was slightly old for the role, but his performance as Cross is miles beyond Tyler Perry's. I'd still like to see a Denzel version.

Seattle City Pass, Day 4

December 16 - Pacific Science Center, and our last ticket from the City Pass booklet.

The PSC is in the Seattle Center, right by the Space Needle and EMP/SFM. The original plan had been to do all three places in one day, but that didn't work out. So instead the PSC got a whole morning to itself!