Movies, Books, and Birthdays

I went to see War of the Worlds the other day, and was pretty impressed. It's been a really long time since I read the book, but I think it was a fairly liberal interpretation of the basic story.... but that didn't really matter, because it was a really good movie. Not least because Tom Cruise was in it ;-) Sure, there were a lot of plot holes, and some of it just plain didn't sense, but you get so caught up in it that mostly only think of all that afterwards. And watching it a day or two after the London bombings gave it an extra poignancy, especially the scene with the train that comes past, on fire ... The sound was really excellent as well, with lots of bass on the sound effects so that they rumble through you, and your seat practically moves.

I don't generally go to the movies much (it's a pain carrying a bike jacket and helmet around with you), but I really should go more often. I've missed a couple of movies that I wanted to see - Hitch, The Wedding Date - and there are a couple coming up that I want to see - Hitchhiker's Guide, A Lot Like Love.

There are a quite a few books I want to buy too - at least going to a movie is cheaper than buying a book, although a book you get to read over and over :-) Here's a short list of the books I'd go and buy today if I didn't feel guilty about spending about R1000 on books:

• Thud - Terry Pratchett (Only coming out October, but still ...)
• Where's My Moo Cow - Terry Pratchett (See above ...)
  
• Ash - Mary Gentle (I've read it a couple of times, but would really like to own it)
• Kushiel's Chosen (And Kushiel's Dart, the prequel - I've read it, but ages ago)
• Science of Discworld 3 - Darwin's Watch - Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen, Terry Pratchett
• Earth, Air, Fire, and Custard - Tom Holt
• Booty Nomad (This one I'm not so sure about - the back cover looked good, though)

and there are tons more; don't ever let me loose in a bookshop without a budget :-)

I might buy myself one or two as a birthday present, seeing as my birthday's coming up on Saturday. I generally try to do something interesting on my birthday, although last year I ended up not taking leave and spending the day at work as usual (and actually had a great time, probably because more because of than in spite of); this year, I have a great plan. The Table Mountain Cable Car is celebrating their birthday this year (I think it's 30 years, or something), and if you go on your birthday you get a free return ticket. So since my birthday's on a Saturday, I thought I'd take advantage and go up Table Mountain. I haven't been up since I was a little kid, so it should be fun. I just hope the weather holds out - it's been really sunny and nice for a while now, so we're due for some rain, seeing as how it is actually winter. My backup plan was to go and see A Lot Like Love, if the weather's bad, but that's only coming out on the 22nd, so I need a new bad-weather-backup-birthday-plan.