I generally try to not to blog about work, however much I'm tempted or need to vent - it's just not a good idea, for a whole variety of reasons. One thing I am going to say, however: if you have a web app, which connects to a web service, and you end up wanting this web app to look and act just like a normal windows forms app - why not just make it a windows app, and save your developer a whole lot of stress and extra, needless, messy work? I mean, if you want something that looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, why dress up a goose in a duck costume?

So in an effort to avoid talking about work, or other things that I'd like to talk about but not in a public forum, I thought I'd give a list of what I've been reading lately. I don't really expect this to interest anyone much, I'm really just talking to myself as usual (only more so) :-)

Right now, I'm reading Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, since I realised that I've never actually read any Jane Austen and thought it was time that I did. And this was the only one that they had at the library. It's okay - good to read when you're stressed, since all their big worries just seem so small, it's quite amusing.

I'm also reading Grunts! by Mary Gentle, which I've found rather disappointing. I've been wanting to read it for ages, and saw it on special at Kalahari.net snd included it in a giant order of about 6 books. But despite it being billed as a comedy, it's not really funny - the basic premise might be mildly amusing, in that it's a bunch of orcs who start acting like US marines due to the influence of the uniforms and weapons that they find in a dragon's hoard, but the bulk of the book seems to be a lot of battles and people being blown up.

The third (and last) book that I'm currently busy reading is The Borribles, by I don't know (and am too lazy to get up and walk the couple of steps over to my bookca^H^H^H^H chair with books piled on it to check. I don't know if it's just not my sort of book, or if I just wasn't in the right mood last night when I started reading it, but I haven't got past page 3 yet.

Yes, I really am reading 3 books simultaneously :-) As well as the latest issue of Realms of Fantasy.

Books that I've recently finished reading: Do Not Pass Go, by Tim Moore - a view of the history and present of London, as seen from the perspective of the properties of the Monopoly board. It was quite interesting and funny, although all the complaints about how they've torn down all the magnificent old buildings gets a bit boring.

Thud!, by Terry Pratchett - I was really looking forward to this one too, and it was okay but not great. I think this was partly because the edition I got was the US edition, which had a lot of typos as well as a really large font. But I remember that Nightwatch didn't impress me much at first, but when I reread it I enjoyed it a lot more, so maybe this one will be the same. But it struck me as being a cross between Nightwatch and The Fifth Elephant, and not really as new and groundbreaking as the Discworld books normally are.

Hmm, what else have I read recently? Tons, but nothing that really sticks out in my mind. I also bought a bunch of the Penguin birthday books (again, can't remember what they're really called, and too lazy to get up and check), so I carry a couple around with me in my backpack and pull them out whenever I'm bored or go to McDonalds or somewhere for lunch at work. Currently reading "Scenes from Academic Life", "Why The World Went To War", and "In Defence of English Cooking". Oh, and I also recently finished "Frost On My Moustache", also by Tim Moore, another travel type book that's quite funny (I ran out of Bill Bryson). Also re-read a bunch of Tom Holt books (Paint Your Dragon, and Wish You Were Here).