10.15 Am now on page 132 of The Wasp Factory now, roughly the half-way point. It isn’t getting any more normal! Banks’ writing, though, is superb. He keeps it full of dark suspense, and the black humour is hilarious and horrific. I wanted to read this partly because I knew it to be somewhat macabre and it certainly hasn’t disappointed. I can imagine it being a book I would want to re-read, though obviously not exactly for pleasure…

Interesting post here on using a gmail (or indeed any free webmail account) as a journal or note-taking system. The great thing about using Gmail is of course the labels which means you can organise your notes easily. I might try using this, although I do tend to use this blog to make notes of things.

Perhaps I might use my spare Yahoo! email address for this, becuase at least then it is in the same place as my online calender and stuff. It would be easy enough to set up folders on the email account for each type of note, which I would then put in the subject header, meaning that stuff can easily be found.

I have 50 Gmail invites to give away, by the way.

I have just invested in this:

Which I saw in Waterstones, strangely without a UK price on the back. It turned out it was £8.99.

My interest was first sparked by this article in the Guardian, which made it sound like a very amusing read:

One final point: Rex Pickett did not, just for the record, stagger into a winery and drink down the wine from the dump bucket, as Miles does. “No,” Pickett says. “I did not do that in a winery. I did it at a high-end tasting.” He laughs. “Everyone else was horrified. But I thought, hey, there’s a thousand dollars’ worth of wine in there, and I need another drink.”

It is also quite remarkably bound. It’s, er, floppy. I can open in on my desk and it just stays on the page I want, without breaking the spine at all. Great!

Nice article on RSS, aimed at journalists, but pretty good for anyone wanting a plain English guide.

I’m going to try and blog more about the books I am reading at the time, my thoughts and stuff as I am going through them. This will be especially true when I embark upon Ulysees, which will need plenty of notes taking just so I know what the hell is going on, I reckon. In fact, I’ll create a a sub-category under reading of Book Blogging, so all these notes can be pulled together.

The Wasp Factory is weird. Now, I like weird, and I am not squeamish in the least. But this book is so strange. The atmosphere, which I have seen described as ‘gothic’, which I guess it must be, is just so unsettling. The world that Frank, a sixteen year old, lives in is so different to anyone elses, yet similar enough to be very disconcerting. I’m about to start Chapter 4. This is peculiar but gripping.

I found A Prayer for Owen Meany this morning, thank God. Wedged between two bookcases. Good job I didn’t buy another copy yesterday! Instead, I did get three books:

• Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
• Any Human Heart – William Boyd
• The Cider House Rules – John Irving

Which should keep me going for a while…

Article on IE blog here.

Interesting, well written and very depressing article about Forest on Soccernet.

Tottenham Hotspur versus Nottingham Forest is a fixture of historic significance. In 1991, it was the FA Cup final, a match remembered for Paul Gascoigne’s self-destructive tackling.

But for an official of questionable probity, it could have also been the 1984 UEFA Cup final. For almost 15 years, it was a meeting of two footballing sides in the upper half of English football’s top tier.

This Sunday, Forest travel to Tottenham in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Two of the most talented players seen at the City Ground for several seasons should be there, but the cup-tied duo of Andy Reid and Michael Dawson are in the employment of Tottenham now, the product of an £8 million double deal.

They have swapped a League Championship relegation battle for the quest for mid-table respectability in the Premiership.

After a reminder of past glories at White Hart Lane, Forest’s focus must switch to their league position. They are perched precariously between Gillingham and Rotherham, 23rd in the Championship and six points from safety with 15 games remaining.

Robert Scoble blogs about Onfolio 2.0. Looks like I am going to have to look at this news aggregator which integrates with Firefox. Look very interesting.

Nice screenshot here.

…is now available for download.

A job to be left for the weekend, I think. An impresive new wiki has been built to house the documentation, using the Mediawiki engine.