December 1 means Christmas is right around the corner, and lots of preparations must be made: buy presents for people, plan Christmas Eve dinner, buy a tree, decorate (which, to be honest, I do very little of; Jean enjoys decorating much more so than I do). But this is probably the most enjoyable month of the entire year, if a bit tiring overall.

Last night we went to see Harry Potter and the Ghostly Hollows, part 1. We waited two weeks anticipating a less-crowded theater, but there were maybe a dozen people there total (and it was “free Tuesday” as well). The movie was enjoyable, although I have one issue with Harry Potter movies overall: they do not have a lot of logic behind their events. Things seem to happen randomly, as if J.K. Rowling makes them up as she goes along and never goes back to edit the novel's internal logic and continuity. So while I enjoy the movies, and particularly like the three lead actors, they have not convinced me to go back and read the remaining books (I read the first one), while I have so many other books awaiting my attention.

Speaking of books, I have had 5 books “claimed” by members of Paperback Swap, so I have had the joyous job of picking out 5 books for myself. You can’t imagine how much time I have spent browsing the books on their website; there are literally hundreds of thousands of books available! But I think I have finally selected the following 5 books:

• Arthur C Clarke’s Prelude to Mars (containing Prelude to Space and The Sands of Mars). I have few Clarke novels, a gap in my sf collection I should remedy;
• John Brunner’s historical epic The Great Steamboat Race. Brunner was one of the finest storytellers, and this novel has a very intriguing premise (which is obvious from its title);
• The Best of Eric Frank Russell. He was an SF writer who basically retired before I started reading it, and I have been wanting to sample more of his writings for years;
• the first two novels in Pamela Sargent’s Venus trilogy, Venus of Dreams and Venus of Shadows. Her novel The Shore of Women was one of my favorite novels, but somehow I never bought this trilogy (probably because it was spread over so many years). Now I need to have another book claimed so I can complete the series. ☺