On the subject of time-travel

I have four books on my bedside table: The Time Traveller's Wife, The Time Machine, Making History and... um... Doctor Who and the Daleks. I'm sensing a theme here.

Actually, I don't know how it's happened. I bought the Time Traveller's Wife weeks ago from Pritchard's, because we had one copy and I hadn't used my discount in a while. It's sat in its plastic bag on the windowsill ever since, waiting to be read. Making History is an old favourite; I read it over and over in Delhi over Christmas because it was the only novel I had. All the things I had in India at the time have become very familiar, because I read/listened to them over and over and over ad infinitum - the same thing happened to Snow Patrol's album Final Straw. I do love Snow Patrol; was into them before they were cool, natch.

Regarding the others, well. I went out yesterday with Hannah, on an actual expedition involving other human beings and social interaction. I still haven't got used to the no-exams thing; on Thursday afternoon I got off the computer in the end and sat downstairs with a glass of wine and a book. Simple pleasures, as I said later; I don't suppose I've done that guilt-free for two years and more. So, yesterday, Hannah and I took lunch out to the grass by St James's, and lay there looking at the sky for most of the afternoon, talking and making plans. The Lesbian Odd Couple are going to Skaros Skiathos the PLANET OF THE DALEKS a Greek island this week, which gave me an idea. All I really want to do is something fun, something spontaneous - although Hannah maintains I must be the only person who plans to be spontaneous. So, we're going to London for the day at some point, and we're going to do all the things we've always wanted to do together, like go up to Camden and eat ice-cream and spend lots of time in bookshops.

So. Fun stuff on the horizon. After we'd been to Lime Street to ask about it, I stopped at one of the small shops on the front of the station. It was a second-hand bookshop, one of the good things about the universe, and we spent much time just browsing and generally looking around. The books weren't in any particular order, which made it much more of a treasure hunt, and at length Hannah dug out Brideshead Revisited and I found an old Arthur C. Clarke novel and The Time Machine.

While we were paying for them, I asked on the off-chance if they had any of the old Doctor Who books. The two men running the shop were clearly enthusiasts, and told me they didn't have any, but there were two shops we could try. One is on Charing Cross Road - Hannah and I exchanged smiles; we can probably go up there when we go to London - and the other on Mount Pleasant.

[We should go there, actually; they mentioned that the bookshop owner has a life-size Dalek that shouts "OUT-OF-PRINT!" at people.]

So we hiked up Mount Pleasant, getting closer and closer to the university and so meeting lots of students. I was born somewhere round there, which is why I never wanted to apply here; there's got to be a rule against going to university in the same street you were born. Anyway, we found a shop - Reid's of Liverpool, and Hannah made the obligatory dreadful pun - and went inside. I immediately felt very short, as there were books from floor to ceiling, and some digging around yielded American Gods (which I have never read, and Hannah noticed the copy, while battered around the edges, had an unbroken spine and had probably been donated unread) and the first Calvin and Hobbes book, which made Hannah very happy. (She actually squeaked. I was amused.)

And then I made my off-chance inquiry again, and was directed to two entire shelves full of old Doctor Who novelisations, all somewhat battered. I sat down in geek heaven and went through, with Hannah helping me decide which ones I wanted with an expression that indicated she was amusedly humouring me. There were literally dozens to choose from, but I limited myself to ten quid's worth.

Therefore, I now own: Doctor Who and the Daleks, Doctor Who - the Aztecs, Doctor Who and the Five Doctors, Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders, Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars and Doctor Who and the Giant Robot.

And they are amazing. Old Target books, like the ones in the library when I was little, and they've been aimed at kids and have too many exclamation marks and use CAPS LOCK all the time and I am in awe. Actually, if you ignore the blurb, they are very readable and just so much fun. I love that I have the time to just sit in the garden and read them all.

I also had time to download and watch the first part of An Unearthly Child, which was so much better than I expected it to be (and hence the icon). More on that anon, as I want to give it its own entry.

And this is the life of me; fandom and summer, mostly.

It's fabulous.