Happy New Year!

And may it be filled with books! I'll be doing an end of year post soon, but in the meantime I wanted to recap the last two books I've read.

The Long Walk, a short novel by Stephen King, was pretty gripping, if in a fairly gruesome way. He manages to hold back far more of the story than I liked, which meant I read it very quickly, just to find out more. Unfortunately for me, that meant wishing for (fictional) boys to hurry up and die. Read it and see. It's good, although I didn't like the ending so much. But the thing that struck me, apart from the tension in a book that really didnt have that much going on, was how inspired it made me. There's no doubt King is a fantastic writer and I think some of that creativity rubs off. During the days I was reading, I kept noticing little things happening that I suddenly could see how to describe. Moments that turned into sentences in my head. It's one (of very many) reason (s) why I love reading so much. It makes me want to be a better writer.

The other book is An astronaut's guide to life on earth, by Chris Hadfield. I really enjoyed this. Apart from being fascinating to learn more about how one goes about becoming an astronaut, there are also some bits that really made me think. For someone who holds their own mortality in such constant view, Hadfield is incredibly optimistic. He's also clearly very capable, which is one of the qualities I most enjoy in others.

Over Christmas I did read a few more good books, including book 5 of Wheel of Time (I've not even come close to writing everything I want to write about this series, so be prepared for more!). And I have some good books waiting on my to-read pile, so 2014 is already looking rosy.