Day Twenty Eight - a little bit more magic

Today has been quite a happy get-things-done day in general. It's quite nice when things go in the order you've planned them. But an especial happy was:
Meeting up again with a couple of people from the Magic in History and Culture course that I did earlier this year, to continue the discussion and exploration! We decided we'd just have a general chat to start with, to work out how we wanted to proceed, but we also had a bit of a focus on Angela Carter's stories, which seem to be somewhat synonymous with magic (and other things, of course). We didn't go into much depth, because we'd mostly read different tales, but it turned out that I wasn't the only one to feel a bit uncomfortable with her form of "magic". I can appreciate her writing, but I'm not madly keen on the stories in The Bloody Chamber - I think because she uses magic in a different way than is my default. To me magic is a kind of hope and expectation, whereas she seems to taunt us with magic that is subsumed by reality instead - yes there's magic, but it's not as powerful as the grit and grub of reality... That's got its own attraction, but I want there to be a hidden sparkle under the mud and muck too, no matter how secretly glinting in the dark it is...

Books 2014 - Fairs' Point by Melissa Scott

Finally, at long last, I shall post about this gorgeous book... *g*
I also have a confession - I may have read it twice. In a row. Because that's how much I like not just Rathe and Eslingen, but the entire world that Scott (originally with her late partner Lisa Barnett) created. It's a fantasy world, with a generally Renaissance-ish historical feel to it, based around the city of Astreiant. Astreiant is on a planet with two suns - the primary sun and a more distant winter sun, and a planet where magic works, in a very practical, scientific way, there is a ghost-tide every year, and everyone knows that your life is ruled by the stars you were born under - the most popular newsheets are the horoscopes. And it's a brilliant world - it feels as if you're right there, and without any dull exposition at all, you can picture it and know exactly how it works. It just is

( In this book, says the blurb on the back... )

Day Twenty Nine - there may have been a bookshop involved...

Saturday! That's a happy thing right there! And it started off really well too - I'd decided I needed to to into town, because a book I'd requested from the library was finally in and waiting to be collected. Yeay! But the library didn't open until 10, and I needed to work today, and I didn't want to get stuck in Saturday-Cambridge, so I got up and went in really early - in time for a coffee and fruit toast in a nice quiet Starbucks. Yeay. Then, because I had time to kill, I popped into Boots, and then I still had time to kill, so I thought it wouldn't hurt if I just peered into Waterstones... and books may have ensued.Oh, but how lush to wander around, browsing... and two of the books I bought were for work, so that was okay - in fact that was good of me. And the other two were... books. *g* And my guilt was entirely overcome by happiness, so that worked out. *g*

Then I went to the library, and not only returned some books, but remembered to collect the book which was the whole reason I'd gone into town in the first place.

And then I went home and faffed and faddled and eventually did lots of work, and gloated over my four gorgeous Astreiant books... (Double click - look how pretty!)

And even then, at 9.43pm - it still wasn't dark outside, despite the big grey sky, and that made me happy too... *g* So despite working on Job 1 and Job 2 both, it's been a pretty satisfying day. I hope your day's been good!