Not much happened, just more good books, a burst of SF and fantasy, and a surprisingly good comedy film.

Its worth starting with the film. Swing It. Hollywood would call it a “romantic comedy”, but being Australian the humour is slightly different. The most interesting character is the manipulative and nasty one.

Is good, but under promoted. No clips or trailers, and no website. The acting is good, the dialogue is good, and the production is fine except the went rather over the top on having a soft-focus look (I spent the first few minutes wondering whether it was some sort of compression artifact or a cameraman who could not focus).

Most of all, it is genuinely funny and original.

The books were less exciting, but I first want to go back to one of the books I mentioned earlier. One story from Werehunter really stuck in my head. The Last of the Season about a serial child rapist/murderer. The fantasy element only comes into allowing the victim to escape, and I suspect it was only added because the publisher wanted fantasy from an SF and fantasy author. The strength of the story is its convincing depiction of the mind of the viewpoint character.

Werehunter also put me in the mood for more SF and fantasy. The next book was James H. Schmitz’s Telzey Amberdon. Light reading, but fun. It is also a great example of how offering books free promotes them: I had never read Schmitz until I saw his books available free, and never would have.

Then came Rider Haggard’s She. This is a book I have long meant to read, large because CS Lewis thought well of it. It is a great book, only slightly marred by colonial attitudes.

My experiment is not just a success so, it is triumphantly so. I am reading more new books than I have done in years, and I am enjoying them hugely. Video is harder to find, but I do not watch much anyway.