After, I started flipping through it, looking back at past years. There were quite a few books I’d forgotten about, a lot that I had remembered the plot to but couldn’t remember the title, and more than a few I think I want to re-read at some point. Other things, like why I had written “lupus?” in the margin beside Gil Adamson’s Outlander or where exactly did the quote about the head in the jar come from[1. "Hey, is that a head in a jar?" "What gave it away - the head or the jar?" ] and which title-less Suzanne Brockmann book was I referring to when I wrote “almost as good as Troubleshooters books”[2. It's dated summer of 2008, around the time I was in the Maritimes, which means I read it and gave it away and forgot the title but remembered the author. ], puzzle me. And then there are all the different pens, the handwriting, short vs. long descriptions, funny comments – basically, it was a big long trip down memory lane.

But then I got to 2009. Sad, neglected 2009. I only managed to chronicle about half the year, and there are a couple of post-it notes with acronyms I can assume are the titles of books which I intended to memorialize, but never did. There are books I am certain I read last year but aren’t there, and it makes me sad that I didn’t record them and some of them are most certainly lost to me now.

This has given me a renewed sense of responsibility to keep up with my book chronicling. I did a little at the beginning of the year, and now that I remember how important it is to me, how important it is to remember what I have read, I will be more diligent in recording my reading habits.

While this normally wouldn’t have been celebratory news in the past, merely part of a monthly update, I’ve been reading a lot less physical books lately. I totally blame the general increase in the amount of knitting I do; whenever I have a few minutes or am waiting in line, I’m more likely to whip out one of the many socks or mittens I’ve got on the go as opposed to an actual book.

It’s a cyclical thing, too. Sometimes it’s hard to find anything good to read or that captures my attention. February through April were dry months for me, in terms of finding something to stick with. I started several, and tossed them back after only a few chapters. This one that I just finished almost got tossed back, but I stuck with it – it was a fantasy novel, set in present day London, about a sorcerer who has been reincarnated. My library has the sequel, but I can’t find it on the shelf (probably due to just not looking carefully, likely due to it being checked out already). I’d put a hold on it, but I have another stack of TBRs waiting to audition.

A few weeks ago, a friend and former library school classmate posted about acquiring a Kobo e-reader. I have seen these things in person, and they are as easy to use as she describes. They are light, portable and the screen is easy to look at. The other nice thing about them is that you can read any document (or ebook) which is in the PDF format – meaning, you can purchase ebooks in other places as long as they are in the PDF format and use them on your Kobo.

(This was always my beef with the Kindle, Amazon’s e-reader: the books were in a proprietary format which couldn’t be used on any other e-reader, and you couldn’t read ebooks that weren’t that format on the Kindle. Oh, and it wasn’t available in Canada. Now it is, and now you can read PDFs on it, but you still can’t read Amazon ebooks on other devices, as far as I can tell. Also it does have a wireless connection, so there’s that too.)

When it comes to ebook readers and platforms, I’m something of an overachiever. I have a Sony eBook Reader (more about that in a sec), three separate ebook readers on my iPod (Ereader, Stanza [2. Which I hardly use because earlier versions had lousy formatting. ] and Kobo) and two e-reader platforms on my laptop (Adobe Digital Editions and Mobipocket). It would take charts, spreadsheets and interpretive dance to explain what works with what, but here goes nothing:

• Ereader and Mobipocket don’t work with anything else. Ebooks I buy in those formats can only be read in those programs, but since I use each program for different reasons on different devices, it doesn’t really matter.
• Mobipocket is intended for handheld devices, such as Blackberries and Palm Pilots, but I only use it on my laptop. The advantages are that I can make it full screen, and change the size of the font to make it smaller or larger, and make the layout whole page, two or three columns. Primarily, I read books on here when I’m knitting because it’s easy to make the text a readable size and go to the next page without having to put everything down.
• Adobe Digital Editions works with almost everything. As long as I purchase a book in a PDF format (secure or otherwise) I can read it in this program, or load it onto the Sony.
• In ADE, I can make the book almost full screen, but not quite. I can’t change the number of columns displayed, only the number of pages, and I can’t increase or decrease the size of the font, only the amount of magnification. This is slightly annoying because if I want to display two pages on the screen, the type is crazy small, but if I want to be able to read the text, I only get a few paragraphs on the page.
• I really, really want to like the Kobo platform. Really. I tried reading an ebook on it and got more than slightly frustrated with how long it took to “turn” a page – 3 seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it takes less than a fraction of a second in/on other devices, it’s a big wait. Plus, you think maybe you haven’t tapped the corner/side hard enough so you tap it again, and suddenly you’re three pages too far.
• My favourite platform for a non-laptop is Ereader. I can change the size of the font, the colour of the text and background (you can also do this in Kobo), and the orientation on the page. Yes, it’s a tiny screen and it takes getting used to. However, since I always have my iPod with me anyways I don’t have to lug around a separate device.

As for the Sony eReader: while I like that I can have many books on it at one time and can purchase books from a variety of sources (not just the Sony eReader Store), it does have some drawbacks:

• It is a battery hog, and takes forever to charge.
• Maybe it’s just my laptop, but when I plug it in to synch it with the Sony program, my laptop goes a little crazy. “Hey – there are ebooks on here!” it tells me. “Wait… there are also sound files [3. I can also put audiobooks on the device, but since I'm not a fan of audiobooks, I don't. ] – want me to open iTunes?” it says in a puzzled tone. “Hold on a sec… there are pictures on here! Can I open a photo editing program for you?” By now, it’s got that puffy-eyed look that small children get right before they burst into tears, and I want to hug it and tell it that it’s okay, don’t open anything – just synch with the Sony program – but by now it’s melting down and the whole thing freezes and I have to throw my hands in the air. [4. Yes, I assign human characteristics to my technical devices - doesn't everyone? ]
• It also takes forever to turn a page.
• Apparently, you are supposed to be able to take notes with it, but it’s never worked for me.

However! Other positives of the Sony: it has back lights, so if you’re reading in the dark you don’t kill your eyes; there are two card slots so you can add a lot more memory to it; and it has a stylus you can use to tap the screen to turn the page, instead of using the page turn buttons on the bottom of the screen.

AND! In case you thought I had run out of things to talk about (yeah… not happening), my library will soon be offering downloadable ebooks. I don’t have the details because the librarian who’s in charge of it won’t get off her ass and get me the details so I can start downloading them [5. For the record, that librarian would be me. Um. ]

Now, to answer the question everyone [6. Again, both of you. ] is asking: are paper books dead? Absolutely not! While I’m surrounded by devices great and small, my default book format is paper. I don’t have to worry about it running out of batteries, when I’m done with it I can give it to the library or give it to a friend to read without violating copyright and as much as most of us would like to think that technology is universal, it isn’t. There will always be people who don’t have/can’t afford/don’t have access to computers or devices, and paper books will always be there for them.

If you’ll excuse me, I have two rows of knitting needing to be done and I’m in the middle of a good chapter in my ebook.

2. While I was home, I took the opportunity to watch a couple of movies on TV that I hadn’t seen (or hadn’t seen all of ) before. The first was 17 Again, which was surprisingly good. There were some genuinely funny moments, especially between Mike’s nerdy best friend and the principal. And while I know I may not be alone in acknowledging that Zac Efron is a pretty, pretty guy, he’s actually not that bad of an actor. The second was It’s a Boy Girl Thing, which is a mostly Canadian production, about two teenagers who swap bodies [1. It seems that I had a theme going on, what with two movies about body swapping. ] I’d seen parts of it before, liked it, but never actually got to see the whole thing. It also is surprisingly good – I thought that both of the actors who were playing the teenagers did a good job of mimicking the body language of each other when they were supposed to be in the opposite bodies. Certainly worth checking out.

3. A few weeks ago, when I posted about this year’s theme, I mentioned wanting to have more meatless weeks. There are many reasons for it, both personal and environmental, in addition to examining how often I fall back on eating meat or meat products. It’s worth noting that I am still drinking milk and eating eggs, as they are important sources of calcium and protein; while I do enjoy soy milk and have used egg substitute successfully on a number of occasions, this whole thing is about awareness, not making radical changes. [2. It's also worth noting that the milk and eggs that I do consume come from organic sources in the province. ] That day marked the first day in what was going to be my first meatless week of the year – I had a menu all planned out, including lunches that didn’t include lunchmeat, and was pretty gung-ho about it.

Except, here I am, three Sundays later, and I am still meatless [3. Except for a cheat when I made soup one day - I didn't have any vegetable stock and had to use chicken stock. ] I haven’t run out of meal ideas, and have often surprised myself with my inventiveness, especially when it comes to lunches. Yesterday I was craving one of my favourite comfort foods, chicken and dumplings, because I still wasn’t feeling great; however, this morning I looked at the chicken in the freezer [4. I also vowed to clean out my freezer, so that chicken is going to get eaten at some point. ] and then looked at the corn I froze this past summer, and decided that corn chowder is just as comforting, especially with biscuits. As well, most of my meals this week don’t involve meat, such as the veggie fajitas I’m going to have for lunch this week, the roasted tomatoes with pasta, and the curried tofu possibly Friday or Saturday. It’s become less about “I am only going to do this for one week” and more about “let’s see how long I can keep this up.” [5. Sort of like when I was still running on the treadmill - one day, instead of alternating between walking and running, I just ran to see how long I could go without stopping. In the end, I managed about 15 minutes - go me! ]

4. There will be a full post about this later, but I managed to fit in some reading this month. I was reading five books in total which leads to all kinds of distractions, and only managed to finish two of them.

To kick the year off and fulfill one of my resolutions (to keep my “books I’ve read” list up-to-date), here’s what I read last month. Looking back, it’s a surprising number.

Mordecai Richler, Barney’s Version. It was a book club book, and I was pleased that I didn’t dislike it as I have some of his other books (Cocksure, I’m glaring at you.) At first, I was convinced Barney was an unreliable narrator and that he was selective in what and how he told events, but by the end I thought maybe he just didn’t remember the details anymore.

Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, Dedication. Meh. It didn’t end the way I expected it to end, but it was still kind of overwrought and dramatastic [2].

Susan Elizabeth Phillips, This Heart of Mine and It Had To Be You. Reader’s block reads – I was in a rut, and they helped me get out of it. SEP is one of my comfort authors who I’ll turn to in times of need.

Naomi Novik, Victory of Eagles. Great, kind of dark, but the end was a big “WTF?” I realize it’s a set-up for the next volume, but as a military tactic, it sucked large – why would you send your best weapon and leader into exile before the war is over?

David Levithan, Are We There Yet? Love love love David Levithan, who writes powerful emotions like it’s easy. The story of two brothers who are tricked into spending time together in Italy, and rediscovering each other. I read this on the bus home from Toronto last weekend.

Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave. Kind of slow and long, but still interesting. A Victorian mystery which reminded me of the Amelia Peabody (Elizabeth Peters) books and the Mary Russell (Laurie R. King) series.

This week I’ve been struggling through one of my two book club books for work, and I finally finished it today. Part of me wants to start the second one right away [3], but part of me wants to celebrate and do some “reward” reading [4]. For over a year, I’ve been sitting on a book I’d heard great things about and have been dying to read, and there’s no time like the present. Reward reading, here I come!

[1] That Crappy Cold Month At The Beginning Of The Year is too long.
[2] Oooh! I invented a word!
[3] I run two book clubs a month at the library. Most of the books I’d read before, but some of them I haven’t read in a while.
[4] At knitting, we’ve developed the concepts of “punishment knitting,” which is knitting you have to do, and “reward knitting,” or knitting you enjoy and is fun. I’ve applied these concepts to my reading, so that book club books or any other book I have to read but not enjoying are “punishment” reading, while everything else is “reward” reading.

From what I can remember back to August, there have been quite a few rereads of stuff I’ve read in the last year or so – comfort reading, if you will. The rest of what I remember falls into three categories: stuff for book club, stuff that was memorable, and stuff I’ve forgotten [1].

The first category includes Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight, Christopher Moore’s Lamb, and a few I’ve read in the last year or two [2]. I’d forgotten how much I liked Leonard’s style, especially after a string of books that took fifteen paragraphs to describe the colour of the protagonist’s hair; his fast-paced storytelling doesn’t give you any time for introspection or deep analysis of the meaning of the blood spatter of the just-murdered character. He’s been shot, he’s dead, let’s move along, people, because there’s nothing more to see here.

The second category is a little harder to remember. There’s a bunch of things I have written down in my notebook, and there are several titles and authors that spring to mind, but I’d like to beg your indulgence for a few more days to get them written down.

[1] I know there’s been several paperback romance novels, but don’t ask me to name authors or titles.
[2] Kevin Brockmeier’s The Brief History of the Dead, David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars, Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time-Traveler’s Wife.

~ Kwitney, Alyssa, On the Couch (4)
The reviews on the back of the book go on about how it was “kinky” and “erotic.” Really? That’s what passes for “kinky” and “erotic” these days? It was just kind of vanilla, and a mild version at that. It also had an abrupt ending and a series of frustrating, unanswered questions. And boring sex, which was the greatest crime of all.

~ Hiem, Scott, Mysterious Skin (6.5)
I seem to have read a lot of books where chapters alternate between different characters and different voices. In this book, I didn’t find it very effective because there wasn’t a lot of difference in the voices – they all sounded alike. That said, I still liked the book, what with the heartbreaking “alien abduction” and the tender finale.

~ Sloan, Brian, A Fine Prom Mess (7)
For days after I read this book, something about it nagged me until I finally figured it out. The crazy prom plot and all the wild and wacky things that occurred reminded me of an early Gordon Korman novel, except there was just one protagonist who embodied both the anarchist and the uptight characters of the Korman buddy novels. Even though it was pretty implausible, it was still fun.

~ Dessen, Sarah, Lock and Key (7)
I still don’t know how I feel about this one. On one hand, it broke out of the happily-ever-after endings I’m used to, and the male protagonist was just as flawed as the female protagonist. On the other hand, the overall story was much darker than normal – child abandonment, abusive parents, alcoholism and casual drug use.

~ Peters, Julie Anne, Luna (5)
God, this book was stressful to read. There were many times where I’d put the book down and walk away because I didn’t want to know what happened next. And then I’d pick it up, read a few pages, and put it down again. The narrator, the sister of the titular “Luna,” was the most stressed-out person in literature, which is understandable considering her brother is transgender and hiding it from their parents, who are complete assholes.

Today when I got to work, a book I’d had on reserve for three weeks (or so) was waiting for me at my desk. I all but threw aside the book I started reading this morning to fill the gaping void left by my want… nay, need to read this other book. I’m not too proud to admit that I spent a goodly portion of my day and all of my lunch hour devouring this book, snatching greedy moments to read a few more pages. When I got home, I dropped my purse and bag and sat down in the first chair I passed to finish reading it [1].

The whole time I was doing this, I felt like a glutton, gobbling up chunks of the story; I realized that I can be a very selfish reader and woe unto s/he who comes between me and a book I’m reading that I really like – my enjoyment of a book comes first and everything else comes a distant second. I will ignore you, along with many other things, to reread clever passages, humourous moments or all the times the protagonist and their One True Love exchange meaningful dialogue. Deep, deep down, I’m a hopeless romantic in a tiny corner of the shriveled appendage that passes for my heart.

Moving on… here’s what I read in April. When I looked back to see what I read before my 9-book marathon, I was surprised that I’d read a few. But not at all surprised that I’d forgotten most of them.

Leslie Marshall, A Girl Could Stand Up (6)
What this book really boiled down to was that families come in all shapes and sizes. No matter how weird your relatives are, it doesn’t stop them from sometimes having a profound effect on our lives, especially if they really care about you, and you care about them. It’s also about how families aren’t always about what we’re born into, they’re sometimes what we make.

Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus! (8)
Colour me surprised – I really, really liked this book about a school shooting and its aftermath. It was funny in a sorrowful way, and also about all the ways hope and faith can save us. I think the part I loved the most were Jason and Heather’s little characters that acted as a creative outlet for them, as well as an emotional outlet for Jason.

Terry Pratchett, Pyramids (6)
Colour me surprised again – I didn’t really enjoy this book. It’s one of his earlier ones, and is focused more on the hocus-pocus than it is on the metaphor.

Christopher Buckley, Florence of Arabia (3)
Oh, I wanted to like this book. It seemed sort of silly and had the potential to be a lightweight sort of read, but then it started taking itself seriously, and then the shooting started and nothing made sense anymore. Also, I wasn’t sure what political lesson I was supposed to take away from it, because there was a Political Lesson You Must Learn About The Middle East and it wasn’t all that clear. [2]

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (2)
When I told my friend Lise what I was reading for book club, she confessed that she’d read this one back-to-back with Angela’s Ashes last year [3]. Fortunately, I only had to read half of that double-header – I KNOW it’s representative of a Certain Place and a Certain Time. I KNOW that various characters were just being realistic and not really cruel. I KNOW that the prejudices were a product of the time and oh, isn’t it dandy that we live in such enlightened times? But it doesn’t change the fact I thought it was unrelentingly depressing and negative – it’s not enough that this girl grows up in poverty and that her mother is a misogynist, it’s also that any time anyone thinks about doing something kind for them they immediately start second-guessing themselves and change their minds (“kindness will make them weak!”) This is my mother’s favourite book, and my reaction is the same as when we had to read Wuthering Heights for a book club many years ago [3.5] – really? No, REALLY?

Suzanne Brockmann, The Troubleshooters Inc. series (9)
‘Way back in December, one day while I was covering the circ desk in my department, someone came up and dropped a couple of talking books on MP3 at the counter and said she’d be right back. I picked up the case for the one on top, and thought, “Oh, it’s part of a series about Navy SEALs and other ass-kicking types, and this is the ‘Christmas’ story [4]. How twee.” Flipping it over, I started reading the back, which starts out with your usual “Jules and Robin are getting married, and then Jules has to go kick someone’s ass overseas, blah blah blah…” and as I was about to put it back I caught the phrase “their mutual ex-boyfriend.”

WAIT, WHAT? Let me see if I understand this correctly: someone has written a series about a group of people who regularly kick terrorist ass, break up spy rings and rescue hostages, and one of them is gay? And not the heroine’s best friend who simpers and stereotypes his way through the book? And can regularly out-think and out-kick the hetro guys? AND is getting married to another guy? Wow. Where do I start reading? [5]

It took me a while to get around to it because, to be honest, not only did I forget the author’s name, I also forgot the name of the book. DUH. Then about a month ago, it passed over the counter again, and it triggered an “oh yeah!” and I found out that my library has all but one of the books in the series. In what can only be described as something akin to what alcoholics experience when they binge drink and lose chunks of time to blackouts, I read nine of the books in the series in two weeks, two more in the following week, and the last one I finished tonight (the 12th book in the series).

I can’t even begin to figure out how I got hooked on them in the first place. Normally, my Rational Self starts reading something like this, and starts huffing about how it’s so unrealistic and implausible, and how she can’t suspend my disbelief long enough to finish the book, let alone the first ten pages. Sometimes, though, my Irrational Self – the hopeless romantic who believes that maybe somewhere out there things like this really could happen – starts reading over Rational Self’s shoulder and sees something she likes. In this case, it appears as if my Irrational Self not only took over to finish reading all the books in the series, it actually beat up my Rational Self and locked her in the bathroom while doing so.

Sometimes, there is no other way to explain why or how, other than to say I just dug it.

[1] To be fair, it’s not a long book. Under 300 pages and hardcover, which = less than 3 hours to read for me.
[2] The note I made for myself reads “eye-rollingly annoying.”
[3] I can’t be certain, but I think this qualifies her for a free pint of Ben & Jerry’s and a bottle of tequila because there isn’t a more depressing combo out there.
[3.5] Being far younger than everyone else (like, by 30 years), all the other people in the group had read it as a great romantic novel. I read it as some creepy, abusive stalker who was obsessed with some flaky twit, and failed to see the romance. What can I say – sometimes I’m a little cynical.
[4] I also made a vague note to check and see if we had the rest of the series on any audio-book format, and it turns out we don’t. Still don’t, for that matter, because I haven’t had a lot of time to look.
[5] The first person to suggest “at the beginning” wins nothing.

I will give you a teaser though: in the first two weeks, I read four books. In the second two weeks, I read nine books (…really!) [2]. In the last week, I read one more and finished my book club book, which was a total drag.

Also of interest – I broke down and bought the Flight of the Conchords CD today, and it was totally worth it. And I met with some friends for coffee this afternoon, and three of us had knitting with us. The elderly couple at the table next to us were gobsmacked that us youngin’s was knittin’. Erin and I were working on socks, and Rosemary was working on a sweater.

Okay, must go locate blouse. And iron. And board.

[1] And I don’t know what the weather is like in either place, which made packing a bitch.
[2] Part of the reason I can’t do this tonight is that I have much to say about them, and it’s going to have to wait.

I get to the coffee shop, and the first thing I notice is all the people dressed in really sharp suits. Like, pinstripe-tailored-expensive looking suits. I’ve never seen that many people dressed that well in North Bay, let alone in one place, so I guessed there must be some kind of meeting going on. Turning to go to the counter, there’s a guy sitting at the table who looks awfully familiar, and he’s talking to four or five other people who are also sharply dressed. I glance away, thinking, “Naaaaaaaw.” I glance back. Yup, it’s Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario [3]. Sitting in my coffee shop. He was in town to make a funding announcement at the university, and he must have been meeting with some other supporters. Cool.

~ Lisa Lutz. The Spellman Files (7.5) and Curse of the Spellmans (7)
Two books about a family of private investigators – ostensibly they’re about solving a central mystery, but it’s really secondary to seeing how awesomely dysfunctional the family really is. (The mysteries never turn out to be very big or important or dangerous – they exist to demonstrate how the family operates – they reminded me of the Royal Tenenbaums.) I enjoyed how the story was broken down into reports and side-notes, but I can be anal and organized and found it helpful to keeping the various threads of the story straight. Warning: it’s not a linear story, so avoid if this might bug you.

~ Dave Bidini. The Five Hole Stories (6)
If I told you this was a book of hockey erotica, would you believe me? Would you read it? Eh. One point for each story, and an extra one for the thinly-veiled #99 fantasy.

~ Karen McCullah Lutz. The Bachelorette Party (8)
Basically I picked this one up because it was on the shelf beside the Lisa Lutz books, and I wasn’t expecting much at all. Much to my shock, I ended up loving it because it was funnier and smarter than I’d hoped. It’s not your typical chick lit, in that the heroine hooks up with the hot guy at the end – she *does* hook up with him, fully cognisant of the fact he’s unsuitable for her, and they part on good terms [4].

~ Max Brooks. World War Z (8)
Loved this book – the premise (zombies) and the execution (written as a series of survivor interviews in the aftermath) were well done. I gave it to my boss, and he loved it too. Except. When I finished reading it, I had trouble falling asleep for a few days, and still do if I’m tired – it sort of creeped me out. The one thing that stuck with me (and still keeps me awake) was the “moan chain” – if a zombie saw an uninfected person, they would moan, and all the zombies within hearing range would moan and then come to the first zombie, and then all the zombies that heard the second group would also moan and then go see what was up. And so on. Like I said, great book, but keeping it in the house was not a good idea – I would get the willies every time I looked at it (hence my giving it to my boss, who’s a big fan of horror.)

~ Gil Adamson. The Outlander (6)
Last night I was reading a review of this book, and it mentioned that the mother of the protagonist died of lupus. Try as I might, I can’t remember if it was ever mentioned how she died or what she died of, or even what her symptoms were, so I don’t know where they got that from. But that’s just a minor detail in the overall scheme of things. Reading it was like being back in high school, where you have to read stuff because it’s timeless and it’s good for you, gosh darn it, kind of like cod liver oil and confessing your sins to the priest before high holy days [5]. Given its locations, time, events, and cast of “characters,” it’s the quintessential Canadian novel, and reads like mental cheese-flavoured rice cakes – they’re kind of bland but with a hint of something and filling if you eat a whole bag of them, but ultimately don’t do much to satisfy your cravings for a good story.

~ Rachel Cohn. Cupcake (7)
Much better than the second book in the series, Shrimp. Cyd is slightly less obnoxious, definitely more mature, and certainly unchanged in the narcissist department. In the end, she FINALLY figured out she needs to go with what’s best for her, not what her libido wants.

That’s it for my March books. April is shaping up to be similar, although I’m stalled out on my (Sudbury) book club book. Gah.

[1] Well, tossed with prejudice across the counter at me.[2]
[2] Don’t let anyone tell you that working in a library is boring!
[3] Back in my politically annoying student days, I was a member of the Young Liberals, the youth wing of the party. As a member, I actually attended the leadership convention where he was elected head of the party. One of the best pictures I took that weekend was shortly after the announcement that he’d won, around 2am Sunday morning – he’s sitting on stage by himself looking slightly stunned and absurdly pleased.
[4] Which doesn’t normally happen in these types of books, so it was a refreshing change of pace.
[5] That had nothing to do with the book and everything to do with my emotionally scarred psyche.