i suspect this will be embarassing. i don't read much.

( the Big Read's book list )

clearly, i read more as a kid... i reckon from smallish til 16 i averaged 6 reading (as opposed to instructional) books a week. since then i've probably only read 20 books at all, not including stuff for uni. hmm... maybe a few more than that now. i've been making an effort the last 2 years - but no narrative/fiction stuff, more straightforward learning stuff, whatever that's called.
actually if any of y'all have particular books to recommend, let me know. but no massive lists, it just won't happen.

i remembered what i meant to say the other day - isn't the blossom wonderful right now? especially the almond blossom, candyfloss-pink pom-poms of petals. and wasn't the magnolia this year really outstanding? it must've been the odd weather over winter, but it seemed to me the magnolia flowers were better than usual. taking the train out west, kingston, windsor sort of direction there were lots, really stunning. they're all gone now though. 

here's a good thing: David Nash "Boulder"
which led to another maybe-good book: "Wildwood: A journey through trees" by Roger Deaking (paperback due in June)

and then i found in an old notebook a list of books i'd written down, mostly origami stuff by Robert Lang. Also "Informal" by Cecil Balmond (structural engineering) which i read and liked enough that i thought i might buy, but haven't yet, "Weaving as metaphor" by Sheila Hicks (art), "Talking Man" by Terry Bisson (novel) (neither of which i've seen but thought sounded interesting) and "Scaramouche Jones" by Justin Butcher (a play i saw performed by Pete Postlethwaite and loved). The last 2 seem to be out of print though. 
i got the office to buy the Colin St John Wilson book for their library though, so i can have a good look at that. 

so i still don't understand about keeping medium format film. i haven't found the answer on the internet but i'm sure i'm just not looking in the right place (halp?!). i will ask Darkside, they seem nice. i have no idea really if their processing skills are all that, but they don't treat me with contempt nor blatantly screw up, so i will stick with them for now. 

i just bought the film cutter. seems like a lot for what it is but heck, i'm crap with scissors. 

ooh and i just listened to this lot, they're awright i reckon Pin Me Down (dubious name though), 80's pop style, playing the WaterRats (yay!) on Wednesday 7th May. and it looks like i'll be able to go to see Performance on Tuesday after all. hurrah!

The Craftsman by Richard Sennet - a subject i'm interested in and by the man who 'changed my world' - The Fall of Public Man was one of the only books i read in first year of uni (actually i read it in the  summer after) and i'd never read (or at least never absorbed) anything remotely resembling sociology before - humanities stuff with ideas in. 

Barbershops by Claudine Sauvé (photos) and Tally Abecassis (interviews). it looks cute.

Colin St John Wilson: Buildings and Projects by Roger Stonehouse and Eric Parry (i've never  bought an architectural monograph before but it looks nice. actually i barely know 'Sandy's work, apart from Scroppe Terrace and the British Library - the former i really rather like, the latter i'm a bit indifferent to... )

 oh yes, there's a review of the Kettles Yard exhib in the BD