Book Review: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan and Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

With the reading challenge surpassed, this week I review Mortality by Christopher Hitchens and The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan.

Well, this is a bit of a surprise - I didn't think I'd be able to read 12 books in a year, let alone 15. There's something a little different too. I thought I may have been reading too much fiction and not enough that was grounded in reality, so I decided to read Christopher Hitchens's final book Mortality.

The Fires of Heaven - Robert Jordan

Image credit: Amazon, you can buy it there in a range of formats.

The fifth book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series follows the beginnings of Rand's campaign towards the Last Battle. Rand pursues the Shaido Aiel across the Spine of the World following the trail of death left in their wake. Long-dead memories help Mat become an adept battle strategist  while he attempts to break away from the Dragon Reborn. Elayne and Nyaneve find their way to the rebel Aes Sedai and Queen Morgase of Andor escapes from a trap of compulsion.

Mortality - Christopher Hitchens

Image credit: Amazon, available in a range of formats.

Christopher Hitchens has long been a hero of mine. His last book before his death is his raw, confronting story of his diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and his observations on the way we think and speak about death in our day to day lives. Part of what is so powerful about this book is because of it's rawness; it is not complete - you can envision that Hitchens had much grander plans for this book, but was cut short. The final chapter is a collection of his jottings and notes, of ideas that he wanted to connect, of chapters he wanted to form - perhaps after doing some more research or reading, or perhaps just that he hadn't yet gotten to writing them. A writer, public speaker and debater without equal - fearless to speak his mind, charismatic and witty; the world has indeed lost one of it's greats.

I'm back (kind of)

My trusty Excel calculation (=weeknum(today(),1))) informs me that the 44th week of the year is coming to an end quickly, and I have a lot of catching up to do if I'm going to meet my goal of writing one blog post a week this year. So then, a quick update of what I've been up to while I haven't been blogging.

Basically, I've been fucking busy. My last post was at the start of October, and since then I've:

• celebrated Jess's birthday (which was a bonanza)
• celebrated Erin's birthday
• played a gig with Tortured
• driven down to Canberra and back twice
• started doing some research assistant work for Jess' mum
• finished a book and started two more and 
• started jamming with Namazu - a new Newcastle band with a bunch of cool guys, including Ian and Scott from my Exploding Clover days (You can check out some of their stuff here.)

All while also working full-time - it's been absolutely hectic. In fact, this weekend is going to be my first that is reasonably clear in all that time, and it's only because I'm planning on celebrating my birthday. I'm heading out to Potters Brewery in the Hunter Valley for lunch and tomorrow I'll be going out to Springloaded in Gateshead - a room full of trampolines - to throw dodgeballs at my closest friends. Followed by a barbecue.

On the subject of birthdays, Jess's birthday went very well this year - we had dinner and cheesecake with her family one night, we went out for dinner at Fortunate Son the next (awesome restaurant on Beaumont Street, by the by), and we had a barbecue with our friends the day after. And she seems to have really enjoyed her gifts, most of which I coordinated.

Last weekend, Tortured played a gig at The Basement in Canberra with Claret Ash, Psychrist and Cruciform. It was a pretty bad-ass show; all the bands were goddamn heavy, and I think we devastated even though we haven't had as much jam time since I moved to Newcastle. We even had our former bandmate Bobby from Wretch join us on stage, so meaty dual guitars topped off our sound for the night. Once again, I've got to give kudos to Aaron from Claret Ash for letting me use his kit; travelling light between Newcastle and Canberra is a huge bonus for me.

In other news, I saw that today was supposed to mark the beginning of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo if you insist. I was considering taking part, however, with how little time I have at the moment, I feel I would be crushed by the weight of the 1,700 or so words that I would need to write everyday to complete the challenge. Next year, mayhap.

One major resolution down!

Resolutions update

Major resolutions

1. Go to the gym three times a week

2. Drink less alcohol

3. Pay back the wedding by 30 June (Finished September 2014)

4. Complete the 26 Fortnight (52 week) saving challenge

5. Practice mindfulness

6. Be a better friend - remember birthdays, think of good gifts, enjoy your social life

7. Get recording studio going, learn to use ProTools, keep up the good work with the band!

Minor resolutions

Music Tuesday and rudiments practice

Mind expansion Sunday

Writing this blog

Spring cleaning the house

Read 12 books this year - Done!

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It's taken a little longer than anticipated, but I've finally managed to pay back my share of the wedding. This goal was kind of arbitrary as Jess and I paid for our wedding with our own savings, so we weren't really paying anyone back per se, the goal was just to break even/get back to where we were beforehand. The money that we 'paid back' for the wedding has been going towards our house deposit.

Most of the other goals don't have a defined end date, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post another of these until the end of the year.

On another note, I've started getting back into Mind Expansion Sunday - now that I have something to work on, that is. I recently found out I can undertake SAS training through my job at the University, so I intend on working my way through those courses and hopefully getting a SAS Advanced Programmer certification. After finishing that, I've been thinking about doing some stuff through Coursera or Khan Academy etc.

Until next time!