It may be time to start treating my sleep patterns like the weather (pack umbrella and sunblock, cross your fingers and hope for the best) rather than trying to work with it on any kind of rational basis.

I've often wondered if a lot of the problems that people have with sleep are at least partly to do with the fact that we try to constrain sleep to some kind of oversimplified pattern (which usually boils down to roughly "get ~8 hours' sleep a night otherwise you will be tired the next day") when we don't fully understand the factors involved. I mean, partly that we're failing to recognise that some things affect sleep more than we think they should; and partly that our sense of guilt/obligation about sleep ("It has to fit this pattern, otherwise it's Wrong") actually hinders restful sleep.

What I really want (and I've said this before, though I can't remember where) is a book that sadly doesn't exist, called "Sleep for Dummies". The book would explain the different phases of sleep, and go through all the things that can affect sleep, and generally demystify the whole process.

Ho hum.

...

I know everyone says Perdido Street Station was his masterpiece, but I'm not sure I didn't enjoy King Rat at least as much.

Oh, I definitely enjoyed King Rat, but I do think Perdido Street Station is a more complex and more mature novel -- much more depth to it.

It was interesting to see how in King Rat he's still explicitly writing about London (if a more magical London), whereas in Perdido Street Station he moves beyond that -- you can still see the influences of London on New Crobuzon (?) but it's definitely a fully realised fictional city rather than a fictionalised version of an existing city. Also in KR he's reworking existing myths; in PSS he really starts creating his own mythology.

Oh, and I'd just like to say: Mornington Crescent.

Agreed on all counts about sleep, and I'd buy Sleep for Dummies too!

King Rat: to some extent I think it adds to it that he's reworking existing myths. I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed that book nearly as much if it had been set in a fictitious pseudo-London and had made its bad guy up completely, because I wouldn't have had that "wait a minute, it's not going to turn out to be ... no, it can't be, he wouldn't dare" sort of speculation in the run-up to the major revelation. Not that PSS didn't work very well at making up its own mythology too - either approach can be done well or badly, but I'm unconvinced that I prefer one over the other in general.

Oh, I definitely enjoyed King Rat, but I do think Perdido Street Station is a more complex and more mature novel -- much more depth to it.

Seconded. King Rat is good, but China has obviously grown up quite a bit between the two, in style if nothing else. King Rat has a definite "first novel" feel to the writing in places...

PS If you're given the chance to hear him speak, grab it with both hands. He's stunningly good (possibly even better than at writing).

Seconded, Pirates of the Caribbean was very good. I didn't see much of the self-reference in the film as that, but as character interplay, really. Still an excellent film. Better than Terminator 3 for the title of 'summer blockbuster', I think.

any film in which someone performs a handbrake turn in a ship under full sail gets my vote

Yay! :) It worked, didn't it?

Hmm, someone needs to film some of the Aubrey/Maturin stories...

In theory they do, but somehow it would really need a mini-series per book to do the subtlties justice. I know that ITV did a Hornblower series not long ago (about 6 years) but I didn't see it.

I haven't seen PoC yet: am going on Thursday....

I wonder if you could get away with an Inspector Morse style setup...

Last four nights I've had four, twelve, five, nine hours...