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  Science Fiction in 2012. Science fiction has not had a great year in television and movies. No Inception or Moon was released this year. No Torchwood made it on to the small screen and Doctor Who mainly sucked again. But the lack of quality on the big and small screen was more than made up for by what I was reading. I read some great science fiction this year. On the Idiot Box . Even though I have access to the sci-fi channel on Foxtel, I was thinking there was very little new science fiction on the small screen this year. That was until I thought about it, it was more a matter of their being anything to rival Torchwood or The X-Files. This year I watched: ·          Alcatraz ·          Terra Nova ·          Doctor Who ·          Warehouse 13 ·       ...

  Movies of Novels. I have read both the Life of Pi , by Yann Martel and The Hobbit , so I will toddle off to the picture theatre to see their films. When I read the Life of Pi I found the Sixth Sense like twist at the end threw me out of a great fantasy into a unwelcome reality. But the more I reflect on that ending, the more I like it. I think knowledge of the ending will really affect the way I view the film. Whereas those who have not read the novel, if the film is true to it, will be in for a surprise at the end, that changes everything you have just watched. The Hobbit I loved the Lord of the Rings novels and movies. I also enjoyed reading The Hobbit , which is a much slighter novel than the LOR novels. I, like many, think it is absolutely ridiculous that a 278 page novel has been turned into three movies. Evidentially the first movie only covers the first six chapters of the novel. I will go and see the movie, but I don’t expect any great dramatic mo...

How Many Books Do People Read Per Year? While reading some 2012 research about the rise of e-reading I came across the following statistics: 78% of Americans aged over 16 years had read a book in the past year. Of those 78% they read on average 17 books (mean) or 8 books (median) in the previous year. Now if my maths is right that means that if the 22 per cent who didn’t read books is added back in, than on average Americans over 16 read 13.2 books (mean) and who knows what the median average might be. (Note: I changed this bit of the post because my maths was wrong.) Last year, I read only 13 books. So I only reached the mean average of books. As a writer I reckon I should be reading a lot more than the average person reads in a year. (Note: I had a look for Aussie statistics but could not find any – if only I was looking for stats on something important like sport or beer drinking). I immediately thought up excuses for not reading much more than the average pers...