Mad Men and book sale

Alright, so today a big (is it only in Sweden or elsewhere as well?) tradition kicked off; the annual book sale. It starts in February each year and continues for... I don't really know, about a month? To be quite fair I usually don't pay a lot of attention to the whole thing, simply because it can get as crazy as Christmas shopping... And the regular big book shops (the big corporations, like the Swedish version of WH Smith) don't really have the kind of books I read. I read fantasy, horror and sometimes, but very rarely, science fiction. Those genres are still pretty obscure here and the regular shops only hold about one shelf of English language fantasy and one shelf of Swedish language fantasy. It's kind of ridiculous... But in the three largest cities in Sweden (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö) we have book stores called the Science Fiction Book Store, which is heaven for me and all other geeks of various size and interest. They stock manga, anime, Asian pop culture (not music), RPG, board games, science fiction books, fantasy books and horror books. They too participate in the book sale. So today me and my friend Kajsa went there to take a look. Actually none of us could really afford to heavily spoil ourselves with new books, but we managed to walk out of there with three books each.

Looking at their web page yesterday I had my eyes set on one book specifically; Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman.  Since 2010 when I read Smoke & Mirrors, Fragile Things, Coraline and Stardust I've really been a huge fan of his way of writing. And now after recently finishing Good Omens, I feel like this is the next one I'll deal with before getting started with American Gods, Anansi Boys and The Graveyard Book.
After getting my hands on that one I found, by chance, By Blood We Live. It's a compilation book with vampire stories by Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Tanith Lee and Anne Rice among others. Some of them will undoubtedly be the urban fantasy vampire, but I have hope that some of them will be the classic Victorian vampire that I like.
Then I had decided that I was done with getting books. But Kajsa wanted to go check out the New Arrivals book section too and I went with her. The first book my eyes fell on in that book case was Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper. The cover immediately spoke to me and as I read the back cover I realised that I would probably like reading this one. So I just had to buy that one too... So I got out of the shop €28 poorer, but three books richer ;)

Now for something completely different...

Yesterday I finished watching the latest season of Mad Men. So now I've caught up. I like it a lot, although I'm really not sure why xD It's not the type of TV-show I usually watch.
Anyway I've really fallen for Peggy, I think she's great. Maybe not in the first season, but the three after that and especially in the fourth season she's awesome!
Then there's Don. The main character. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I hate him, sometimes I pity him, sometimes I think he's an idiot, sometimes I feel compassion, sometimes I think he's an ass... But the fact that he's a character with many layers that stirs so many feelings makes me want to continue watching.
And Sally. I've always liked Sally. Even in the first two seasons when she wasn't such a big character. Now I like her even more.
I used to not care for Joan, but the more I've seen of the series the more I've grown to like her. I really missed her when she quit Sterling Cooper cause she got married and I was really happy when she came back to work again. I like her a lot in the fourth season.
Then there are the characters I don't like.
For example Betty. I thought she was a little weird in the first season, but as the season's have been going on she's getting more and more neurotic and more and more obstinate. She's acting more and more like a spoiled child.
Then we have Roger Sterling. Another adult that keeps acting like a child and can't get his temper under control. I dislike the fact that he doesn't seem able to think ahead. He divorces his wife and marries a woman young enough to be his daughter and it seems to be a spur of the moment thing. He can't get over Joan and it doesn't seem like he's making any attempts to do so either. He's too confident and then he gets mad when things don't go his way. Like a petulant child.
Then there's Pete Campbell, whom I'm not really certain if I like or not. Sometimes I think he's great. Sometimes I think he's just a boasting kid trying desperately to get on the top of his game. Trying desperately to be one of the big boys although it seems like he's just starting out. He just seems too desperate to make a fantastic career sometimes.

Thus far the fourth season is the one I like the most. But the fourth season wouldn't be great without the other three ones to let the characters and the story evolve. The next season (coming on March 25th) will be very interesting... :)