Fellow cat lovers may want to check out "Marbles, D, and the Sinister Spotlight", an entry in this year's Spring Thing festival of interactive fiction games. This one is a traditional parser text adventure, where you play a cat, who has to help your person explore a mysterious theatre. You get extra points for doing cat like things. It's delightful. And very newbie friendly.

Got this new deck today. It's designed by Catherine Davidson and artist Thiago Corrêa.

It comes in a very oversized box, though that accommodates the relatively large guidebook nicely. One of my cards was slightly bent at the edge in the box, but it's ok now. The cards are a little flimsy, but shuffle well.

The guidebook is good. Very clear, easy to read, a good introduction, and looks comprehensive. Also has some nice ideas for spreads, including cat themed.

The card art is *gorgeous*. Some of the choices are a little off, but many look solid. And full of character. I laughed a lot when I saw the Four of Cups ...

I think I will find this deck more approachable than the traditional illustrations. Though it is based on those.

Finally managed to watch some of the festive talks from Treadwells, which are available to view free online until today. I'm considering taking out a short paid membership to watch some more of their online talks, so it was really good to try out the technology. Also highly amused at the cat interruptions, in the talk about Greek folk tales of goblins at Christmas!

Just three more books finished since last time. Though I've already reached my 2024 reading goal of 25 books finished. Which was, admittedly, a very modest goal. Of the new books read two were 3-star reads for me, and the other a 5-star read. That was the tale of bicycle riding Norwegian Forest Cat Sigrid in London. I've been following her on Instagram for a while, and it's been a delight to learn her history. I am now in a slight holding pattern fiction wise until the middle of July. But still reading lots of non fiction books. Plus some manga. And still a play script book. Those last ones in print.

( earlier books )
1. Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
2. Sigrid Rides: The Story of an Extraordinary Friendship and An Adventure on Two Wheels by Travis Nelson
3. Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami

Current main reading as of mid February 2022. Continuing the Wheel of Time book 2, Steve McNeil’s video games history and a marvellous Louis Wain cats book. New reads for me are a history of the Hermitage in St Petersburg, short novel Strange Weather in Tokyo, and Rachel Clarke’s junior Doctor story.

I generally like to have a couple of novels on the go at once, one usually gargantuan, so that’s why I’ve got the Japanese book newly started alongside the (admittedly nearly finished) fantasy novel. I also like a lot of non fiction books.

Normally I read in a gargantuan font on my Kindle, but two of the above books are coffee table sized printed ones i.e. the cats and Hermitage books. But both are very heavy on pictures and very light on text, so they’re just about manageable for me. Both gorgeous books anyway.

I have nearly finished the Wheel of Time book but don’t expect to go straight on to book 3. But I am likely to read another whopper of a novel next.