Winter is as persistent as a petulent child, and even though the days are getting longer and spring is getting closer, the weather is as miserably wintry as ever. It snowed yesterday - again - and the snow is doing a bang-up job of concealing the ice which covers every inch of pavement and street. Walking, then, is a risky business; suddenly you are heels-over-head and on your way to an appointment with pain. It's cold, and there's no relief in sight. March will provide little relief; it's often both colder and snowier than February. It will be April before things begin to improve. Spring is the briefest of seasons in Norway: It starts late, blooms into summer before you have time to settle in, and then, in the blink of an eye, it's September.

All right, now I'm being overly dramatic, and the good thing about February is that spring, summer, and autumn are still ahead of us. I'm no fan of winter - in the family of seasons, winter is the petulant child who's always kicking things over, starved for attention, being a royal pain in the arse - but I'd be really bored with just one season. Summer wouldn't be as wonderful as it is without the contrasts. I just wish we could soften that contrast, and dispense with the snow and the ice and the freezing cold.

Been reading a couple of great books lately (and thus breaking my cardinal Rule of Reading: never read two books at once):

First off, the third part of George R. R. Martin's stellar fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, A Storm of Swords. While there may be a few too many characters, it's still the most entertaining and exciting fantasy series I've read since the first five novels of The Wheel of Time. It really is worth picking up. The fourth book, A Feast for Crows, is coming out this year.

Secondly, Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a funny and educational look at the modern use (or disuse) of punctuation - including a fascinating look back at the origin of, amongst others, the semi-colon - and if that doesn't make you go "ooh, sounds fun!", then you're not a writing-geek like me...but you should still read it, because Truss is light and funny, and everyone ought to learn how to use a damn apostrophe.

Last, but definitely not least, I've just started reading Thornton Wilder's classic The Bridge of San Luis Rey, and once I get through that one - it's not long - I'll jot down my thoughts. So far, though, it seems very intriguing.

I've also picked up more books to add to my ever-growing mountain of unread books, amongst them Zadie Smith's debut novel White Teeth, China Mieville's debut novel King Rat, and Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors, which I thought I'd read but hadn't. At least I'll never be able to complain about not having enough to read. The only problem is finding the time to do so.  ¶ 00:30