Here’s what I read in September: The Pythons’ Autobiography By The Pythons, Monty Python and Bob McCabe – pulled together by McCabe with care and loving attention to detail. Wonderful to see the personalities revealed via the history, the disagreements and differing perspectives. A rare thing: a top notch autobiography. The Other Hand, Chris Cleave […]
Category Archives: readinglist
Recent Reading
The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith – easily the best and least irritating Zadie Smith book ever. Hated White Teeth? Try this one. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk – dark, disturbing and funny in that way that Chuck Palahniuk (and, in their own way, Irvine Welsh and Iain Banks) can sometimes be. Dead Air, Iain Banks – reread […]
Recent Reading
The Beach, Alex Garland – better each time I read it. And so much better than the film. Remarkable first novel. Paperweight, Stephen Fry – quite lovely, though bitty Richter 10, Arthur C. Clarke & Mike McQuay – pappy. Clarke came up with the idea and the story in 3 pages. McQuay did all the […]
Recent reading
May 31 Songs, Nick Hornby – meh The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz – hmm The Robots of Dawn, Isaac Asimov – gah Have I Got Views For You, Boris Johnson – yawn Moondust, Andrew Smith – yay June To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer – passable sci-fi. Apparently it’s […]
Recent reading
Peter Kay, The Sound of Laughter – exactly as funny and self deprecating as you’d expect Peter Kay’s autobiography to be. A few weird quirks (“…that was a joke.”) that don’t seem to translate well to paper, but mostly good fun. Dave Gorman, America Unchained – even funnier and even more self deprecating, Dave Gorman […]
Recent Reading
February Arthur C Clarke and Michael Kube-McDowell, The Trigger – I’d like this book a lot more if it didn’t have an ex-baseball star President who speaks in non-stop sports metaphors. Also, the references to Arthur C Clarke (including Clarke’s three laws and Clarke Orbits) are quite grating. Forgettable Thomas Harris, Black Sunday – bad […]
Recent Reading
January Iain M Banks, Matter – oooh, a new Culture book. It’s quite good, too. Armando Iannucci, Facts and Fancies – chucklesome but bitty. Slightly inconsistent, but worth it for some moments of Armando Iannucci at his insightful, cutting and random best. George Orwell, Animal Farm – I studied this at school, and re-reading it […]
Recent Reading
Mark Haddon, A Spot of Bother – a beautiful and wonderful story. Fiction for men always makes me happy. Hornby does it well, but I prefer Haddon. He also wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which I really enjoyed on holiday recently. James Bradley, The Resurrectionist – I wanted to like […]
Recent reading
Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Shadow – a parallel story to Ender’s Game, following the background of the ‘Bean’ character. A tiny bit smug and pleased with itself in places (hello, Orson Scott Card) but a lovable book anyway. Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down – I enjoyed the characters (though, as often happens with Hornby, […]
Recent Reading
Since starting my new job, I’ve had a fair bit of time to read on the train, and at stations while waiting for trains. I notice I’ve been avoiding anything too arduous in the past couple of weeks, and most of this list is me re-reading some of the kid-lit I enjoyed as a teenager. […]