"You go talk to kindergartners or first-grade kids, you find a class full of #science enthusiasts. They ask deep questions. They ask, "What is a #dream, why do we have #toes, why is the #moon round, what is the birthday of the #world, why is #grass#green?"These are profound, important #questions. They just #bubble right out of them.You go talk to 12th graders and there's none of that. They've become #incurious.Something terrible has happened between kindergarten and 12th grade." #CarlSagan
Part of the SF Masterworks Collection. Despite being nearly 60 years old the narrative around the manipulation of the truth feels incredibly prescient. Wondering whether David Whitaker had read it before he came up with #DoctorWho story The Enemy of the World. #Books#Bookstodon#SciFi#PhilipKDick
Terry Jones’ Barbarians An Alternative Roman History
Terry Jones & Alan Ereira
Part of my ongoing effort to better educate myself around ancient history, a period I never really got to grips with. Thought initially the bite size sections were helpful in not getting overwhelmed by it all, but progressively felt they may actually have stopped me ever getting into a rhythm with it. Still pretty readable though and I think at least some of it will stick. #Books#Bookstodon#History
The Wonderful World of Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups
Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris
A great idea to finish off a great idea. There aren’t that many books that consistently make you laugh out loud, but Hazeley and Morris have written a lot of them. A book to keep going back and dipping into. Great fun.
Often described as the first mystery novel it’s the first work by Collins I’ve read. The structure works well and Sergeant Cuff is an excellent creation albeit not one who actually takes up huge amounts of the story. The periods he does take centre stage feel remarkably modern, which gives a good idea of the influence the story had on what came later. A few dated aspects as you might expect, but a good read.
A story of how giving up your morals may bring you success, but not happiness. Steinbeck’s final novel and one that showcases his ability to preach his view of the world while building a tight tense story around characters who feel incredibly real. Enjoyed it if that is the right word.
The fourth in Pryce’s Louie Knight series. Set at Christmas this is the darkest of the first four novels while still being very funny in places. There’s an awful lot of threads thrown at this one and I’m not sure they all stick quite as well as earlier entries, but it’s still very enjoyable and the noir Aberystwyth, Louie and his assistant Calamity are all terrific creations.
Despite seeing various different TV and film adaptations I’d never read the novel. As good as some of those are the novel outflanks them all. I can see why it’s regarded as one of the great sci-fi novels. Where Wyndham is so good is in creating a very real sense of a global disaster and building that world, but at the same time keeping it personal and making you care about the individuals. 5⭐️
Enjoyable comedy crime caper set around a Sci-Fi convention full of little in-jokes. It’s fairly light and very easy to read. Whizzed through it in a couple of days.
First Perry Mason novel I’ve read after many years of seeing the TV adaptations. Races along perfectly well with enough mystery involved to keep you wanting to turn the page. I’ll happily pick out some more in the future.
Wodehouse is by some distance my favourite author. The world he created is full of pure joy and I never bore of escaping into it. He’s one of the few authors who I can re-read over and over again. The Mating Season exhibits him at his absolute best with so many lines and turns of phrase that have you smiling ear to ear or chuckling. He was the master.
One of those books that always appears on must-read lists that has nonetheless sat unread on my pile of books for many a year. I regret now not getting round to it earlier. I found the storytelling to be incredibly vivid and though I’m not a great one for re-reading things I can imagine myself coming back to it at some point.
Not my first read of it, but my first for a very long time. Has its strengths as it adds more depth to the Holmes character and the mystery works well enough. On the negative side the Watson-Mary ‘romance’ is pretty weak and obviously there are elements that haven’t aged so well. Overall it’s enjoyable enough without being Holmes at its absolute best.
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Peter Frankopan
Really effective. Manages to add context and a new perspective to the changing power dynamics of world history in a really entertaining way. I took a lot from it.
A find in a charity shop that I picked up largely as I had a vague memory of reading bits of it for my A-Level studies. It remains pretty readable and it’s a nice not too involved overview of the Stuart dynasty.
Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks
The Essential Alan Coren
I was a bit young at the time for Coren’s writing and so really knew him as the very funny man from Radio 4’s The News Quiz or Call My Bluff with Sandy Toksvig at the time. This collection shows why he was considered to be one of Britain’s great comic writers. Some of his early stuff has language that wouldn’t be used today, but it mostly stands up very well.
A really interesting read. It’s I think very successful in achieving what it is trying to do and the characters are incredibly vivid. By the end I was starting to find it quite tiring spending that much time with so many unlikable characters, but it does sort of feel like that was always supposed to be the point to some degree. I’d say I’m glad I’ve read it and I’m also glad it’s ended.
For the most part I really enjoyed this. For an 18th century novel it feels quite modern and it’s interesting how it references the great influence Laurence Sterne had on it. There’s enough amusement in the way the apparently simple story of one man telling another about his past love keeps getting interrupted by other tales to make it enjoyable albeit I was a little weary of the style by the end.
The Frood: The Authorised and Very Official History of Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Jem Roberts
Finished coincidentally on what would have been the great writers 71st birthday. I’ve read Jem’s other comedy biographies of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, Blackadder, Fry & Laurie and The Beatles and as a comedy geek enjoyed them all.
The influence on Orwell’s 1984 is obvious and there are lots of great ideas and passages within the story. That said while I appreciated it I can’t say I ever felt gripped by it or as engaged with the characters as in 84 or other similar works.
Penguin Plays: Four English Comedies
Volpone by Jonson
The Way of the World by Congreve
She Stoops to Conquer by Goldsmith
The School for Scandal by Sheridan
A nice little collection as part of the Penguin series. Definitely found the two later plays came across better on the page, but there was something to enjoy in them all.
Behind on this list due to struggling to get logged-in for a while so will update to where I have got to.
I often struggle to get as engaged in a collection of short stories as I do in a novel, but there is unsurprisingly some very good stuff in this collection from Greene.
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