Laking86

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 4 of 2023

The Moonstone
Wilkie Collins

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.

#Books #Bookstodon #WilkieCollins

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 5 of 2023

The Winter of Our Discontent
John Steinbeck

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.

#Books #bookstodon #johnsteinbeck @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 6 of 2023

Don’t Cry For Me Aberystwyth
Malcolm Pryce

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.

#Books #bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 7 of 2023

The Day of the Triffids
John Wyndham

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⭐️

#Books #SciFi #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 8 of 2023

Geek Tragedy
Nev Fountain

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 9 of 2023

The Case of the Baited Hook
Erle Stanley Gardner

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 10 of 2023

The Mating Season
P. G. Wodehouse

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.

#Books #Bookstodon #PGWodehouse @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 11 of 2023

Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury

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.

#Books #SciFi #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 12 of 2023

The Sign of Four
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 13 of 2023

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.

#History #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 14 of 2023

The Stuarts
J. P. Kenyon

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.

#History #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 15 of 2023

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 16 of 2023

A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 17 of 2023

Jacques the Fatalist
Denis Diderot

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 18 of 2023

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.

#Books #Bookstodon #SciFi @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 19 of 2023

We
Yevgeny Zamyatin

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.

#Books #SciFi #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 1 year ago

#Book 20 of 2023

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 21 of 2023

Twenty-One Stories by Graham Greene

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.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 22 of 2023

Krumnagel by Peter Ustinov

I enjoy Ustinov’s prose and there is some good satirical stuff in there. It’s not laugh out loud funny (but then I find novels rarely are), but it raises a smile often enough. The plotting loses its way at times, but enjoyable enough.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 23 of 2023

The End of the Party by Andrew Rawnsley

Can’t imagine there will ever be a more definitive book covering the latter stages of the Blair and Brown governments. It’s a weighty tome, but extremely readable.

#Books #Bookstodon #Politics @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 24 of 2023

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Really wasn’t sure whether I would particularly enjoy it before I started, but I really loved it. I’ve never actually seen any of the adaptations in full just little snippets that have entered into popular culture so the story was mostly all new to me. A real unexpected delight.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 25 of 2023

Call for the Dead by John Le Carre

The spy author par excellence. Quite a short tale that engages throughout and is a thoroughly enjoyable read to kick off the George Smiley series.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 26 of 2023

Kill Your Friends by John Niven

Bleak, dark and deliberately unpleasant satire of the music industry. The bleakness and unpleasantness of practically every character and the extreme violence got a bit much at times and it’s very influenced by American Psycho, but I sped through it and it’s successful at what it is trying to do.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 27 of 2023

Warriors of Suez by Donald Neff

I’m weirdly fascinated by Suez and so have read many books on the subject. This was interesting as it’s the first I’ve read written from the American viewpoint of the crisis.

#Books #Bookstodon #History @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 28 of 2023

The Lecturer’s Tale by James Hynes

Bringing me back up-to-date with my most recent finished read. Enjoyed it in the most part although the ever escalating plot had lost me a little by the end.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 29 of 2023

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

This one has sat on my shelf for a number of years since I decided it would be a good idea to buy a load of Booker Prize winners. It’s quite a gentle read and pretty short, but I can’t say it really grabbed me. There’s no real plot to speak of, which I don’t mind, but I also wasn’t quite engaged enough in the characters to make up for that.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 11 months ago

#Book 30 of 2023

The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer

Debut novel by the national treasure that is Bob Mortimer. The plot is tidy and hangs together pretty well. There are the expected moments of slightly surreal daftness, but with it being tricky to make a novel downright hilarious the element of Mortimer’s work that shines through most is the general sweetness. It’s no game changer, but it’s an enjoyable read with some nice characters.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 10 months ago

#Book 31 of 2023

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman

I’m a total scientific idiot, but occasionally I try and change that with a book. What then happens is there will be a thing early on that makes sense to me and makes me think maybe I’ve cracked it before then getting lost in a world of equations and theories I don’t get and by the end I’ve forgotten that one thing I learned. This was no different, but that is no reflection on the quality of the book.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 10 months ago

@mvilain @bookstodon Thanks for the recommendation Michael

Laking86, 10 months ago

#Book 32 of 2023

The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury

Enjoyed it in the main and there is some smart and witty story in there. Suffers reading it now from the fact the world it is satirising doesn’t really exist any more.

#Books #bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 10 months ago

#Book 33 of 2023

Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes

Enjoyed the different style and format of it. At the same time not sure I was ever fully engaged. More than interesting enough for me to be glad I read it though.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 10 months ago

#Book 34 of 2023

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

It’s some years since I last read this and while I remembered it fondly I think it’s even better than I was expecting. A clever, interesting story with all the usual wit of Adams and genuinely laugh out loud funny, which I don’t say often about novels. It’s very good.

#Books #SciFi #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 10 months ago

#Book 35 of 2023

A Short History of English Literature by Sir Ifor Evans

Very readable edition of a Pelican book reprinted on numerous occasions, this one in 1967. Occasionally drifts into a sort of snobbishness that would be quite irritating in a modern book, but oddly just feels quite charming given the time and distance from it’s publication.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 10 months ago

#Book 36 of 2023

Sharpe’s Tiger by Bernard Cornwell

My Dad had all the Sharpe books when I was a kid so I would occasionally read bits of them and then watched the TV series. This is the first time I’ve read one since and they remain very readable engaging historical adventure stories. Interesting reading this prequel and seeing how much Sean Bean’s performance clearly influenced Cornwell’s later novels in the series.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 10 months ago

#Book 37 of 2023

1974 by David Peace

This has sat on my shelves unread for some time despite being much acclaimed. I have to say it wasn’t really for me. It did manage to pull me into the story midway through, but by the end I felt it collapsed a little under the sheer weight of criminality in the plot. Unlikely that I will be reaching out to read the rest in the series.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 9 months ago

#Book 38 of 2023

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England ed Antonia Fraser

Must have been a charity shop purchase some time ago as I have no real recollection of buying it. Very readable little collection of short summaries of each monarch’s reign.

#Books #Bookstodon #History @bookstodon

Laking86, 9 months ago

#Book 39 of 2023

The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson

Been jumping in and out of this for the last few weeks and it really is a joy. So clever and funny and something I was sad to finish, but will consistently come back to.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Panel from The Complete Far Side. A lecturer stands at the front of a room in front of a diagram of a cow with an arrow to it and the word ‘cow’ coming off the arrow. He points to the a man at the back with his hand up and says “Yes…I believe there’s a question at the back”

Laking86, 9 months ago

#Book 40 of 2023

White Man Falling by Mike Stocks

Enjoyed this more as it progressed. Genuinely funny at times and the story of a man accidentally becoming a guru is very engaging and cleverly realised. The elements of the story set around an attempted arranged marriage I enjoyed less and I thought slowed it down a little. Overall a good read despite that.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 8 months ago

#Book 41 of 2023

English Journey by J B Priestley

What was at the time a travelogue now reads as a socio-historical record of inter-war industrial England. Sections of it dragged as often visits to a new town or city meant a trip around another factory, but mostly Priestley is an engaging tourist. The section on Liverpool has not aged well at all.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 8 months ago

#Book 42 of 2023

Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer

To be honest I struggled to really get into this. Not totally surprising as I’m often like that with short stories, which this is essentially a collection of albeit with a connecting narrator. Found the final couple more engaging as it felt like there was a little more character development there.

#SciFi #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 8 months ago

#Book 43 of 2023

Much Obliged, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

With the world in the state it is in I’ve never been more grateful to escape into the world of my favourite writer. It’s a lovely outing for his most famous creations with plenty that makes me laugh out loud and more than has me smiling contentedly. I’d recommend Wodehouse to anybody and regularly do. There is nothing better.

#Books #Bookstodon #PGWodehouse @bookstodon

Laking86, 8 months ago

#Book 44 of 2023

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Hadn’t read this since I was a teenager although I did very recently rewatch the BBC series and it’s not too long since I last listened to the radio series as well. It remains a very funny, well plotted bit of Sci-fi comedy. Adams was the best at what he did.

#Books #Bookstodon #SciFi @bookstodon

Laking86, 8 months ago

#Book 45 of 2023

Burning Bright by John Steinbeck

A short novel written as a play in story form. It’s only 94 pages long meaning it’s a pretty easy read (I started it this afternoon and read it in 2 sittings). There are elements of it that work really well and others that don’t. The characters use language that nobody would ever really use and at first I struggled to connect because of that, but it grew on me. Not my favourite of Steinbeck’s work.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 8 months ago

#Book 46 of 2023

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E: The Birds of a Feather Affair by Michael Avallone

Picked this up when I bought some of The Man From Uncle tie-in novels, which are mostly fun nonsense. This one is also nonsense, but weirdly manages to objectify all the women more than the male led novels and there’s also a big chunk of casual racism. So not amazing.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 7 months ago

#Book 47 of 2023

Penguin Classics Marvel Collection: The Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

As somebody who enjoys comic book stories, but is by no means an expert and hasn’t ever been a collector this was spot on for me. A really nice collection of the earliest stories with a nice summary of any skipped over and it all looks beautiful.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 7 months ago

#Book 48 of 2023

The McCartney Legacy Volume 1: 1969-73 by Allan Kozinn & Adrian Sinclair

Absolutely loved this. I’m a huge McCartney fan and not only did I enjoy reading about his early post-Beatles career in minute detail, but it was also great to revisit those early solo and Wings records with the added context the book offers. Heartily recommend to any other fans and I look forward to future volumes.

#Books #Music #PaulMcCartney #Bookstodon @bookstodon

Laking86, 7 months ago

#Book 49 of 2023

A Season in Sinji by J. L. Carr

A novel combining war, cricket and a battle for love. Enjoyed this. It’s jolly in places and then hits you with a bleaker reality. Helps to love cricket as much as I do I would imagine given its importance in the story.

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon