Books - What are you reading?

I read Bob Mortimers novel .
Satsuma Complex
If you like Bob it’s a quick and quirky read with some laugh out loud bobisms

Started on Rushdie's Quichotte, enjoying it a lot so far.

If anyone wants to come to Stoke Newington you can have this for free. It's well regarded but I found it unreadable and infuriating.

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A good read for any P.S. fans

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Just started Orlando……bit strange so far

Richie Who Cares?: Lost Childhood and a Boy's Journey for Justicei

Listening to Radio 4 Saturday Live. Richie Barlow’s harrowing childhood experience and some how found hope and escape in Star Trek and Alison Moyet. Well done BBC for bringing Richie’s story to millions of listeners. This is on my reading list for 2023

Haven't read much recently but these short stories are great

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Just finished Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee. I read the loose trilogy of that, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment Of War in reverse order (for no particular reason). He's a great writer but Cider With Rosie was still quite dull. Almost nothing happens. Would highly recommend the other two though. A Moment Of War in particular.

Also just finished Cider With Rosie. Half agree with your review.

Almost nothing happens but he's great writer so I found I raced through it anyway and really enjoyed it.

I read As I Walked Out... a couple of months ago so I'll have to dig out A Moment of War next.

Cider With Rosie was still quite dull.

I bet it was even more dull for me having to dissect it in GCSE English

alexi sayle - barcelona plates
collection of short stories, some fun stories amongst them

stephen fry - the stars' tennis balls
very dull start then gets going into a great story

would recommend them both

ian mcewan - amsterdam
booker prize winner but never really got going, least enjoyable of the three, luckily it was quite short

You on a turn of the century binge dicki?

Just finished Slow Horses by Mick Herron, very enjoyable read.
Hope the rest of the Slough House series are as good.

they were the most colourful, interesting spines in the book section of my local charity shop, except for the barbara taylor-bradford ones, needless to say they stayed on the shelf

Had a bit of a binge recently (for me).

Joseph Conrad - Nostromo. Enjoyed it, but I'm a fan anyway. Amazing command of the written word in his non-native tongue.
Will Burns - The Paper Lantern. Lockdown ramblings on nature, small towns, pub regulars, insularity, politics and 'the plague' from the perspective of a frustrated poet/barman. Really enjoyed it as well, but I know the author fairly well so perhaps that's swayed me.

Now cracking through John Cooper-Clarke's I Wanna Be Yours autobiography and wading through The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides to help me get back to sleep during bouts of insomnia.

Last month's book was the (excellent) Under The Blue, which is great if you're anxious about climate change, pandemics, and artificial intelligence all at

Just read, did enjoy although the ending felt a little abrupt, did a good job of combining together lots of big themes though

You won’t be disappointed

I’m currently reading the latest strike novel. Jk Rowling has a way of making a book really easy to read

In an attempt to read more, I'm going to try to get into audio books. My job involves a lot of reading and when I'm not at work I go on lots of walks, so it seems like a good way of absorbing books without having to spend yet more time staring at something. I've not listened to an audio book since I was a toddler and have always told myself I don't like them/won't get on with them, but let's see!

What's the best audio book platform to use? Audible?

I was in the same boat as you but got really in to audiobooks a few years ago when I was driving all over Europe for work. They're a great way to kill time if you're sat in a van for 10 hours!
Audible is pretty good, they've got a decent range but get a bit expensive if you want to listen to more than one book a month. Alternatively, lots of local libraries will let you sign up for free and access their collection of audiobooks as well but it's a bit of a faff (am I right in thinking you're not in the UK? I reckon you could still probably get login details from someone who is and use that anyway). Spotify have just started doing audiobooks properly as well. I've not tried it out yet but might be worth a punt if you have an account anyway.

I just made it to 52 books in 2022, more than I expected. According to Goodreads the average length was 393 pages and my average rating was 3.5 (with 3 being an average book).

Highest rated books were Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (also the longest at 1,232 pages).

Worst book was Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (read like a piece of GCSE coursework) followed by Starship for Sale by M.R. Forbes (a real advert against self-publishing).

Nice work! I hit 57 in the end after thinking I wasn't going to make it to 52 - I'm studying english literature which has ironically left me with 0 time for reading books, who knew? I always switch to comics in December which inflates my numbers, so that got me over the line :D (this year I read the whole series of Transmetropolitan, whose 90s edgelordery has not aged as well as I'd hoped).

Rated 10 books 5 stars on goodreads(!), including Alan Garner's Treacle Walker and Lauren Groff's Matrix. My 1 stars went to Camus' Myth of Sisyphus ("live, laugh, love" for hipsters) and Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (more 90s edgelordery that has not aged well, but with the addition of a genuinely bizarre religious cult plot that we're supposed to sympathise with?? Could not get along with at all).

Hoping to keep things ticking over this year while I get through term, keeping plenty of comics handy for emergencies...

This year I got through 13 books and fully coloured in 75% of them.

ending felt a little abrupt

Agree, think I hated the protag so much by the end I was just glad to fuck him off for good, haha. Hope that thing just went ahead and did him in!

How many different colours did you use, Will? Nobody's going to be impressed if you've done them all with just the one crayon again.

Snob.