Interesting.
From every book Iāve seen advertised on kindle etc there seems to be a quote on the ācoverā from Lee child saying how good it is. That tells me that either he reads 47 books a week or he gets very well paid for using his name.
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Think it is clever, he can finally write something else, retire, judge stuff, and the commercial machine can keep spinning.
I look forward with hope that he will make Amazon do the TV show properly ie without a midget in the lead role. They just need to find a 40 ish white male ex Linebacker/Ballet Dancer WWE/Muay Thai/Judo expert Sniper ex Cop who can act.
Simples
Tom Cruise it is then.
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finally finished this. Excellent stuff. Worth reading.
Currently on The Guilty Feminist: From Our Noble Goals to Our Worst Hypocrisies by Deborah Frances-White. There is a podcast of the same which I dip into (not sure I have the time to listen to them all). Here is a review for a better summary than I can come up with.
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As none of us is going out an awful lot, itās possible, just possible, that some reading is going on.
Iāve just finished The Cold Six Thousand, the second part of James Ellroyās trilogy covering the gory guts of American life, death and politics from the late fifties to the early seventies. Which means, of course, that Iām about to start Bloodās a Rover, the third part of said trilogy.
Itās superb stuff. Riveting, believable, gruesome and often fucking nasty. And dark, too. Very dark. But I like dark, so thatās cool. Iād previously read his LA quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz); I loved those, but these are even better in my view.
Once Iāve got through the 630 or so pages of Bloodās a Rover, I have a lockdown gift from my ever-loving wife to get started on. The Mirror and the Light, the final part of Hilary Mantelās Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Looking forward to that massively. The only question is this: should I re-read Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies prior to embarking on the final part? I feel quite strongly inclined to do so.
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I will get round to Mantelās third book eventually. I know itās a whopper as I bought it for the Mother-In-Lawās birthday. Definitely re-read the first two!
Recently finished Ash Before Oak by Jeremy Cooper, set in Somerset and about a man who recovers from a breakdown by re-engaging with the natural world around him.
Now reading The Scramble For Africa by Thomas Pakenham.
Got lots lined up to get through but seem to be falling asleep earlier and earlier during lockdown. Soon it will hardly be worth getting up.
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I fall asleep after my 3rd mug of Vodka.
The trick is not to pour the 1st one too early.
Equally for the 1st time in decades Iām sleeping 9 or 10 hours a night.
I rationed the last Lee Child Reacher novel Blue Moon but finished it a couple of weeks ago.
Now randomly pulling books out the packing crate.
Just finished the not very Tom Clancy Against all Enemies, Killing Floor next then that African Detective Agency thing. Randomness is probably best.
Yeah no English bookshops in Krakow & tight budgets mean making do.
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I just finished āSomeone Like Meā by MJ Carey. Heās the guy who wrote āThe Girl With All the Giftsā which was f##king excellent and Iām happy to say āSomeone Like Meā is just as good if you like slow burn psychological thriller with paranormal aspects
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Been waiting for the final installment to come out. Thatāll be my next book too.
As a very slow reader, itād take me a year to re-read the first two. That said, itāll also take a while to get up to speed with her āauthenticā dialogue so perhaps a dip in to the second book might be an idea.
A big shout out to The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. A quite amazing book that I read during last yearās election. It lays the case for socialism and is set against the struggle of workers at the beginning of the last century.
I was struck by how current the political observations still were and can only imagine that it will become even more relevant as we get deeper into the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Read it.
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Taking into account your serious reading disability, as a friend Iām really proud of how you persevere despite so many things against you.
Genuinely I think you deserve a very big āwell doneā. Well done.
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Iām reading Camus at the moment(cheers @Scotty), but itās next in the to read pile. Had a quick read of the first chapter when it turned up, as was concerned about the writing style(because of date written) but it reads well(the little iāve seen).
Might be time to claim some of the free(?) money and catch up on some reading.
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Iām reading Winstons War (again, easy reading) and also Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Iāve just finished āThe Ruinsā by Mat Osmanā¦his first novel. Mat is Suedeās Bass player. Not really a glowing recommendation in itself youād think but Matās background gives him an interesting insight into the music business in which this murder mystery is set.
For a first novel Mat has an unexpected elegant, easy to read style and for someone like me who has a short attention span to read it in three weeks itās an almost couldnāt put it down book.
I found the music business setting much to my liking and for most of the regulars here who also enjoy the music of the last 50 years, there is much here to keep you absorbed.
This is a bit of a lazy review so Iāll copy and paste the synopsis to whet your appetite:
āWhen Adam Kussgartenās twin brother is found gunned down just yards from his flat, Adam is drawn out of his solitary, dream-like life into a neon-lit world of forgery, deceit and violence. The Ruins is the story of twin brothers - Adam and Brandon - who havenāt spoken for decades, When Brandon is found gunned down just streets from Adamās flat, Brandonās girlfriend enlists Adam to find out what he was doing there and who killed him. Shy, stuttering Adam finds himself caught up in his brotherās world of deception, violence and forgery. As things turn increasingly dark and his entanglements with his brotherās family grow, heās faced with a choice of whether to dive deeper into Brandonās world and risk losing himself, or turning his back on his future.ā
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Heās Richard Osmanās brother.
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Razzle (Vintage 1983)
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Books Iāve enjoyed this year:
Feast: Food that Celebrates Life - Nigella Lawson
Starve Acre - Andrew Michael Hurley
Pine - Francine Toon
Days Without End - Sebastian Barry
Botchan - Natsume Soseki
Underland: A Deep Time Journey - Robert McFarlane
The Discomfort of Evening - Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
Dark Lies The Island - Kevin Barry
City of Bohane - Kevin Barry
Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry
Bad Behaviour - Mary Gaitskill
Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss
The Vegetarian: A Novel -Han Kang
Strange Weather in Tokyo - Hiromi Kawakami
Strange Hotel - Eimear McBride
The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland - Nan Shepherd
Ash Before Oak - Jeremy Cooper
The Scramble For Africa - Thomas Pakenham
The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company - William Dalrymple
The Unwomanly Face of War- Svetlana Alexievich
Not really reading, but I am starting to work my way through the Expanse audiobooks. Iāve gone a bit Expanse mad recently, so listening to the books and getting all the extra texture and fireworks really isnāt a chore.
Theyāre written like Game of Thrones in that each chapter is a point of view of one character. Iām getting through them faster than they got through Ring space 
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Is this something I should hold back from until the tv series is done - eventually - or just jump in no matter how it fucks up my understanding of characters from the tv series ?
Depends on the person.
Iām personally of the view that I donāt want anyone else spoiling the plot for me, but I have no problem scooting through the books.
Iām not one of these people that minds about changes in an adaptation either. As long as the spirit of the thing is not lost, Iām down.