Brian.
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Posts posted by Brian.
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Congrats, I'm so happy for you. I don't envy the sleep deprivation but I'm sure it will pass in no time.
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I am just about to start Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang.
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I’m just about to start a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time, The Fall of Yugoslavia by Misha Glenny.
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2 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said:
As for Billy Connolly, I grew up listening to him and knew that he started out in folk music with Gerry Rafferty as The Humble-Bums. I just wondered what his book would be like. I’ll probably read this.
I'll happily post you my copy if you would like it, its only going to a charity shop otherwise.
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On 3/7/2025 at 5:25 PM, lunababymoonchild said:
Would like to know how you get on with both
I have finished both. I felt that Wolf Hall never really got going for me. From the halfway point I was kind of done with it but I stuck it out as its much easier to do that with an audiobook. I won't be picking up anymore books in the series but I may watch the TV series that has come from it. Windswept and Interesting was a much better experience and I loved it. I've always liked Billy Connolly's standup and TV shows and this book is an extension of these. It took me no time to read this book and it had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions. I never knew that he was a very accomplished folk musician until I read the book.
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I've made another attempt with Wolf Hall and this time I am making better progress. This time I am consuming the audiobook instead of the paperback. I'm still not loving it but I am finding it a bit easier to get along with.
I've also made a start on Windswept & Interesting by Billy Connolly and so far I'm really enjoying it.
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Our local WHSmith is a tip and has been for years so I am not surprised this is happening. It seems to be that they have tried to do everything and as a result their specialist competitors have done better.
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39 minutes ago, lunababymoonchild said:
This is what I’m doing but you need an add-on to strip the DRM
If you are intending just to back up books and plan to stick them back on a kindle at some point you won’t need to do any DRM shenanigans.
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I use a free program called Calibre to manage what is on my kindle and have done for years. It allows you to load ebooks from any source or any format onto a kindle or other e-reader and it also allows you to download any books off the kindle onto your computer. I believe it can also strip any DRM from an ebook but I’ve never done that so I can’t vouch for it. I’m not sure if Amazon will manage to block Calibre from being able to do this but it should work as a solution for a while at least.
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Update time. I feel like I have struggled to read much in the last 3 or so weeks but have still finished 4 books so perhaps I am wrong. Anyway, on to the books.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (4/5)
Wow, that was a ride. I have a funny relationship with Sci-Fi, I watch quite a lot of it but for some reason I can find the books harder to get along with. I knew literally nothing about this book apart from the fact that it is (or at least was) an award winner. Not knowing anything of the plot is not uncommon for me as I tend to avoid reading anything to do with a book before picking up if I can. I had made certain assumptions about this book based on the title, assumptions that were very wide of the mark.
The story follows a terraforming ship in the future which has left earth with the intention of turning an uninhabital planet into one rich with life. To speed up this transformation they carry a virus which speeds up evolution in a group of monkeys they are carrying. Back on earth things are not great for the planet and there are terrorist factions very much against this kind of experiment. The plan doesn't go as they had hoped and the story jumps forward a few millon years where we pick up what has happened on the planet and what has become of earth.
If I had known the plot beforehand I may not have read this but I am very glad I did.
Making Books by Simon Goode & Ira Yonemura (4/5)
This is a practical guide on the construction and techniques used in making books. The authors are the founders of the London Centre for Book Arts. The book is well written and covers all the basics (and some more advanced) techniques used in bookbinding. There are loads of really clear photographs detailing the stages which are very helpful in understanding what is going on.
The Coming Storm by Gabriel Gatehouse (3/5)
This is a non-fiction book based off of a podcast exploring of the roots of Q-Anon and the rise of the extreme right in the US. I had heard or Q-Anon and knew a little of the origins but hadn't paid any attention to the details. Having read this book I am still amazed that it managed to get traction in the USA but then critical thinking seems to be a thing of the past when it comes to modern politics across the world. One thing that really stands out is that any cover up by a political party or entity makes it a lot easier for the opposition to get fabricated stories about you believed. It also shows that social media is poison and is being used for political gain and greed but we all should know that by now anyway.
I liked this book and it feels fairly level-headed but I wanted more depth and more detail. I felt like a but of a cash grab based off the popularity of the podcast.
SS-GB by Len Deighton (3/5)
I've read a handful of Deighton books in both the Harry Palmer and Bernard Samson series but before SS-GB none of his standalone novels. I love spy novels, especially those set during the cold war so was interested to see how he would deal with something a little different.
In SS-GB the Nazis won the war in Europe and now occupy the UK. The king is in prison, Churchill has been executed, and post-war life carries on for the everyday people. The story follows Detective Inspector Archer who serves is a Scotland Yard murder detective. Although he is a police officer he is in a precarious position as all the bosses are Germans and want different things. He is sent to investigate when a body is found in a Mayfair flat and he is eventually caught up in a plot.
The first thing I should say about this book is that I really stuggled to get into it. All the elements appeal to me as a reader and I like Deighton as a writer but it just wouldn't click with me. Had I been trying out a writer for the first time I may have put this aside for another time. Being Deighton I decided to stick with it and eventually it started to come together for me. I read the second half of the book much quicker than the first once I got settled with it. I think this might have been down to the fact that I didn't really gel with any of the characters and the plot took a while to establish itself.
I'm glad I stuck with it though and I will probably watch the TV series now that I have finished the book.
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2 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said:
If I may ask : those who review the books they have read - and thank you for doing so, it’s most interesting - do you take notes as you are reading for the review?
I try to but if I'm honest I usually forget until I'm almost finished with the book.
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I think Scotland and Ireland got the worst of it by what I've seen on the news.
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I thought people might be interested in the process of making a traditionally bound book, in this case a notebook. The first notebook is one I am working on at home in parallel to my classes using what I have learned. The second is one I am making in my bookbinding classes. I don't have many of the tools used in class at home so I am improvising where I can.
The groups of folded pages are called signatures, in this case these are made of sheets of A3 folded in half twice. It is important when doing this that when finished the grain of the paper runs from the head of the book to the tail. If you do not have the grain in this direction the paper is much weaker and the book can deform when pasted. Once folded the signatures are put in a press for a period of time to make the folds as tight as possible. This reduces the swell which occurs when using folded pages. Holes are pierced in the folds and the signatures stitched togther using a kettle stitch. Tapes are sewn in loose which adds strength to the spine which makes the book much more durable.
Once this stage is complete the spine is pasted with PVA and allowed to dry. This helps hold the spine square in readiness for a process called rounding and backing. Once the PVA has set the edges are trimmed using a plough to ensure they are all cut to the same length and in square of each other. The next stage is rounding and backing. Rounding is when the spine is gently hit with a hammer to change the spine from square to a rounded shape. Once is has been rounded the spine is backed, this process involve hitting the egdes of the spine with a hammer to produce a shoulder the same thickness as the cover boards you will be using. Looking at the book along the spine it resembles a mushroom shape. This isn't my book but gives you an idea of the shape.
In this picture the spine has been rounded and backed. Headbands have been pasted in place, the spine re-inforced with a material called mull and then further re-inforced with kraft paper. The next step here is to cut the cover boards to size but I ran out of time last night so it will have to wait until next week.
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16 hours ago, lunababymoonchild said:
Do tell us how you get on
Will do. I’ll post some more photos of my bookbinding adventures.9 hours ago, poppy said:That sounds very interesting, always thought it would be a great job to have. Have you seen Christopher Shaw on The Repair Shop at work?
I’ve watched a bit of The Repair Shop but I haven’t seen any episodes he’s on so I’ll have to search them out. There are some great channels on YouTube, DAS bookbinding, and Four Keys Book Art in particular. There seems to be a growing trend for people rebinding paperbacks into hardback on YouTube at the moment with A Crown of Thrones and Roses being really popular for some reason. The problem with these rebinds is that although they look great the spines are really weak so won’t last the test of time. Despite that I have rebound Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan in the same way for a bit of fun.-
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3 hours ago, France said:
I read Tai Pan when I lived in Hong Kong and enjoyed it hugely.
Anna Karenina was a book club read a few years ago and enjoyment had a lot to do with which translation our book was. There were big differences in style, some very literal and following Russian sentence structure where feasible, others more loose - and those were just the English translations. So it's worth reading a few pages before you buy or borrow. Be warned there's a lot of description of haymaking and farming in general.
The edition of Anna Karenina I've got at home is a used Penguin Classic that I picked up for £1. The translation is by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.
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Over the last few years I've taken an increasing interest in bookbinding. I have made a few notebooks for myself and others but wanted to learn more so I signed up for a bookbinding and restoration course. I recently picked up some books that have seen better days with the intention of either restoring them or rebinding them with new covers. One of the fascinating parts is the stuff that I sometimes find in books. Here is what my next project will be, a collection of Rudyard Kipling poetry from 1918. I'm not sure what approach I will take as it was originally bound with a softcover. Luckily while my course is running the instructor is always on hand to help and give advice.
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I've currently got two books on the go, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and SS-GB by Len Deighton.
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Time for my first blog update for 2025. I set myself a loose target of 50 books for the year. I'm not bothered if I miss it as my main intention of reading 10 specific books.
- The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
- The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Tai-Pan by James Clavell
- Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
- The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
- SS-GB by Len Deighton
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
I've got off to a solid start to the year, these are my thoughts so far.
Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction by Aldren A. Watson (3/5)
I've recently taken an interest in bookbinding and restoration, so much so that I have started a weekly class aimed at beginners. I picked this book up a few years ago and although it is a bit dated it is still a great introduction and most of the processes still apply. It is also very well illustrated with diagrams which aid comprehension.
Red Sauce, Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake (3/5)
A non-fiction travelogue based around the exploration of 'traditional' breakfasts in the UK and Ireland. I found this to be an interesting book and I ended up going down a YouTube rabbit hole looking up how Kipper and Arborath Smokies are made.
The Mechanism by Vladimir Neto (3/5)
Another non-fiction book, this time about a massive money laundering scandal that hit Brazilian politics in 2014. I cannot fathom the amount of research that went into the book as it leaves no stone unturned. Every facet of the scandal and the people involved is looked into and laid out in an easy to understand way. I am quite surprised that I wasn't aware of this story given the scope of the crime.
7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life by Robin McKenzie (3/5)
Not much to say here. This is a series of exercises etc to assist in the treatment of back, shoulder, and neck pain. I think the content is good but the writing style isn't the best. Whether it works or not, I'll have to update later as I'm still under-going hospital treatment for a severe back injury.
Wolf Hall by Hiliary Mantell
No rating here as I DNF'd this after about 150 pages. I will probably go back and give it another go at some point in the future.
All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings (5/5)
A fantasic book which provides a thorough overview of WWII across all parts of the globe. Most of the books about WWII concentrate on specific areas only but in this book Hastings covers the war in every area of the globe. I learned a lot about what happened in Asia and even places like India.
The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves (3/5)
The first book in the Vera Stanhope series. I picked this up because I love the Shetland TV series and I have heard good things about the TV Vera as well. I wanted to watch Vera but felt it would be a good idea to read at least the first book in the series before doing so. I really liked the way this book is laid out, we see the emerging story from 3 different characters points of view one after the other. That format really reveals that each person has their own opinion of things and it might not be accurate as they don't know everything particularly where other people are involved.
I was also surprised that we don't actually meet Vera until about halfway through the book. This is another decision that I wasn't expecting but actually works quite well. I did feel that the plot was overly complex at times and the ending felt a little forced but overall I enjoyed it.
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I decided to put Wolf Hall aside for a while. I'm about to start the first book in the Vera series, The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves.
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I love it when this thread comes around at the end of the year, it makes for fascinating reading.
Your favourite book cover of 2024.
Most of the books I read in 2024 had rather boring covers. I have noticed in recent years that cover design seems to follow whatever books have been successful in the previous year. This is especially true of crime fiction and as a result they all look kind of similar.
Your favourite publisher of 2024.
Probably Penguin. I own an ever increasing collection of their classics and modern classics. I am a bit miffed that they have slightly changed to design of the classics covers so they don't look uniform on my bookcase. It shouldn't annoy me as much as it does and I have no idea why they decided to change it as I think the previous classic design was....... well, classic.
Your favourite book shop/retailer of 2024.
I am lucky to have 2 very good book shops in my town. We have a Waterstones that is staffed by some great people who really do know their books. The regularly make recommendations based on what I am buying and they have yet to recommend a dud. The other is an independent second hand book shop called The Eagle Bookshop. It is an Aladdin's cave with book of every type and age. I can easily spend hours in there just poking through the shelves to see what they have. The also have an in-house bookbinder.
Your audiobook recommendation of 2024.
Easy one, Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Fishing. It is narrated by the authors and at times goes off on a tangent but had me laughing on a regular basis. This book is a little more about fishing than the TV series but their warmth and love for each other still comes across in spades. The TV is often described as 'comfort TV' and the audiobook is definitely a 'comfort book'.
Your most read author of 2024.
Its a tie between Antony Beevor and Terry Pratchett with 2 books each. Unless I am specifically working through a large series I tend to jump around a lot with what I read. It doesn't surprise me to have only read the same author twice in a year.
Your book that wasn't worth bothering with in 2024 (my 'Duffer of the Year').
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi. The title and synopsis promises a lot but it really falls flat. Despite being written by a Japanese author the main focus of the book is Alderian philosophy/psychology. One of the main points of the book is that people are not unhappy, they choose to be unhappy and they can change that by changing the way they think. On some level this can be true but it is prsented in a very victim blaming kind of way. Some people are understandable and justifiably unhappy, they can hardly be blamed for that.
The book you most wanted to read in 2024 but never actually got around to.
Two books, Anna Karenina, and The Brothers Karamazov. They are on my list to get round to again this year so lets hope that I actually manage it this time around. I like both authors but the sheer size of the books puts me off for some reason. I am getting better at reading the bigger books but I am still intimidated by large works of classic fiction.
Your biggest literary let-down of 2024 (my 'Biggest Disappointment of the Year).
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck. I have a bit of an obsession with the Cold War, especially during the 80's. Although this isn't a Cold War book it is set in Berlin the 1980's so should appeal to me in a big way. The problem is that nothing happens in this book and the writing isn't good enough to get away with a lacklustre plot. I didn't like any of the characters in any way. A real let-down.
Your discovery of the year (book, author, genre, publisher etc)
It is a book, In the Cannon's Mouth by P.J. Campbell. I was chatting to a guy at work about war history and was lamenting the fact that my knowledge of the First World ar is very lacking compared to the second. We didn't cover it at my school and there are far less books about the First World ar compared to the vast amount about the Second World War. He mentioned he had a few books and would lend me one, that book was In the Cannon's Mouth by P.J. Campbell. The book is a memoir written by a young man who was in charge of running an artillery battery. It is sad that this book isn't more widely known about as it is fantastic account of how everyday people felt when thrown into a horrific war of attrition.
Your recommended classic of 2024.
Looking through the list of books I read in 2024 the only classic I read was Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame which I enjoyed but didn't love. One thing I want to change in 2025 is to read more classics as I had no idea I had been so slack with them in 2024
Your favourite literary character of 2024.
Tom Ripley. He is a complete shhhhhhh but so magnetic at the same time. Usually I want the villians to be caught when reading a book but somehow I was usually rooting for Ripley, I'm not sure what that says about me.
Your favourite genre of 2024 (you can invent your own!).
History. I never enjoyed history at school but that was because we had the dullest teacher in the world. I've been trying to make up for lost time ever since I got back into reading in my early adulthood. The only period of history I don't really got on with is the Plantagenet era, far too many important people to keep track.
The funniest book you read in 2024.
The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. It is laced with humour and I just love Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan.
Your favourite biography/memoir of 2024.
Hitler: A Biography by Ian Kershaw. I felt like this was a must-read after reading the mammoth Churchill by Andrew Roberts 2 years ago. This goes into almost as much depth but Roberts is very clear that a lot of what we know about Hitler comes from second hand sources. This is incredibly well researched and written. I doesn't quite reach the heights of Churchill but that is probably down to the lack of available reliable sources rather than the writing.
Your non-fiction recommendation of 2024.
In the Cannon's Mouth by P.J. Campbell for the reasons previously mentioned.
Your fiction book of the year 2024.
I read plenty of 4/5 books in 2004 but only one fiction book that I rated 5/5, Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan. This book follows a group of friends and spans two time periods 1986 and 2017. The early years follow their love of music and a trip to another city to go to a much anticipated music festival. Fast-forward to 2017 and people have drifted away and things are very different. Then one of the characters gets a call which brings back a lot of memories and rekindles a relationship. I really liked this book as the early years has some mirrors with my experiences growing up. It captures the time perfectly and then the jump forward to 2017 covers some topics which again I have had personal experience of. I was surprised at just how much I liked this book.
Your author of the year for 2024.
I can't pick one.
Your overall book of the year, 2024.
This comes as a bit of a surprise to me but once again, In the Cannon's Mouth by P.J. Campbell.
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On 1/6/2025 at 1:25 PM, lunababymoonchild said:
I read 400 of the 600 pages when it came out and abandoned it. I have another copy and will try again but I couldn’t make heads nor tales of it
23 hours ago, France said:I loved Wolf Hall, I was so absorbed that I didn't notice some of the things that annoy other readers but if you aren't enjoying it then give it up. Life's too short and there are too many other fabulous books out there to read a book you aren't getting on with.
I might give it another 100 pages and if I'm not feeling it at that point I will put it aside for the moment.
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I’m trying to decide whether to carry on with Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I started it about 3 weeks ago but I’m finding it a real slog. I’ve made it to page 100 and I normally drop a book by this point if I’m not enjoying it.
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I'm planning on giving it another go this year.
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Merry Christmas to all, I hope you had a great day yesterday. We are doing ours today as I was at work yesterday and boy did it drag on.
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Your Book Activity 2025
in Book Blogs - Discuss your reading!
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I'm most of the way through The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks. I took it away with me to Montenegro and thought I'd manage to finish it before I came back but the call of the beach was too much.