My book on Kindle
My book in print
Search this blog
Recent Comments
- blogmywiki on Winter holiday reading
- Clare on Winter holiday reading
- blogmywiki on Winter holiday reading
- Sarahmia on Winter holiday reading
- David Hutchins on Circus Peanut Butter
Blogroll
My other pages
My software
Currently Reading…
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. It's funny cos it's true.
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Stuck half way, but it's true, her eyes do change colour. Like David Bowie. Or a Blythe doll.
Recently read…
Gumble's Yard by John Rowe Townsend.
Noah's Castle by John Rowe Townsend.
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. Grim, but brilliant kids' book.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Brilliant dystopian book for teens. The short prequel is a free Kindle download.
Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman. 607 pages, seven viewpoints of the same extraordinarily inter-twined events. Clever, full of good ideas but I didn't warm to the main character and didn't love it anywhere near as much as A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz.
The Fear by Charlie Higson.
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson. I HATED this book - which was a surprise as I really liked the previous 3 Jackson Brodies, esp the previous one. Why? Too many characters I didn't care about. Not enough Jackson Brodie. And I know it's grim up North - but just too, too grim. Forced myself to finish it, but only because I bloody paid for it.
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson. MUCH better than the TV adaptation, which I found very confusing. Very readable - some of the turns choices made by the main characters have had me going 'whaaat'? but it's all the more believable and enjoyable for them.
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. Good, but didn't enjoy it as much as Case Histories.
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. Bliss.
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer.
Solar by Ian McEwan. Good holiday read but not stunning literature.
One Day by David Nicholls. I am officially the last person-but-one in England to read this. Loved it, though. Bastard.
Moonraker by Ian Fleming. Ah, another improbably-named young woman to see you, Mr Bond. (Like I can talk).
Obstacles to Young Love by David Nobbs. This lad Nobbs will go far. Funny, touching, very occasionally annoying, but a damn fine novel.
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe. Hated the ending. Sorry. Sure it's been done elsewhere. My first, and probably last, Coe.
Hungry the Stars and Everything by Emma Jane Unsworth. Delicious!
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. It's Dickens with swear words. In a good way.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. From 1949. Perfect. It's so good, I love it so much. Cannot believe I've never read this before.
Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason - bit disappointed. Just a police procedural. Not that odd. No big DNA conspiracy.
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford - I proof-read a neighbour's uni essay on this and had to read it. Bleak it is, so bleak - especially for a man of my age and circumstance. Almost gave up but half way through I 'got it' and glad I finished it. But grim. Grim.
The Game by Jack London.
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. 2nd Martin Beck novel from the original masters of the modern (1960s) police procedural.
Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. I enjoyed this WAY more than Engleby. Really good, flavour of Bond captured very well indeed.
Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John. Great children's book, set in St Ives, Cornwall. If the Laura Marlin Mysteries continue like this, I might have to write my own Caitlin Ros Mysteries. (Geddit?!)
Sweet Desserts by Lucy Ellman.
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming.
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. My first Faulks - he's too damn popular with the ladies for my liking. I almost gave up on it on page 85. Luckily something happens on page 86. Blog post coming...
Street Kids by Chandrika Kaviraj. Excellent unpublished story for older children set in Pakistan and India during Partition.
The Sacred Art of Stealing by Christopher Brookmyre.
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming. My first Bond. It's just as I would have hoped and expected. And me oh my does Vesper Lynd remind me of someone.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There's a stunning novel in here, struggling to get out. Just spare me the state of Russian agriculture, Leo, I beg you...
Nemesis by Jo Nesbø - this is shaping up very nicely, up there with The Snowman and The Redeemer.Calendar
February 2012 M T W T F S S « Jan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Category Archives: internet
The Guardian on the Kindle: Review
I’m just over a week into my 14 day free trial of The Guardian and The Observer on the Kindle, and here’s what I Reckon. I know there’s no reason why anyone should give a damn about what I Reckon, … Continue reading
Best free iPhone apps
The shame of it… I had my brain surgically removed by a very nice man in the shop and he gave me a shiny new iPhone 3GS in exchange. In case you’ve not heard of the iPhone, it’s a … Continue reading
Gaggle and Boxee
Today I am mostly playing with the BBC iPlayer, Flickr and YouTube on the free Boxee media centre software on my netbook and listening to Gaggle… and yes, thank you very much to the person who said I should stick … Continue reading
Potter Puppet Pals
I saw this on the CBBC show Chute! By the end I was laughing out loud.
Posted in internet, literature
Leave a comment
Moving pictures
The new video feature on Flickr has – predictably – caused a small storm with thousands of users joining a group calling for video to be removed from the site; these are Flickr purists who think the site should just … Continue reading
Posted in internet, photography
3 Comments
Twitter ye not
I’ve just had an invitation to Twitter. Nooooooooooooooooo. Just before I left Facebook I’d taken to trying to subvert the status thingy by typing in the names of any songs on my iPod that fitted the phrase “Giles Booth is…”. … Continue reading
Posted in internet
2 Comments
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?
…in the words of Mr William Bragg. We were walking home tonight and saw an amazingly bright satellite tracking across the sky, far brighter than any I’ve seen before. And I’ve seen a few – I love watching bits of … Continue reading
Posted in children, internet
3 Comments
Copyrights and wrongs
I’m having an odd argument with Spreadshirt, the normally excellent T-shirt company. I have a Spreadshirt shop – it’s a pretty easy way of making a little bit of money from designing logos and artwork. But now they’ve pulled one … Continue reading
Posted in asthma, internet
3 Comments
Happiness is warm cola
They were handing out free Mentos at Charing Cross the other week – I couldn’t resist introducing them to some diet cola… A colleague had tried it with no luck, so perhaps the trick is to do as we did, … Continue reading
Posted in children, internet
3 Comments
Comparing free Content Management Systems
Just found a really neat web site that lets you try out the bewildering array of free Content Management Systems that are out there. They mostly need PHP and MySQL and this site saves you the hassle of installing them … Continue reading
Posted in internet
Leave a comment
