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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
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Category Archives: thrift
Will you sign my Kindle?
The other night I ordered a 3G Kindle. I admit, it was late, I was bored… but in the cold light of day I’ve still not cancelled the order. I’ve never hankered after an electronic book reader before – this … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, fiction, literature, thrift
Tagged book signings, books, Charlie Higson, ebooks, kindle
8 Comments
Repairing a G4 ‘Anglepoise’ iMac
My son’s school was chucking out a faulty 700 MHz G4 Anglepoise iMac – apprently it had an intermittant fault where the hard drive clicked and it wouldn’t boot. Of course I couldn’t bear to see this become land-fill so … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, lowendmac, thrift
3 Comments
Messages! From Outer space!
I finally got to play with a pukka One Laptop Per Child laptop on Friday. I’d heard sniffy things about it, and indeed I bought an Asus eeePC for myself as you can’t buy the OLPC in the UK. I … Continue reading
Less is More – the Asus eee PC
OR: NEVER MIND THE $100 LAPTOP, GET A LOAD OF THE £200 LAPTOP! I’ve had my Asus eee PC for a couple of days now, and can set some thoughts down… as you know this is a tiny £200 sub-notebook … Continue reading
Posted in Asus eee PC, commuting, computers, Linux, thrift, Xandros
6 Comments
Asus eee PC
Just got my tiny £200 Asus eee PC laptop. Will write a proper review when I’ve played with it for a few days… initial response is very positive… few odd gripes: Had to start broadcasting the SSID on my WiFi … Continue reading
Posted in computers, Linux, thrift
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Tiny cheap solid-state laptop
Tired of waiting for the One Laptop Per Child laptop? How about one of these cuties from RM / Asus? It’ll be £169, uses flash memory not a hard drive, has WiFi and runs Linux. Ticks all the boxes for … Continue reading
Posted in computers, Linux, thrift, WiFi
2 Comments
Insanely Great Freeware
While I’m thinking of it, here’s some of the great – free – software I put on the kids’ computer… most are cross-platform. MAME – play old arcade games, relive your mis-spent youth, get your kids to mis-spend theirs Audacity … Continue reading
Posted in computers, thrift
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Innocence lost
With a slightly heavy heart I’ve had to install parental controls on the computer in the back room – which meant upgrading the G3 Tower of Power from MacOS 10.3 to 10.4 (Tiger). The boys had been looking at some … Continue reading
Posted in Apple, children, computers, family life, lowendmac, MacOS X, thrift
2 Comments
