A curmudgeon writes.
So hey, it’s winter. I’m cold, and I have a cold, which is why I am spending my Friday evening writing book reviews instead of watching Jaws on the big screen to celebrate old Bruce’s 50th birthday.
That said, I am keeping to my read-five-write-five rule, so I suppose koff-koff evenings are good for something. Let’s roll.
Continue reading “Book reviews: twisty lit, sovcits, future fascism, a boring family and the CIA”That’s quite a mouthful.
The reason we’re dealing with this random assemblage of topics is because once more I’ve been unable to keep up with the whole “write a review after you’ve finished five books” thing. So this time around you’re getting ten for the price of five.
Which is nothing, as this blog is free. So you get good (reviews) for nothing? Sweet.
Continue reading “Book reviews: serial killers, too much booze, Japan, film horror, fascist yoga, subs, viaducts and goths”By which of course I mean through the year.
(If I was referring to the grave then I’m more than halfway there, which is a sobering thought to open a post about books with. But you know, I’m a happy boy.)
Halfway through the year and we’re up to 42 books read. I’m sure there’s some kind of deep Douglas Adams-ian import could be made from that. Regardless, I’m both happy that I’ve read that many books (particularly given that there’s been so many four/five star reads in there) and annoyed that I haven’t read more.
There’s two books I’ve read (in the past two days) that haven’t made it into this review, but that’s only because I’m a) trying to get this one in before the month ends, b) keeping the books as close to multiples of five per review and (most of all) c) lazy.
(Though not too lazy to have started using a fucking book Gantt chart, it seems.)
Hey ho, let’s go.
It seems I am eternally late in writing up these reviews. I would like to say that’s down to my overwhelming desire to read as opposed to my overwhelming draw towards lethargy, but you and I both know that’d be a lie.
So to make up for the time between posting – admittedly there’s been trips away and lots of work in between – I’m giving you ten reviews today. Not sure if that qualifies as a punishment for me or for you, but let’s embark on this journey together.
Continue reading “Book reviews: thirtysomething”This one has been sitting in the draft pile for a while. Over the Easter and Anzac Day break I managed to plough through a few books, a breather following a work trip to Sydney for some in-office reviews and woodshedding just before.
Since then, there’s been more work trips, and a truly hellish deadline with a whole lot of out-of-hours work going on. While that was going on, my desire to read (let alone write) has cratered. Which honestly, hasn’t been great for me: think of it as being hangry, only about reading. When I can’t read – can’t being the operative word here, given the amount of hard screen edits I’ve been doing, to the point that I just need to defocus at the end of the day instead of chowing town on some tasty tomes – I feel discombobulated and Not Quite Right.
So anyway, here we are. I’m having a couple of days off as recharge days, and am hoping to push through some more books. And catch up on my diary. And finish this bloody post.
If you’re reading this, I guess we did it.
Continue reading “Five more for the month”Not much in the way of preamble, now: here’s another tranche of book reviews. Delighted that they all were cracking reads, which I assume means I’m going to read an absolutely terrible piece of shit next as some kind of literary karmic revenge.
We’ll see.
(Although I’m already reading something that’s a three-star at best so hopefully I can channel all the due shittiness into that one and thus escape any more dire reads than are absolutely necessary.)
Continue reading “Book reviews: a buncha fours (and a five)”Howdy howdy. I’m continuing to read more and to leave my reviewing until much later than I should. Find following a couple of reviews of recently inhaled tomes, with more to come soonish (I hope).
(Also, is anyone finding this year exhausting? Just me? OK, on we go.)
Continue reading “Another post, another five.”There’s been another five books read! So that means I’ve scraped some thoughts out of my cranium and finally turned them into a post – I’m not kidding when I say this has sat in draft form for about ten days – for your delectation.
Right. Here we go.
Continue reading “Working my way from five to ten”Well, here we are. It’s almost the end of 2024! I figured I’d better get some reviews in for the books I’ve been reading recently. I want to ensure I’ve written up everything before the calendar flips over, because… OCD reasons.
The larger stuff I liked post for this year will be coming along (ideally on the last day of the year – i.e., tomorrow – but let’s not hold our breath too much) but here’s the books I read in the dying days of December.
(Ooh, alliteration! I’m fancy.)
Continue reading “Book reviews: reaching the end”The year keeps rocketing towards its end. I keep trying to read more and get bogged down in the whole rocketing-towards-the-endness of things at present. You know how it is – everyone is busy at this point, and things don’t seem to get less hectic. I’m continuing to read Miss Macintosh, My Darling and Finnegans Wake and I’m hoping to have both of those finished before the end of the year, though the chances of the latter actually getting done diminishes with each day. Largely because I’m increasingly feeling like I ain’t got time for Jimmy Joyce’s bullshit on this one.
Happily for my TBR list, I’ve been out of town for business and so have had a bit of time to read – hello, four-hour layover – during travel. So here’s another few reviews of what I’ve been working through.
(I seem to be continuing my exploration of both the built environment (and its fuck-ups), so it’s nice to know there’s some kind of theme at work.)
Continue reading “Book review: another five down”
Yeah nah. 