Tag: book reviews

Book reviews: thirtysomething

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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.

My inner narrative at work.

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.

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Five more for the month

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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.

A LIE.

If you’re reading this, I guess we did it.

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Book reviews: a buncha fours (and a five)

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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.

I wonder what sort of literary hat suits me LOL it’s a dunce cap I already know.

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.)

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Another post, another five.

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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).

Me, if I had better hair.

(Also, is anyone finding this year exhausting? Just me? OK, on we go.)

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Working my way from five to ten

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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.

My inner narrative when I hit bookish double digits.

Right. Here we go.

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Book reviews: 2025’s first five

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That’s FIRST not FAMOUS, fuck’s sake.

So we’re almost three weeks into 2025 and it’s been… meh? I suppose that’s how most people view this part of the year: if you work in an industry that has a Christmas shutdown, you’re in the position of a car that’s driven daily then left alone while its owners go overseas for a bit: when they get back, it doesn’t roar back into life with quite the same aplomb.

Things groan. Starting becomes a little more of a trial than it had been. Things will, with a bit of coaxing and care, get back to proper running once more. But it’s gonna take time.

Consequently, writing reviews after a little break feels a little rusty, but I’m gonna give it a go. Elon Musk features in the fifth book I’ve consumed this year, so as long as this ends up reading better than one of his fucking jokes, I figure I’m ahead.

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Book reviews: reaching the end

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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.

Who knew the dreadful abyss featured fucking numbers? Not me.

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.)

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Book review: another five down

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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.

Yeah, you stop and thing about what you’ve done, you fart-fancying pirate.

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.)

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Book review: cinq?

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Not as quick as I’d hoped, but here’s another five book reviews.

Inside you are two wolves, and they’re these guys. (Also, you know who’ll like this gif? MY WIFE.)

I say ‘book’, but in this lot there’s just one physical book. The rest were audiobooks because the physical books I’ve been powering through are phonebook-sized volumes, and I’ve needed something shorter to break them up a bit.

(It’s an indicator of Books of Some Length when Paradise Lost is considered a quick read.)

Anyway, there’s nice range of stuff in here, and I’m quite pleased to have powered through them while driving, whether that be a) to Sydney and back or b) around the block on the mower.

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Book review: bites, knuckles, magical coffee and droughts

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Obviously my intent to power through my backlog of reviews has stalled like my Mazda 323 shitbox once did on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (Embarrassingly, lots of honking.)

Pictured: you, the blog reader.

So yeah, let’s get to it.

(You’ll be pleased to know that my reading has slowed down a little, at least in terms of numbers of books read: I’m currently ploughing through two volumes – one fiction, one not – of more than 1000 pages each, so the numbers are not ticking over especially quickly at present.)

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