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Jul 19, 20231 min read
1079. William Boyd - The Romantic
Quite enjoyed this, but it was a pale imitation of Boyd’s brilliant 'Any Human Heart'. Set one hundred years earlier, and involving an...
Nov 16, 20221 min read
1029. William Boyd - Any Human Heart
I have read this before; it is very good. A journey through the 20th century, centred on Logan Mountstuart, a half English/half Uruguayan...
Feb 8, 20201 min read
749. Eimear McBride - Strange Hotel
A strange and difficult book. An anonymous narrator travels the world and does (or doesn’t) have one night stands with strangers she...
Oct 8, 20171 min read
539. Alastair Sawday - Travelling Light
I asked for this for my birthday, and try to avoid writing about books I haven’t finished, but sometimes life is just too short. He...
Sep 28, 20171 min read
534. Cath Staincliffe - The Silence Between Breaths
Airport/aeroplane reading but this was completely different. A disparate group of characters are travelling Manchester to Euston in the...
Mar 31, 20161 min read
388. P. J. O'Rourke - Holidays In Hell
Didn’t enjoy this at all; very dated and the humour seemed to me to be 2nd rate Clive James. Not entirely sure why I read it; except that...
Apr 5, 20151 min read
295. Katharine Norbury - The Fish Ladder
I read the first half of this thinking it was a novel with a rather slow start. It is difficult to say what sort of book it is – lots of...
Oct 24, 20141 min read
256. Oli Broom - Cycling To The Ashes
Another cricket related birthday present, but this is a brilliant travel book, and the cricket is just a coat hanger to steer him...
Jun 26, 20141 min read
225. Graham Greene - Stamboul Train
Pretty good. A relatively early Greene, about a rail trip from London to Istanbul in the 1930’s. As the train progresses — Ostende,...
Jun 23, 20131 min read
122. Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers
Wow, probably the read of the year. This is a huge book and possibly very underrated. The central character, whose name I forget, is a...