I finally finished reading Crisis? What Crisis?: Britain in the 1970s by Alwyn Turner. It took a while. I would probably have read two or three novels in the time it took me to read it, even though it is a much shorter book than many other history books that often weigh in at 700 […]
Entries Tagged as 'Books'
Britain is a miserable sight
October 31st, 2014 · Comments Off on Britain is a miserable sight · Life
I came aacross an eye-catching quote this evening: Britain is a miserable sight. A society of failures, full of apathy, and aroused only by envy at the success of others. This is why we will continue to decline. Not because of our economic or industrial problems. They are soluble. But because the psychology of our […]
Re-writing history
August 9th, 2014 · 2 Comments · Life
I have been building up quite a collection of Robert Rankin books on my Kindle. He keeps doing special offers on his birthday or a christmas where one or two are free and others are at reduced price for a short while and I snap them up. This is not just me being tight, I […]
Tags: Books
Don’t tell UKIP but…
May 29th, 2014 · 3 Comments · Life
…the Swedes and their Nordic friends seem to be taking over. First of all, there are all those TV shows (that I haven’t actually seen) like The Bridge and Wallander, then there are all those crime novels (that I haven’t actually read) by Steig Larsson and Jo Nesbø and the filmmakers like Lars Von Trier […]
Tags: Books
A Man Called Ove
May 27th, 2014 · 2 Comments · Life
I recently read a book with the slightly underwhelming title of A Man Called Ove by a new author, Fredrick Backman which is by a long way the best book I have read so far this year, and with hindsight the title is exactly right. It is out in hardback (and probably e-book format) in […]
Sibling rivalry
October 14th, 2013 · 1 Comment · Life
I have a new competitor: one of my sisters has just started a WordPress.com blog for book reviews at bd13books.wordpress.com. Should be worth keeping an eye on. Its like the Milibands all over again, but without the public attention!
Epic holiday reading fail
September 2nd, 2013 · 4 Comments · Life
The other day I started to prepare for our impending hoday by stocking up on some reading matter. Our last holiday was a bit of a disaster in that department: Jayne took one book, thinking it would last her but finished it after a couple of days. I thought I was better prepared with my […]
A novel instance of Savile
October 18th, 2012 · Comments Off on A novel instance of Savile · Life
I have just started reading David Nobbs’ new novel The Fall and Rise of Gordon Coppinger (thanks Jane!) and came across something very interesting on page 12. The hero, Sir Gordon Coppinger, is wondering whether the press had information about an infidelity of his and whether they would write anything about it: He was invulnerable […]
Tags: Books
The way we were
September 4th, 2012 · Comments Off on The way we were · Life, Technology
At the moment I am re-reading a humorous book about computers from 1996 called Dave Barry in Cyberspace. I have quite a few of his books and like to dip into the ones that are basically collections of his newspaper columns every now and then because they are light reading and more or less timeless. […]
Harry Harrison RIP
August 26th, 2012 · 1 Comment · Life
Yesterday I was surprised and sad to hear that Harry Harrison died on August 15th. I was surprised because these days when somebody well-known dies you learn about it really quickly, either in the normal media or from Facebook or Twitter updates. I’m sure that quite a few people I follow on Twitter and Facebook […]
Tags: Books
