Had a very long dream just now, where Martin and I went into a secondhand bookshop in St Andrews - this made up secondhand bookshop in South Street (not the real one as was!) is a recurrent thing in my dreams, at least until now. And this time they were closing down and had a "Pay £15" at the door, then get as many books as you want for no extra cost deal. So I got dozens of books. History books, computing history ones, gamebooks, children's fiction, an amazing bound Dickens, so many Gaelic books, and so much more. It was a very good dream 😜
Still struggling not to type 2024 at the top of these posts!
I've written reviews of Captive Queen, the Midsomer Murders gamebook and Eerie East Anglia.
Of the others, the Tolkien paintings book was nice, though there were some curious choices, especially re the hobbits. The Shakespeare book was great in parts, but had an almost total blind spot on detailed coverage of the many plays, which felt like a huge omission. Our Mutual Friend was a delight for me, as always. And The Principle of Moments, the first in a planned trilogy, was a heady mix of fantasy, space opera and time travelling shenanigans. Probably more ambitious in its goals than it ultimately achieved. But still a riveting read, and I will read the other books.
- ( earlier books )
- Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott
- A Middle-earth Album: Paintings by Joan Wyatt Inspired by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Joan Wyatt
- Could You Survive Midsomer? – A Winter's Murder: An Official Midsomer Murders Interactive Novel by Simon Brew
- Eerie East Anglia: Fearful Tales of Field and Fen by Edward Parnell
- Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide by Nick Groom
- Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
- The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson
I've written reviews of Captive Queen, the Midsomer Murders gamebook and Eerie East Anglia.
Of the others, the Tolkien paintings book was nice, though there were some curious choices, especially re the hobbits. The Shakespeare book was great in parts, but had an almost total blind spot on detailed coverage of the many plays, which felt like a huge omission. Our Mutual Friend was a delight for me, as always. And The Principle of Moments, the first in a planned trilogy, was a heady mix of fantasy, space opera and time travelling shenanigans. Probably more ambitious in its goals than it ultimately achieved. But still a riveting read, and I will read the other books.
Here's my final post of these for 2024. I intend to continue into 2025, though obviously resetting the count. I will also be posting my end of year full reading blog later this week, so probably into the start of 2025.
In this latest batch of newly finished books there were 3 rereads (the Sherlock Holmes, Discovery of Witches book 2, and The Dark is Rising). All great as always. The Wood at Midwinter and Booker-winner Orbital were reads for my book club. Both flawed, though I preferred the latter. Always Never was a graphic novel with gorgeous art but a somewhat troubling plot. The Alice in Wonderland gamebook was fun. And I'd never read the Tolkien Letters from Father Christmas book before, and loved it.
In this latest batch of newly finished books there were 3 rereads (the Sherlock Holmes, Discovery of Witches book 2, and The Dark is Rising). All great as always. The Wood at Midwinter and Booker-winner Orbital were reads for my book club. Both flawed, though I preferred the latter. Always Never was a graphic novel with gorgeous art but a somewhat troubling plot. The Alice in Wonderland gamebook was fun. And I'd never read the Tolkien Letters from Father Christmas book before, and loved it.
- ( earlier books )
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
- Always Never by Jordi Lafebre (graphic novel)
- Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
- The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke
- Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland by Jonathan Green (gamebook)
- Orbital by Samantha Harvey
- Letters from Father Christmas by JRR Tolkien
- The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper