0668 | Dining on Stones | Iain Sinclair
You know you’re in for a rough ride when the book you’re about to read is recommended by the lamentable Will Self. When everything else fails, fall back on doctored…
0651 | In Search of Klingsor | Jorge Volpi
On the flyleaf of my edition, it says that this has been compared to The Name of the Rose. Either the person who wrote this has never read The Name…
0554 | Gabriel’s Gift | Hanif Kureishi
Oh my… but this was so profoundly awful on every level that I can hardly believe I read it, let alone that for some unfathomable and criminal reason, it was…
0535 | The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul | Douglas Adams
This is not one of Adams’ best. I sincerely hope it’s his worst because if there is a worse novel by him out there, it must be atrocious. An explosion…
0479 | Citadel | Kate Mosse
Oh my goodness me. I haven’t read anything this bad for a long, long time. And I haven’t read anything this long and this bad for as long as I…
0428 | Cecilia | Fanny Burney
Absolutely awful, long-winded and over-elaborate. The novel doesn’t deserve a lengthier review than that. Evelina was bad enough, but Burney has yet another novel, Camilla, on the 1001 list. If…
0408 | Pamela | Samuel Richardson
Start to finish: badly-written, moralising drivel. If this book hadn’t been as influential as it had been, this would probably have received my lowest rating. It did however prove inspirational…
0311 | The Crying of Lot 49 | Thomas Pynchon
Context: Bought this at a charity shop and walked onto Hartham in Hertford to sit and read it and almost immediately had company in the form of 2 swans and…
0274 | The Day of the Dolphin – Robert Merle
Context: Read this as we took our first flight on the double-decker A380 from Dubai to Seoul. Very nice. REVIEW Never heard of this until, scanning my copy of the…
0221 | Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Context: This was my toilet book at Field View. It’s amazing how much you get through on the loo and while brushing your teeth. REVIEW Take a ball, a lovers’…
0217 | The White Man Will Eat You – William F. Wormsley
Context: Finished this off while using a hot water bottle to ease an ache in my hamstring. Too much jogging. REVIEW A good ethnography gives you an inside view into…
0178 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
Context: We listened to this in the car over weeks and weeks. Less than twenty minutes after we finished, the car’s engine died and had to be scrapped. REVIEW Murakami…
0177 | The House on the Borderland – William Hope Hodgson
Context: Listened to this from librivox.org as we moved from Piddington back to Bar Hill. REVIEW Get a good look at that cover because that’s as scary as this ‘tale…
0169 | Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Context: Took this along as Mrs Arukiyomi and I walked up the hill at West Wycombe and took in this view of High Wycombe from our favourite bench up there….
0167 | Attitudes and Language – Colin Baker
REVIEW If you’re into Welsh, this is the book for you. I’m not and I’m reading this in preparation for language survey work in PNG. So, was it relevant? Juuuuuust…
0120 | Indigo – Marina Warner
If you’re here looking for v4 of the spreadsheet then you’re following a bad link I accidentally posted on the web. The new version of the spreadsheet is HERE If…
0108 | Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte
Context: Finished this off in bed at my in-laws’ place near Cambridge, UK. REVIEW Nothing much to report here. This was an entirely predictable Bronte piece which, unlike her sisters,…