0250 | Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Context: finished this on my way down to Tesco’s to get myself some shopping. REVIEW Yet another Austen and, as I suspected, they’re starting to take on much of a…
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0249 | The Torrents of Spring – Ivan Turgenev
Context: I read this in near-freezing conditions as our boiler broke down and a useless and very expensive plumber took 10 days to fix it. REVIEW Oh, I’ve got an…
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0248 | A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
Context: The wife bought some lovely flowers and the room filled with their scent as I read this. REVIEW “It’s better than the Kite Runner,” said a friend. Even the…
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0247 | Some Experiences of a New Guinea Resident Magistrate – C. A. W. Monckton
Context: put some new strings on my old Eko and then got a blister I played it so much! REVIEW They don’t write books like this anymore. You know when…
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0246 | A Hero of Our Time – Mikhail Lermontov
Context: This is the first of a few books I’ll be reading from the collection of Russian literature the guy we’re living with has. REVIEW Never heard of Lermontov, Philistine…
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0245 | Fateless – Imre Kertész
Context: As I was reading this, our Dell printer ran out of ink and I got some ink to refill them manually. Never done that before. Dead easy. REVIEW This…
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0244 | Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder
Context: Started this off at a friend’s house in Studley Green in the rolling Chiltern hills. REVIEW Another book given to me on my last birthday which I thought I…
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0243 | Chances Are… | Michael & Ellen Kaplan
Context: Finished this off as we stayed with friends in Flackwell Heath. REVIEW Got this for my last birthday and thoughtI’d better finish it before my next birthday comes round!…
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0242 | White Noise – Don DeLillo
Context: listened to this while I took the car to get its MOT. It failed, then, after some new front brake hoses and a tyre, it passed. REVIEW A loooooong…
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0241 | Think | Simon Blackburn
Context: while I was reading this, the guy who owns the house we’re living in broke his ankle. REVIEW My wife’s aunt gave me this one for Christmas…. (ahem) Christmas…
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0240 | The Romance of the Three Kingdoms – Lo Kuan-chung
Context: While reading this I started wearing reading glasses and… boy!… they really took some getting used to! REVIEW Battles, rivalry, espionage, subterfuge, love, filial honour, tradition, strategies, mysticism, kingdoms,…
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0239 | She – H. Rider Haggard
Context: finished this off as we made a long and very snowy drive back from up north to Cambridge. REVIEW Influential in terms of its contribution to the sci-fi fantasy…
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0238 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
Context: 2009 became 2010 while I was reading this. REVIEW I don’t read thrillers as a rule so, when I unwrapped this book on Christmas day, I was intrigued to…
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0237 | I’m Not Scared – Niccolo Ammaniti
Context: read while I was suffering from the worst cold I’ve had in years. REVIEW It begins with the discovery, by young Michele, of something horrific which is all his…
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0236 | The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
Context: Night fell on my day in bed while I finished this off – the fourth book in a day. Felt much better afterwards. REVIEW Not only has Hamid got…
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0235 | The Prodigal God – Timothy Keller
Context: Read this while feeling grim in bed in my grandmother’s old bedroom with her crucifix above me. REVIEW A friend (the same one who lent me the superb Knowing…
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0234 | The Story of the Eye – Georges Bataille
Context: One of four books I finished in a day in bed in Stockton. Not feeling great. REVIEW This is a disturbing book. Of that, there is no doubt. Quite…
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0233 | The Awakening – Kate Chopin
Context: The first book I finished on my new Sony Reader. Read while the snow melted on the new housing estate foundations they’re building over the road. Thi REVIEW This…