Loved the vocabulary, the feel and visual writing, with a decent story. Very well done in writing to match the period. Much better than the movie adaptation.

Paul Jennings was funny when I was a child, turns out it‘s still funny. Moments of snorting laughter. Some of the settings feel less foreign to me now that I live in Australia. I enjoy his mix of supernatural into wild relatable life. Overall a welcome short break from my current studies.

I found this copy of Carrie for $2 while travelling. I‘d not read it before so the timing was perfect for a small village AirBnB read. I love the cover of this one.
It‘s much more fulfilling and multi-dimensional than the movie(s). Not my favourite of his work, I think he got a lot better but it‘s the perfect size for what it is, the story & characters & torment of Carrie developed well. I thought the closing line was stupid and unnecessary.

The second Lindqvist I‘ve read - the first being Let The Right One In, of course. Harbour is not a horror. Sci fi and mystery. I enjoyed it, hooked from@the start and did not feel as long as it is. Good character development, I enjoy the Swedish Archipelago setting, it‘s a good read. I do think he cheated somewhat and the end felt a bit too easy, but it didn‘t ruin it for me. Looking forward to reading another.

How happy was I when I found this for a dollar? Pretty happy! A short one. Two brothers, one a teacher, one an addict. Trying to love & understand & survive. An insight into the time and place, conditions & struggles. Wonderfully Baldwin.

A collection of shorts. I enjoyed the first the most - Augustus. A little bit of sci fi here, and being Hesse his hope & struggle with humanity is evident although not so misanthropic.

I enjoyed this collection of short stories. Steinbeck's writing represents a time, place and culture and for a small while I felt like a very close observer of the young boy Jody and his experience, or at least a slice of his time. It isn't exactly an uplifting book, reminding you that growing up on the range kept one close to loss and death.It wasn't depressing though, it was just life.

Cute but also a bit tedious. Not sure if it's intended to be teen fiction but felt like it.
I enjoyed the framing of the invention in question (which I won't name as it's a spoiler) as being pivotal in the world and the bartering between angels and demons in its allowed use.

My first 1940s pulp fiction detective read. It reads like a noir detective film narrative - I suppose they actually are based on this narrative style. To begin with I was edging on bailing, so many ands in descriptive sentences! He's not exactly respectful of women which is at times uncomfortable, but not surprising for the time. Some incredible cutting wit, a fairly well pieced together mystery plot and overall a decent read.

Probably the favourite cover of all my books. A collection of short stories, very old novel extracts, and 'essays' on the occult, satanism & 'witchcraft'.

It took me a long time to get through. A bunch of old long winded & frankly boring pieces. A lot of ridiculous claims in the 'essays' in mid 20th century style.

Also some really fun and interesting stuff in here and it looks so cool so is still a pick from me and staying in my collection.

I was finding it OK but kinda boring.

When I hit a page mentioning "ni***rtown" followed by a plot of radical Sikhs planning to blow people up I bailed. Sure he might be trying to portray a dumb racist, & maybe in 1992 the idea of terrorist Sikhs wasn't so culturally problematic but I just don't have patience for it, especially when it's not very engaging otherwise.

The concept of hologram like thoughts that we all emanate was kinda cool though.

Informative, interesting book on the United Fruit company - which later became known as Chiquita - and their expansion across and exploitation of Central America from mid 19th century toward today. An empire unto itself - with close allies in the US govt - their practices in propaganda, intervening in govts, union busting, pollution, worker exploitation and generally rigging the game they were a blueprint for later globalisation.

I read this during long haul flights from Australia to Spain and back, which felt fitting to the discomfort. Overall it left me unsatisfied. Why is there a Long Walk? What are the Squads? Had any winner survived? What actually happened at the end? Interesting idea but not a book I'd recommend, probably would have enjoyed as a novella but pointless as a novel.

This book shatters the narrative utilised by politicians, corporations, billionaires & moral crusaders. The conditions underpinning Modern Slavery are neither modern nor slavery. Exploitation and the systemic issues underpinning our society are at the root and the Modern Slavery frame is used to deflect the focus while also further criminalising, controlling, deporting people while generating quite an industry for itself. A must read!

Motivating & insightful. King is humble, funny, human & engaging. It‘s all about the story baby. This is no writers retreat or 10 step program, it‘s not a social media gimmick, just advice and truths from one of the masters. Highly recommend if you have any creative pursuit, while I don‘t write a lot I found it very applicable to my music work.

Filing next to ‘Deep Work‘ and ‘The War of Art‘. What it all comes down to is doing the work.

Read this over the xmas/NY break. A top secret group kidnapping children with extra sensory abilities, a genius kid, interweaving storyline‘s converging to a showdown, small town USA. King doing his thing well yet again. The most recent book of his I‘ve read, weird seeing him writing about catching Ubers but he has kept up and stays relevant. Very enjoyable.

Picked up this box of books for $4 at a small town op shop yesterday and under the top layer of books was blown away upon finding a 1st edition (although ‘second impression‘) of Nobody Knows My Name as well as two Solzhenitsyn and a bunch of other great titles (and some straight into a trade-in pile). This was a fantastic op shop day.

It took me a long time to finish, I‘d pick it up, get through a small chunk & then read another book. A classic in anarchism & still generally a worthwhile and relevant critique of capitalism and statist communism. Kropotkin has an optimistic view of humanity and sometimes I found his assertions to be well meaning but unlikely, although much of the general argument is agreeable. Also enjoyed finding other material through the footnotes.

She should have shot him. I really liked how Ann Burden was so capable and a survivor, but constantly excusing this guy who tried to rape her, control her, starve her, shoots her, tries to kidnap her and then leaving him to have everything of hers was not something I admired in this story at all. The bit where she stands in front of his gun and he doesn‘t shoot her is also totally unbelievable. Big let down.

A recent op shop find and reread after 15 years. Very gory, lots of gay sex, necrophilia, the French quarter of New Orleans, drugs. What‘s not to like for a young goth? I‘d recently tried re-reading Lost Souls and found that hard to get into, like it was trying too hard to be super goth, but with this one it wasn‘t as cheesy as I‘d thought it‘d be and more enjoyable. By the closing chapters I was looking forward to it being over though.

Balked at 35 pages. It felt like a rambling teen fiction, was a bit unfocused and I had a high sense of this being very unexciting for me.

Although it‘s not overly long this was still slow going. I kept coming back to “If I was on this boat I‘d tell Marlow to stop waffling.” I didn‘t really get the reverence for Kurtz and his going on about him was a bore. I did like reading a first hand account of part of the colonisation of Africa and I felt like his distaste for it was apparent. Glad I read it but not heaps fun.

I got through 68 pages. It wasn‘t overly bad but I was completely disinterested. I skipped through to some later sections and the pace and tone remained and so am very happy to bail on this. A case where the movie is better than the book.

My British step father read this to me over a series of nights almost 30 years ago, and it left a lasting impression. I recently decided to get a copy for my niece but read it before sending it on. Still enjoyable, a great children‘s adventure book.

A short book where Marks reconnects with his homeland of Wales and researches some of the characters and history in his family. It‘s a good little read, even if you‘re not familiar with Mr Nice or into drug escapades (which hardly feature in this book) it‘s an enjoyable light read, although I would t go out of my way to find it.

Loved this one. Breaking the seldom challenged narrative and focus on the killer and ‘just prostitutes‘ to bring us the stories of the victims, their lives and the times they lived in. Victorian era London was HARD, especially if you were a woman.

I picked this up from a free bin at a local charity shop, hence the F. I‘d have bought it at the original 50c price. An enjoyable quick read, even if you‘re no longer a child in body. Mrs Frisby has an adventure along with some enhanced escaped lab rats. I somewhat wish the rats had read some anarchist lit instead of learning they need crops, electricity and their subsistence was theft ;) The plot was familiar but I only vaguely recall the movie.

Finally read The Shining. Did not disappoint, and I‘ve just ordered Doctor Sleep. Having not (yet) seen the 1997 mini series I was glad for a story that differed to the movie. And so powerful having the thoughts, feelings and history of the characters.

It was OK. I can‘t help thinking if a child read this they‘d get bored and shifty. It felt like he had a hard time with this one, and it doesn‘t end well. He actually started a third but only got into one chapter which is probably for the best. I did enjoy his disdain for politicians in here. The ‘Chinese speak‘ was a bit weird, but not actually that bad considering his vintage? Every time I looked at the cover I saw the elevator as a joint haha

Love George Orwell / Eric Blair, his humanity, empathy and adventurous soul shine bright here. Orwell finds himself broke and becomes very familiar with the lodgings and options available to the destitute in late 1920‘s London and Paris. An insightful look at the circumstances of the poor during the time and places. Lead me to go and read more about English workhouses which is an interesting and grim history.

I‘m trying to bail more rather than suffering. Could have been a pamphlet.

Some good insight & some lines I even copied into one of my notebooks, but generally after the intro and first chapter it‘s not inspiring. I like the concept of Interference & Self 1 / Self 2 but it‘s repetitive and not for me at least at this stage in my music life.
Overall: Awareness, focus on one goal at a time, don‘t listen to the inner (self 1/Interference) voice.

“Hazards of Time Spent Reading a Boring Book”
A protagonist who is irritating and I couldn‘t relate to or sympathise for, with a story that is not very good. The events that this dystopian future had emerged from being the immediate aftermath of 9/11 made for a quickly aged concept, but yeah, mostly just totally boring and annoying. Had to skim the last half and was glad I hadn‘t spent more time with it.

First finished book of 2021 (started 2020). After much reading of technical and heavy history & politics a good story was much needed, and this delivered. Secret government experiments, a father and child trying to survive, a good wholesome old American couple wanting to help out, pyrokinesis and a bit of mind control. Not overly long, disturbing, horrific or gorey and so it suited me well for a holiday read.

Wanted to read more RAW for a long time, but this was not great. Plenty of little chuckles and some lovely counterculture explorations but a bit of a mess to try to read and felt like work. It did have a good flow for around the second quarter but then lost me again. The apparent digs at women‘s lib and black panthers did not help.

A book for Instagram haha. I thought I‘d give a collection of Crowley writing a go, but while it might look good on my bookshelf to me it‘s impenetrable, exceedingly trite.

It seemed fitting to follow Wild Swans with this short memoir. A day in a soviet gulag. Insightful, human, strong and full of perspective. At times I felt physically cold while reading it. Highly recommend.

Finally getting into this. I always feel apprehensive about fat books but it‘s pretty easy to get through and an important glimpse into life in their place and times.

I picked this up recently and cannot put it down. Loving it.

The isolation pile grows. Thoroughly enjoying It.

“the desperate clinging to the self and the desperate clinging to life are the surest way to eternal death”

So far slow going, 77 pages in. I just don‘t care about Harry Haller and the ramblings of bourgeois disenfranchisement and focus of individualism, but I understand it picks up soon.

Long time, no post. I‘ve read a whole bunch in the last year and over Xmas which I haven‘t mentioned. Just finished this one this morning. Really good to read some of his post prison shenanigans which couldn‘t be talked about until he was dying. I‘d read Ecstacy by Irvine Welsh immediately before and this followed well. RIP Howard! Toke up in the afterlife for us.

Mail day. Loved Steven Pressfield‘s first couple of books and been meaning to read Deep Work for a couple years now. If I knew artistic tendencies were so much work when I was younger maybe I‘d have stayed in school :o

Loving this one, one of those “oh yes please” $2 thrift books. The Eye of the Heron is classic Le Guin and thoroughly rewarding, also very much enjoyed the lovely ‘Phoenix in the Ashes‘ by Joan D. Binge.

First Iris I‘ve read, her first book. Curious to read more. Anxious adventures in London and Paris, not many books have created such anxious feelings. Enjoyable, ended well but also sometimes felt a little like I just didn‘t like any of the characters.

SNOOZE FEST.

The whole book crawls up to one of the characters writing a manuscript, a couple of pages of which we get to read, which details the ‘events in question‘.

Random op shop book find didn‘t win this time.

I kinda wish I had the time and motivation to add all the books and comics I‘ve been reading, but I do not. Anyhow, started reading this recently. So far been all too much talk about his business startup ideas, but we‘re starting to get into some history now and it‘s been great learning more of his history and personal story.

Just picked this up in a book sale. I read it approximately 15 years ago, and loved it. Very curious to see how it‘s aged, but it‘s first stop will be with a young friend who‘d loved Ready Player One, which he lent to me and I felt like it was Snow Crash fan fiction :P

It‘s been years since I‘ve tried to read Stephen King. I find him a long winded, but I pushed through and am (morbidly) glad I did, the story and the feelings and situation linger after closing this book.

So much more depth than the movie could ever achieve, which as a kid TERRIFIED me, & as an adult I‘d yell things to the screen like WHY?! The pull of that cursed place is understood and expressed. Still, looking forward to the new movie!

I usually have at least two books on the go, something non-fiction and a novel or comic. I finished a dry finance book and am so glad to be reading this now, it‘s extremely relevant and motivational and above all relatable and reassuring. Success is not superstardom, it is paying bills from your creative endeavours, it takes a lot of work but is possible. And here‘s a whole bunch of insight to help along the path.

Finished The Bell Jar this morning & am left wondering why I‘d left it so long. A stereotype is 15yo girls clutching this book, but I wonder if maybe the world would be a better place if young boys were given it to read, and discuss.

A glimpse into white American society & mental health system of the 50s, fascinating, lovely and oh so gloomy. I love her disdain for the expectations placed upon women, and the piercing sentences and observations.