Miner Willy

Dr Who comes up a fair bit. The Second Coming only a little. (I've never seen either of them!)

3. I Love the Bones of You by Christopher Eccleston. I think this is only the second autobiography I've ever read (the previous was Andre Agassi's). I can't remember why I bought it, as I'm not a massive fan or anything (though The Leftovers is one of my favourite shows, and I was surprised to note just how many things he's been in that I've seen). It was, though, a really good read: the central narrative covering his relationship with his Dad is moving and made me reflect on mine with both my son and my own father. 4. Feral by George Monbiot. I like Monbiot and unsurprisingly enjo

Just finished Halo 3 and it was brilliant - so, so much better than 2. I loved the return to CE's control room at the end. Between that and the warthog run it really felt like a farewell greatest hits tour at the end - wish they'd included one of CE's bridges as well. I'm going: CE: 10 2: 5 3: 9 I think in some respects it was better than CE - certainly it had genuine epic scale, and it made it feel like you're part of a war, which CE didn't do in quite the same way. But for some reason I just prefer the simplicity and feel of the original. Unlikely analogy, b

1. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. As briefly posted above, I loved this. Great book to start the year. 2. The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. I really enjoyed Evelyn Hardcastle, but sadly didn't think this was particularly good. The story is pretty intriguing and generally entertaining enough, but I found the writing continually jarring, with really clunky dialogue. I personally always find this kind of thing really distracting, and it definitely significantly impacted my enjoyment.

Papillon is good.

I've decided I'm going to use lockdown round 58 to become perhaps the world's greatest Instant Pot soup cook.

I studied a load of Conrad at uni. Lord Jim and Nostromo were my favourites, as I recall. I always found his stuff challenging but rewarding.

The Windrush Betrayal is a brilliant book. Definitely up there with the very best I read last year.

Just finished too - I also loved it.

I just started Piranesi this morning too. Very much enjoying it so far. My Kindle and Audible backlog is becoming ridiculous. Need to ban myself from looking at sales.

Loads of George Orwell's books free on Kindle today.

I read that a few years back: loved it. Amazing how many of those stories made it into The Wire. Spoiler: I distinctly remember

92. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout - short but powerful novel. I really liked the description of the narrator's relationship with her mother. 93. Infinity in the Palm of your Hand by Marcus Chown - I very much enjoy this kind of popular science stuff which explains fascinating complex concepts in a way people like me can understand.

I'm actually a pretty slow reader I think - certainly books take me longer than my Kindle always suggests it will. I read plenty of fairly short books this year, including several that I would assume are essentially novellas, and didn't tackle many really long ones. But my numbers are mainly inflated by Audible audiobooks, which I listen to at 1.35 speed - it's pretty easy to get through one of those a week: I listen whenever I'm walking, cooking, eating, washing up etc. My main reading time is while putting the kids to sleep. Once we finally sort their sleeping out my available ti

87. Trans Like Me by CN Lester - An enlightening and thought-provoking book on a topic I felt I should attempt to understand a little better. 88. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - I'd never heard of this before I read about it on here. I loved the characters and really enjoyed it overall. I thought the first half was a little slow at times, but the second half was great. 89. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman - I listened to this on Audible (courtesy of the recent sale), where the different narrators added to the experience, but o