At Last the 1948 Show At Last

I'd listened to the best-of album, seen the "film" and loved what I didn't realise were reappropriated sketches in other contexts, but it took me much too long to check out this primordial Python programme (Cleese–Chapman lineage; Idle–Jones–Palin–Gilliam's Do Not Adjust Your Set is proving a disappointment so far, especially the racist singalongs for children).

My laziness is excused, since most of the episodes didn't exist until they were recovered/restored fairly recently. It is quite good.

Alrightreads: Retro

Various, Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology

1986 / Audiobook / 239 pages / USA

***

A vintage exhibition from inside the wave, this is more diverse and interesting than a modern retrospective would likely be, making time for Renaissance time travel and Gothic fantasies rather than being preoccupied with repetitive iconography. Bruce Sterling's commitment to showcasing more obscure works not widely anthologised elsewhere was considerate to ravenous readers of the time, but makes for a weaker legacy.

Faves: William Gibson's 'The Gernsback Continuum,' Greg Bear's 'Petra,' Paul Di Filippo's 'Stone Lives.'

Worsties: Tom Maddox's 'Snake-Eyes,' Rudy Rucker's 'Tales of Houdini,' John Shirley's 'Freezone.'

David Mitchell, Black Swan Green

2006 / Audiobook / 294 pages / UK

***

"Books are gay."

While neon American teenagers were getting up to Stranger Things-style sci-fi adventures, their English counterparts were watching telly and failing to get off with girls. I don't know how much of this is fiction or memoir. I can't even remember which are my own memories any more.

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 (いちきゅうはちよん)

2009–10 (collected 2011) / Audiobook / 928 pages / Japan

****

The magic realism plot could be wrapped up in a short story or Twilight Zone, but Murakami decides we should really get to know these characters. He provides regular 'previously-on' reminders in dialogue, in case this boxset's taking you a while.

Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

2011 / Audiobook / 385 pages / USA

****

My own false nostalgia for the 1980s doesn't share most of the touchstones that the 2010s revival was tapping, but it usually does the trick anyway. I found this laughable at first – the ultimate nerd fantasy of being rewarded for all those years spent playing games and watching movies, drowning in superficial references and paradoxically targeting the nostalgia of people too old to be reading it. It took about half the book before I realised those are the points he's making and that I didn't seem to be putting it down. He could've written a dry history of pop culture and tried to explain the appeal of crap graphics to kids, but he decided to show them instead.

Anne H. Zachry, Retro Baby: Cut Back on All the Gear and Boost Your Baby's Development with More Than 100 Time-Tested Activities

2013 / Ebook / 212 pages / USA

***

This common-sense advocation of traditional parenting over unnecessary gadgets wasn't especially eye-opening, but there were some good reminders and I took some notes. You'll save money, help your child's development and avoid cluttering your house with shit they don't need. The catch is that you have to actually give them your time and attention, what a bummer.

Top 10 synthwave albums

"This is an oldie... well, it's an oldie where I come from" – Marty "Calvin" McFly, Sr.

From Vangelis to Fear Factory, I've been a fan of gaudy sci-fi synthesisers for a long time, but only recently discovered this new retro wave of amateur bedroom producers pretending it's still 1985. Bo selecta!

YouTube mixes of relaxing, upbeat, vaguely nostalgic, incredibly repetitive instrumentals like these perfectly suited my mood as a new parent and have been helping me deal with unrelated stresses in life. The solo albums they're sourced from aren't always so rewarding, but since I'm traditional in my false nostalgia, here are some premature favourites before the afterglow fades.

Alrightreads: The Next Generation

Alrightreads: Villages

Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford

1851-53 (collected 1853) / Ebook / 330 pages / UK

***

One of the only books set in rural, fictionalised Cheshire that's not written by Alan Garner, I found the lack of local references disappointing. These episodes from the cloistered matriarchy could have been set anywhere.

Arthur Machen, The Terror

1917 / Audiobook / 170 pages / UK

***

A decent weird rural psychological sci-fi horror murder mystery, mainly interesting for being written and set during wartime, rather than weirdly ignoring it like most stay-at-home literature of the period.

Ronald Blythe, Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village

1969 / Ebook / 336 pages / UK

***

This oral history with poetic licence was the last chance to see some traditional industries before they were relegated to period dramas. I was expecting something sentimental and rose-tinted, but the old fellers' grim tales of the Great War liberating them from their farm shackles makes Monty Python's "third world" diss seem like an understatement if anything.

Susan Nobel and Diana Goldsborough, The Prisoner Puzzle

1976 / Ebook / 21 pages / Canada

***

This companion book to a Canadian broadcaster's companion special to the TV series is adorably infuated with the material and encourages active viewership, posing thought-provoking questions with extensive background reading for every episode. It's only brief, but so was the series.

Andy Miller, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

2003 / Ebook / 160 pages / UK

***

Song-by-song analysis seems to be regarded as uncouth by hipper music chroniclers, but it's handy for listening along and increasing your appreciation of underappreciated, oft-plagiarised and subtly satirical works.