Back for another round of increasingly hazy, some would say worthless retrospectives covering the books I can remember reading or having read to me during the first two-and-a-bit years of this blog's timeline since I left the UK. Because this is vital information.
Alternating between audiobooks read on the go – forever associated with irrelevant visuals of national parks and exotic cities – and physical books chosen from a despairing selection on hostel shelves to keep me company on buses.
Surely this futile odyssey will end here and I won't attempt to recall all the stacks I borrowed from Edinburgh Central Library over the previous three years? (Is there somewhere I can access that information?)
Sep–Dec 2010
Read 2010, re-read 2017
****
No Lonely Planets for me. Maybe an odd choice to kick off my travel reading, it was more about comprehensively sweeping up the ones I didn't get through already in more appropriate Scotland. Anyway, Derek Jacobi audiobooks justify themselves.
Read 2010
***
Raised on episodic TV, I'm a great admirer of short stories, but Vonnegut's didn't stand out as anything special compared to his novels. Then again, this is the leftovers that didn't make it to the curated collections, so to be expected.
Read 2010
***
There's lots to admire in Ellis' rich transhuman cyberpunk gonzo... thing. I tried to get it, but bailed a few books in. I'm a wuss.
Read 2010
****
There's more depth and meaning to this modern fable than I chose to get out of it, content to enjoy the pastoral odyssey on the surface level. It felt nostalgically like the best bits of childhood Bible stories, before those were ruined by some people taking them way too seriously.
Read 2010
***
These stories have considerable charm, but after reading assorted Jeeves & Wooster books and audiobooks in an attempt to find P. G. Wodehouse as hilarious as he's supposed to be, I never really got there. I needn't have read more than one story, really, since they're all exactly the same.
Read 2010
***
Primarily selected for audiobook availability, I don't know how many books James Marsters whispered in my ears as I explored Taiwan, but enough for them to blur together even at the time. Harry Dresden's no John Constantine. He isn't even a Harry D'Amour.
Read 2010
***
I have a literature degree, for god's sake. Rankin was on the list of supposedly funny authors I had to get around to eventually, and this story of a twisted toytown was weird enough to keep me going to the end, but I was occasionally ashamed.
Read 2010, re-read 2016
***
A Sci-Fi Channel miniseries and Iron Maiden had filled me in one what happened in the first book, so I looked for the nearest sequel that was detached enough to enjoy solo. I don't think I succeeded. The audiobook narrator's wheezing didn't help.
2011
Read 2011
*****
The eponymous quote is one of the all-time classic soundbites, and the rest will make you tear up too. In awe at the celestial majesty, in concern when we're invited to contemplate mankind's self-destruction, and in sadness when the narration switches from Carl to some other guy because Carl wasn't doing too good.
Andrew Collins, Where Did It All Go Right?: Growing Up Normal in the 70s
Read 2011
**
Andrew Collins, Where Did It All Go Right?: Growing Up Normal in the 70s
Read 2011**
I bought Andrew Collings's audiobook from a Collings and Herring live show, because I already had all of Richard's merch and I felt sorry for him. When I finally got around to listening to it, Andrew talking about his uneventful childhood in his Mr Bean voice passed some time, though I suspect that time would have passed regardless. I'm not the nostalgic demographic.
Read 2011
*****
I only caught a bit of the film as a kid – Farthing Wood was more my brand of animated animal cruelty – but this book about bunnies didn't feel childish at all. The perspective shift of having a rabbit's-eye view of the world is profound. Then it starts to get a bit grim.
Read 2011
***
Entertaining enough to read in one sitting on a beach, even if it's lacking the artistry of his song narratives through the handicap of quantity. We might have lost an album for this, but it's not like he wasn't incredibly prolific back then.
Read 2011
***
Welsh and Iain Banks are basically the only Scots-deploying writers I know, so I couldn't help seeing this as a slightly more comprehensible take on The Bridge. The coma gimmick may be hack, but it's an excuse to mix up genres and contrast a charming colonialist caper with some seriously dark shit.
Read 2011
***
Red Dwarf's take on reverse chronology was funnier, and Vonnegut's was more concise, but Amis' novel is short enough that the gimmick doesn't get annoying. Though I can't help being a bit cynical that he chose the subject matter for his experiment with an eye to awards.
Read 2011
***
I'm more used to reading this type of old-school Nazi sci-fi thriller in the guise of a well-meaning pastiche from writers who grew up on them, so it was fun to experience the authentic article. It saw me through a long border-crossing bus journey.
Read 2011
*****
Concisely comprehensive (like I'm qualified to claim that), every home should have one. I would have held on to it for future reference, but my minimalist luggage left no room for sentimentality, so bookshelf swapsies continued.
Roberto Bolaño, 2666
***
Most readers probably know what they're getting into with this complex novel and can mentally prepare. When it was kindly offloaded on me by a fellow traveller who was presumably tired of lugging its weight around, all I knew was it was big, which I just considered good value. After stubbornly working through it in multiple hammock sessions, I left it in a Kuala Lumpur hostel where I clocked it again two years later, unloved by fellow travellers. I don't blame them. What a stupid thing to take on holiday.
Read 2011
****
I don't normally read stories of harrowing childhood trauma, but at least this one isn't directly real, just more or less. I enjoyed the unique perspective at the start, so was disappointed when it went comparatively normal for a surprising percentage of book after, but that's just because I'm a monster. Looking back, the author made interesting decisions throughout.
Read 2011
****
Sometimes, the limited, populist selections of makeshift tourist bookshops yield gems. I was resistant to what seemed to be a kids' book, but it turned out to be a meaningful and highly distinctive story. Unless it turns out it's based on an old Indian folk tale like these experimental postmodern works often are.
Read 2011
**
I don't like that programme he does, but don't hold it against him. This comedy memoir wasn't especially rib-tickling though, but it passed a bit of the time when I was stranded in Malaysia.
Read 2011
****
I've never been much of a Dickens fan. Too long. But that didn't hinder my appreciation of this similarly long and very atmospheric tribute to the bloke from off of the tenner and the "true" story behind his incomplete final novel, even if I did sometimes get Dickens and Wilkie confused with Holmes and Watson like the illiterate pleb I am.
Read 2011
*
Considering it's written by an advertising exec, it could have been clearer that this "quirky" self-help book is primarily aimed at businesspeople. But I still downloaded it, didn't I, so he got me. He evidently didn't pay much attention to the franchise's anti-capitalist stance.
Read 2011
**
Space archaeology was one of TNG's more reliable sub-genres, but this doesn't add anything new to that field by combining it with the possession sub-genre, one of the worst. If it came out in 1989 or something I'd be more forgiving, but the series was already winding down.
Read 2011
***
I can't remember if I watched Hellraiser before or after reading this short novella in around the same running time, but for gob-smackingly sickening practical effects and Doug Bradley's voice, I have to go with the film. Still a worthwhile supplement to the Books of Blood.
Read 2011
***
I'm sure there were other self-aware books before 2007, but the gimmick worked well with Barker's horror schtick and I enjoyed playing along and letting a bloody book own me. I had the physical book for this one, I don't imagine an audiobook would make much sense.
Read 2011
****
I think this is Barker's only children's book. It's really good, in the vein of Gaiman's but better, and towards the top of the pile of books I would have loved to have impossibly read at ten. A shame he didn't concentrate more on these than the bloated fantasy epics.
Philip Plait, Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"
****
I was following the Bad Astronomer's blog at the time, and was happy to find one of his books at Singapore Library for more structured myth-busting and Hollywood griping in that same conversational vein. Some of his bugbears are important, some don't really matter much at all, but it would be better if people could stop being idiots generally.
Read 2011, re-read 2014
****
Maps aren't very interesting, but seeing them evolve over time as technology and knowledge improves, stifling superstitions are let go and entire continents pop up out of nowhere is fascinating. And sad when you remember what happened next in those places.
Read 2011
****
I remember this kids' cartoon guide being surprisingly interesting and bloody confusing when it gets beyond how to tell the time and your basic time paradoxes into deeper relativity, Möbius twists and I've gone cross-eyed.
Read 2011
****
An awkward melting pot of sincere family values and ridiculous satire, this seems to be one of his least liked novels, but it's one of my favourites of the half I've read. I'm a sucker for a vast Gothic setting.
Read 2011
****
No one does philosophical science better than Sagan. It may be a relic, but this brain-expanding collection of inspiring essays is more about the methods than the findings.
Read 2011
****
I appreciate the film more these days than I did as a restless twelve-year-old, but the novel gives the doggedly methodical story the breadth and pace it requires. As a reward for your patience, it goes all SyFy miniseries at the end.
Read 2011
***
I questioned the point of reading this all throughout reading this, but it was so readable that I didn't worry about it too much. I have to question why I consider straight-up fiction more worthwhile than honest memoirs, and why the fictional digressions helped me to get through this.
Read 2009–11
*****
Having lived and worked at the top of Edinburgh for a while, The Bridge is an evocative landmark. This laborious tribute to the engineering triumph was a worthwhile ordeal that took me a few years on and off to get through. That just meant I got to spend more time enjoying it. Or it might suggest that, despite loving it, I didn't actually like it? It's possible. Some of the best art is frustrating.
Read 2011
**
I haven't seen all the de facto "classic" films that were adapted from these de facto "classic" tales, sometimes ad nauseam. But when it comes to iconic monsters, it's usually the striking visuals that made them that way. Why else is this being presented that way around?
Alan Partridge with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons, Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan, I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan
Read 2011, re-read 2013, 2019*****
Mid Morning Matters and the Super Gibbons Bros ushered in a new era of Partridge that's still going strong, and this AGP sourcebook will likely be its greatest achievement. It's also probably the funniest fictional book I've ever read (not in the mood for maintaining the illusion, sorry). I've re-read it a couple of times since, but never with my eyes. The option of in-character audiobook narration is impossible to resist.
Read 2011
****
Compilations are a mixed bag by nature, but this generous assortment of lesser-known old-timey ghost stories and other weird tales tended towards the delightful. I can't actually remember what any of them were, so I'd get to enjoy them all over again if this mysteriously appeared in a drawer.
Irvine Welsh, Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance
Read 2011
**
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Read 2011
****
Read 2011
**
A classy move in the wake of Leah Betts. After the comparatively wholesome Acid House, these overlong shorts wade deeper into the filth with less comic buoyancy.
Read 2011
****
I'm obscure-90s enough to know Mark Haddon from Agent Z, but this was the worthier work. We could all benefit from understanding people on the Spectrum more, even if it's via a kids' novel written by an NT.
Various, Sonic the Comic
Read 1994–2000, re-read 2011, 2016
****
While I was supposed to be enjoying a tropical island, I discovered a nostalgic forum devoted to this childhood favourite and lost a couple of days reading colourful adaptations of ancient Sega games instead of taking day trips. Don't tell me how to live my life.
Read 2011
**
The Swiss loon expands on his profitable theories. I was reading it for a laugh and possible travel tips rather than for revelation, but it's so inept that it just got on my nerves.
At least it's got some pics.
At least it's got some pics.
2012
Stewart Lee, How I Escaped My Certain Fate: The Life and Deaths of a Stand-Up Comedian / The 'If You Prefer a Milder Comedian Please Ask For One' EPRead 2012
*****
Lee treats his classic comeback quadrilogy with the ironic reverence it genuinely deserves.
Read 2012, re-read 2019
*****
I didn't realise this was an American Gods spin-off until years later. Less serious and much more fun than that longer work, it strikes the perfect balance between fantasy and humour without going all Terry Pratchett. Probably the easiest of his novels to overlook and probably my favourite.
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa)
Read 2012
This smart-arse monastic murder mystery is rightly adored by bookworms, but you don't need to be well-versed in the classics to see the tributes all over the place. (Here's a starter for free: they're Holmes and Watson. I didn't encounter Borges until later).
But it doesn't just have cleverness going for it. He also had to put it in a vivid, atmospheric setting, didn't he? I read it during a month in Sri Lanka, and was so engrossed in the fruitless quest for meaning that my real memories of the place are mixed up with mouldy manuscripts, secret chambers and giant lion statues. Oh hang on, that one was real.
Read 2012
**
My travel Paradise Lost/Regain'd included this supplementary material, so I gave it a read on a flight once. I was pretty lost without the benefit of a lecture or Wikipedia to hand, but the language was very nice.
The Brothers Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales (a.k.a. Children's and Household Tales, Kinder- und Hausmärchen)Read 2012
****
Childhood favourites ('The Four Musicians'), perplexing morality plays ('The Fisherman and His Wife') and hidden comedy classics where ludicrously patient talking animals help people out for no clear reason ('The Golden Bird'). Plus occasional duds.
Charles Perrault, Histories or Tales from Past Times, with Morals or Mother Goose Tales (Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités or Contes de ma mère l'Oye)Read 2012
***
I was never aware of who wrote/curated public domain fairy tales as a child, nor that Perrault's were more than a century before the Grimms, but there are plenty of big names here (Puss, Red, 'Rella) and a fair distribution of boys' and girls' stories. Less sanitised than Disney, but he still leaves out some of the needlessly gory/rapey source details out of politeness.
Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling)Read 2012
***
Another uneven collection of well-loved classics, criminally obscure gems and deservedly forgotten duds, this contains my all-time favourite 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' which I admire for its lauding of bold scepticism and independent thought combined with hilarious willies.
Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials re-read
Read 2012
***
The author's self-professed worst work, it's the clear nadir of his 80s heyday, but it still held my interest more than some of the later ones. When the melancholic and introspective voyage turns abruptly and excessively violent, my reaction was disappointment more than anything.
Read 2009, re-read 2012
***
The first time I failed to make it through the first book of a trilogy that sounded right up my street, I was convinced the problem must be with me. The second time, I conceded that maybe it just wasn't all it's made out to be.
Read 2012
***
One to read when you're excitedly counting down the days to your tropical getaway, rather than two years in when you're burnt out and taking paradise for granted. I had great times on islands, but was never free or free-spirited enough to seek out a true escape like this, what with having to spend an hour or two writing about blockout blinds and business broadband every day.
