1996 / Audiobook / 451 pages / UK
***
I'd forgotten how dense and confounding the Culture books could be, and jumping back in half-way after a few years' absence, this chaotic scramble wasn't the smoothest return. But I love me an ancient geometric space enigma, so I had to deal with the alienation, tinged with the customary sadism.
1999 / Ebook / 128 pages / UK
****
Half forensic analysis of the musical portraits, half conspiracy theorist dot-connecting and album syncing in a futile bid to finally crack the (possibly non-existent) Elgar Code on its centennial. That Nimrod sounds like a swell guy.
2014 / Ebook / 160 pages / USA
***
A meandering mixtape of memories and erudite digressions that makes a good stab at untangling the borderline-incomprehensible debut from the Leeds-based neo-Marxist-Situationist post-punks.
2014 / Ebook / 136 pages / USA
**
It's a shame this wasn't treated as a first draft to get the exhausted fan solidarity out of her system so she could write appreciatively about the album rather than spending most of the short book defending it against attitudes I didn't have. It was briefly promising when it got into direct parallels with the Rolling Stones album, but then that dredged up more negativity.
Ann Handley, Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
2014 / Ebook / 301 pages / USA*****
This is the best writing guide I've read, comprehensively summarising the most important grammar rules and readability tips with plenty of practical examples specific to marketers, for a change. Some of the SEO/social specifics will gradually lose their relevance each year without a new edition every once in a while, but you can double check those. A bigger problem is that its generalised title gives no indication it's a Content Marketing Bible, otherwise I could've read it years ago and saved a lot of time.
