Reading

Great book. It's wild that in so few pages it builds a cult, gives a balrog fight, and instills a fear of large numbers.

Jumped past Covid when he was imagining a society with no disease, and he was correct that we’d be a bunch of pussies in the future. Weeeeeeeeird relationship with a young girl, they didn’t end on good terms…

Not that interesting, probably because everyone already knows the twist. Star Wars is still enjoyable when you know who Luke's dad is. Jekyll and Hyde has nothing else to fall back on with the mystery ruined.

Least believable part was the single mention of diarrhoea when these kids eat nothing but fruit and undercooked pork. Kids are bastards, but going from teasing Piggy to treating him like a bowling pin in what seemed like a couple weeks was a stretch. I did like was the post war pessimism, it’s the same mood as Fahrenheit 451. I wish we had this at school instead of Lennie and his rabbits.

Second read, still creepy, and it's basically Animal Farm with the commandments the other way round. Damned porkers.

“Those who don’t build burn” - A book about Minecraft? The writing was chaotic, and the ending was too busy making sure you “got it”. Beatty was interesting and paradoxical. Mildred’s reel addiction was infuriating. The Mechanical Hound must be how AI looks to the doomers.

Goes against self-help convention by keeping it to the point, and it’s great. The autobiographical details keep it feeling fresh. Lots of quotes thrown around, but mostly well curated.

Damned porkers

Very engaging plot, and do I sound pretentious if I say it’s excellently written? It starts off pretty bleak and I enjoyed it more when it wasn’t quite so doomy (I dunno why but I thought it’d be a fun kind of dystopia). Also my edition ended with book club questions which was cute.

A collection of mostly unhappy endings for the heroes (all the women have a bad time). The length of the chapters was great for hearing a full story over the course of a run/cook/chore, and it was great to learn about some of the lesser known characters.

2nd time reading, I guess at school I forgot everything about the characters and only remembered the symbolism. This time round, I was only focused on the horrible young men and women.

I haven't read many books with a female protagonist, so maybe I can't judge fairly, but I'm not sure this is the best execution. The plot was interesting enough; some sections about welding dragged.

Too much dialogue and the humour felt dated. Weirdly I found it hard to picture the setting. Usually I have a pretty clear image of characters and scenes in my mind, but I couldn’t do it here. Basingstoke roundabout got a shout out at least, so it gets some unexpected nostalgia points!

This was great because I spent the whole book waiting on the answer to 3 questions: why are the Martians here, how will it end, and what is his wife called - only one went unanswered... idk if this narrator was a great husband.

Finally read the history / stories myself instead of a reliance on In Deep Geek

This was a really fun reminder of the story, before I watch Spiderman take on Batman and run off with Catwoman. I’ll definitely read more of Fry’s myth series, this was excellent.

Would recommend! I enjoyed all the little problems that get solved (e.g leaks with smoke) - it's simple when you think about it but never something I'd consider. I would have liked to hear a bit more about what happened on Earth towards the end, I found that dynamic very interesting as it was in Project Hail Mary. On that comparison, the science felt a little drier here, and it surprised me how much landmass it takes to sustain one person on potatoes.

Another book to turn me into a complete sociopath. I liked the elephant anecdote

Not as good as the earlier books. Aside from a few good moments, it felt quite samey, confusing and a bit longer than it needed to be.

A couple of interesting ideas, but nothing that felt like a particularly new or nuanced explanation. I went in with some opinions on labels, and the book didn't challenge or reinforce them. It's probably why it felt a little dry for me.

Bit depressing

I didn’t want to like it

Loved all of it. The time jumps felt perfectly spaced and the constant curiosity of how it would ultimately end was addictive. But would’ve preferred a different cover so I didn’t have to stare at Ryan Gosling’s perfect hair as a thinning 30 year old.

Book of the year

A book that tells you to think properly about things and challenges you to not take shortcuts when considering problems. Luckily it says nothing about circumventing thinking to using AI.

I didn’t read the blurb until it was too late. I wasn’t looking for a romantic story, and despite this I really enjoyed it. The only downside was the unbelievable relationship between perfect Achilles and ordinary Patroclus, which is unfortunate given how easy the book makes it to suspend one’s disbelief of all its mythical features.