Reviews and Comments

This book was not an easy read, Ismael is painstaking in her analysis of what consciousness is, how it comes to be, and why it means free will exists.

Dry, but informative. I am convinced. I will switch my multi-decades long opinion about the deterministic universe. I am now sure that we do, in fact, have a choice. That free will exists. That we are all masters of our fate, captains of our soul.

Not sure if I'm happy about it though.

A delight.

Highly recommend everyone listening to the audiobook narrated by Dougray Scott, it's the audio equivalent of sitting wrapped in a weighted blanket enjoying a perfectly made cup of tea.

Gill loves to ramble but he has the flair and observational skill to make it fun. The book isn't really about his addiction, it's more of a loose memoir of various parts of his life.

I am definitely reading the collection of his best restaurant reviews.

I thought it was good writing until I realised the entire book sounds like the most pretentious, annoying, overly serious 20 year old arts student, the kind who can't get a haircut without finding all these "deep meanings". As soon as I made that connection it was a bit of a slog.

Having said that, you can still find interesting things in a melodramatic 20 year old's diary. He has writing talent, some of the themes he touches on are interesting, and we can all admit to being overly dramatic sometimes.

Apparently this book is also about masculinity but it's not really - apart from the fact that everything is about everything if you squint hard enough.

I've never read anyone so perfectly convey their unbridled joy for the act of writing.

A book that's both brilliantly inspiring and brutally deflating. Write 2,000-3,000 words a day for 10 years to get good? But there's so many shows I'll miss on Netflix :'(

He writes with such passion about the pleasure of creation he almost manages to convince me to get started.

Almost.

Obviously not the definitive guide to 3,000 years of history, but a well written and engaging summary. If something strikes your fancy, you can now dive into it. The author does well to make the lessons of Greece's history feel relevant to today.

Will definitely try out some of those other shortest histories.

Plus I learned the 1946 Greek civil war was the first proxy battle of the Cold War. Who knew it started so early?

As good as the first time I read it. I think I grasp it a little better this time too.

I love how he will casually throw a concept in - one that barely takes up half a paragraph - that you will be thinking about for days afterwards.

A masterpiece of genre bending and my favourite Neal Stephenson book.

The final instalment in the Karla trilogy and of course le Carré managed to end it in style. A return to the style of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - rather than the more action packed The Honourable Schoolboy - a grey man under a grey sky reading files in various government buildings and occasionally interviewing someone.

And it was brilliant, le Carré can ratchet up the tension in a seemingly small conversation like no one I've ever read, and his ability to provide just the right amount of detail describing different cities, professions, and people, never ceases to amaze me.

A brilliant conclusion.

Tony Judt dictated this book while suffering from ALS, a disease that causes you to slowly lose all motor function until eventually death with no impact on your ability to think and feel. A tragic, unique, and profound perspective to look back on a life.

He knows how to pick and choose snapshots from his past that both capture that era as well as providing context on the state of the world and how it differs to today.

I love a good book on the beautiful moments found in a memory from a writer who knows how to write. There is no way anyone reading the final lines of the book isn’t feeling something.

A great concept that begged for a big screen adaptation. The story has a more cynical ending than the movie.

On the surface this seems like a relatively straightforward dark little story. I couldn’t work out what it was really about but I also couldn’t stop thinking about it.

That’s a good short story.

The best kind of horror, taking something everyday and twisting it. The image of the gulls riding the waves, waiting to strike, was perfectly disconcerting.