George D
A nice little reminder of the dangers of distraction with some tips on how to fix it, all of which I listened to on audiobook while doing other things.
Some of these other Goodreads reviews make it sound like I missed out and should've read one of his other books. It has made me rethink my own rating immediately.
I am 100% certain that some of the things I read in this book I will still be mentioning in conversation years and years from now. That's when you know it's good.
The classic informative style of “tell you the whole theory in the first chapter and then spend the rest of the book fleshing it out”.
I also now know so much more about Papua New Guinea than I expected.
Fantastic work.
It makes me want to read and appreciate The Iliad, which is a great achievement.
Not as strong as the previous two. Mythos and Heroes, with their wide variety of stories, suited the relaxed light informative tone of Fry's writing, whereas with Troy there was a noticeable lack of the passion and fire the material definitely deserves.
Still a great time though.
Just so god damn epic. It is still somehow that classic high fantasy but done in an entirely unique way.
I didn't know how you could top that Heavy-Metal-cover storm-surf ending of the previous book but somehow he took it to a whole other level.
The only upsetting thing is realising I have to add in the entire Mistborn series to my reading list, if it's anywhere near as good as these books and also ties in then I don't even have a choice.
Full of Bryson fun facts peppered through a little story of two guys who were friends in their youth hiking the AT together.
It'll make you wonder whether you're due a walk in the woods.
Because I listened to this and bits of his other books with the same narrator on audiobook, I couldn't help thinking Bill Bryson sounded like a friendly American voice artist. I looked him up and found out in actual fact he has literally the most intersectional American/British accent I've ever heard in my life.
I now understand historical and political reasons for the English Reformation. That's always something nice to take away from a great story.
This book sucked me in more and more as I read it, at least half of that was because I had to be sucked in to be able to keep track of all the Henry's and Mary's. I was constantly flicking back to the character list at the start to know who was who.
Written in a style I'm not sure what it is but it took a while to wrap my head around, it's all from the point of view of Cromwell but still in third person, it leaps around in time very casually and sometimes doesn't bother with dialogue but just keeps it in a “then they talked about this and then that” style of writing. I'm not sure why this is the style but hey, once I'd figured out that ‘he' was almost always relating to Cromwell I was able to keep up.
Looking forward to the rest of the series.
This is such a 3.5 book I'm loathe to give it 4 but I'm too much of a math fundamentalist to consider rounding down.
Listened to on audiobook, was engaging, characters were big and broad and you could kind of see where things were going but I was entertained on the journey. The narrator absolutely nailing all the varieties of British accents definitely helped.
Recommended by a comics friend, I didn't realise how deep sci-fi this stuff has gotten.
Love the artwork, the time bending, the entire Moira X concept, and the feeling of so many ideas and potential stories almost tossed aside for the sake of something bigger.
The kind of thing you'll read again soon after you finish just to enjoy it properly.
Written in 2010 and it's astounding how hard he nailed the next decade. I'm talking to the point he even has a bit where he talks about the issues of social democrats being labelled as socialists.
I would love to know if there's a good critique of this cause it seems to make absolute perfect sense. The kind of sense which kind of makes it required reading for anyone who wants to grasp the world a bit better.
A manifesto of fiery confidence, brutally accurate analysis and unrealistically idealist hopes.
This book is an example of giving the most unbelievably accurate and perfect diagnosis but not having as much success with the cure. I can see why it caused such a fuss, I want to take on some of these bourgeoisie dogs like myself after reading this.
I don't know about you, but when I'm reading an authors third New York Times Bestseller and they're talking about how they're a lazy loser, all I'm thinking is how mean this is to all us non-bestselling non-bookwriting humans.
We're lazy losers AND unsuccessful.
That said, she's a refreshing voice. I know people who I will definitely be recommending her to.
Fantastic book and somehow perfect for the current times.
I listened to this on audiobook and it turns out this might be the perfect genre for audiobook. It felt like an old play you listen to on the wireless.
Such a brilliant ending, when the reveal came I actually paused the reading so I could spend some time gasping in wonder.
A good example of the parts being better than the whole.
Some interesting parts; the concept of alcohol myopia, the depth and stupidity of the systemic issues with police stops, the physical reasons torture doesn't work. He tried to tie it all together but it didn't hold up.
It's always suspicious when the author continues to use the title of the book all the time to make it clear how this all relates together.
A fascinating time capsule of the hopes and thoughts of a time and place.
Reading this at this point in time, July 2020, it's impossible not to see the parallels between the capitalist response to the rise of Nazism and the capitalist response to the current pandemic.
Also, the book makes an interesting case for patriotism and socialism being completely intertwined. Much moreso than conservatism and patriotism.