George D

Did you know Marx didn't technically come up with a specific way to do “Marxism”? All he did was show the flaws in Capitalism and voice some general thoughts on how a system designed to avoid those flaws might look.

Thats a fun fact, true Comrades?

Almost as good as Sapiens and Homo Deus with the added bonus of being easier to digest with it's clear separation of topics.

You spend the first half thinking “what the heck is this?” and the second half thinking “how the heck can anyone write so well?”

David Sedaris is insightful and hilarious. He has an amazing ability to write his characters saying the perfect thing to epitomise themselves and the situation they're in for maximum honest hilarity.

Absolutely brilliant, if you like mythology even a little you will love this book.

You can tell Miller knows her topic and knows how to reinterpret it. The perfect example of someone with broad and deep knowledge of a subject being able to deconstruct what it is and present an entirely new understanding.

You'll never look at Odysseus the same again...if you had looked at him before.

Fantastic novel full of well realised characters and beautiful language. The only odd part was the one random chapter where it turned into a David Cronenberg movie for a little bit.

A lot of people loved this book but for me I had too many issues with the plot and characters.

The descriptions of the various circus tents are cool though. Which is good because there are a lot of tents throughout this book and they are very relevant to the story.

A sweet story about the terror of loneliness and the beauty of striving to reconnect.

Bloody brilliant, written so evocatively you can feel the tweed on the blazer elbow patches.

As a man of Greek background I'm definitely biased to like it but it's not just that.

I wouldn't mind trying out a bacchanal sometime.

Robin Williams was a prodigy akin to Mozart and I never fully appreciated it until reading this book.

A comic genius in every sense of the word with a life of success and heartache that manages to both inspire and give warning.

This breaks down logic in a way that I really respect but also struggle to understand.

I think I need to reread it.

Pratchett being Pratchett, plenty of hilarious lines and observations with a plot that is both bonkers but somehow well grounded in the reality of the universe he has created.

A fun and funny collection of dark short stories.

One of the best I've read. Pratchett is always great juggling so many factors: underlying philosophy, well rounded characters, brilliant dialogue, engaging plot, thematic cohesiveness and worldbuilding.

At the same time, whilst always great, often there may be a teeny tiny dip in one of those areas compared to others.

This book nails them all.

This book was basically written for me.

Enduringly beautiful and melancholic, it will sit with me forever.

Very interesting in parts, if this was a long article I would consider it a fantastic read and share it with friends and heap so much praise on it. Instead it's ultra padded out to justify selling as a book, to the point I feel a little used for having being convinced to purchase it.

That's the reason for the 1 star, that feeling of being tricked. It's highly subjective, I know.

Then again, so was this book.

I can't believe this is listed on Goodreads as the Sorceror's Stone. I think it's safe to say it's a clearly inferior title to Philosopher's Stone.

Read it the first time and listened to it for my second reading, he is such a delightful storyteller. The footnotes of the book become these charming asides that Stephen delivers with genuine pleasure.

Love these stories, looking forward to experiencing them again soon.

John Irving has an astonishing ability to create in a few sentences a complete, flesh and blood, breathing human being with a million quirks and distinct traits who you could pick out of a crowd.

It's Buddhist fan fiction and like all the best fan fiction it updates, reorientates, and makes the story feel new.

For me the highlight was reading this while watching The Bear and seeing the book get a mention, what are the odds?Enjoyed it enough to read some more about this buddhism thing, turns out buddhism is pretty good.technically the odds are pretty high since I'm always reading something so at some point whatever book I was currently reading would be mentioned by whatever I happened to be watching, but also, maybe karma?

This is crack for any history fan. A true masterpiece of fictional worldbuilding.

Although definitely noticed this time that possibly the most old fashioned British influence over this whole mythos is the complete avoidance of anything overtly sexual in Tolkiens stories. When you compare his myths to their obvious forebear, the Greek Gods, you realise how much sex has been left out.

This isn't in itself a bad thing, but you'd be hardpressed to find any genuine historical myth from around the world that so thoroughly ignored one of the biggest features of human nature.

This should be the new Bible

Rereading this book was a fantastic experience. The first time I've ever cried in a book and it wasn't even at a ‘sad' moment, it was the tender moments between Mr Dick and each of the Strong's.

Yes it's long and yes it's Dickens through and through: odd names, social class contrasts and a cast of thousands, but if a book can build characters and situations well enough to make me well up for the first time in 33 years it's doing something very right.

Plus, absolutely hilarious. I forgot how well Dickens can capture a character and a situation in the most witty way possible. If you can't relate to David Copperfields' first time getting drunk then you and I have lived very different lives.

Worthy of the prestige.

The only problem with this book is Josh Waitzkin is so clearly a superfreak it makes his advice that little bit less relatable. He has definitely made me appreciate the complexity of chess on a whole other level.

Having said that, there's some great stuff here and it's a nice read.

If only I applied it.