• Literature

    Splutter in Senseless Sounds

    The last post was getting a bit full of quotes, so I thought I’d leave these two slightly longer excerpts to their own post. They were too good not to share. The first on his attitude towards work: It always does seem to me that I am doing more work than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart. You cannot give me too much work; to accumulate work has almost…

  • Books Read

    Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

    Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome Published: 1889 Narrated by: Steven Crossley Series: Three Men Length: 06:44 (184 pages) I can’t remember where I heard about this, I think this time last year it was unknown to me, but I would like to extend an enthusiastic thank you to whoever brought this to my attention. I absolutely loved this novel. This follows three men, and a dog, as they take a two-week holiday to travel down the Thames by boat. This was originally meant to be a serious travel guide, but it quickly become more about the humourous insights that occurred along the way. He tried to…

  • Books Read

    Animal Farm

    Animal Farm by George Orwell Published: 1945 Length: 112 pages (but read on e-reader) This wasn’t part of my high school curriculum, so I finally decided to give it a try. I knew going in that it’s an allegory of the Russian Revolution, but I think even if you know embarrassingly little of that, like me unfortunately, the message of this and the conclusions drawn would be the same, which I suppose proves how well it was written. This will include spoilers. This is the story of a revolt gone wrong, of a successful revolution that ends with a government more oppressive than the one that was overthrown. This happens…

  • Books Read

    You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)

    You’re Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day Published: 2015 Narrated by: Felicia Day, Joss Whedon (foreword) Length: 06:17 (260 pages) I first came across Felicia Day in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which I loved, and I later picked up a copy of The Guild‘s first season on DVD at a signing, which was nearly a decade ago now. Not having seen the show at that point, I accidentally ignored Sandeep Parikh at the singing table. which is a shame because he was probably my favourite of the cast when I finally got around to watching it. We even all took an awkward photo together, which I made slightly…

  • Books Read

    Fool’s Assassin

    Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb Published: 2014 Series: The Fitz and The Fool Trilogy #1 Length: 689 pages Robin Hobb is one of my favourite authors, and it’s a shame it’s been so long since I’ve read one of her novels. I lost the will to go on after finishing the first two books in her Soldier Son trilogy. I still loved her writing in those, but I just really grew to hate the plot. The whole story was ridiculous and painful to get through. After deciding to abandon that series (a decision that took years), I unfortunately stopped reading her completely, despite having the Liveship Traders and Rain Wild…

  • Books Read

    Bream Gives Me Hiccups

    Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg Published: 2015 Narrated by: Jesse Eisenberg, Hallie Eisenberg, Annapurna Sriram, Erin Darke, Colin Nissan Length: 04:28 (273 pages) I picked this up because I thought it would be a good audiobook to have while in Hawaii. I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of time to read, so a smaller book of short stories or essays seemed like the perfect choice. Unfortunately I started it on a dog walk a couple of days before leaving and managed to finished it before we even stepped on a plane. I like Jesse Eisenberg in his film roles, and he seems like a funny…

  • Meta

    February in Review

    Books Acquired: None. Books Read: Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb You’re Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day Animal Farm by George Orwell Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome One post last month, not including the previous wrap-up. Oh, how time flies. I have an excuse for the first two weeks, we were in Hawaii for one of them and had guests at the house for the other, but since then it’s just been laziness. It’s funny how difficult it can be to sit down in front of the keyboard after taking a long break, even knowing it’s enjoyable once you get going. It was a…

  • Books Read

    She

    She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard Published: 1887 Series: She #1 Narrated by: Peter Joyce Length: 12:15 (317 pages) I was under the false impression that this was the second Allan Quatermain novel, but it’s actually an entirely new set of characters. It’s a novel that does scratch that same itch, however, as it’s still a story of the Lost World genre in which a group of Englishmen travel to Africa (this time landing somewhere on the eastern side of the continent) to find a hidden civilization. That is simplifying it a little unfairly, but the two books do have a similar feel. A professor at Cambridge,…