Closure

So far all I have given you is excuses. I’ve tried to explain why this blog dried up but not really what happened in the meantime, at least not in terms of the books I read. The blog updates may have stopped but the reading didn’t. It slowed down because of the drugs but it certainly didn’t stop. Anyway, the blog was at least a couple of weeks behind the curve anyway as I had read a bunch of books I hadn’t blogged about by the time I stopped updates. So without (too much) further ado I want to list all the books I read in 2010 but didn’t blog about, including brief review comments as appropriate.

#71. Twitchhiker by Paul Smith – one man’s attempt to get halfway around the world relying only on offers of help from Twitter. Interesting idea, less interesting book as I recall. I did learn that Pete McCarthy of McCarthy’s Bar fame was dead though while reading this book, which made it a little more interesting.

#72. Marching Powder by Rusty Young – much more like it! A fascinating insight into one of South America’s toughest jails and a great story that is well told to boot.

#73. The Ice Man by Philip Carlo – OK, it’s an American book about an American contract killer in America written by an American. But burglarised? Seriously? Someone needs to beat that word out of them. Also I recall this book ending rather suddenly, when it could have gone on and been so much better. We get the full story of this Mafia hitman while he’s a free man but don’t get much of his story when he gets caught and banged up. How did he feel? How did he cope? More on the arrest, on the hunt for him and on his capture would have rounded it off much better.

#74. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne – before I read this I was convinced I knew the basic premise and that in involved a hot air balloon somewhere along the way. Err, nope. Was that a mis-remembered image from the Steve Coogan film or something from the Willy Fogg cartoon? And if you have clicked that link and watched the YouTube video try getting the theme tune out of your head now. Anyway, no balloon but not a bad little story really even if Passepartout mes across as a complete dick.

#75. Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich – one of the many books about the MIT blackjack gang that is supposed to have taking the Las Vegas casinos for a fortune and forced numerous rule changes as a result. It was adapted into a film too, 21, but that was a steaming pile of crap. The book is better, but that’s not too difficult. In fact 21 is one of the reasons I haven’t seen The Social Network yet. Not being on Facebook is one reason but quite enjoying the Ben Mezrich book (The Accidental Billionaires) and fearing another shitty film adaptation is the main one. But then The Social Network is supposed to be alright isn’t it?

#76. Ugly Americans by Ben Mezrich – another ‘true’ story, this one about American traders getting rich off the Asian markets but I can’t help but wonder how many of these people are composites of several individuals and how many of the events truly happened. Mezrich seems to go in for these so-called true stories but I can’t help but think they are rather sensationalised. Most true stories don’t sell because they are dull and need sexing up a bit.

#77. Breaking Vegas by Ben Mezrich – I think this was called Busting Vegas in the US but it seems to be Breaking Vegas over here. Certainly my copy is Breaking. Another MIT blackjack story, this one supposedly more true than the other as it mainly revolves around Semyon Dukatch (although the spelling of his name changes a couple of times) and the second of the blackjack gangs. Dukatch even offers a bit up himself at the end of the book, a short chapter on the techniques used, to add an air of authenticity. The same doubts about how true the tale is come to the fore though. It has the pub story vibe. Imagine you’re in the pub with a few mates and you’re telling a tale. How accurate are the main points of this story? Are any of them embellished for effect or to make you look better in this tale? Yeah, right!

#78. Playing the Moldovans at Tennis by Tony Hawks – another supposedly true story and ever the cynic I am left wondering whether the little twist in the tale really happened. Tony Hawks sets out to play the Moldovan football team at tennis. We follow him on his journey trying to track down the players and get various parties to agree to let him play them at tennis but there are a few bits in there that just make you think “my, that’s convenient and makes for a better story to recount when you get home”. Or at least they made me think that, you may be more forgiving.

#79. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – I’m not 100% sure why the book I have says Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on the front when the story itself seems to be called The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Does anyone know what this book is actually called? I have the Wordsworth Classics edition and like a lot of these old classics the publisher seems to have gone all out to make it hard to read. Some of it is the author’s fault, such as the  excessively long paragraphs,  but the publishers haven’t helped by using a small font and really packing in the text. It doesn’t say so on the cover but this volume includes a few other of Stevenson’s short stories too. I wasn’t too bothered about The Merry Men, Will O’ The Mill (throughout which I was thinking of Evil Edna for some reason), Thrawn Janet and Olalla but Markheim and The Treasure of Franchard were rather enjoyable.

#80. Cat Confidential by Vicky Halls – it was shortly after Cat had died and I felt I owed it to the new cat(s) we were getting to make their lives with us as comfortable as possible so I thought I’d try to get inside the mind of a cat a bit more by reading this book I bought for the missus a few years back. It made me think about a few things from a cat’s perspective, things I might not have considered otherwise so it served a purpose I guess.

#81. Cityboy by Geraint Anderson – I used to read the Cityboy columns in one of the free London evening papers so when this book came out I bought it in an airport for a bit of light holiday reading. And that’s what it is really. It’s supposed to be a true account of one man’s career in the city, lifting the lid on the excesses and cityboy lifestyle but once more the cynic in me throws a massive shadow of doubt over bits of it which somewhat spoils it. Without that suspension of disbelief books like these don’t really work. I really object to books dressing themselves up as true stories when many of the characters and events are composites. But then as I said earlier, unless it is sexed up a true story won’t sell.

It is now the end of October, and with Cityboy in the bag I have exceeded my target for the year and I still have two months left. Yes! But with the side effects of the drugs cranking up things were to slow down rather.

#82. Hold’em Poker by David Sklansky – I was in one of my limit hold’em phases and wanted to take things back to basics.

#83. Any Utterly Impartial History of Britain by John O’Farrell – this is a chunky volume, as one would expect bearing in mind it covers two thousand years of British history, so it took a while to get through. This is the ideal sort of book for me though as it is educational without being dry. John O’Farrell is amusing at times (the material doesn’t allow for too much comedy) but has also taken the time to get his facts straight which obviously helps with a book like this. The missus got the sequel (An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain) for Christmas but I am doing the decent thing and letting her read it before I pinch it. I might be waiting a while though as she reads much more slowly than I do.

#84. Witch and Wizard by James Patterson – I had taken a rare trip into town, going round the shops with the missus for reasons that currently elude me when we came across people giving away hundreds of copies of this book to passers-by. A free book – I’m having that! It seems it was being given away partly to promote the new book in the series but I was willing to give it a go as James Patterson is a renowned thriller writer. This series is more aimed at teenage kids but overall the book’s not bad. It’s mainly setting the scene for a long series of books but the writing is decent, the main characters develop at a decent pace and I reckon tweens would rather enjoy it.

#85. Definitive Guide to Betting on Horses edited by Nick Pulford –  as a gambler I figured a refresher course on the basics of horse racing wouldn’t hurt. This is another that took a little while to get through though, for various reasons.

#86. Amazon Kindle User Guide – it’s now just after my birthday now so early December and I have only read four books since end of Oct. The drugs really kicking in but I have also picked a couple of long books to slog through in that period. Once I had hit the target I decided I should tackle some longer works as I had nothing to lose. Perhaps that is why I read the Kindle User Guide cover to cover. Who reads instruction manuals these days? I read this one and at several points went “coo, that’s clever.”

#87. Blood, Sweat & Tea by Tom Reynolds – I actually read the Kindle version of this but I can’t seem to find that on  Amazon now so I have linked to the paperback instead. Whatever, it’s just a blog in ‘print’ format really and one that doesn’t always work that well as context is sometimes lacking. I wouldn’t rush out to buy/download it, honestly.

#88. Soul Identity by Dennis Batchelder – yes, I read it because it was free on Kindle. It’s an interesting concept – your eyes can be used to determine whether your body is the current vessel for a given soul which means one can take advantage of a service allowing one to store life lessons and valuables ready to be passed on to the next body containing your soul in order to give that ‘you’ a headstart in life – which helps enormously as otherwise it’s fairly standard thriller material with the usual plot twists and character traits evident. It builds towards a sequel but I won’t be rushing to seek it out. If I come across it cheap on the Kindle I may read it but otherwise I shan’t bother.

#89. Screen Burn by Charlie Brooker – I really like Charlie Brooker but for some reason I don’t find myself compelled to seek out his every work. I rarely remember to watch Screenwipe or Newswipe when they are on. I missed his zombie thing (Dead Set?) and I don’t read his Guardian columns, not even online. But then again had I spent the last few years reading his regular Guardian columns I wouldn’t have had any use for this book as it is a collection of said columns from a few years back. It’s actually just a lazy reprinting of loads of stuff Brooker has written before which must make it a cheap book to print (just like the Jeremy Clarkson books I read at the start of the year). But it means I get to enjoy a few hundred pages of Brooker vitriol all in one go and that is a glorious thing. A man not afraid to swear when it is needed, and to do so properly and in full rather than alluding to the swearword by asterisking out key letters. He’s a fantastically grumpy misanthrope who writes a beautifully immature column when he wants to. I must watch more Brooker.

#90. ‘F’ in Exams by Richard Benson – when I go to someone’s house I tend to look at their bookshelves. You can judge a person by the general decor of their house but that’s their public persona. They know that side of them is open so they can manipulate how they are perceived. They can hide their collection of porcelain dolls so you don’t think them weird, especially if they are a man in their 30s. But it is harder for someone to really sanitise their bookshelves, which is why I like to have a nose around when the opportunity presents itself. At christmas I went up to stay with the missus’ parents and thus had a neb around and grabbed this for a bit of light reading. After all, when the opportunity to have a quick read of someone else’s books presents itself I often take it with both hands. The book was supposed to be genuine exam question answers but I have my doubts as to how many were actually real (how many times have I written that recently?) and how many were written for comedic effect by someone other than the person taking the test. This is not a book I would by and is probably better suited to an email or website but it passed a few minutes nonetheless.

#91. Balderdash & Piffle: One Sandwich Short of a Dog’s Dinner by Alexander Games – another borrowed read and this time it was much more like it. I love words so to hear about the history of some more esoteric words and phrases is a joy. I really enjoyed the TV series when it was on (although that was in part due to the fact that it was presented by Victoria Coren) and while this book wasn’t up to the same standard it was a pretty good read.

#92. Dawn Of The Dumb by Charlie Brooker – back to my bookshelves now and more Brooker columns from the Guardian. I’m not sure I got this finished by the end of the year so should I count it as number 92? Can I pull the “I’ve started so I’ll finish” Mastermind trick with books too?

Excluding books I didn’t complete in the calendar year (including the first and last book in this blog) I make that 90 books in a year. My target was 80 so I haven’t done badly. In fact I am quite pleased with how things have gone. It’s nice to be able to quantify my reading speed in terms that everyone can understand. I read around 90 books a year. Without the drugs in the last couple of months I would have easily pushed 100 I reckon. Ah well, 90 is a more than respectable total.

And that’s it from me. I have proved over recent months that I am bloody useless at updating this blog so from now on I probably won’t bother. I set out to see how many books I could read in a year – and also see what variety of books I read in that time – and I have documented the challenge to a greater or less extent here so it feels like job done. I will still be trying to read as many books as possible but I don’t feel the need to blog about them any more. I think it’s probably best for all involved if I just draw a line under things now.

Thank you for reading and I hope we meet again, perhaps on a different blog I don’t update for several months.

Mat