Last week I finished:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

I wanted to savor this so badly, it took me months to read. Finally I just sat down and went for it. I’m disappointed it was over, it was so good. I wish I could write like Zadie Smith. What a book.

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Not as exciting as Jurassic Park but a good read for the commute and vacuuming and doing dishes. I was confused about the weird technology and some of the dates, but then I looked it up and realized it was written in 1969, and that’s why the characters treated very basic computer tasks as marvels, lol. I had thought Crichton worked mostly in the 90s… guess not.

Florida by Lauren Groff

I’d read a few of these pieces before and pretty consistently loved them. Short stories and a novelette more or less set in Florida, or with Florida as a home base.

Working on:

• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
• Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
• Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
• For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor
• Ulysses by James Joyce

Finished -

The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe - A space nerd must-read as every self-respecting space nerd would know. Anybody else, you'll be giddy reading about the origins of the space program, take my word for it.

And the great man recently passed away. RIP good man!

The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton - For a book written in the late 60s, damn that's some impressive hard sci-fi. Very approachable too.

Currently reading -

Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel - Keep hearing good things about it. It's been an engaging read so far.

I finished The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton on Tuesday. Whhheewww what a wild one. I was actually tense!

Then that same night, as an easy reader palette cleanser from all the science, I picked up Stalking Jack the Ripper, by Kerri Maniscalco.

I expected it to be trashy and light and to an extent it is but I'm finding myself actually really enjoying it. If she keeps writing and hones her style I think she'll be a really strong author someday; I'm liking forward to her future books.

Here are my books this week:

Into the Drowning Deep, by Mira Grant (I can't recommend it because the whole last third was crap.). Vengeful, by V.E. Schwab (I definitely recommend this one although a lot of the characters are assholes/whiny and useless), and Brain Food, by Lisa Mosconi (I also recommend this one because it's a great overview of food that'll help your brain be healthy). I also read The 4-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss (which was mostly useful but a bit airy-fairy as well)!

I'm going to read some more fiction the next week. I'm tired of non-fiction to be honest.

I'm currently reading The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton.

Finished two.

The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley which I nearly dropped about 50 pages in, and in retrospect wish I had. It's not terrible, just extremely bland fantasy, and very much a YA novel which is a style I'm not a fan of. Full review.

Second was The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton which I enjoyed a lot more. It's no masterpiece, and probably the weakest of Crichton's novels I've read, but still just a really solid techno-thriller. Full review.

Going to jump into something else today. Torn between Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell, Riptide by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child and Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan.

I finished The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton (audio book) and Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl. I really enjoyed both books.

I started Wayward (Wayward Pines, #2), by Blake Crouch (audio book) and plan to start reading Cop Hater (87th Precinct, #1), by Ed McBain today at lunch!

I finished Bird Box, by Josh Malerman which was a Christmas present. I am a fan of good horror and I thought this book was excellent. I thought it had a very strong start and ending. I read up a bit on the Netflix adaptation and it seems that they have changed some of my favourite bits of the book so I won't go out of my way to watch it.

By the same author I also read Ghastle and Yule, by Josh Malerman which is a short story that was included in my edition of Bird Box. It was entertaining enough to keep me amused but I didn't have any strong opinions on it either good or bad so I will probably forget all about it quickly enough. One thing I did find cheeky was that the short story was c100 pages and included in the edition of Bird Box. The book did not mention anywhere on it's cover that it included a short story so people buying the book might be annoyed that the main story is 100 pages shorter than they were expecting.

I also read The Walkting Dead, by Robert Kirkman volumes 10 to 12 inclusive. I didn't enjoy the TV series but decided to read the graphic novels as my local library has them all. The story is varied enough to keep it interesting. In the latest volume the characters met a new troupe who are purposefully travelling across country rather than just surviving which is an interesting turn on the story.

I started The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton this morning. This is one of my Dad's favourite books. I tried reading it when I was young but never finished it just as my attention span was so poor. Scanning through the books it has charts on some pages like Jurassic Park did and I find that kind of thing exciting.

I finished The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton. I'm a bit unsure whether to recommend this or not. I was really enjoying at first but got bored and for the second half of the book I found I was just reading it in order to get it finished. I need some time to reflect on the book but I think I just got bored at hearing about the results of the different tests they were carrying out and the book showed it's age a bit. I did find the book exciting to start off with and I liked the charts that appeared in the book. I ended up rating it 2 out of 5 stars on Goodreads but might bump that up to a 3 after further reflection.

I also read volumes 13 to 19 of The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman. There are 30 volumes in total and I promised myself at the start that if I ever got bored of the series I would drop it and not force myself to the end. There was one volume (number 16 or 17 I think) when it seemed like nothing interesting happened and I started to consider dropping the series. However the introduction of Regan in the next volume really stirred things up and I found I was reading it in bed way past my bedtime on a work night...I was gripped again. A couple of things that annoy me about the series is that some of the sentimental conversations between characters are a bit brief, repetative and cheesy. I'm all for a bit of sentiment in a story and I think TWD has set a perfect environment for some moving moments but it just doesn't seem to execute them well. I also find on a few occasions the story suddenly jumps from one group of characters to another in an abrupt way and there have been numerous times I've turned the page and thought I'd accidently turned two pages because the change didn't seem smooth at all. I assume this moments are when the original issues of the comics ended then restarted. This paragraph seems negative but overall I am enjoying the series but I just notice these things over the past couple weeks.

I also read Museum of Terror Volume 2: Tomie 2, by Junji Ito. Junji Ito is a horror manga author who I discovered last year and Tomie is a collection of short stories about the seductive regenerating succubus Tomie. The book was decent but wouldn't say it stood out against Junji's other work. I enjoyed the stories towards the end of the book much more as they were interlinked slightly.

This week I am going to start reading IT, by Stephen King on the side, thinking about 20 pages a day. I bought a great hardback 1987 version of it for just 50p in a charity shop last week and I'm really chuffed with it. It's too nice and big to carry about with me all day so I am only going to read it in the evenings. I took a photo of the book and uploaded it here (had to hastily edit out some work documents just in case it got me in trouble!). https://imgur.com/a/V8sGLh7

The Andromeda Strain, by Micheal Crichton
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
Rage, by Richard Bachman
Lots of short ones for me this week. The Martian chronicles floored me. Beautiful and haunting.

I finished Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton as an Audio Book and it was exceptional. I really enjoyed it.

I started The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton as an Audio book right after that and I've only got about 2 hours left. These are my first experiences with Crichton and I've really like his story telling.

Besides those, I've been reading Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl as a recommendation from a friend. It's really technical, but his study of Logotherapy and his experiences in Auschwitz and throughout WWII is really eye opening. I highly recommend this book.

Just finished Bella Poldark by Winston Graham. It's the last in the 12-book Poldark series, and a really nice way to finish off the series. Now I'm in Poldark withdrawal.

Just started The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. It's the first thing I've read of his, and I really like it so far.

Just finished Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams which I enjoyed. Was really funny. But it turns out my copy had like a 50 page Afterward about the making of the movie, so the book suddenly ended when I thought I was only 70% done. That was really jarring and I still feel unsatisfied by the ending, but I wonder how much of that is the fault of the Afterward or the novel. I feel like even if I had known I was at the end, the ending seems to come out of nowhere and wraps up in like 2 pages. You can't take a book like this too seriously though; I'll definitely continue with the series.

Half way through The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton and feel like I still haven't gotten to "the good part". I haven't picked it up in a few days now and I might not again, unless someone can tell me that the second half is worth it. "Sphere" was a page turner for me so I wanted to read more of his work.

Just finished The Woman in the Window by A. J. Flynn. It was okay. The prose was kind of boring and amateurish, it took 150 pages for the mystery to start, and some of the twists were obvious. But it was okay.

And lastly I'm half way through an autobiography called Crisis of Conscience by Raymond Franz who was a high ranking member of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the 60s and 70s. It's incredibly interesting (and depressing, and enraging) to me as someone who grew up in the cult until my early teens, and still has some family inside.