Clause 1
I’ve specifically read 12 books, and I probably won’t copy out all my notes necessarily, but here are the ones I’m counting.
- The Sign of Four, Doyle (Classic) - very much of its time, and it could do with encountering some equality…
- A Discovery of Witches, Harkness (Series) - it was an intriguing start to the series
- Shadow of the Night, Harkness (Series) - the parallels and echoes between the historic and modern sections were nice
- The Book of Life, Harkness (Series) - a reasonable conclusion, but jumped around a lot to try and fit everything in
- Breakers of the Dawn, Wahrer (Science-Fiction) - closer to high fantasy than SF, and OK, but not innovative enough to carry on with the series
- Pretty Girls Dancing, Brant (Crime, Thriller or Horror) - no real surprise in the ending, but it was a good read
- The Grid, Teague (Young Adult) - derivative, but well written enough to leave me wanting to find out what happens next
- Otherworld, Segal and Miller (Science-Fiction) - the concept was good, and it would make good TV
- Hero in a Halfling, Tyler Davies (Fantasy) - this was horrendously derivative, it seemed to be trying to do what Wayne-Jones, Gaiman, Pritchett, etc. have done well, but it didn’t do it for me
- Brilliant Agile Project Management, Cole and Scotcher (Non-Fiction) - a nice overview of the methodology
- The Bullet Journal Method, Carroll (Non-Fiction) - this took me a while to complete, but has had a good impact on my own bullet journaling techniques
- The Mersey Sound, Henri, McGough, and Patten (Poetry) - my favourites were the McGough section, but I think it is fair to say that he is my favourite poet
Clause 2
I have read A Christmas Carol (Dickens), which is so much a part of the zeitgeist that there are many many adaptations.
The most recent adaptation I saw was in person at the Bridge Theatre in December 2022. This was the adaptation by Nicholas Hytner.
It uses a lot of the text directly, but with a cast of just 3 it had to diverge at times.
A good number of the ‘visions’ were done via narration, and the responses of the performers to what they could ‘see’, but the audience could not. Whilst that was likely due to the limited number in the cast (it was originally conceived and ran in 2020) it allowed the audience to join in the imagination aspects. This was especially impactful for a section, usually missed out, where the young Scrooge at school sees characters from stories come to visit.
This was a very true to the text adaptation, and the theatrics were excellent.
(Aside - I now realise just how true to the text most adaptations are, and especially the version by the Muppets!)
Clause 3
Poetry is of course subjective, and what I find good others will hate. I feel like I’ve timed my reading of this wrong, I’m too old for some of the poems to be vital, and too young to have heard most of the authors voices (if you get a chance do see Roger McGough). Much of what in contained in this book is timeless, I’m reading it well after the 50 year reprint and it still reads as the world today is, with the caveat that without the mass media and technology the imagery is firmly rooted in a smaller world than they may (or do) write about now.
