Tag - Reading

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My 2014 – An Overview
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My Year In Books

My 2014 – An Overview

Happy New Year

This week I look back on my 2014. It takes the form of concise extracts from my diary. This might seem a rather narcissistic thing to do, but hopefully some of you might find the entries mildly amusing and/or be interested in the links to the book reviews/blog posts/YouTube video.

January
Wednesday 1st – Have I ever had a less memorable New Year’s?

Monday 27th – Read and reviewed Post Office by Charles Bukowski. What a great book.

Friday 31st – It’s Tax Deadline Day – &#%!@?£*@%

Post Office

February

Monday 3rd – February is the most desolate of all the months.

Wednesday 5th – Won £250 on a scratch card.

Tuesday 11th – Plumbing disaster – Water pouring through kitchen ceiling.

 

March

Friday 7th – Today I published the 8th instalment of my Bizarre Author Death Series. With the benefit of hindsight this seems like overkill.

Thursday 20th – Ladurée café Harrods – Ceylon tea and an assortment of macaroons.

Wednesday 26th – Is redemption merely an illusion?

Easter2

April

Saturday 19th – What’s with all these gluten free Easter eggs? Are they for people who haven’t punished themselves enough over Lent?

Monday 21st – My first WholeFoods experience. I will devote a blog post to the subject.

Thursday 24th – Necropolis launch day.

Friday 25th – 13 Necropolis’ sold in 1 hour on Amazon.eu website. Could I be the next J.K. Rowling?

Wednesday 30th – Amazon Sales Report – It appears I am not on my way to becoming the next J.K. Rowling quite yet.

Necropolis

May

Saturday 3rd – I eat 3 WholeFoods caramel slice things.

Tuesday 6th – Nike Town – This assortment of multi-coloured trainers are far too flamboyant for me.

Saturday 12th – Suffering after yesterday’s Marylebone/Baker Street pub crawl (x12 pubs).

Pint

June

Wednesday 4th – The Gym – Holding my breath whilst deadlifting results in excruciating exertion headaches. (Takes several weeks to recover).

Tuesday 10th – Novella shopping spree in Waterstones.

Thursday 12th – World Cup begins.

Tuesday 24th – World Cup ends in humiliation for England at hands of Costa Rica.

Football

July

Monday 7th – After much wheezing and spluttering my washing machine takes its last breath.

Tuesday 8th – Finished reading The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

Wednesday 9th – Hope deserted this launderette a long time ago.

Thursday 17th – Still thinking about The Old Man and The Sea.

Sunday 20th – Catacombs tour of Brompton Cemetery.

The Old Man And The Sea

August

Monday 5th – The Gym – I am getting really good at these leg presses; I must be getting close to the World record. Oh maybe not – Ronnie Coleman did x8 reps of 1.043 tons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmyXXuW8oiA

Friday 22nd – Publish my blog post – My Top 5 Most Disturbing Books Ever – (This will prove to be my most popular blog post ever).

 

September

Thursday 4th – The Dinner Party – I’ve added too much water to the couscous, this is a catastrophe.

Friday 5th – My weekly blog post – 10 Famous Banned Books.

Saturday 20th – Dinner – Homemade gyoza, highly recommended.

 

October

Tuesday 9th – Visit Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.

Tuesday 14th – Dinner – Pleased to be eating something other than steak for a change. A chicken and pigeon combo – delicious.

Wednesday 15th – Santiago del Estero – Northern Argentina – How can it be 40C on a spring day?

Sunday 26th – Go to NFL game between Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Giants at Wembley.  I don’t even know the rules.  Eat a MacDonald’s, a TGI Friday’s & 3 donuts before 1pm.

Monday 27th – Finish reading and reviewing my first Ballard novel – High-Rise.

IMG_1260

November

Monday 10th – Another day another gym mishap – Squashed under bench press, have to cry out for assistance. How embarrassing.

Friday 14th – My weekly blog post – 7 Famous Drug Addicted Authors.

Wednesday 19th – Finish reading and reviewing The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

Selfie

December

Thursday 11th – Necropolis selling well on Amazon.com this week.

Saturday 13th – See my first Selfie Stick (Narcissist Stick) in West End.

Friday 26th – Spend half the day playing Modern Warfare on the PS4. Is this what a mid life crisis looks like?

Saturday 27th – Passport please be in the filing cabinet. NOOOOO.

Wednesday 31st – 23:59 – In Japan at Shinto temple waiting for the bells to toll for New Year.

My Year In Books

This time last year I devoted a blog post to the books that I had read in 2013. I have decided to do the same for 2014. In addition to releasing my second novel, the satirical black comedy Necropolis, I read 34 books.

Here is a breakdown of the books I read in 2014.  Click on the links to read my reviews.

2014

 

Non Fiction

If you are interested in African history you might like:

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild – The Belgian King, Leopold II, had grown envious of his European neighbours’ portfolio of colonies, and longed for a colony that he could call his own… (More)

Classics

I read a couple of books that could be termed Classics in 2014, including:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Brother Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Transgressive Fiction

Click here for a definition of Transgressive fiction. Here are 3 very different Transgressive novels that might be of interest if you haven’t read them already.

High Rise by J. G. Ballard

Post Office by Charles Bukowski

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Black Comedy

I read a couple of books that could be termed black comedies, including:

Death and The Penguin by Andrey Kurkov – Kiev resident and journalist Viktor lives in a small flat with Misha, his pet Emperor Penguin, purchased from the near destitute city zoo…(More)

I also wrote a black comedy, which I would highly recommend.

Necropolis by Guy Portman – Dyson Devereux is Head of Burials and Cemeteries for the local council … (Click here to read Crime Fiction Lover’s review of Necropolis)

Necropolis

Crime Fiction

I read a fair bit of Crime fiction in 2014 including:

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Chasing The Game by Paul Gadsby

Slur by Diane Mannion

Real Crime

The best Real Crime book that I read this year was Helter Skelter.  It is about the Manson murders.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi In one of the most infamous mass murders in history, Sharon Tate, the Hollywood actress and pregnant wife of film director Roman Polanski, is brutally slain in her home,…(More)

Best Novella

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway – Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba, this is a tale about an old man, a boy and a colossal Marlin…(More)

The Old Man And The Sea

Books about Drug Addiction

I read some good books about drug addiction in 2014 and some not so good ones. I would highly recommend these 3:

Junky by William S. Burroughs

Wasting Talent by Ryan Leone

Novel with Cocaine by M. Ageyev

Biggest Disappointments

I am a big fan of Easton Ellis and Palahniuk, but these two books failed to meet my lofty expectations.

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis

Doomed by Chuck Palahniuk

Favourite Book

Post Office by Charles Bukowski – Henry Chinaski is a heavy drinking, womanising, race track frequenting low-life, who works at the post office.  The story follows his menial existence of twelve-hour night shifts, sorting post, …(More)

Post Office

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