Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Update

Yes, I'm still here.

While I'm still going to add things as and when I have a sense that this blog may have run its course in its present incarnation.

At the moment, my main priority rather than writing any new material is to compile a 'best of' as suggested last year and cap off eight years of the blog.

Longer term it's a choice between either 

- going back through and sorting some HTML formatting issues in older posts to make the blog fit for purpose and then continuing to use it for whatever purposes I see fit. 

- or making a new start on a new platform because the thought of wrestling with HMTL makes my teeth hurt. Maybe doing something different or a little more focussed.

I suspect the act of compiling the A-Z of Magpie Moth or whatever it ends up being will perhaps make my mind up for me.

Anyhow, for now, I'm still here.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Reading recommendations round-up

Coming off hiatus to record another 8 months of reading recommendations. Once and future classics in bold

Ben Aaronovitch - The Furthest Station
Edgar Cantero - Meddling Kids
Ruthanna Emrys - Deep Roots
E M Forster - Two Cheers For Democracy 
Neil Gaiman - Norse Mythology
Mike Gayle - The To-Do List
Matt Haig - Reasons To Stay Alive
Dave Hutchinson - Europe At Dawn
Gail Honeyman - Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Lindsey Kelk - One In A Million 
Victor Lavalle - The Ballad Of Black Tom
Michael Lewis - The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine
Mhairi McFarlane - Don't You Forget About Me
Seanan McGuire - An Artificial Night
Simon Sebag Montefiore - The Romanovs
Robert M Pirsig - Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Elizabeth Sandifer - Neoreaction: A Basilisk
Tara Westover - Educated 
Catherynne M Valente - Space Opera
Roger Zelazny - Isle Of The Dead

plus an honourable re-read mention for Edward Said's Orientalism - still an excellent book.

By sub-category:

SFF - 8 
Romantic fiction - 2
Autobiography - 3
Mainstream fiction - 1
Experimental fiction - 1 
Economics - 1
Essays - 1 
History - 1
Mythology - 1
Politics - 1