Books
Started to read: Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford 📚
Read: 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left by Robyn Hitchcock 📚
Can I count this as my first read of 2025 despite starting it a couple of days ago? Anyway this is a short and sweet memoir of how Robyn Hitchcock became a “groover” at school in 1967. A nice origin story of an original artist.
Currently reading : Syd Barrett by Rob Chapman 📚
It is like democracy is a bottle someone can threaten to smash and do a bit of damage with. It has become a time of people saying stuff to each other and none of it actually ever becoming dialogue. It is the end of dialogue.
From Autumn by Ali Smith.
Started to read: Mayday by Jackie Kay. I don’t read a lot of poetry but the blurb on the back cover struck a few emotional chords. 📚
Read: Nobody’s Empire by Stuart Murdoch. Very enjoyable debut by the Belle and Sebastian singer/songwriter. Obviously very autobiographical. Recommended to any fans of the band. 📚
Reading: Neu Klang - The Definitive History Of Krautrock by Christoph Dallach. I really like the oral history style of books like this. You get a better picture of what happened with all of the different memories and viewpoints. 📚
Back to book shopping this week. It’s funny how Waterstones used to be the big bullies out to destroy all other bookshops back in the 90s. Now buying stuff there feels like rebellion. Anyway I’m looking forward to reading this.
Recently Read: Golden Hill by Francis Spufford. I loved this one even more than Cahokia Jazz. It’s another historical novel but set in mid 18th century New York this time. A young man arrives from London with a large money order and sets off all sorts of suspicion and intrigue. Loved the ending. 📚
Recently Read: Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford. Loved this one. The setting is an alternative 1920s USA where the state of Cahokia is run by a native American/Catholic monarchy. Mix in murder, jazz, politics, and hard boiled detectives and it makes a world I’d like to read more of. 📚
Started to read: Three Rocks by Bill Griffith 📚
Started to read: A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel 📚
Started to read: Lou Reed by Will Hermes 📚
Recently Read: Quantum Criminals by Alex Pappademas 📚
Recently Read: My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee 📚
Currently reading: Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 📚
Currently reading: Left Bank by Agnès Poirier 📚
Currently reading: One-Sentence Journal by Chris La Tray 📚
Started to read: Wyntertide by Andrew Caldecott 📚
It’s taken a while for me to get around to reading the second part of this excellent trilogy.