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Dancing in the Streets
Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy - I found superficial, confused and downright inaccurate.
To start with, as with many "History of X" books, this is actually a history that only covers the Western world. Most books though acknowledge this near the beginning. In this case the acknowledgement comes on page 155, which doesn't ( Read more... ) -
Victorians and Murder
I'm not yet a third of the way into The Invention of Murder, but it's so seriously fascinating that I need to share.
In the 19th century (I'm not sure at what point this ceased to be the case, but into the 1840s at least) crime scenes were preserved for juries to see them for themselves (there being no photos), including leaving bodies in situ in ( Read more... ) -
Rec me some audiobooks
I'm using Audible, and all my books are depressing - I'm currently listening to the Lucifer Effect, my wishlist is full of things like The Aquariums of Pyongyang. So does anyone have recs for happier things on Audible? I'm being specific because there are lots of audiobooks you can't get through Audible, like anything by Jasper Fforde for example ( Read more... ) -
The Psychopath Test
The Psychopath Test - main thing to say about this is "keep going past the early bits with Scientologists, it gets better, promise". Basically more good stuff from Jon Ronson, but as mentioned a bit of a shaky start. -
Why Humans Share Food
Feast: Why Humans Share Food - nice book, which covers its subject through wee imaginary vignettes of food sharing from prehistory to the present. Obviously misses quite a bit because of the size and format, but all good stuff. It's a good sign when the author at the beginning illustrates food sharing with two pictures - one of himself with ( Read more... ) -
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
I didn't particularly like The Dark Knight Returns for various reasons (artwork isn't much cop, there's way too much text exposition etc etc). One of the big things is that the vicious-crimefighter aspect to Bruce Wayne is represented by the Bat; unfortunately for me the first thing I think of for 'bat' is the Common Pipistrelle:
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Shikasta
Shikasta - a book I didn't finish. Mainly because of its very strong religo-fascist overtones; everything is wrong in the world because we are out of touch with the cosmic plan. If we were in touch with the cosmic plan and unfailingly, unquestioningly obedient to it we'd all be happy and everything would be wonderful. Disobedience is called the ' ( Read more... ) -
Bow Ties
Two and Three react to the news that some of their reincarnations don't think bow-ties are cool.
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