This book was written in a rush and then hastily extended and edited during the disastrous Truss government. It shows in places, reading like a tabloid opinion column and lacking depth. It’s fair enough given how little time they had to write it I guess.
Stuff about Books I've Read
This is a return to the earlier style of books where the plot is only there to ferry you from one joke to the next. The dungeon dimensions don’t really serve much purpose other than to add some “boding” as Gaspode would call it. I guess also to be able to wrap it all up in the end so that Holy Wood doesn’t exist again.
Rory Stewart walks from Herat to Kabul in Afghanistan not long after the fall of the Taliban. He does the walk in the winter months, stopping off at the villages and towns along the way.
This month’s book club pick.
Absolutely amazing. I remembered this being my favourite for a long time when I was a kid, and I can see why. This is such a massive step up from the previous books in the series. Pyramids had something to say about tradition and dogma, this has something to say about human beings. The characters have significantly more depth to them, and the plot threads are followed in more detail and tie together brilliantly.
This month’s book club pick. I loved most of this, but wish it spent less time lecturing me and gave some more nuance to the characters. I don’t really need convincing about it’s themes, and I think the message might have come across as more powerful if I was allowed to think about what was happening rather than being told how I should feel about it all the time.
I didn’t really know much about the KLF other than some of the hits and that they burnt a million quid. I was expecting this to just be a simple musical biography, it is a lot more interesting than that.
This is the second book I’ve read this year that features pyramids being built very quickly due to time being controlled (after Echoes of the Great Song). I don’t know if that’s a thing, or a coincidence.
The pacing felt much too slow. There are points where something exciting is supposed to be happening and the author spends paragraphs detailing where people are sitting and what clothes they’re wearing.
99% detailing all the current failings of the UK political and economic situation, 1% asking a few questions about what might be done.
This felt brutally honest at points. I’m really surprised at some of the stories he tells.
This was a lot. So many ideas that just keep coming. It’s absolutely ridiculous, and really quite silly throughout. I thought it was great.
A lot more hopeful than Politics on the edge!
This is a very depressing read. Stewart clearly has a deep love of the UK and it’s institutions, but describes his experiences of how its politics have been completely hollowed out. All the incentives are wrong, power is not truly in the hands of either the people that claim to have it or should have it. People are only interested in their position, and no one seems interested in the actual improvement of people’s lives. It ends with the rise of Boris Johnson and populism arriving in the UK.
If half of this book is true Billie Holiday had an extraordinary life. I’m guessing William Dufty is the author, but her voice shines through this.