It features a familiar trope. I just looked up my review only to realise I didn't actually get around to writing a review. I don't think I received a review copy though, so that's ok.
I don't think it's Haigh's best book but it tells an old trope well and gives the reader something to think about and possibly argue with later. It's been a few years but my memory from finishing it is "Yes, BUT". That's not necessarily a bad thing. And if I was reading it now, during these times, I'd probably have a different reaction.
You pose an interesting question can what you call 'fluffy reading' not also be considered literature? I am happy to catagorise it so, even if the New York Times does not. I guess comes down to what is literature.
Can recommend the Tough Guy book club. They have chapters everywhere. Don't care if you've read the book or not. The idea is to hang out and chat. Once a month. Helped me get back into reading. The book of the month is often one I wouldn't pick, I still enjoy reading it to have a chance to discuss it with others over a drink.
I've read SPQR and everybody should; it's grand. Have Ferrante on the to-do list but currently working through, shamefully and finally, Wolf Hall. It truly is the masterpiece everybody else says it is.
You're right; day after the election, I was doomscrolling on the shitter and had the "the fuck am I doing this for" white flash of sudden knowledge. I've since tried to go back to a more pre-Internet way of things; I read the "news" (which, these days, is a coupla of digital newsletters and newspaper editions) in the morning over coffee and then I _try_ not to for the rest of the day. Not perfect, but doing better and definitely chewing way more pages of real books per day since.
Good luck with it, JB. We weren't meant to have news fired into our cerebellums every goddamned waking minute, it's no way to live.
Everybody loves Tim Winton. Is it mass appeal? Usually that drives me away from reading recommended books. However, I read Juice, my first Tim Winton book. To avoid spoiler alerts, all I will say is that it's long and written from an unusual perspective. Winton describes a future I can relate to, considering the way things are going with increasing global ignorance.
A lesser known book I would rather point to: Servo by David Goodwin. If you think you are the only one who constantly has to deal with Darwin-Award-level morons, read this book. You're not alone. In fact, David gets the same experiences in concentrated form, nightshift after nightshift, working at a servo in the Western Melbourne suburbs. Unbelievable...
I identify with switching from reading actual books to doom scrolling online. I also identify with having Mary Beard on my TBR for some years. I'm not 100% sure what I feel about reading about the Roman Empire right now because of my first memory of said empire. I was in primary school. I'm not quite sure which grade, or which teacher, but I remember the teacher's words. More or less.
Me: There's no Roman Empire now. What happened?
Teacher: it fell. All civilisations fall eventually.
Me: What about ours? When will it fall?
Teacher: stunned silence then change of subject. Probably processing imminent PTSD from having me as a student in a primary school class.
And ever since I've felt I've been watching the fall of our civilisation. Definitely not helped by the posters on class room walls in 1970s primary school classrooms talking about overpopulation of the planet and climate change. Yes, in the 70s. In RURAL TASMANIAN CLASSROOMS. (Tasmania is totally underrated by mainlanders.)
While that seems depressing, there is hope. Hope that might just get me motivated to pick up a Mary Beard book. The hope is that we've had many "end of world" events in my lifetime, from Y2K to the Year From Hell that started in August 2019 with the fires and continued with covid, hail storm from hell (I was in the ACT at the time and HEARD it passing), floods , covid death tolls and daily pressers etc. We survived it all.
Humanity has, so far, survived the fall of every empire and every civilisation.
And, if we bypass the xenophobic Eurocentric (British?) history that we absorbed in school, there have been many many civilisations over the course of human history. Ruins that display great creativity, engineering and artistry. Ruins in Africa. The incredible wells in India. And so many more. Mary Beard and others like her have a lot to teach me.
And, perhaps, I can combat incipient depression by absorbing not just fascinating history well told, but I can focus on the fact that the fall of a civilisation is NOT the end of the world. Instead, a fall is a harbinger of change. Often much-needed change in a pivot from corrupt governments imposing their rule on colonised peoples. We can live in hope.
Back in the 90s I had a friend who was a new science teacher. Apparently the public school curriculum was heaps more flexible than you'd think. There were no specific experiments for example, it was just "use pipette, bunson burner" etc. And what she taught her kids was AMAZING. They did experiments on how absorbent and strong toilet paper was, how effective hair dye was, all sorts of stuff that was relevant to kids' lives. I've thought back on that in the years since (we lost touch after she broke up with BIL and I moved away). I've always wondered if the curriculum was a lot more flexible than you'd think. Plus when my son was in grade 1 & 2 he had the most amazing team teaching duo (after I got him moved out of the abusive teacher's class). They had a really interesting program for their class.
I think when it comes to education most teachers are lazy and in a rut. However, we have to balance that against the hours they spend out of class preparing, grading, "volunteering" to run teams etc. Although the teachers in my family were all "bare minimum" types, a lot of others would do better by their classes if the system did better by them.
And I don't know how many kids were taught climate denial vs how many people in general just don't want to know. I've heard too many times that "they" won't let the planet destroyed, that "they" will do something at the last minute to fix everything, that "they" will enable us all to move to Mars and terraform it or move to space stations or something. I can't even. Do those people really think the Space Karen is going to suddenly spend trillions to help the rest of humanity after failing to spend millions to do better now?
I was going to ask you what you thought of Juice, but I’ll have to wait until you can stomach it. I plowed through it much faster than I’d expected.
I’ve enjoyed most of Matt Haig’s stuff - I might have to reread The Midnight Library. If you want something with short sections, I’d suggest his “The Comfort Book” or “Reasons to Stay Alive”.
Japan is having a great run of short books, often episodic short books, which have become best sellers. Not sure if that's because of catching the train, or if there's some other reason. Anyways, Satoshi Yagisawa "Days at the Morisaki Bookshop" was my starting point into that rabbit hole. Michiko Aoyama's "What You Are Looking For Is in the Library" appealed, probably because Aoyama once lived in Sydney. Toshikazu Kawaguchi has a series of books of episodes in a time-travel cafe, although the now-Japan-famous concept is better than the execution.
I tend to go hard for horror in my short fiction; if you feel the same way I can recommend The Dark and Nightmare magazines for written stories (you can subscribe to both and get e-editions at the start of the month, or go to their websites), and Pseudopod, The Magnus Archive and Old Gods of Appalachia for podcasts. All three have huge back catalogues so if you try them and like them there’s a lot more for you.
The makers of Pseudopod also do the sister casts Escape Pod (SF) and Podcastle (fantasy).
I have just downloaded SPQR to my Kindle on your recommendation, I always like Mary Beard's Rome documentaries. I have a few hundred unread or unfinished books on my Kindle, but I expect I'll get round to SPQR soon. Reading is what I do most of all, a mix of fiction, science fiction, history and non fiction, some just rubbish. I still use Facebook, mainly because most of my friends are overseas and it is easy to stay in touch
THAT’s your “Credenza of Shame”? If you can’t produce more than that I will insist you demote yourself to Tsundoku Minor Landed Gentry. My old flat had about a third of the floor space of the main room completely unusable because of the giant book monolith stacked on the floor, to about thigh height. You could’ve put a door down on top of it and had an instant coffee table.
But I digress. I’ve come back into long-form reading again myself, in a pretty similar frame of mind to yourself. Easing back into it with light stuff initially, some King I hadn’t got around to and some cozy Australian crime, that sort of thing, but I’m now getting ambitious again. Would be happy to share book notes on here once a month if that turns into a thing.
I knew Unknown Armies was the roleplaying game for me when I found the Bibliomancy chapter. Literally a game where hoarding books gives you magic powers.
I'll have to find that dog poems book. I loved that example.
I've been collecting a set of e-books to take with me on my impending holiday travels, in the hope that the space and disconnection will give me some reading opportunity. Gibson's History of the Decline and Fall is there, along with a couple of Noah Harari stories and some by this Birmingham fellow.
Historically, when I needed some short reading after a period of serious concentration I'd break out the old Tintin and Asterix collections, but like the rest of the dead-tree books those are lost somewhere in packing boxes until the new library gets built...
Edited to add: thank you for introducing me to Tsundoku. That is indeed a perfect word!
I look forward to hearing others thoughts on the books chosen to read in the bookclub. Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library was the first book I read in my workplace bookclub. When the next book chosen was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus I was hooked.
And I think I shall never read a more spot on title for a book than 'Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs' bravo to Amy Hempel.
Being in a small Book (and coffee, and lunch, and catchup) Club has helped me stay sane for over 15 years. Matt Haig's "Notes on a Nervous Planet" may be worth a look. I read it before "Midnight Library". Go-to poetry for me is Judith Wright's "Birds". (Helps if you live in the bush ;-)
Call that a credenza of shame? My bedside table is more shameful that that. And, er, just to be clear, because of the books - no other reason, just the unread books.
Reading history is also comforting. Humanity has survived horrendous ages and events, and still suvived and even thrived. Not sure if that resilience will be enough in the face of a burning world, but hope is damn hard work.
Somehow I've turned to fantasy & science - Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are on constant rotation & anything science gets me 👍👍
I got a nice cover line from Pratchett for Felafel in the UK, which makes it especially shameful that I havent read any Discworld.
Oh you MUST! There are some cracking audio versions available on Audible with Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy if you want to go that route.
Awesome!! My favourite Death quote, from The Colour of Magic: “I was at a party you know!” 😂
Ooh I did not know that! Must check them out, those voices would be awesome for Terry Pratchett!!
Serafinowicz voices Death 🤩
You're a stronger person than I am for taking on Serious Literature in the face of impending doom: my go-to distraction is fluffy reading.
Yeah, what said. Midnight Library can be read as literature. Or even philosophy. But is also undeniably fluffly.
It features a familiar trope. I just looked up my review only to realise I didn't actually get around to writing a review. I don't think I received a review copy though, so that's ok.
I don't think it's Haigh's best book but it tells an old trope well and gives the reader something to think about and possibly argue with later. It's been a few years but my memory from finishing it is "Yes, BUT". That's not necessarily a bad thing. And if I was reading it now, during these times, I'd probably have a different reaction.
You pose an interesting question can what you call 'fluffy reading' not also be considered literature? I am happy to catagorise it so, even if the New York Times does not. I guess comes down to what is literature.
Can recommend the Tough Guy book club. They have chapters everywhere. Don't care if you've read the book or not. The idea is to hang out and chat. Once a month. Helped me get back into reading. The book of the month is often one I wouldn't pick, I still enjoy reading it to have a chance to discuss it with others over a drink.
I've read SPQR and everybody should; it's grand. Have Ferrante on the to-do list but currently working through, shamefully and finally, Wolf Hall. It truly is the masterpiece everybody else says it is.
You're right; day after the election, I was doomscrolling on the shitter and had the "the fuck am I doing this for" white flash of sudden knowledge. I've since tried to go back to a more pre-Internet way of things; I read the "news" (which, these days, is a coupla of digital newsletters and newspaper editions) in the morning over coffee and then I _try_ not to for the rest of the day. Not perfect, but doing better and definitely chewing way more pages of real books per day since.
Good luck with it, JB. We weren't meant to have news fired into our cerebellums every goddamned waking minute, it's no way to live.
Everybody loves Tim Winton. Is it mass appeal? Usually that drives me away from reading recommended books. However, I read Juice, my first Tim Winton book. To avoid spoiler alerts, all I will say is that it's long and written from an unusual perspective. Winton describes a future I can relate to, considering the way things are going with increasing global ignorance.
A lesser known book I would rather point to: Servo by David Goodwin. If you think you are the only one who constantly has to deal with Darwin-Award-level morons, read this book. You're not alone. In fact, David gets the same experiences in concentrated form, nightshift after nightshift, working at a servo in the Western Melbourne suburbs. Unbelievable...
Not everyone at all.
That sounds like a great read. I live there and there’s never a dull moment.
I identify with switching from reading actual books to doom scrolling online. I also identify with having Mary Beard on my TBR for some years. I'm not 100% sure what I feel about reading about the Roman Empire right now because of my first memory of said empire. I was in primary school. I'm not quite sure which grade, or which teacher, but I remember the teacher's words. More or less.
Me: There's no Roman Empire now. What happened?
Teacher: it fell. All civilisations fall eventually.
Me: What about ours? When will it fall?
Teacher: stunned silence then change of subject. Probably processing imminent PTSD from having me as a student in a primary school class.
And ever since I've felt I've been watching the fall of our civilisation. Definitely not helped by the posters on class room walls in 1970s primary school classrooms talking about overpopulation of the planet and climate change. Yes, in the 70s. In RURAL TASMANIAN CLASSROOMS. (Tasmania is totally underrated by mainlanders.)
While that seems depressing, there is hope. Hope that might just get me motivated to pick up a Mary Beard book. The hope is that we've had many "end of world" events in my lifetime, from Y2K to the Year From Hell that started in August 2019 with the fires and continued with covid, hail storm from hell (I was in the ACT at the time and HEARD it passing), floods , covid death tolls and daily pressers etc. We survived it all.
Humanity has, so far, survived the fall of every empire and every civilisation.
And, if we bypass the xenophobic Eurocentric (British?) history that we absorbed in school, there have been many many civilisations over the course of human history. Ruins that display great creativity, engineering and artistry. Ruins in Africa. The incredible wells in India. And so many more. Mary Beard and others like her have a lot to teach me.
And, perhaps, I can combat incipient depression by absorbing not just fascinating history well told, but I can focus on the fact that the fall of a civilisation is NOT the end of the world. Instead, a fall is a harbinger of change. Often much-needed change in a pivot from corrupt governments imposing their rule on colonised peoples. We can live in hope.
Our textbook for Social Studies in Form 3 (early 70s) was a book by Fiends of the Earth.
Our lay teacher in a Convent school had less constraints the curriculum than my friends teachers in High School or Tech.
Maybe this explains so many of our generation being climate change denialists?
Back in the 90s I had a friend who was a new science teacher. Apparently the public school curriculum was heaps more flexible than you'd think. There were no specific experiments for example, it was just "use pipette, bunson burner" etc. And what she taught her kids was AMAZING. They did experiments on how absorbent and strong toilet paper was, how effective hair dye was, all sorts of stuff that was relevant to kids' lives. I've thought back on that in the years since (we lost touch after she broke up with BIL and I moved away). I've always wondered if the curriculum was a lot more flexible than you'd think. Plus when my son was in grade 1 & 2 he had the most amazing team teaching duo (after I got him moved out of the abusive teacher's class). They had a really interesting program for their class.
I think when it comes to education most teachers are lazy and in a rut. However, we have to balance that against the hours they spend out of class preparing, grading, "volunteering" to run teams etc. Although the teachers in my family were all "bare minimum" types, a lot of others would do better by their classes if the system did better by them.
And I don't know how many kids were taught climate denial vs how many people in general just don't want to know. I've heard too many times that "they" won't let the planet destroyed, that "they" will do something at the last minute to fix everything, that "they" will enable us all to move to Mars and terraform it or move to space stations or something. I can't even. Do those people really think the Space Karen is going to suddenly spend trillions to help the rest of humanity after failing to spend millions to do better now?
I've gone back 40 years to find solace. Rereading all of William Gibson's output.
I was going to ask you what you thought of Juice, but I’ll have to wait until you can stomach it. I plowed through it much faster than I’d expected.
I’ve enjoyed most of Matt Haig’s stuff - I might have to reread The Midnight Library. If you want something with short sections, I’d suggest his “The Comfort Book” or “Reasons to Stay Alive”.
I am always looking for short read stuff.
Maybe you should write some!
Japan is having a great run of short books, often episodic short books, which have become best sellers. Not sure if that's because of catching the train, or if there's some other reason. Anyways, Satoshi Yagisawa "Days at the Morisaki Bookshop" was my starting point into that rabbit hole. Michiko Aoyama's "What You Are Looking For Is in the Library" appealed, probably because Aoyama once lived in Sydney. Toshikazu Kawaguchi has a series of books of episodes in a time-travel cafe, although the now-Japan-famous concept is better than the execution.
Short story books.
Bark - Lorrie Moore
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower
Collected Works - Flannery O'Connor
Just read All the Devils are Here by David Seabrook. It's short, very, very strange and excellent. Perfect for end of the world scenario.
I tend to go hard for horror in my short fiction; if you feel the same way I can recommend The Dark and Nightmare magazines for written stories (you can subscribe to both and get e-editions at the start of the month, or go to their websites), and Pseudopod, The Magnus Archive and Old Gods of Appalachia for podcasts. All three have huge back catalogues so if you try them and like them there’s a lot more for you.
The makers of Pseudopod also do the sister casts Escape Pod (SF) and Podcastle (fantasy).
I’ve been reading Joe Abercrombie lately. I finished The First Law trilogy yesterday and am now beginning Best Served Cold.
I like him. His knack for dialogue reminds me of someone…😉
I have just downloaded SPQR to my Kindle on your recommendation, I always like Mary Beard's Rome documentaries. I have a few hundred unread or unfinished books on my Kindle, but I expect I'll get round to SPQR soon. Reading is what I do most of all, a mix of fiction, science fiction, history and non fiction, some just rubbish. I still use Facebook, mainly because most of my friends are overseas and it is easy to stay in touch
THAT’s your “Credenza of Shame”? If you can’t produce more than that I will insist you demote yourself to Tsundoku Minor Landed Gentry. My old flat had about a third of the floor space of the main room completely unusable because of the giant book monolith stacked on the floor, to about thigh height. You could’ve put a door down on top of it and had an instant coffee table.
But I digress. I’ve come back into long-form reading again myself, in a pretty similar frame of mind to yourself. Easing back into it with light stuff initially, some King I hadn’t got around to and some cozy Australian crime, that sort of thing, but I’m now getting ambitious again. Would be happy to share book notes on here once a month if that turns into a thing.
Dude, it's just the credenza. There are two whole purpose built libraries of shame here.
That’s more like it!
I knew Unknown Armies was the roleplaying game for me when I found the Bibliomancy chapter. Literally a game where hoarding books gives you magic powers.
I'll have to find that dog poems book. I loved that example.
I've been collecting a set of e-books to take with me on my impending holiday travels, in the hope that the space and disconnection will give me some reading opportunity. Gibson's History of the Decline and Fall is there, along with a couple of Noah Harari stories and some by this Birmingham fellow.
Historically, when I needed some short reading after a period of serious concentration I'd break out the old Tintin and Asterix collections, but like the rest of the dead-tree books those are lost somewhere in packing boxes until the new library gets built...
Edited to add: thank you for introducing me to Tsundoku. That is indeed a perfect word!
Asterix! I loved those books. I should totally go back to them.
I look forward to hearing others thoughts on the books chosen to read in the bookclub. Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library was the first book I read in my workplace bookclub. When the next book chosen was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus I was hooked.
And I think I shall never read a more spot on title for a book than 'Unleashed: Poems by Writers' Dogs' bravo to Amy Hempel.
Being in a small Book (and coffee, and lunch, and catchup) Club has helped me stay sane for over 15 years. Matt Haig's "Notes on a Nervous Planet" may be worth a look. I read it before "Midnight Library". Go-to poetry for me is Judith Wright's "Birds". (Helps if you live in the bush ;-)
Call that a credenza of shame? My bedside table is more shameful that that. And, er, just to be clear, because of the books - no other reason, just the unread books.
Reading history is also comforting. Humanity has survived horrendous ages and events, and still suvived and even thrived. Not sure if that resilience will be enough in the face of a burning world, but hope is damn hard work.