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I am sitting in my house surrounded by clothes I don't wear, books I haven't read, unfinished paintings and incomplete sewing projects. 2022 was the year from hell and I'm attempting a massive declutter so I can finish things this year and maybe move somewhere else. Love the idea of a book club. Reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy. Oh and I've fixed the shredder so that's a win.

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sadly, I very much identify with all the unfinished projects you mention Margot, and it’s definitely not that they’re unsavoury in any way (hmm apart from the tax returns, years worth, ho hum) it’s more that I get enthused by the ‘next’ project rather than seeing one through to completion before starting the next…focus and tenacity is what I need to work on.

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Excellent idea JB... Am a voracious reader myself... Currently re-reading the Elyne Mitchell Silver Brumby books which I've not read since I was a kid... Loving them... And have discovered she wrote a bunch more I never knew about. Also, totally going to try your checklist...

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

FWIW I ordered one of these via Kickstarter in a determined effort to parcel my time a little better.

Looks like they can now be pre-ordered direct, with an estimated despatch date of May 2023.

https://getfocustimer.com/

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author

OMG that looks so much nicer than my crappy $19.99 kitchen timer

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Jan 6, 2023·edited Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Yeah…I have a weakness for elegant yet effective design.

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that looks pretty sexy! maybe I can justify the cost if it also becomes my new kitchen timer, the decades old IKEA one I had has died.

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ooh shiny!

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Jan 6, 2023·edited Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Ah what the hell, count me in.

I have so many counterproductive habits I could fill a palace with them. I don't think I'll get through a book a fortnight, but at least I'll be reading more, and I need to write more.

So if I make my intentions public and answerable to you JB, and my fellow JB blog ne'er do wells, I might actually succeed in reading and writing more (Outside of game work writing duties)

Good lord it's like a self help group for the galaxies' scum & villainy.

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

I'm in. I was thinking of joining a book club to see if it'd get me back into the book-reading habit. But I really don't want anyone telling me what I have to read. This is ideal.

Either that, or I'm just going to read everyone else's comments about their books and kid myself that I'm still a reader...

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Oh well, WTF, in for a penny, in for a pound. Your book reading resolution has tipped me over into shelling out for an Alien SidebOOb sub. I had been meaning to get along to my local chapter of the Tough Guy Book Club but it never happened. I’ve got a fancy schmancy bookshelf behind me in my office (made me look like a real bookish twat during those covid Zoom calls); a kauri pine bookshelf verily groaning with books. All whispering over my shoulder for me to read / re-read.

“Hey man, Neil Gaiman up here in the corner. I know you’re a George Saunders fanboy but give the yank a rest for fuck sake and read me!”

“Mate, Nick Hornsby down here. I know it’s been over a year since you gave up on High Fidelity. But give me another chance to come good. I’ll buy you a pint!”

“Pico Iyer over here. Why not toss a coin? Heads you read “The Art of Stillness”, tails you crack open Geoff Dyer’s ‘Out of Sheer Rage’

So I’m going to make my own similar resolution to crack on with reading (while writing my own stuff). I look forward to reading your book reviews. But please … while I honestly believe you would never stoop so low, and for the sake of all those writers on dusty shelves and in Kindles everywhere … no ratings out of five stars.

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Tough Guy Book Club will still be there, and will still welcome you, whether you've read the book or not, on the 1st of February.

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Jan 7, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Thank you I shall join this little book club! My only 'resolution' for this year was to read 2 chapters of a book every day, which is such a low bar - yet reflective of how bad my reading has become -so your post was just the right thing at the right time.

I am in a remote area so can't get to the shops to follow along with Churchill but I have a copy of Beevor's book on the Russian revolution so I'll give that a go.

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Veronica, do you have library access? You may be able to borrow an e-copy remotely.

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Bought “The Splendid & the Vile” at least 2 (3?) years ago and still haven’t read it. Thanks for the prompt - I will crack it open tonight, in solidarity.

Word to the wise: At no point will the guilt abate. You can read a book a day and still won’t even have heard of 80% of the titles on the Time Best Books of the Year list. Make peace with it. (I haven’t).

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Yep. Apart from about a hundred crime novels which by and large ain't what they used to be, even though (because?) it seems there are now millions of the buggers.

I'm reading an Australian novel, "Hydra" by Adriane Howell: It's pretty good.

I want to finish "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff, even though it will make me irate and sound paranoid. Read "Notes From the Underground" by Fyodor Dostoevsky while listening to Magazine. Australian history: a couple of books I've bought by Julianne Schultz and Anna Clark.

More crime novels. At least two books each by favourite novelists Michelle de Kretser and Anthony Quinn. Find some good short stories. Maybe revisit Michael Moorcock after decades.

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Splendid and the Vile is excellent and fascinating. I couldn’t put it down.

Though I once recommended it to someone on the basis that I read it after seeing it referred to by you. So perhaps I have recommended it incorrectly. I hope you like it enough not to have and go and withdraw the endorsement I made on your behalf.

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I was listening to it on audio, in the car with my wife. But we havent had any long drives recently so I decided to just read it myself. Don't tell her.

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Got your back, bro

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Love Churchill hate Bezos, might try this.

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Great idea, have read Project Hail Mary and Artemis by Andy Weir as well as The One Impossible Labyrinth by Matthew Reilly over Christmas with The Peripheral next on the list, rather than adding to JB's coffers (no the other JB😉) why not give the old fashioned library a go.

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Project HM is definitely on my list this year.

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Thoroughly enjoyed it, recommended reading.

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Jan 9, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Excellent old-school sci-fi; you’ll enjoy it.

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I want to watch more TV this year. I find reading easier to concentrate on than watching think TV shows, for some weird reason - possibly because I can self-pace when I read.

I read >> 100 books last year. In case this sounds like bragging, I should explain that they were almost entirely light entertainment, some very fluffy/ trashy. So I should probably read fewer but weightier this year. My only regret about the fluffy reading is that it's left me with the deep-seated wish that I could write something which brings people as much pleasure as some of those books do.

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TV and books are my warring kingdoms. It feels like a zero sum game between them.

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Can't be zero sum between those two: Reed Hastings reckons he's competing with sleep. So it's at least three cornered. The 21st century's big revelation is that attention is the most valuable limited resource. Thinking back to school-age boredom, how could you have imagined it?

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I wish you success with your goals, sounds like you have already learned from your experiences along the way; Clear desk, close socials etc . Would be chuffed to join in the bookclub, with the obvious caveat of Groucho Marx "I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member” I track my reading using the minor tentacle of Bezos beast that is the goodreads website www.goodreads.com they run a reading challenge every year that you can set the number of books you want to read. Also follow friends and see what they are reading and liked. I think you'd recognise a few names.

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I bought my hubby The Splendid and The Vile for Christmas. I found the name on a note I made after you recommended it some time ago. He was thrilled...and it is keeping him occupied while sitting in the cardiac care unit. I am rereading an old favourite Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon while sitting with my Dad on possibly his last night. Good books bring so much with them. To get to read them in company will be a delight. I look forward to joining in.

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author

Mate, I am very sorry to hear about your old man. Its a tough time. Look after him. And then look after yourself

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Love the book club idea! I’ve just started Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, it’s a slow start but getting interesting. Will also try out the checklist when I go back to work after several months of long service leave, I think I’ll need it to get badly!!

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When you're finished, and I'm done with Churchill, tell us all about it.

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Jan 6, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Have you read Prolonging the Agony ?

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author

I have not!

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That was a great book

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