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It's a cracking read. Read this when I also bought Moonglow and A Visit From The Goon Squad when I fancied some chunky American novels - three good purchases.

Goodnight and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years of John Peel Helped to Shape Modern Britain by David Cavanagh. Lengthy but really absorbing. Peel was not perfect, but he was a genius. Love the man.

The Nix by Nathan Hill. Very enjoyable so far, but it's long and it's in hardback, so it's making my bag heavy when I go to and come back from work. I really shouldn't complain. Before that, Idaho by Emily Ruskovich which was borderline OK/good and A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan...

I think that's part of the attraction - an ending that's not really an ending. Like a cross between Kafka and Ballard. I should check out his other stuff.

I agree it wasn't the best year, but Satin Island is very entertaining - as a fellow office worker with exposure to consultants, it's worth a read, if you haven't already.

I have no problem abandoning a book. Last time I did it, it was with a fellow Booker Prize shortlist book A Little Life. Just too much.

I've had this for a while, but I keep putting off starting it. Let me know if it's worthwhile! I'm halfway through the much easier The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. Should be finished in a couple of days. Was considering revisiting The Return Of The Native by Hardy afterwards.

Love that book - a great read. Unlike A Little Life, which marked the first time in about 15 years when I had to give up on a book - couldn't be bothered to soldier on for the inevitable onslaught of brutality, and was finding the characters really quite annoying anyway. Currently reading A...

You've reminded me that I missed the last two episodes of The Durrells on ITV. Shame, because I was enjoying it as good Sunday evening telly. Have to see if it's still on catch-up somewhere....

Finished H Is For Hawk by Helen MacDonald - very good, interesting read, even though I have no interest in birds of prey - it's all about the emotional attachment/impact of training the bird and dealing with grief. Now on Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household - a classic spy hunting novel. Gripping...

It's not easy going until you get into the rhythm of it. I've been a Thomas fan for a good long time - I think I'm drawn to tragic, doomed literary figures. I enjoy the tension in his writing between the idealization (to an extent) of the countryside and its working people and his sense of his...

I'm mellowing out to The South Country by Edward Thomas. I have I, Partridge lined up next. Mixing it up.

Took me a fair while to read that, very enjoyable picaresque though. Currently reading Working The Room by Geoff Dyer, a collection of essays.

I read this a few months ago. Cracking book, hasn't aged at all. Nice use of Peacehaven. Currently reading: Dombey & Son - Charles Dickens; just finished The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie. You can't beat a bit of Christie when you're after an easy 1-2 day read.

Catcher In The Rye - J. D. Salinger. Haven't read this since my teens. Hugely enjoyable so far.

South Riding - Winifred Holtby. Intriguing Yorkshire pot-boiler with cult status.

I love a bit of Hardy - a bit of rural misery goes a long way, never ends well. Jude the Obscure is a bit devastating. Can't help feeling a little bit sorry for Henchard. I've changed my interpretation since I re-read The Four Quartets. However, I think it's one of those things where you have...

Re-reading The Wasteland - TS Eliot. Won't take long - less than 500 lines long, but dense with meaning. But what exactly DOES it all mean??

What about Evelyn Waugh?

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides