Bookworm

I love books. This page is under construction, but it will have many books on it soon.

Favourites

The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat, Charles Clover

Very few books can be qualified as "life-changing". Probably most people will never read a truly life-changing book. It's an over-used book jacket epithet. But, for me, Charles Clover's essay on the industrial, short-sighted over-exploitation of a precious, complex and oft-forgotten eco-system (the oceans) has been life-changing. There's a definite before and after. Even if you're already vaguely aware of the issues surrounding over-fishing, the threat to blue fin tuna or the collapse of North Atlantic cod stocks, this book gives you much greater insight and lays out just how complex the problem and the solutions are. It made me very cross, and also determined to change the choices I make. And I annoy all my family and friends with it too, by nagging them to think about their choices. I think it's starting to work...


A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil, Christopher Brookmyre

I went to primary school in Scotland in the 80s. That alone is, for me, reason enough to love this book. Brookmyre's fictional Scottish school is based on his childhood in Paisley, but it may as well have been based on the school I attended in the Lothians. It took me right back to school assemblies and break-time ball games.
Combine with the author's excellent Scottish dialogues, fantastic imagination, and caustic wit to make a cracking good read.





Ghostwritten, David Mitchell

This is a clever, clever book. Read it, finished it, turned straight back to the start to read it again.