Stuff I've been Reading - September

Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Patrick Rothfuss
Factfulness - Hans Rosling

Red Seas Under Red Skies
I know, I know. A couple of months ago I said I wouldn't read this. And then I did. I liked the Locke Lamora world building, so I read it, even though I wasn't sure about the writing. And weirdly, I think I liked this one a bit better. Not often I say that Bout a sequel.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things
It started with an instruction, telling you not to read it. I'm still not certain whether I should have listened. More a poem than a story. Or a technical piece of cleverer-than-thou prose. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it - if I truly didn't enjoy it I wouldn't have finished it, I'm happy to dismiss a book - I just, well, didn't enjoy it as much as the other two Rothfuses.

Factfulness
Now here is a book I enjoyed. One that made me feel clever, whilst teaching me things and adjusting my world view. You should probably give it a read. You'll feel better for it...

Walrus Schmalrus

Do any long term readers remember what 2013, 2014 and 2015 all had in common? No? Okay, I'll tell you (although I am disappointed in you not remembering five-year-old information about my life). The most I laughed was at Mischief Theatre Company.

But look at them now. All grown up. Christmas specials on the BBC and three shows running on the West End. And I'm all grown up too. Five years more cynical. Five years more ground down by politics. I'm a professional man with a responsible job. Nowadays I go to the William Morris gallery in Walthamstow to learn about serious things like environmental activism and wallpaper. I wouldn't be reduced to uncontrollable tears of laughter by a man doing an impression of a walrus.

It looks like 2019 will be joining that list.

The Bermondsey of the North

Manchester, it's been a while. You've changed a bit. Some of those areas that I wouldn't have wanted to go to when I lived there are now fully gentrified: card only and contactless.

So it was a trip that was part nostalgia and part beer exploring (Squawk who knew?), topped with an unexpected finale of a major sports event (those Tour of Britain cyclists go pretty fast - you feel the whoosh as they go past you, like when a pigeon flies in your face, only on a bike).

Still, good to see that Salford Quays is still soulless. Some things don't change...