Nosemonkey > Recent Status Updates

Fun, this. Reminds me a little of Orhan Pamuk, but more readable.

Keep forgetting I'm reading this. Keep remembering how great it is when I finally get back into it.

Still fun, still episodic, still occasionally slightly confusing in how it introduces major characters - assuming a prior knowledge of French history that - in my case at least - is a bit shaky...

Continued snapshots of village life linked by half-remembered tradition and an all-pervading nostalgia that seems to see technological progress as akin to war in its destructiveness, and looking backwards the only respectable way to approach life. I may be misinterpreting, but hard to see this as anything other than inventive whimsy.

Still well explained, but now wondering if I'm struggling due to my rusty maths and poor grasp of probability. Or if I'm just being Sunday stupid.

Reads rather well, this. The research understated but unmistakable, like a land-based Patrick O'Brien. High praise, that.

Continues to be decent - if slightly dated with examples (and the US sports ones *really* don't help, as I have less than no clue about American Football or Baseball...)

Picked up on the recommendation of Undercover Economist author Tim Hardford. Hideous cover and title that makes it sound like a self-help book notwithstanding, it's pretty promising so far.

So yeah, I was very wrong on the style. Changes every chapter, along with the characters. Interesting - and the overall themes are starting to emerge and make sense to me now.

So far reads like every single late 20th century piece of English literary fiction set in the provinces, even when written first person in the style of the early 18th century. There's a pace to it, a tone. It's weird - you don't get this with books from similar authors set in other locations, just those set in vague not-London rural/suburban communities. Probably because it feels very mich like them.

Almost gave up after the last one, which felt confused throughout. This has the same easy, readable style as the rest of the series, but feels refreshed by the non-London setting, paced better, like it's been properly thought and plotted. Much better.

Another charity shop buy, and enjoying it so far. Published 2013, written 2011, and yet a lot of tech / society / digital commentators are still playing catch up with some of the ideas and explanations in here.