William Gibson, Neuromancer

The book that inspired all those cult, seminal, influential dystopian films like Blade Runner and The Matrix that I don't like. I wonder if I would have felt differently if I had read it in the early '80s when the mixture of cybernetics, drugs and martial arts might have felt fresh and exciting as a vision of the future rather than the standard expectation that it seems to have become. I trudged through it to the end out of duty

Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook, George Orwell, Collected Essays, Bernard Cornwell, Enemy of God, Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man, Matthew Kneale, Rome: A History in Seven Sackings, Stuart Turton, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Simon Winchester, The Men Who United The States

That was a good workout. After The Golden Notebook and The Invisible Man, I couldn’t face another 'essential novel' so skipped one.  I'm not sure why 'The Golden Notebook' is considered an eseential novel, but that's down to my ignorance. The subject matter - feminism, left wing politics and decolonisation seen through the eyes of an englishwoman doesn;t fit so well with the general thrust of the very American list I have. I wonder if they had one rogue patriotic English contributor who insisted Mrs Dalloway, The Golden Notebook, Under The Net and White Teeth simply MUST be included on any serious list. Orwell was still fresh and relevant, I should reread Homage to Catalonia, which i remember throughly disillusioning me about anarchism and the glorious cause as a teenager. I enjoyed The Invisible Man, and it was good to see another view of the darker side of the American experience - the ubiquitous racism and how it informs the attitudes and actions of all. Stuart Turton's book has just won the Costa Prize, and there seems to be a competition amone reviewers for who can come up with the best cocktail of influences - Agatha Christie meets Christopher Nolan's Memento by way of the Instance of The Fingerpost or Gosford Park time travelling locked room murder mystery Groundhog Day. Whatever, it was a great read, perfect for Book Club.

Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms, Jonathan Coe, Middle England

Some sombre reading while on a Scout trip to Ypres to commemorate the centenary of the armistice. Really should have had some light relief between the horrors of warfare and the senseless loss of life of WWI. AQOTWF isn’t on the list of 100 essential novels, the nearest equivalent is the Red Badge of Courage - I guess that reflects the American experience, and the Civil War is their touchstone of pointless slaughter and mechanised murder.'Middle England' is Jonathan Coe's Brexit novel, using his characters from The Rotters' Club. i enjoyed it and it was very good on the resentment and left-behindness of the Leave voters, and how we became 2 nations living in each other's midsts without realising it - and the shock that came to the liberal establishment when truths it took to be self-evident were rejected.

James Acaster, James Acaster's Classic Scrapes

Terrible title, but a funny book. Acaster is a comedian who suffers from the ability to get himself into strange situations. It  reminded me of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where a character's seemingly reasonable responses to a situation run up against a set of circumstances that move the character deeper and deeper into a hole despite their best efforts.  Makes for some very funny stories. William is singing some lovely songs at the moment 'Shiny-like a crab-spinning round' and 'I would wor fi hundred miles and I would wor Fi hundred miles.. .  .'. Fred and I are travelling to Flanders tomorrow for the Armistice centenary.

James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Maybe the ground-breaking style of this hasn't aged well - to me it didn’t seem anything special, but maybe it was the first 'warts and all' disguised autobiography that touched previous taboo subjects. I make it sound like Knausgaard, which I love - not sure why I didn't get this, but Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are presumably way beyond my comprehension!

Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King, Alec Ryrie, Protestants: The Radicals Who Made the Modern World

A bit of a comfort read first, the 3rd or 4th time I've read it, I think. I still remember reading part II in a deckchair on the beach at Wittering (1997?) and enjoying it very much. Still very readable. 'Protestants' was read in Devon where we had a few days in a house in Bideford. Lovely holiday but very short and very cold.

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Nothing at all to do with The Handmaid's Tale, which I'd always lazily assumed. An ageing preacher is writing a letter to his young son, who he suspects he will not see grow up. He means to impart his wisdom and experience. John Ames comes across as a fine,gentle, loving man who loves his family. I got a bit lost in the theological debates, but apparently it was Robinson's attempts to humanise Calvinism and puritanism, so often seen as cold, intolerant and, well, puritanical. When it wasn;t dealing with religion, but the relationships between fathers and sons (I guess the religious would argue that you can't separate that), it was very affecting. We've just booked a last minute holiday in Devon, so have ordered Westward Ho! and too many maps