John Elledge, A History of the World in 47 Borders

 A pop-Geography book written in a very jokey, irreverent way, almost like a podcast. Lots of funny asides and diversions. Not sure I learnt anything new, but a nice enjoyable read at a time when I needed that as work has been so stressful the past few weeks. I'm having an inner debate about whether to keep books like these. I've always kept non-fiction, but I know I'm never going to read this again so why keep it? A decision may need to be made as my shelves are double-stacked. . . 

Graham Swift, Waterland

 Took me a while to get into it as it seemed disjointed, hoping around the centuries, but always set in a soggy, oppressive fenland that is evocatively described. It soon all came together and although the East Anglia Tourist Board probably don't want to use it as it's got murder, incest and muddy ditches, it made me want to go out to the fens. Parts of it were read in Bristol and Bath as Freddie was looking around the universities there. He seems to like both, but it's difficult to tell with Fred as he doesn't seem to get enthusiastic about anything or make any decision. Maybe that's just teenage boys for you.

Jack Cornish, The Lost Paths

 Left it a little late to write this after reading, and it didn't make much of an impression anyway. It's a book by a keen walker, but I couldn't really workout how it was structured, and the themes seemed odd. More a series of anecdotes and stories that weren't really linked and only loosely connected to paths. Fully behind any extolation (is that a word?) of footpaths, but a bit meh. 

John Fowles, The Magus

That was a bit of a mindbender. 700 pages of psychological experimentation, not knowing what was real and what wasn’t - I stuck with it and really enjoyed it, although at times was totally lost, just like the main character. It's set mostly on a greek island after the waw and revolves around a young English teacher, who is looking for an escape from a failed relationship and takes a job on the island. there he meets a strange character who proceeds to draw him in to a web of fantasy and lies where no-one is what they seem. the scale of this illusion and the reasons for them haunt the main character as he struggles to distinguish between reality and the facade. It turns out that very little he though of as true was real and everyone he know has been part of the simulation in some way. a novel written by a young man alone on an island with too much time on his hands, but still great.

Fred had  his first A level exam this week, in Maths. He's very taciturn, so it's difficult to understand how worried or concerned he feels, but he seems to be coping. Nest week we are off to look at Bristol and Bath university. . . 

Subhadra Das, Uncivilised: Ten Lies that made the West

 A bit more pop than the polemic I was expecting, and a lot of personal experience rather than academic analysis, but all the same very little to disagree with about the arrogance and inherent superiority western civilisation affords itself. 

Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang

 A '70s counter-cultural classic about a gang of militant environmentalists who decide to fight back against human despoliation of the wilderness through direct action. They blow up bridges and machinery and go on the lam, before the law eventually catches up with them.  It was a bit if a slog for me, although the author is obviously very much in love with the Utah desert and the Colorado Valley, and loves to walk it. His characters' 60 mile walks made me feel a bit rubbish with my own efforts. On Bank holiday Monday this week I ran 10 miles on the Ridgeway between Liddington Castle and Sparsholt Firs, intending to get an Uber back. Couldn't get an Uber at Sparsholt, so decided to walk the 4 miles to the nearest town, Lambourn. Lambourn was a tiny wee place, with only one cab driver, a guy called Gav who wasn't free for another 4 hours. so I walked/ran the 11 miles from Lambourn back to the car. What should have been a relatively easy run followed by a pub lunch in Ogbourne St George turned out to be a bit of an epic particularly when the rains started mid-afternoon. Not sure Fred will trust me to plan any more walks on the ridgeway (two days before he did 16 miles with me)..

Nicholas T Parsons, The Shortest History of Austria

 Bought this out of curiosity, as I was intrigued to know how you can have a history of Austria - is it the history of the lands of the current state, or of the lands of the Austrian empire, or what? Is there even such a thing as the Austrian nation? It was light reading, and mad that such topics as Canossa or Stefan Zweig could be covered in  a sentence and then on to the next topic. mostly it was a history of the Habsburgs, warfare and diplomacy, not a great deal of social history or of the land of Austria. It's a Friday afternoon and I'm off to give blood later before a dance evening at cubs - so I'll show up with my donor sticker and have a good excuse not to make a fool of myself with the dancing.