vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
I read this book recently, borrowed from Monifieth Library. It was published earlier this year, and is a manga version of the first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet.

Generally I enjoyed it. The art is clear and distinctive, and full colour, with the characters well delineated. It's a fair retelling of a story which isn't one of my favourite Sherlock stories by a long way, though I really like the opening portion where Holmes and Watson meet and then move in together. But in many respects I find this a rather muddled Conan Doyle story, and the manga version reflects that. It was a very good idea for BBC's Sherlock to rework things quite a bit. I was a bit surprised to see the Mormon section included in the manga, which is good for faithfulness even if I'd personally rather see it excised as the BBC did! But, yes, a good read, and well done in manga form. The paper stock is also high quality. The book is noted as "volume 1" in the Sherlock Holmes stories, so hopefully they have more stories in development.

vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Just finishing the book Forgotten Churches: Exploring England's Hidden Treasures by Luke Sherlock. A quite magical book, a mix of architecture, travel and history. Also exploration of place. With evocative illustrations throughout from Ioana Pioaru. Thoroughly recommended.

I mainly read it on my Kindle for disability reasons, but also had the hardback book, which is better for appreciating the gorgeous illustrations. It's a quite compact hardback book, not too large, but just right. I was just tormenting Martin over tea with questions about "Do you know X?" re X places in Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset! But also had fun showing him some of the fantastic pictures I enjoyed in the later sections of the book. He's a lapsed bellringer, and in his younger days rang bells in many churches in southwest England.

vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
Continuing my reread, and this is one that I could remember well from the past.

spoilers )
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Kindle books anyway, the main thing I read now, so I can have a gigantic font to cope with reading difficulties due to my progressive neurological disease. A mix of fiction and non fiction as always. I also have library books and others on the go.

Screenshot of a Kindle Paperwhite, black and white / greyscale colour, showing two rows of three books. On the top are "Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil" by V.E. Schwab, "Restoration London: Everyday Life in London 1660-1670" by Liza Picard, and "The Lantern of Lost Memories" by Sanaka Hiragi. On the row below are "Forgotten Churches: Exploring England's Hidden Treasures" by Luke Sherlock, "Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better" by Polly Atkin, and a "Complete Sherlock Holmes" collection.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Finding another stash of books that can mostly be donated to Oxfam's. Including several Egaeus Press weird short story collections, gorgeous hardback books, but I no longer need, and am happy passing on. As well as a Little Endless "Delirium's Party" hardback. Keeping some of the other books though.

Time and distance is making it easier to pass on some of these books. And we still have way too many books in house, especially a huge number I can no longer read with my progressive neurological illness. It's very freeing passing them on. Even if book lover me naturally rails against the concept!

P.S. I reread the Little Endless book quickly tonight before passing it on. Quite charming, and written and drawn by someone other than Neil Gaiman. Gorgeous mini Endless comic book art too.

P.P.S. Martin is now going to have an incredible number of books to take to Oxfam later this week!
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock)
Starting my reread of The Return of Sherlock Holmes with this story.spoilers )
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Kindle books anyway. I also have library books on loan, plus other books ongoing in the house. I mainly read ebooks now because of huge problems reading print due to a progressive neurological disease. Gargantuan fonts on my Kindle keep me reading for extended periods.

A screenshot of a Kindle Paperwhite - black and white / greyscale - showing 2 rows of 3 book covers. At the top are "City of Vengeance: introducing Cesare Aldo" by D.V. Bishop (with an image of Renaissance Florence); "Forgotten Churches: Exploring England's Hidden Treasures" by Luke Sherlock (with a cover image drawing looking down at an old church surrounded by gravestones); and "The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling Weird" edited by Weird Walk for the British Library "Tales of the Weird" collection (image of a spooky path in the countryside leading to a disturbing looking group of trees). At the bottom are "Is It My ADHD? Navigating Life as a Neurodivergent Adult" by Grace Timothy (image of a squirrel, looking distracted by lots of nuts); George Mackay Brown's "Beside the Ocean of Time" (image of a turbulent sea beside high cliffs); and "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" anthology by Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlockian imagery, including a magnifying glass, and Holmes spoking a pipe while wearing a deerstalker).
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Recently rejoined the public library (Angus Libraries). I struggle with print due to progressive neurological illness - indeed have done for 25+ years - so borrowed a mass of illustrated/painting/photography books. Latest catalogue request from elsewhere in Angus is a new manga Sherlock Holmes. Fab!

It is encouraging I can still find physical books I want to borrow, even if I can't read print or even large print now. And it's marvellous how the online library catalogue lets me call books in from all over Angus. There's a particularly good Scottish cultural/history collection in store at Forfar.

Meanwhile I continue to read masses on my Kindle. I have a huge pile of ebooks on my virtual to read pile. I often snap them up when they're on reduced sale price. I buy far more ebooks than I ever get read! But at least it lets me keep reading extended fiction and non fiction. With gargantuan font.
vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock holmes)
Onto the last in the Memoirs collection, and going to discuss this pivotal story with big spoilers. spoiler cut ... )
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Getting near to the end of my catchup watch for the Cymera 2025 festival of scifi, fantasy and horror writing in Edinburgh. I had a digital weekend ticket, so had access until this coming weekend to the digital recordings. Didn't get through as many as in some years. But happy with what I've managed to see, considering. And found many new to me authors whose work I want to follow up.

vivdunstan: Test card (tv)
Been too sleepy to watch any more movies. And still haven't got to Rings of Power season 2. Our Babylon 5 rewatch is also currently on hold while we try to catch up with a mass of too much recorded telly in our Sky Q box.

I have been binge watching a lot of the early episodes of Glee. Which though cliched and corny is remarkably watchable. As a musical theatre fan I'm also happily there for all the songs shoehorned in. Martin hasn't strictly been watching it, mainly commenting as he potters around that "That sounds very weird!" But he did say tonight that having sat in for a bit more he can see how the format works, and is starting to appreciate it.

I'm also watching a lot of recorded panels/talks from the recent Cymera 2025 festival in Edinburgh of science fiction, fantasy and horror writing. Have already enjoyed panels including authors John Gwynne and Cymera regular T.L. Huchu. With many more to watch in the next 3 weeks or so while I still have access to them using my purchased digital festival pass.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Catching up with this, and another 6 titles finished since my last post:

    earlier books )
  1. Winter's Heart (Wheel of Time book 9) by Robert Jordan
  2. Insomniacs After School volume 6 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
  3. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
  4. Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
  5. The Wee Free Men (Discworld book 30) by Terry Pratchett
  6. Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan


Of the new ones, the Wheel of Time 9th book was not as bad as I feared. Still way too long, still over written. And I'm rather dreading book 10, which retells much of the same plot apparently as book 10. But not too bad, and overall enjoyable. I am determined to get to the end of the series!

Still loving the Insomniacs After School manga series, though trying to spread them out, because there are still some more due to be published in English translation.

Assassin's Apprentice is the first Robin Hobb book I have read. I enjoyed it a lot, though some bits made me so very angry as I was reading. Angry at the author for making me go through reading them! But it was well written. I expect to continue on to the sequel in the near future.

Belladonna is a Young Adult gothic/fantasy/historical/romance book. I'm honestly surprised how "spicy" it was, given the age it was targeted at. I also found it a slog to keep going through much of it, and it needed heftier editing. But I did enjoy it enough that I might read the sequel.

Continuing my reread of the Discworld "Witches" mini series of books saw me get to the first Tiffany Aching book. These Tiffany books late in Terry's writing life are so very good. I can understand why he was so fond of them and also so proud of them.

I enjoyed Lucy Mangan's book recalling her childhood reading, from her very earliest memories of being read to, through to her transition to adulthood. She's a couple of years younger than me, but we read many similar books in childhood. Though she didn't share my enthusiasm for fantasy, and was far more keen than me on contemporary fiction and also dystopian which I tend to avoid.

I am now reading the first in David Bishop's Renaissance Florence set series of mystery/thrillers. As well as continuing to read a non fiction book about a slow canal boat journey around England, another British Library Weird Tales short story collection, and more.

Finishing my 25th book means that I've reached my self-set Goodreads reading goal of the year. I was very modest in my 2025 reading goal, and wanted it to be something easily achievable, not least given how sedated and time limited I am now. And to be fair the last 6 months have included some whoppers, including another Wheel of Time book, and a reread of Charles Dickens's very lengthy Our Mutual Friend. I will keep reading, but it's nice to have 25 books under my belt.
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Completed my massive personal reflection on favourite/recommended books, one for each year of my life so far. So much fun doing this! The list includes notes from me on each of the books listed for 1972-2024.
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
Our garden that is. It's taken until now for it (1) to be warm enough for me to sit out for any reasonable length of time, and (2) a warm sunny day when I'm not doing something else, even in another city as on the Capercaillie concert day! We were out from 4.30pm-6.30pm, when it was pleasantly warm, with a little breeze. Martin got our folding table and chairs out, in our usual excellent spot.

Martin sat with me for the duration, happily reading, and intermittently taking photos of planes and birds in our garden. We also had seagulls flying overhead at just 3 metres! From below that's rather terrifying, like seeing a giant plane from below whoosh overhead at speed. But we were more surrounded by sparrows, blackbirds, chiffchaffs and wood pigeons. Oh and #notourcat Isla was curled up, tail swishing happily, in the garden nearby.

I had a first tentative go at sketching. Very rough, very rudimentary, but I was enthusiastically trying it. Looking forward to doing it more. It's about 35 years since I've seriously drawn anything ... I also took out my latest society magazines from the Tolkien Society and Sherlock Holmes Society of London. And was reading a recently published book of charming paintings around St Andrews. And planning various other bits and bobs.





vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Creeping further through my list of fave/rec books, one published for each year of my life. I've still to write little notes for each of the 2010s and 2020s choices. But just did the noughties. Not hugely surprised that I wrote so much about the 2001 one!

vivdunstan: Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson in a railway carriage (sherlock)
Nearing the end of Memoirs and on to this tale of a stolen secret treaty ... spoilers )
vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Still working on my list of fave/rec books published one for each year of my life. Last night I managed to figure out how to persuade Wordpress to support expanding/collapsing details if you click on a title.** So then added expanding notes for the 1970s portion of the list. 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s to do another time!

** which more than anything else reminds me of Occam's folding editor I used to program in for a brief period as an undergraduate!

vivdunstan: (bernice summerfield)
Generally Benny audios are fairly family friendly. But there are some where they're absolutely not suitable for younger listeners. Scenes of torture (portrayed through audio) sometimes happen. And then there's this one, where the population of the Braxiatel Collection are overcome by an orgy of lust. Which is handled on audio much as you might expect. Though that aspect could have been far worse! They're also pushing the comedy factor in this story, with the pair ups happening. I first heard this audio many years ago, but it works better slotted into the ongoing continuity of the series. And it's surprising how enjoyable I found this story to be, given the content. It does make me want to read more of the Benny books and short stories though. In particular the short story collection Something Changed could have been helpful here. I do have it in print, though have barely managed to read any print for prolonged periods for a couple of decades now ...

But yes, surprisingly enjoyable, pretty disposable, and absolutely not essential. But an original take on the premise. And I was amused.

vivdunstan: Photo of some of my books (books)
Prompted by a YouTuber I watch I've started drawing up a list of book favourites and recommendations with one for each year of my life up to 2024. No repetition of authors. Not necessarily my all time favourites each year, but things that really spoke to me and I'm happy to recommend. Many not read in year of publication, especially when I was very small!

I will probably blog the results of this on my academic musings blog in due course. But will link to it from here too. It is going to take me a while to finish this list. 32/53 entries filled already though.

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vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
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