21. Middlemarch - George Eliot, 1874 (first-time reading)
   This took me a while to read, but it was by virtue of its length rather than any lack of enthusiasm. I really liked it - it was easy to get into and the characters were easy to engage with. I read it because it was on our recommended list for English but I hadn't realised that it would ( Read more... )

20. The Rule of Law - Tom Bingham, 2010 (first-time reading)
   I really enjoyed this. It's less overtly political and more general than Just Law, but it's such a great book and I can understand why it's, like, required reading for aspiring law students. Reading it, every page and every chapter about what the law does and why the law has to do that ( Read more... )

I decided to do the Couch to 5K this summer, starting on Week 3 because I'm not so totally unfit that I'm at couch level, and Week 4 is going great. Yesterday I finished the last five-minute stretch with the definite sense that I could have carried on without too much trouble, which bodes well for next week. I'm actually really enjoying it.

19. The ( Read more... )

18. Winter in Madrid - C. J. Sansom, 2006 (first-time reading)
   This is not a good book. It has an interesting setting, which Sansom does a good job of depicting with breadth and detail, but that's pretty much its sole redeeming feature. The characters are boring and there's a terrible lack of subtlety to all of Sansom's characterisation: you can ( Read more... )

16. Just Law - Helena Kennedy, 2005 (first-time reading)
   Interesting and compelling reading. It's very political and that was a slight drawback for me on a purely personal level, because it's mainly about Blair and New Labour, and while I was obviously around at that time I was hardly at an age of political awareness. The real issues, though, are ( Read more... )

15. Anna Karenin - Leo Tolstoy (trans. Rosemary Edmonds), 1877 (first-time reading)
   I really loved this. I expected it to be quite heavy and intellectual, but it was actually comparatively quick and easy to read - I think Edmonds' translation must be excellent. I just loved the amazing scope of it - so panoramic, but at the same time so intimate ( Read more... )

I don't think there's been a single point in the last month where it hasn't been at least two of the above. I'm not sure I can take much more of this. All of the clothes I would normally be wearing in July are either hanging limply in my wardrobe or being creatively turned into December clothes with cardigans and black opaque tights. I have pinned ( Read more... )

14. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates, 1962 (first-time reading)
   Ohhhh my God. This book is amazing. I can't even write about it properly without going into either an essay or a lot of pictures of people crying with happiness, it's that good. I've spent the last week pleading with all of my friends to read it, with some success as regards my ( Read more... )

13. A Place of Greater Safety - Hilary Mantel, 1992 (first-time reading)
   This book is absolutely stunning. Mantel is an incredible writer; her prose is lovely, as is her dialogue (this is a very dialogue-heavy novel, because that's the only way to really communicate the politics of it), but I think my favourite part, what really draws me to read ( Read more... )

12. Lyrics Alley - Leila Aboulela, 2010 (first-time reading)
   This is a nice, reasonably entertaining book with a cast of reasonably appealing characters, but there's just nothing special about it. I was interested enough in the tribulations of the Abuzeids, but in a dispassionate and rather apathetic way - I wanted to see what happened, but I ( Read more... )