Bookspotting Days 4 & 5

An easier day bookspotting today, so I'll dive right in.

The first book spotted this morning, being read by a woman sat waiting for a train at Lancaster train station, was 'Sanctus' by Simon Toyne, book one of the Sancti trilogy. This is an 'apocalyptic conspiracy thriller', you know the type, and a debut novel for this author. It looks like quite a popular book, 413 reviewers on Amazon.co.uk, average rating 4 stars.

The second book spotted was 'Charlotte Gray' by Sebastian Faulks. This was another woman, also sat waiting for a train south from Lancaster this morning. Charlotte Gray is the author's second novel, and a loose sequel to his first novel, the hugely successful Birdsong. In this book, the title character Charlotte is a young Scottish woman who falls in love with an airman. When he disappears while on a mission in France, she follows him as a British secret courier...

That was it for this morning. The afternoon proved even more fruitful, first with 'Ramble On: The Story of our love for Walking Britain' by Sinclair McKay. This describes itself as the 'definitive history of rambling' in Britain. It has got stuff about the Lake District walks of Alfred Wainwright, landowners battles to keep walkers off their land. These tales are all related while describing several walks across the country which the author went on.

The fourth book spotted is 'The View From Castle Rock' by Alice Munro. I've heard of the author before, but didn't know anything about her. It appears she's renowned for her short story collections, and is considered by many to be the best short story writer alive - to back this up she's won the Noble Prize for Literature. This book though is a novel, a fictionalized account of her ancestors starting from Edinburgh (the Castle Rock of the title) and following them as they emigrated to Canada. It sounds very descriptive and slow paced, but moving and beautifully written. Looking at the Amazon reviews, a few reviewers found it dull, but it sounds just my sort of book, so will be adding this (yet another book!) to my long to be read list.

The fifth book is 'The City of Strangers' by Michael Russell. It is a historical crime novel, with elements of a conspiracy thriller in too, set just before the start of the second world war and featuring the Nazi's, the Irish & IRA and America. It's the second book featuring Stefan Gilespie, being a sequel to the first book, 'The City of Shadows'.

Day 5. I don't know if it is the gorgeous sunny weather or something, but there was a lot of people reading today, at the train station, on the train, sat on the tarmac on the platform... Quite a few of them I couldn't identify - one older guy was reading a hardback book that had lost its dust jacket- red bookcloth with no writing on it makes it difficult to spot! Another one could have been a Harry Potter, but only got the briefest glimpse but couldn't be sure. Another was a book I'd spotted last week, which I'm fairly sure was (still) being read by the same person, stood in exactly the same spot at Preston train station as last week. Creature of habit.

So all in all at least 8 or 9 books, but only 3 real identified spots.

'The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden' by Jonas Jonasson. This is the author's second book, after last year's phenomenally successful (and incredibly funny) 'The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Disappeared', which was about just what it sounds like but with flashbacks to the man's life - he was involved in some way in of most of the 20th century's most historic events. This new book is more of the same, if you enjoyed the first you should enjoy this.

'The Places in Between' by Rory Stewart. This is a travel book about author Rory Stewart's 6,000 mile journey on foot across Afganistan, between Turkey and Bangladesh in 2002, in the aftermath of the US invastion when the country was in turmoil. He very nearly didn't survive, and only managed the complete his journey with the help and kindness of strangers and his travelling companion.

'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn. Sometimes I only get a brief glimpse of a book, not enough to catch the title. All I got with this one was that it had a bright orange title on the cover and the author was ... Flynn. I remembered seeing Gone Girl before and that it had a bright orange cover. I looked it up and confirmed it was the same book. This is a crime/thriller novel, about a woman who disappears on her 5th wedding anniversary. The prime suspect is her husband, but did he kill her, or is something much more strange going on?

That's it for today folks.

Old Books & Forgotten Authors

We went to stay with my wife's parents over the weekend, and while we were there we got given a pile of old books by their elderly neighbour next door. They'd belonged to his wife who died last year. He was clearing out, but didn't want them just going to the charity shop as they'd only end up in a landfill site when nobody bought them.

They were a mix of modern Folio edition copies of classics like Thomas Hardy, and old pocket sized hardback novels which date back to the 1920s.

Thomas Hardy Folio Edition Set

All of them are very nice looking and have a lovely feel to them, much nicer than modern/commercial hardback books. They just make you want to pick them up and read them.

Much more interesting than the modern Folio editions though were the old 1920s hardbacks. These were mostly 'Grove editions' from Grove publishing, and it looks like they were the first time that the books had been published in a pocket edition, making them cheaper and more accessible to the ordinary person (books used to cost up to a month's wages). There were a number of authors represented in the books I was given, but most of them were by two authors: John Galsworthy and Hugh Walpole. I recognised the name John Galsworthy but not Hugh Walpole (actually I thought I did, but I was getting him confused with Robert Walpole who was an 18th century British Prime Minister).

John Galsworthy was a prolific writer who wrote many novels, short stories and plays, but is most well known today for his 'Forsyte Saga' series of books. Galsworthy was popular during his lifetime, but his popularity waned soon after. He was fading into relative obscurity until the BBC made an adaptation of the Forsyte Saga (the first of many) in the 1960s, which revived his popularity.

Hugh Walpole was not so lucky after his death (if anyone can be said to be lucky or unlucky after their death that is). He was a bestselling author in the 1920s and 1930s, but today is all but forgotten - perhaps because he didn't have his books adapted into popular television series like his contemporary, Galsworthy. During his writing career he averaged at least a book a year, and ultimately wrote 36 novels, 5 volumes of short stories and 3 volumes of memoirs. His stories covered a vast range of subjects, his most popular was his "Herries Chronicles", a historical fiction series set in the Lake District. The first book in the Herries Chronicle is "Rogue Herries".

The fate of bestselling author Hugh Walpole is the same as many long forgotten authors from yesteryear. Did they deserve to be forgotten, perhaps because they were books 'of their time', or is there more to them than that? What makes one book become a classic and stand the test of time, while others fade into obscurity?

I'm now going to add some of these books to my To Be Read list, both The Forsyte Saga which I've never read, and perhaps some of the long forgotten books which I can, in some small way, bring back into the light of day.

Book review: 'Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore' by Robin Sloan

This is a book I've had my eye on for a while (I mean books, google, secret cults, what more could you want?). It's mainstream contemporary fiction rather than science fiction, but is one geeks will enjoy. Yes you, you know who you are! Anyway here's my review which will also be going up on Goodreads soon.

Clay Jannon, formerly chief web designer at the New Bagel Company, is unemployed and looking for a job. There aren’t that many good jobs about, what with the recession and all, so when he walks past a bookshop with a job advert in the window for a night clerk he soon applies. It doesn’t take him long to realise this is one seriously weird book shop, doubling as some sort of library for a weird secret cult. Or something like that. With the help of friends including best friend from school Neal who made millions from boob simulation software, and girlfriend Kat who works at Google, he sets out to try and figure out what is going on…

This is a very fun, albeit strange book. It successfully brings together the world of old books, even older mysteries and modern technology in a way I’m not sure anyone has before. It is very up to date, and talks a lot about Google, iMacs and Kindles, OSR software and hacker communities. Computer geeks will love this book, as will book lovers. If you are a computer geek and a book lover, well you are probably already firing up Amazon to buy the book…

I enjoyed the book a lot. It was a fun book, you never quite knew what was going to happen next, and the many culture and tech references dropped in were great to see. It might have hidden mysterious and secret societies in common with The Da Vinci Code but it is not a thriller. There’s never really any great physical danger for the characters, it is much slower paced and gentler than that, and all the better for it.

I debated whether to give this book a 4 or 5 star rating. I gave it 5 in the end, it won’t be my favourite book of the year, it didn’t have characters to fall in love with, a plot that keeps you glued to the page or truly beautiful writing, but it was a lot of fun. And that’s what books should be all about.

If you are after a bit of bookspotting, well it's been a busy weekend and no opportunity to spot anything. Working from home tomorrow, then at sport's day at my daughter's school in the afternoon, so next opportunity for Bookspotting is Tuesday.

A Bit of Friday Bookspotting

After a couple of days off, I'm back again for some more bookspotting. Only one book spotted this morning. It was 'Free at Last' by Tony Benn. It spent the whole 20 minutes I was on the train on the table not being read, the woman whose book it was seemed more interested in chatting than reading. Maybe it is the sort of book she wants to be seen reading but isn't enjoying. Or maybe not.


Tony was a career politician, and served as a Labour MP for 47 years between 1950 and 2001. He was very left wing, all for the working man which was very interesting as his father was a hereditary peer. On his father's death Tony Benn was due to inherit his father's title, but this would have prevented him continuing as an MP. He fought for and successfully won the right to renounce his title. He was a great writer, diarist and public speaker (I once went to one of his courses at an economics conference in London). I've always respected Tony Benn as being one of the few conviction politicians - he would do anything as long as it was right, sticking up for his constituents.

He was a real serial political diarist, nine volumes in all spanning thousands of pages. I am sure it would be an amazing experience to read through all of the diaries,you'd learn an awful lot of history and politics as well as find out about a great man. The only problem for me is that I wouldn't want to just read one, I'd want to read them all and that's a hell of a lot of reading.

The train was slightly delayed again this afternoon, so I was hanging around the station waiting for a while. It was literally packed on the platforms, there must have been a couple of hundred people. Literally at least a hundred people must have been on their mobile phones but only one person was reading a book. It took a couple of passes for me to get a clear view. It was 'Scott's Last Expedition' by Robert Falcon Scott. Basically, these again are diaries (it was obviously a diaries day), but in this case, these were Scott's diaries of his expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. He achieved this, but he wasn't the first as Norway's Roald Amundsen got there first. Scott's expedition hit misfortune, and he and his team died of cold and starvation only 11 miles from base camp. The journals were discovered with his body, several months after he died.

I then got on the train, but that was a complete blank, no reading (other than me that is - I was reading of course). It's the weekend now, so I doubt I'll spot anyone reading until next week, but I'll keep my eyes peeled!

Bookspotting Day 2

Okay so I caught a later train this morning to work, and was looking forward to hopefully spotting more books on the 9.38 train to Preston.My logic was these wouldn't be busy commuters but more leisurely travellers so there might be more books to spot. Nothing. No book in sight anywhere, in my train carriage or on the platform (and there was no one in the waiting room -I checked!). Disappointing.

I was getting a slightly later train back, in part because of the thunderstorm and torrential rain about the time I normally leave. The basement at work was flooded and the car park under a foot of water. Got to the train station to find that while all the trains were running normally, the station facilities were not. The waiting room, shop and cafe were all closed, with station staff rushing round with brooms, brushing water out of the buildings and onto the train tracks. Great, I thought, with everyone (literally) flushed outdoors there'll be more chance to spot people reading. I scanned the whole packed platform - nothing. Surely today wouldn't be a complete blank?

I had a few minutes before my train, so I wandered over to the next platform just to see. Nada. Zip. Then right at the end of the platform I saw a woman hunched over a book. Unfortunately I couldn't see what she was reading, and she really was right at the end of the platform, there was nothing beyond her and it would have looked really odd to walk past and then back. Plus my train was about to arrive.



As I walked onto my platform, I passed a guy in a baseball cap reading a big hardback book, probably a library book from the look of it (I've had a lot of those cumbersome hardbacks from the library before now) Despite giving him more scrutiny than was probably wise, I only got a couple of words 'Iron Mountain', so I quickly pulled out my phone to look it up. Sure enough I found the exact book: 'Daylight on Iron Mountain' by David Wingrove. It is the second book in the Chung Kuo science fiction series, a future history about an Earth dominated by China. The first book is 'Son of Heaven'. Interestingly, this series was first started in 1989, so although it is very fashionable and hardly prescient to write now about a future dominated by China, in the 1980s it was more of a long shot. For more information on this series, I suggest reading this Wikipedia article - there's a lot of books!


Then I got on the train and found three people reading books as I walked to my seat! Reading is clearly alive on well, on the 5.28 train to Barrow in Furness anyway! The books were:

'The Impossible Dead' by Ian Rankin - I used to read Ian Rankin's Rebus novels, until I watched a few tv adaptations and got lost between what I'd seen/read and what I hadn't. I've since lost track of what he's been writing, except he finished with Rebus and moved on. Apparently he's got a new character, Malcolm Fox, a divorcee in his 40s. According to one review he is quieter and 'warier of confrontation' than Rebus, but a great new character. Anyway, this is the second Malcolm Fox novel, the first is 'The Complaints'.

'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. A classic science fiction novel, published in 1931 that accurately predicted many technological and societal changes. Regularly in the top novels of 20th century lists.

'A Feast for Crows' by George R R Martin - Book 4 of A Song of Ice and Fire, which began with Game of Thrones. The woman with this book was obviously reading ahead of the TV series, something I've been considering.

Another good day of Bookspotting, in the end anyway!

A spot of Bookspotting...

A few years ago I had a an idea for a blog - Bookspotting. Sort of like trainspotting but less geeky (somewhat). As with so many ideas, it got shelved as there's too many ideas and too little time, but have thought about it from time to time. Well I decided this morning I'd give it a go for a bit, despite the fact that it is much harder these days. Reading is on the decline, and lots of people are reading on their Kindles or phones - nigh on impossible to spot what they are reading unless you are sat next to them and peering over their shoulder. But some of us still read real books from time to time, so I'm going to try and spot what they're reading. I have a short train journey to and from work each day, which should give me ample opportunities.

I suppose you are asking why bother? Well partly because after seeing a study that showed reading is massively on the decline, I want to see how true this is. But the main reason is because I'm interested in what other people are reading. It is all to easy to just read the same type of books by the same authors, always heading to the same spot in the bookshop. Discovering new books and authors can be great fun, but where to find them? Bookspotting introduces a randomness to book discovery, you just never know what the person opposite you on the train, or sat next to you in the dentist waiting room is reading. I'm going to try and spot books on my daily travels, find a bit about them, and share online! Should be interesting I hope. Here goes...

Spotted one! I've only just sat down on the 8.27am train, and I spot a young woman on one of the seats across the aisle from me reading 'An Autobiography: Or the Story of My Experiments with Truth' by Gandhi. Sounds heavy going and it is a thick book, but gets 4.5 stars on Amazon. Read it if you want to find out more about Gandhi's life and learn some of his wisdom.


Shortly after this I realised I must have had a stroke of beginners luck as the woman next to me whips out a book too. The book is 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver. It's about a woman whose son commits a murdering rampage at school, killing seven of his fellow pupils. Two years later and she is, understandably, still trying to come to terms with this. It won the Orange Prize for Fiction and was made into a film. There's a 3 for 2 sticker on the front of the book, and it looks new so the reader probably bought it herself from Waterstones or WH Smiths, it's good to see that some people are still supporting bricks and mortar book stores rather than buying from Amazon.

No sign of anyone else reading a book (even a Kindle) in my train carriage. There's a guy reading a magazine, and someone else marking exam papers, but the rest of the passengers (and it is a full train) are either staring out the window or are glued to some electronic device or other. Still, this is a promising start!

The train journey back started frustratingly. The train was late, so I wandered up and down the platform looking for anyone with a book, I even peered in to one of the station cafes - not a book in sight. Then I spotted a man on the platform opposite reading a book. Bingo! Alas I couldn't make out what he was reading, and then my train arrived, obscuring him from view. On the train things didn't improve much. The only person reading in the carriage (apart from me) was a guy in the bay opposite me, reading a thick, well read paperback, its spine cracked in multiple places. The book was in his lap most of the time though, and I couldn't make out what it was. I didn't want him to spot me keep glancing either (I can imagine it now: "Oi you, why're you staring at my crotch?". "Me", I'd protest, "I wasn't, honest, I just wanted to see what book you were reading." Yeah right!). When my train arrived in the station I was resigned to giving up, but a quick glance from behind as I was waiting for the doors to open revealed the title and author at the top of the pages he was reading: 'The Generals' by Simon Scarrow. The author writes historical fiction and is most known for his 'Eagle series' set in the Roman empire. The Generals is the second book in his 'Revolution' series focusing on Wellington and Napolean. The first book in the series is 'Young Bloods'.

I thought that would be it for the day, but then after getting off the train I walked past a woman sat reading on the platform. This one was all too easy to spot: it was 'The Chimp Paradox' by Dr Steve Peters, subtitled The Mind Management Programme to help you achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness'. Quite obviously a self-help book, it does what it says on the tin. I've seen this book around before, I think it is quite popular and acclaimed. The 569 reviews on Amazon seem to think so anyway.

Anyway, that's it for today. More soon hopefully.

SF & Fantasy on Kindle - Cheap Deals (April 2014)

I just spotted a couple of real SF & Fantasy bargains on the UK Kindle store, so thought I'd hunt down as many bargains as I can find that're available at the moment. Some of these will be Amazon's monthly deals, so presumably will only be around for another couple of days. Other deals are because the publisher (or author) decide to promote one or more of their books. You'll often found a book gets really reduced just before the next book by the author comes out. Anyway, here goes.

'Anathem' by Neal Stephenson - £0.99. 1000 pages of Neal Stephenson has got to be a good deal!

'Among Others' by Jo Walton - £0.99. This was the winner of the 2012 Hugo Award & the 2011 Nebula Award. It's about a teenage girl who's a big science fiction fan, who gets caught up in ancient magic... Also available for 99p by Joe Walton is 'Farthing' - Book One of the Small Change Trilogy.

'The Dreaming Void' by Peter F Hamilton - £1.19. First book in his Void Trilogy, and at over 800 pages a real bargain. It helps if you've read the Commonwealth books first (Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained), but it is not essential by any means.

'Blue Remembered Earth' by Alastair Reynolds - £1.99. First book in his Poseidon's Children series, but works well as a standalone too.

'Old Man's War' by John Scalzi - £1.19. Debut novel for John Scalzi. Good, if simple military SF. Several of Scalzi's other books are cheap too.

If you know of any other good deals, let me know in the comments.