• The Social Conquest of Earth by EO Wilson
• Human Compatible by Stuart Russell
• Calypso by David Sedaris
• The Photography Storytelling Workshop by Finn Beales

• Great Britain by Torsten Bell
• The Score by Richard Stark
• Bringing Down Goliath by Jolyon Maugham
• In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger
• Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe
• A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall
• The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker
• The Jugger by Richard Stark
• Always Take Notes. Edited by Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd
• The Seventh by Richard Stark

There is some good myth busting hard facts in Bell’s book, Great Britain - but I also found it curiously lacking in ambition in some ways. There’s a whiff of incrementalism about it, rather than radicalism. That’s not entirely fair as the changes Bell proposes would make be significant but if you are seeking revolution then you might find this a rather cooling proposition.

I thought Maugham’s book Bringing Down Goliath was excellent. I had been put off reading this by some suggestion about the general tone of Maugham. Early reviews had indicated Maugham was somewhat pleased with himself, if not outright insufferable. I only picked up hints of this, perhaps largely because I was primed for it, and I regret not reading it sooner. It’s also very evident that Maugham has made a good few enemies and trodden on toes. I suspect this has bled into some reviews but I found it powerful and compelling.

I’ve read most of Junger’s work and his book on dying and death, after a close scrape himself, is as good as anything he has put together. One of things I appreciate about all Junger’s books, and this seems like a small thing, is that they are just as long as they need to be to tell the story. Too often, authors feel compelled to hit the magic 100,000 word mark and books can feel strung out and etiolated.

I had read reviews of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Thrall but I was keen to read some kind of specific book about the Israel-Palestine conflict - hence I went for Ten Myths About Israel. Now, I am fully aware that Pappe has a very particular position, but I found it incredibly helpful to sketch out the outlines of the conflict. Thrall’s book is remarkable and perhaps even more devastating, though quietly, in its condemnation.

I am now a subscriber to Rob Walker’s Substack, The Art of Noticing, and this is a lovely book, brimful of ideas and creative energy.

The BJGP Research & Publishing Conference will be held on 21st March 2025 at The Lowry Hotel in Salford. Hope to see you there.

• Another England by Caroline Lucas
• The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd
• Our Enemies will Vanish by Yaroslav Tromfimov
• Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography by Don McCullin
• Don McCullin: The New Definitive Edition
• Cuckooland: Where The Rich Own The Truth by Tom Burgis
• Here I Am: The Story of Tim Hetherington, war photographer
• The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How It Came to Control Your Life) by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison

Notes

Another England is excellent - though I am not wholly surprised as I find most of my views on social reform are closely aligned to Lucas’ politics. There may be a large dollop of confirmation bias here. I picked up Our Enemies will Vanish as the shortlist for the Orwell Prize was announced. There’s rarely a bad book on these lists - much like the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction.

Cuckooland came up via a book recommendation from The Rest is Politics podcast. I have found myself coming back to podcasts quite a lot in recent weeks. For some reason, my attention span hasn’t quite coped with audiobooks and I’ve had several false starts. Ironically, I did actually listen to the audiobook after the podcast recommendation… Tom Burgis, alongside people like Caroline Belton and Carole Cadwalladr, is an excellent investigative journalist that the kleptocracy would dearly like to shut up. Read their works and support them however you can.

The Don McCullin book was a birthday present and it is a heck of a book. It has an excellent foreword by Harry Evans and the images throughout are superb.

Most importantly, book of the month - in a tough field this month - is The Invisible Doctrine. Neoliberalism laid bare in all its ugliness.

Not dark blue…

Sometimes being colour blind catches me out. I’m protanopic so don’t have much in the way of the red cones when it comes to colour vision. One of the effects is that I struggle to see purple. It just doesn’t quite register with me at all.

I was in a conversation about someone at work and I was explaining that a colleague’s Outlook out-of-office indicator was on. It looks dark blue to me but it is just a little ‘off’ and I suspected it might be purple. Yes, said the person to me, it’s purple, bit like the Cadbury colour. I took a beat.

The. Cadbury. Colour. Is. Purple.

It turns out Cadbury products are purple and not dark blue. You almost certainly knew this. I did not. My gast is utterly flabbered. In turns out, that in fact, the whole Cadbury brand look is a kind of deep purple. Dairy Milk. Fruit & Nut. Buttons! All of it. I’ve been eating them for pretty much five decades and all this time I thought it was a dark blue. I just didn’t know. Weird.

• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
• Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth by Ingrid Robeyns
• The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman
• Another England: How to Reclaim Our National Story by Caroline Lucas
• Lord Foul’s Bane: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book One by Stephen Donaldson
• The Illearth War: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book Two by Stephen Donaldson
• The Power That Preserves: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book Three by Stephen Donaldson

Notes

It’s my second go around with Four Thousand Weeks and it’s well worth it. There is some classic productivity advice here but it’s leaning more towards being a popular, accessible philosophy book than a self-help.

Limitarianism and Another England are both excellent but I found The Coming Wave tedious. I then went on a little nostalgia trip and got through three fairly decent sized novels written a few decades ago - the first three Thomas Covenant books. I read them back at the tail end of the 80s when I was still in my teens. The arcane vocabulary is verging on parody at times and the central protagonist is deeply unlikeable for all sorts of reasons. These are definitely not for everyone.

• The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland
• A World Without Email by Cal Newport
• Keir Starmer: The Biography by Tom Baldwin
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Nuclear War: The bestselling non-fiction thriller by Annie Jacobsen
• Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future by Ed Conway

April update

I read the Sutherland book as I wanted an overview of the ‘scrum’ approach to the agile methodology. Sutherland is, of course, a huge advocate but there are some limitations that never quite get addressed. However, anyone engaged in a big long-term project is likely to take plenty from it. As it happens, and I didn’t recall this until I read it, Cal Newport’s book A World Without Email spends a section looking at how the scrum approach could work at an individual level.

Dune scarcely needs an introduction and is a good chunk of a book. I have to admit I felt my interest waning rapidly as I got to the last quarter. I also have decided I’m not that into the omniscient third-person viewpoint so much either. It seems to leach out a good deal of the tension from the narrative.

The cover of the Baldwin book on Starmer has a quote from Matthew D’Ancona: “This will be the most important political book of the year”. Yes, he’s very likely to be right. Very readable and often surprised me.

I have to mention Nuclear War which I picked up and bought on a bit of a whim then read through it at speed. Not quite a ‘one-sitting’ effort, as that never quite happens with me nowadays, but about as close as I get. It is compelling and horrifying in near equal measure. It could well give you nightmares and, arguably, should bring us all out in a cold sweat. Essential reading but I was left wondering - what can I do at this point? There are some obvious places to go - CND° being the one that comes to mind.

Best book this month, bar none, is Ed Conway’s Material World. This is far more than a sterile tale of the science behind the materials, though you will find that here. It is a very human story. It’s essential, er, material to understand how we got to where we are, the future challenges of climate change, how our economies function, and even the geopolitical tensions that tug at us. It’s marvellous.

• The Last Colony by John Scalzi
• Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
• Hunter by Richard Stark
• The Man With the Getaway Face by Richard Stark
• The Wager by David Grann
• The Outfit by Richard Stark
• The Mourner by Richard Stark
• Deep Work by Cal Newport

End of March update

I just wasn’t in the mood for much non-fiction in March so kept myself amused with some frothy fiction. I used to read a lot of crime fiction and realised I had never got to any of the Stark books. They are quite short - probably not even 50,000 words - but I think that is a huge plus. The standard length of a book, especially genre fiction, is generally around 100,000 words yet there is no real logic to this. It’s mostly just about expectations these days and the sheer physical size of the book demanded by publishers. I’ve read a lot of these 100k books that only had 50k worth of story.

The Wager is an excellent audiobook and it has been very popular, though I found it ever so slightly weird that this tale of British sailors had an American narrator, Dion Graham. And, as planned, I read Slow Productivity by Cal Newport.

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
• Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Making Books by Simon Goode
• Artemis by Andy Weir
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
• The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Mid-Feb update

Time for a mid-month (ish) update on my reading. I’ve been on a sci-fi jag for a few weeks, taking a break from the non-fiction political type book that I often lean towards. I like to vary my reading and some sci-fi in the grey months of January and February is welcome.

It’s not too challenging to see how Old Man’s War is regarded as a classic - on Amazon UK it has nearly 25,000 reviews at an average of 4.4. You really don’t need me to tell you how good it is, but I will anyway. It’s one of those books that you slip into without any effort and, before you know it, you are absolutely immersed in the world. Perhaps the best quote is from Cory Doctorow: “Gripping and surpassingly original. It’s Starship Troopers without the lectures. It’s The Forever War with better sex. It’s funny, it’s sad, and it’s true.” Genius quote, fabulous book.

Similarly, I picked up on Project Hail Mary from the absolutely staggering number of reviews - on Amazon UK it has nearly 114,000. Not every book works well as an audiobook and I do try to pick carefully for that reason. I did listen to this one and it is hard to imagine a book better suited to the medium.

For the rest of the month, I’m going to read the next one by Scalzi in the Old Man’s War series then I am going to re-read some Cal Newport°. His new book, Slow Productivity, is published on the 7th March (in the UK) and I want to re-visit some of his earlier work before then.

The Anti-Magnus Magnusson books

This is the section devoted to books that I have started and not managed to finish.° This is often down to me, it’s just the wrong book at the wrong time. Sometimes, stylistically, it doesn’t suit. As I’ve got older, I’ve become much more willing to give up on books, and not go back, but I will return to these three.

So far this month I’ve had three books that I have struggled to finish. More accurately, I’ve started but not managed to continue…

• I am about 100 pages into Vernon Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep and I’ve had to put it down. It gets fantastic reviews but somehow I just can’t quite engage with it. This is one where I will try again.
• Justice for Animals by Martha C. Nussbaum. I really want to read this and I planned to read the updated version of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation after it. Nussbaum has a number of academic tics in her writing. She does that thing where academics tell you what they are going to say, say a single thing if you are lucky, and then tell you what they’ve said. It also seems to be a feature of American non-fiction. It makes for some extraordinarily tedious prose and makes my teeth itch.
• Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health by Nick Dearden. I will certainly read this but, to be honest, it was making me too angry and I needed some escapist reading. Right book, wrong time.

UPDATE: End of Feb comments

I have updated the top list with all the books for February. Not much else to add at this point - though I thought Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson was abject.

I’m just making a quick note of some recent writing.

I published a new post on the Antidotum Substack which reported on a recent paper on urine drug testing in people who use drugs.

• Vol.9: Shall I get a urine test before you see this person?°

I’ve also had some new posts about colourblindness on my 1 in 12 Substack. Those are:

• Everyday colourblindness: the blinking problem of red-green LEDs°
• Is Boris Johnson colourblind?°
• Stars and stripes - getting it wrong with football kits°
• Bladder cancer and colour vision°
• Colourblindness and cricket°

In the February 2024 issue of the BJGP my Editor’s Briefing:

• Patient perspective: the ghost in the machine°

• Finding Your Comic Genius by Adam Bloom
• Dead in the Water: Murder and Fraud in the World’s Most Secretive Industry by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
• Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
• The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

A couple of quite different books to kick off the new year. Adam Bloom’s book is a fascinating insight into the mechanics and practice of stand-up comedy while Dead in the Water offers a revealing glimpse into another morally flexible global industry.

No prizes for noting I then went on a Douglas Adams spree. As you might guess given my vintage I have read these books before but it has been more years than I dare even try to remember. I have to admit I started them on a whim. At the University, we have to get new posts through the Vacancy Oversight Group (VOG). It’s not always the most straightforward of processes. It is not, as far as I know, staffed by Vogons.°

“They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.”

It made me laugh though. And, rather happily, I went and enjoyed Douglas Adams’ wonderful books again. That, in turn, brought me to some more science fiction. After making a pratt of myself in a meeting where I managed to half remember the title of Liu’s book, I decided to give it the read it merited. (Actually I should say, ‘two-thirds’ remembered as I called it the two-body problem. Muppet.)

I am also now in the process of reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir°. I am halfway through the audiobook and it is superb in that format.

The final list:

• Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant
• Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are by John Kaag
• Subvert! A philosophical guide for the 21st century scientist by Dan Cleather
• How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner
• A Brief History of Earth by Andrew H. Knoll
• Make A Zine by Joe Biel with Bill Brent
• Stolen Sharpie Revolution by Alex Wrekk
• Interstellar by Avi Loeb
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
• The Way of the Hermit: My 40 years in the Scottish wilderness by Ken Smith with Will Millard
• The Great Post Office Scandal: The Story of the Fight to Expose a Multimillion Pound IT Disaster Which Put Innocent People in Jail by Nick Wallis

What? You’ve not read Fire Weather yet? It came out in May and I’m annoyed I left it so long - crack on. Hiking with Nietzsche is also excellent and certainly if I was going to dive into Nietzsche then it is, arguably, an essential primer. In fact, it largely persuaded me that there was no need to do that but I can make do with Kaag.

I thought Subvert! by Dan Cleather was tremendous. It wasn’t exactly what I expected and it was broader and more expansive, roaming across the role of science and society. How Big Things Get Done may have the longest subtitle of any book I have seen for a while but also comes highly recommended. Anyone embarking on any large project will benefit. Interstellar should probably come with an asterisk. I got half-way through and skimmed. There is a 2-star review A great story badly told° on Amazon that summarises a lot of my views on it. Loeb has been described as an “excellent motivational speaker for the importance of science”° but personally I found Dan Cleather far more compelling.

Wintering is a lovely book and although it is short it still felt a little stretched in its later parts. It’s beautifully written and I’m very happy to recommend. The Way of the Hermit is great too though I am some reservations about the underlying message. Finally, I made a big effort to finish The Great Post Office Scandal this year, just the day before the ITV drama aired°, and it was entirely worth it. I will post some further notes soon but it could easily be book of the month as well.

That brings me to 103 books for the year.

• Follow the Money: How Much Does Britain Cost? by Paul Johnson
• Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
• Politics on the Edge: A Memoir from Within by Rory Stewart
• Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger
• A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
• The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas by Stephen Law
• How to Resist Amazon and Why by Danny Caine
• Free For All: Why The NHS Is Worth Saving by Gavin Francis
• The Known Unknowns: The Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos by Lawrence M. Krauss
• Nightwalking: Four Journeys Into Britain After Dark by John Lewis-Stempel
• A Death in the Family (My Struggle) by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
• How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton
• The God Desire by David Baddiel

Lots to love here. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is obviously poignant given Perry’s death and Delaney’s A Heart That Works did, of course, reduce me to tears on multiple occasions. There is nothing earth-shattering in Schwarzenegger’s self-help effort but it is enjoyable enough. It is easy to see what Politics on the Edge has done so well and Stewart is very likeable and self-aware - though, even then, I was left with a perpetual discomfort as his privilege seeps out continually.

I had coffee with a friend recently and he mentioned Knausgaard. (I looked up how to pronounce it.°) I had vaguely heard of him - slightly embarrassingly when he is described by one source as “one of the 21st century’s greatest literary sensations”.¹ Ahem. I read the first book in his series of autobiographical novels. I’ll certainly be getting along to the next one soon.

• Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament and How To Do It
• The Race That Changed The World: The Inside Story of UTMB by Doug Mayer
• We Can’t Run Away From This by Damian Hall
• The Future of Geography by Tim Marshall
• Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of A Failing State by Danny Dorling

• The Way of the Runner by Adharanand Finn
• Free and Equal by Daniel Chandler
• Debt by David Graeber
• The Internet Con by Cory Doctorow

• Regenesis by George Monbiot
• Storyworthy by Matt Dicks
• Hiroshima by John Hersey
• Against Intellectual Property by N. Stephan Kinsella
• What Gandhi Says by Norman G. Finkelstein
• Midlife by Kieran Setiya
• Show Me the Bodies by Peter Apps

• The Long View by Richard Fisher
• Iron Maiden Running Free by Garry Bushell and Ross Halfin
• ChatGPT for Creative Non-Fiction by Nova Leigh (+2 other books by same author on fiction/prompts)
• What Does This Button Do? by Bruce Dickinson
• The Spy Who Came in from the Bin by Christopher Shevlin
• Fluent in 3 Months by Benny Lewis
• Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner
• Ultra-Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken

Please check out my Antidotum Substack where there is a new post: Vol 8 Opioid deaths and hospital admissions°

My biggest challenge with this one was keeping it down to 1500 words. It raises so many potential areas where we could be developing treatment services for people who use drugs. And, if you want to subscribe you can do so here:

• Politics: A Survivor’s Guide: How to Stay Engaged without Getting Enraged by Rafael Behr
• Lawfare by Geoffrey Robertson
• Abolish the Monarchy by Graham Smith
• Written by Bec Evans and Chris Smith
• Exploratory Writing by Alison Jones
• Writing Landscape by Linda Cracknell
• What We Fear Most by Dr Ben Cave
• A Philosophy of Loneliness by Lars Svendsen
• What Is ChatGPT Doing… and Why Does It Work? by Stephen Wolfram

I don’t normally write about books until I have finished them but I wanted to raise an interesting concept in The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time by Richard Fisher.

I’m only about a quarter of the way through and he has raised the notion of the Buxton Index.¹ This is defined as the length of time (in years) over which the entity, be it a company, other institution, or individual makes their plans.

So a politician may be thinking over a 5-year electoral cycle but corporations who report quarterly may be very focused on short-term results. Some of the commentary on the Buxton Index is about recognising it as a potential source of tension between organisations — when the Buxton Index is significantly different it could result in disputes and disharmony. There is an argument, that Fisher is in the process of developing, that we are now far too short term in our thinking.

It has made me consider a little on how short-term/long-term the organisations I know and work with are in their thinking. It’s worth some reflection.

This book is relatively brief and that, in itself, is commendable. Too often books have to be stretched out to the standard length of 80-100,000 words regardless of whether the content merits it. Publishers demand books of a certain length and it’s a pleasure to read books, such as this one, concisely written and just as long as they need to be and no more. It makes the message all the more powerful.

Journalism is a broad church but most of us would wholeheartedly welcome the work that goes into the best kind of investigative journalism. It is deeply threatened by people with much to hide and plenty of money to pursue that desire. As Robertson notes:

The function of investigative journalism is to report, analyse and comment on such matters, and on the beneficiaries, without let or hindrance. By providing the powerful with weapons to obstruct such examinations, British law reduces the availability of news that is worthy of reporting, precisely because it opens people’s eyes to what is happening in their country or their community. For that reason, speech should be accounted the first of our freedoms and have in our laws a presumption in its favour.

It is difficult to come up with any reasonable justification for the UK’s law around libel but this book goes beyond that. It lays to waste the notion that the UK is a model state when it comes to free speech.

So, contrary to the boasts of politicians such as Mr Raab, the United Kingdom has a wretched history and tradition when it comes to free speech. That is because of laws and procedures that for the most part remain in force.

Robertson unpicks the web of legislation and its unintended consequences before suggesting the reform needed at many levels.

I need to write a few catch up notes on recent books. Behr’s book on politics is excellent reading and he interleaves his experience with a brutal MI with great skill. He is particularly good on nationalism and populism and identity.

The political scientist Benedict Anderson described nations as ‘imagined communities’, which is to say their existence — real enough in the minds of those who feel they belong in one — is a narrative construct. It is a myth that people tell themselves, assembled from bits of common economic interest, shared religion, ethnicity and remembered history. The myths stick and evolve into identities when they have sufficient resonance with a critical mass of people.

The book warrants a re-read for sure. He covers a lot of ground and with keen insight. I also liked the thoughts on running at the end as well. He captures it rather well:

There is a technique to distance running that I had not known before. You need to check for hazards at your feet, but mostly keep your head up and your shoulders back, unclench your fists. Look out, look up. That is how I keep things in perspective, especially when the anger rises and I need to think my way through it, to run through it, until I have reached the other side and found my way home.

It’s a fine description and, of course, reads beautifully as a metaphor for engaging with politics. On the more literal running level it is also good advice and, as I’ve said before, it is important to learn how to run. We all think we know how and I don’t want to over-complicate something as natural as running. Yet, it is possible to do it better and enjoy it more as a result.

I should note that I am back from the Cape Wrath Ultra. It was an absolutely epic experience. Spending over a week in a bubble with like-minded people concentrating on doing one thing was very special. And I went better than I could have possibly hoped - I far exceeded my (low!) expectations. It was superbly organised by Ourea Events and the whole ethos in the camp and on the trail was very special.

Full results here: https://www.capewrathultra.com/2023-results

• Sludge by Cass R. Sunstein
• People Hacker by Jenny Radcliffe
• Swearing Is Good For You by Emma Byrne
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• Ravenous by Henry Dimbleby
• Closer To The Edge by Leo Houlding

A quiet month of reading - a lot of time was taken with the Cape Wrath Ultra. I listened to Closer To The Edge on the drive up and back to Scotland and it was a good choice for some inspiration. Dimbleby (of Leon restaurant fame) is also excellent in Ravenous and I have a couple of other books about food supply/culture and agriculture in the UK that I’ll follow up with.

One thing I noticed when I was away in Scotland was just how few sheep there were. I suspect that’s because you can’t throw a stick around Cumbria without hitting about three of the woolly monsters. I’ve been conditioned to expect sheep to be dotting every rural landscape. Admittedly, the Cape Wrath UItra does cover some very wild ground but, still, it was noticeable.

• A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
• Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Everest the Cruel Way by Joe Tasker
• No Easy Way by Mick Fowler
• The Trolley Problem by Thomas Cathcart
• Marx: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Singer
• Unlawful Killings by Wendy Joseph
• Psychovertical by Andy Kirkpatrick
• Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Sharif

And, yes, I did read War and Peace. Not all this month but I did, finally, finish it.