• 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.

Book of the month - brutal but brilliant

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.