My second read of A Little History of Philosophy (well, listen, as it is an audiobook) by Nigel Warburton and it was a fine companion for a long drive to the south of England. Recommended.

“Don’t jump to conclusions. Crawl to them, on your hands and knees, slowing checking every step of the way.”

• The Blazing World by Jonathan Healey
• Long Story Short by Margot Leitman
• This Mortal Coil by Andrew Doig
• The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre
• How to Think Like a Philosopher by Julian Baggini
• Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd
• What Does It All Mean by Thomas Nagel
• Philosophy: The Basics by Nigel Warburton
• Justice by Michael J. Sandel

My recommendation of the month is Baggini’s How to Think Like a Philosopher. I’m reading several general philosophy primers and this is the new one from a quite remarkably prolific author.

Now finished Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd. Some mixed feelings about this one. It is, as you would expect, an engrossing tour of forensic pathology, but looming over the whole thing is Richard Shepherd. Or, more specifically, his mental health. This is flagged early in the book, pops up regularly on the way through, and his eventual diagnosis with PTSD is given some brief coverage at the end. It’s so blatantly obvious through the book it was starting to get uncomfortable and it was almost with some relief that it came out.

I did note that Shepherd has an interesting relationship with truths and facts — reporting the ‘truth’ was, at one point in his career, pivotal to his professional approach and one had the slight sense this was anchoring him throughout the stresses and strains of subverting all emotions in the most challenging of circumstances. However, he later becomes ambivalent about this and he often seems contradictory. Overall, it was hard not to read this book and not think about all the doctors and the culture of medicine where emotional detachment is a prized commodity that is valorised. And it slowly eats out people from the inside.

• The Five by Hallie Rubenhold
• Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick
• The Life Inside by Andy West
• Getting Better by Michael Rosen
• Hidden Mountains by Michael Wejchert
• Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People by Mark Westmoquette
• When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope
• Why Vegan? by Peter Singer
• If You Should Fail by Joe Moran

Some excellent books here and a good month. It’s difficult to pick one but I did think that Joe Moran’s book was a delight and one I will make a note and read again.

• A World Without Email by Cal Newport
• The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
• Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
• Mythos by Stephen Fry
• Essentialism by Greg Mckeown
• The Hunt for the Silver Killer by David Collins
• The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax by Christopher Devlin
• Evil Beyond Belief by Wensley Clarkson
• Jonathon Fairfax Must Be Destroyed by Christopher Devlin
• The Pursuit of Coconuts by Christopher Devlin
• Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama

Book of the month is not easy to pick out. Not many of these really rang with me but I did enjoy a venture back into some gentle comedic crime fiction with the Fairfax novels. Perhaps Fukuyama was the book I am most likely to read again. (And Newport’s A World Without Email was already a second read and I got a lot more out of it this time. It hit the spot and I’m making some changes to how I work as a result.)

December ’22

• Billy No-Mates by Max Dickins
• The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
• The Making of the Modern Middle East by Jeremy Bowen
• Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco
• The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter & Raymond Hull
• Complicit by Max Bazerman
• The Moth and the Mountain by Ed Caesar
• The Vegan “Beef” Guide by Lyanna K. Peterson

Somewhat electic mix this month — an excellent graphic non-fiction book by Sacco is well worth the time. I read Down and Out in serial form via the Orwell Foundation Substack. Complicit was a well-timed book for me given my work situation and Billy No-Mates was more thorough and comprehensive than I expected. It just pips the others to my book of the month recommendation.

The temperatures have dropped and the morning fell run has been sub-zero but with the most stunning light to enjoy. Every day has been a treat. The photos below were all taken with an iPhone 11 Pro (and no filters). Indeed, the only editing at all was when I cropped the photo of the horses to a square format. That’s it!

The viewing dial on the top of Winder at sunrise.

Winter light as the horses enjoy some hay.

My favourite of the week. I used portrait mode on the iPhone and it gives an otherworldliness to the trig point with its coating of rime ice.

I’ve moved almost all of my microblogging to Mastodon so follow and connect there. 😃@euan@bjgp.social #microblog

November ’22

• The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland
• The Last Colony by Philippe Sands
• A Man With One of Those Faces by Caimh McDonnell
• Mission Economy by Mariana Mazzucato
• The Great Mental Models: Vol 1 by Shane Parrish
• Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens
• The Restless Republic by Anna Keay
• Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning
• Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens

Recommended book this month: hard not to go with The Escape Artist by Freedland. It’s a bestseller for a reason.

I’m now on Mastodon. And, do you know, I am thoroughly enjoying it. It is, of course, micro-blogging and social media, but there are slight differences that make a huge difference to one’s wellbeing when using it. Part of that may just be the reduced traffic but I think the underlying structure gives me cause for optimism that it won’t descend into the hellsite that is now Twitter.

Get yourself signed up to a server and follow me there: @euan@bjgp.social