This month I have been mostly...
...reading Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold, Strange Places, Questionable People by John Simpson and Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine.
[Apologies to The Fast Show]
Carter is an exciting 1920s story about a magician, the death of the President, the invention of television and personal tragedy. Overall this is a good fun book, which kept me from blogging as I read it on the train.
Strange Places is a very interesting read. It is basically an account of John Simpson's work (a BBC journalist) over the last 30 or so years. The range of people he has met is amazing, but also the personal details of the people are very interesting. At times he comes over as a little pompous, but on the whole he is very down-to-earth and manages to retain the legendary BBC impartiality. Overall an interesting book offering a rare personal view of the world's politicians and leaders, which often meant I was reading until my bath water turned cold.
Last Chance is the classic Douglas Adams doing his great "comedy sci-fi author travels around world, looks confused" act. This time he is traveling with Mark Carwardine, trying to find a range of endangered species. DNA's writing matches the standards set by Hitch-Hikers, and often led to me trying to control my laughter on the train. Overall a enjoyable and enlightening read about the state of the world and the destruction we seem to inflict wherever we go.
