Karl's Reading List

I have officially decided to give up my Bookerworm quest. I still intend to at least try to read the majority of the books, but after truly disliking some of the Booker books, I have also decided not to bother pushing through ones that I begin to get 'funny' feelings about. This is also tied a bit to my faith; I want to grow in my sensitivity to the voice of God, and that does at times meaning walking away from worldly things. I'm sure this will be an ongoing conversation I have with God, but for now, this plot is to acknowledge which books I have begun and subsequently have decided not to finish, along with a (much smaller, as I want to at least give books a chance to surprise me) number I have decided not to bother with in advance. I will also give brief reasons why these books have made this list, rather than my actual 'completed books' list. Ironically, although I felt to give up on the books I'm going to list below, most of them weren't as bad as som...

Published by Futura Publications/Macdonald & Co (Publishers) Ltd: Hampstead Road, London, 1986 (1984). First published 1980. Brother Cadfael is a monk in an English monastery in the 1100s. He tends to his garden, makes poultices and various other medical concoctions, and honours his vow of obedience to the abbot. He also, apparently, solves murders. This is the first Cadfael book I have read, but there are apparently about 20 of them (I think this is book 3). Having read this one and liked it, I imagine I'll hunt out some of the others before too long. In this particular book, Cadfael is horrified when a particular oil he has made, with one ingredient being the poisonous Monks-Hood plant, is used to commit a murder. Because of this connection he is keen to find the culprit, and more so because the widow of Gervase Bonel, the man murdered, turns out to be Richildis, the woman Cadfael considered marrying years earlier before taking his vows. Richildis's young son, Edwin, is t...

Published by Penguin: UK, 2023. Audiobook by Penguin Audio, 2023.  Uploaded to Audible 28-09-2023.  On the surface, Unruly is a history of England, like other histories that I have read in the past - this one outlining events from the early kings through to Elizabeth I. However, author David Mitchell is more well-known as a comedian than as an author, and Unruly leans heavily into that.  So, unlike a regular history of the kings and queens of England, this one includes commentary on Brexit, comparisons of historical figures to Mitchell's daughter, ranting tangents on why history is occasionally so bizarre (eg. if the Bayeux Tapestry is not technically a tapestry and yet is the most famous 'tapestry' in the world, why has the definition of tapestry not broadened to include it?!) and a bit of colourful language here and there. I am not a fan of the last of these, but I do generally enjoy David Mitchell's comedic style - which also doesn't include swearing as much as s...