blmweb

Just finished reading 4 books about Julius Caesar (thanks Paul) which made for fascinating reading. They follow his story from being a young boy to his famous death on the Ides of March. Lots of facts were massaged to make a better story but Con Iggulden explained what had changed at the end of each book. Amazing to think how much of our world was conquered/changed by Roman influence and in particular by individual rulers such as Caesar.

Anyway the books are

• Emperor: The Gates of Rome
• Emperor: The Death of Kings
• Emperor: The Field of Swords
• Emperor: The Gods of War

Got through 350 pages out of 620 of this on Sunday afternoon.

Usual Dan Brown stretches of fortune but a right rivetting read

b

Off to see Mark at his Edinburgh book launch tomorrow – it’s available here on Amazon

The Man Who Cycled the World

For those who don’t know I’m Mark’s webdude – you can see his latest site here at MarkBeaumontOnline

Seem to have been on a bit of a thriller frenzy of late with The Afghan by Frederick Forsyth followed by The Broker by John Grisham.

Really similar style of book and reading them one after another means I sometimes think I’m still on the same story!

I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings for the past week or so for the first time since I was at school (over 20 years ago!!!)

Having seen all the films (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Edition Box Set)) when they came out and then asking Santa for the DVDs as they came out it is the movies that are stuck in my head. The books are fantastic though – so much more detail and a few things I couldn’t remember from the books that weren’t in the films. Like I say, it was 20+ years ago!

Heartily recommend having another read if you have seen the films. I’m going to rerun the films once I’ve finished the 3rd book.

Just finished On The Edge by Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame. Excellent reading if you are familiar with what happened in his rocket car crash. Half of the book is written by his missus Mindy and she writes really well – very touching in her honesty.

blm

It was back in my Uni days that I borrowed a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel off Greg. Probably more than a decade later I saw Waterstones doing a 3 for 2 offer and proceeded to buy 24 of them – from The Colour of Magic through to The Fifth Elephant.

In fits and start since buying them I’ve worked through them all in the suggested order – sometimes taking a year to read one (other books jumped the queue) and in the last wee while reading more than 1 per month.

They aren’t the most high-brow of novels but they have been thoroughly enjoyable – making me laugh out loud on many an occasion.

I still have a few to go to catch up with the author’s prolific output but I’ve got some other reading to carry on with…

blm