Audiobook Un-Review: Red Dwarf: Better Than Life

Red Dwarf: Better Than Life

Its amazing how a good audiobook has the power to block out real life. I listened to 'Better Than Life' over two days at work and I genuinely cannot remember a single image or conversion at all from those days. These two days are awash with Red Dwarf. It was almost like the audiobook was better than my actual life - how ironic.

Top 5 Books to Read on a Cold Day, Preferably Under a Duvet

As I get comfortable on the sofa with my cuppa, following a freezing bike ride home from the work, my mind immediately wanders to warm, comfortable places and the books I have read in them. Thus, my attempt at a (not at all definitive) list of lovely reads to warm the soul.

Book Love On A Cold Day

1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The acclaimed fantasy author's newest offering for adult readers, 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' tells the semi-autobiographical story of a man looking back on his childhood, and remembering the dark creatures who once tried to claim his life. 

The reminiscent nature of the book, and the beautiful writing, makes for an emotional, poignant story, whilst still maintaining an eerie, fantastical quality from the unreality of the encroaching evil. 

A book that covers both the bases of fantasy escapism and touching, poignant fairytale is hard to find when written well, and is a joy to read when safe indoors under a duvet. Somehow the book evokes the warm and comforting feeling of childhood, and the helpless naivety of it, which is beautiful to read. 

Read this book if: you look back on your childhood with rose tinted glasses/you need a bit of escapism/you like fantasy to be routed in reality/you have trouble finishing a book.

Un-Review: "Hogfather" by Terry Pratchett, plus further Pratchett love.

Ho Ho Ho

I read 'Hogfather' by Terry Pratchett over Christmas, and not for the first time. I tend to read the book in the run up to Christmas, as the festive excitement is just bubbling inside but the trudge of work is constantly threatening to stifle it. I find that a good dose of Discworld goes a long way in curing most ailments, and if you can just choose the right Discworld novel to read at that perfect sweet spot, everything will make sense.

'Hogfather' concerns the death (sort of) of The Hogfather on Hogswatch Eve at the hands of  the psychopath assassin Mr Teatime, and the trials of Death himself and his granddaughter Susan as they attempt to rescue Hogswatch, and as such, the World. It is as amazing and mad as it sounds, and much much funnier and warmer than you would expect. Death himself posing as the The Hogfather in a department store grotto is a highlight!