Category: review

The Penguin Classics Book by Henry Eliot

What a beautiful and rich book and reading experience. This is a readers book.

Essentially this is a book that covers Penguin Classics books. From the figures behind the books inceptions and the editors and translators. The book is split into sections like Ancient Greece, Rome, Republic Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance etc up to World War 1. It features fiction, poetry, non-fiction, sagas. Each author featured has a short biography where one exists along with books they have printed as part of Penguin Classics. Each book shows covers of the editions of the books along with a paragraph long commentary/synopsis.

It really is an interesting and insightful read, I have bookmarked many books through my reading of this one, lots of new to me books and authors.

Another interesting tidbit is the breakdown and meaning behind the ISBN of books, something that is overlooked can be so fascination such as the 978 or 979 portion is a country code for books or Bookland as its known in the industry.

Saturday Afternoon Fever by Jeff Stelling

I enjoyed this book, I did hope it would be more Soccer Saturday focused snd more storeis from the show and a peek behind the curtain.

Enjoyable read though and an honest one too with Jeff’s opening up on family matters like his daughters battle with eating disorders.

A man who is very much part of my adolescence and Saturdays are not the same without Soccer Saturday in it’s heyday with Paul Merson, Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Matt le Tissier. The spark is missing. Give me the legends anyday over the likes of Clinton Morrison and Tim Sherwood.

A good read but could have been great.

Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-Reum

First book of the year and an enjoyable and quick read, it took me a week because I have been dipping in and out of several others.

This book is interesting to see the authors relationship with books and reading and how it is a part of their life. Each chapter focuses on another aspect of the authors relationship with books, discussing the impact of title chapters title e.g. Reading Aloud vs Silent, Reading Several Books At Once or Reading Widely vs Depth. What I like is the author discusses the matter and provides quotes from other authors or books that made them ponder the question, as such there are lots of references and books. Being Korean it is a shame that not a lot of the Korean references are translated to English yet.

A nice little read and one that can make you think about your own relationship with books and reading.

A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon

Having read this one 4 times already and being very familiar with it. I still find it very enjoyable. The other stories are great introductions to Simenon’s non Maigret works. I do have to dip my toes into that, I’ll try to read some next year.

A Maigret Christmas
Maigret is asked to investigate a curious incident which happened Christmas night in the apartment block opposite his home. A very fun and enjoyable case, nice to see a more domestic Maigret and the case was very enjoyable and the ending is very bittersweet and heart warming. Festive with the typical Maigret humour.

Seven Small Crosses In A Notebook
A police dispatcher/responder has a night shift involving a murder/potential serial killer and lots of smashed police telephone boxes. An enjoyable story set wholely in the communications room where the dispatcher gets involved in the investigation of the crime. Very good story, characters and plot.

The Little Restaurant Near Place des Ternes
A suicide in a restaurant and a woman trying to stop a young woman being taken advantage of and used by a group of local toughs on Christmas Eve. A common story of Christmas collections, I have read this several times (also in Penguin Christmas Stories). Its a bit more darker than the others but a typical Simenon with excellent characters.

All in all a superb book and almost brings to a close my Christmas reading for 2025. I just have three books to finish before New Years Day (Anthony Trollope, Louisa May Alcott and Scandinavian novel).