ICP 𓅃

‘Junky’ by William S. Burroughs

28/52 - Probably the bleakest thing I’ve read this year, hella informative about Junk and its effects whilst also being a compelling journey through one man’s addiction, the Oliver Harris intro and his appendixes also add a lot to this book (first one I’ve read in one day this year)

‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adam’s

27/52 - a delightful romp hitchhiking through the Galaxy. Just a silly, good time

John Milton ‘Paradise Lost’

26/52 - Milton thinks he’s so smart because he came up with words like “pandemonium” but I already knew that word, so who’s the real smart guy? And now I’ve finished reading your dumb book which took you ages to write and me less than a month to read. 2-0 Milton, you dork

Haruki Murakami ‘A Wild Sheep Chase’

25/52 - the last of the 4 books I bought whilst in the states and probably my favourite of the 4. There’s just something about the relaxed style that Murakami writes in that I just fuck with.

‘Akira: Volume 3’ by Katsuhiro Otomo

24/52 - Akira should really know better than to do that given he’d done it once before, real party foul (probably my favourite of the volumes so far, just brilliant throughout and those final 20-ish pages are just perfect)

‘Slaughterhouse 5 or The Children’s Crusade’ By Kurt Vonnegut

23/52 - This book is pretty good. And so on.
I have now finished this book. So it goes.

‘An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created’ by Santiago Elijah Holley

22/52 - fuck you, me last year, you couldn’t dream of being this many books down at this point in the year! Fascinating history, kinda made me wish that I just found a book about the history of The Black Panthers rather than one about the Shakurs but would probably be good for big 2Pac fans

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

21/52- The only real “punishment” is that there wasn’t more of this to enjoy 😊 (jk, it’s a great book but it’s really derailed the hopes of me hitting 52 this year, my fault really, but I am now equal to the number I read last year, so… take that, me)

‘Empireworld’ by Sathnam Sanghera

20/52 - Empireland 2: Electric Boogaloo! Not sure if it has the same bite as the OG but I think it makes the important point of trying to stop the balance sheet narrative (which I think we’ve all been guilty of at some point) as it adds nothing. Look forward to wherever Sathnam comes out with next

‘The Last Samurai’ by Helen DeWitt

19/52 - Parts of this book I loved and parts of it I hated. Sometimes authors shouldn’t write an afterword to their book because I went from deciding that the whole of it worked despite some of the sum of its parts, then I read her afterword and it undid it a bit for me. Also hate this cover.

“The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning” by Ben Raines

18/52 - had 2 people at work when they saw me reading this tell me that “they never mention that they were sold by Africans” which is funny because this book does and also, it isn’t about British involvement in the slave trade. Wonderful bit of journalism, with a view towards reconciliation

I’ll add it to the list!

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez

17/52 - A towering work of fiction, not sure there’s anything I can say about this book that hasn’t already been said and I’m a big dumb-dumb who really enjoyed it. (Finished this moments ago, might have more to say when I let it sink in fully, but that’s unlikely)

“Akira: Vol 2” by Katsuhiro Otomo

16/52 - AKIIIIRA!

“Autocracy Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World” by Anne Applebaum

15/52 - This sucked and I hated it. Basically every chapter ended with a “and who’s behind it all? Autocracy Inc.”. A couple of moments gave me real “Pepe Silvia” vibes. Just really smug and centrist. One of the solutions she provides in the book was offered by Corbyn who she hates, obvs.

“Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain” by Sathnam Sanghera

14/52 - bought “Empireworld” and decided that I should read the original before the sequel. An important read for any Brit as it really highlights our refusal to look at our own empirical past and how it still effects us today

Murakami “Norwegian Wood”

13/52 - haven’t updated in a whilst so I’m gonna dump a load today. Very good, really enjoyed all the way through. My first Murakami and will definitely be reading another of his soon

‘Killing Thatcher: The ITA, the Manhunt and the Long Wat on the Crown’ by Rory Carroll

12/52 - they got so close, if only they had more explosives then they might have done it, guess that’s just the “Paddy factor” though (finished this days ago but was on holiday in a different country and I don’t owe anybody shit, this is just for me as are all my endeavours)

Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton

11/52 - everyone’s favourite book of last year is probably my favourite so far this year! I was hooked from the start and never knew exactly where it was going to take me. Big fan of the ending and hope to take some of that energy into my own life

The English Civil War: A People’s History by Diane Purkiss

10/52 - this book really has thrown off the curve of me just chomping my way through a book, but it was fascinating getting a better understanding of a period of history that I only vaguely remember being taught in primary school - fuck Olly Cromwell. Bastard stopped the English Republic proper

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

9/52 - I imagine the media illiterate would assume that the main character is good and doing good things because she’s the main character and the author endorses her actions, thankfully there’s a dude in this who’s constantly shaking his head and is disappointed by her actions

Great and Horrible News: Murder and Mayhem in Early Modern Britain by Blessing Adams

8/52 - it’s fine, probably the book I’ve enjoyed least so far this year especially after seeing it compared to The Five by Hallie Ruebenhold. Just does way too much moralising about the crimes/criminals and spends too much time going off on cases that are similar to the ones in the chapters

Metamorphosis And The Trial by Franz Kafka

7/52 only read The Trial as I’d read a different copy of metamorphosis a couple of years ago. Felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall and expecting different resulted it was great, would bang my head against that wall again, maybe I’ll finally see the titular Trial

6/52 - My second Steinbeck book, given to me on Xmas. I very much enjoyed, need to read more Steinbeck, he’s got a way of introducing new characters into the story so seamlessly that you feel like you must have met them earlier in the story. I wish drunk, friendly homeless men would throw me a party

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

5/52 - I don’t think there’s anything I can say that hasn’t already been said about Maus, it’s devastating for all the obvious reasons and the difficult father-son relationship is depicted perfectly. A must read

White Terror: A True Story of Murder, Bombings and Germany’s Far Right by Jacob Kushner

4/52 - I picked this up on a whim and I’m glad I did. Well done journalism showcasing how authorities continually turn a blind eye to right wing extremists and the unfortunate yet inevitable consequences when it does

The Axeman’s Jazz by Ray Celestin

3/52 - Enjoyed the conceit of three different investigations into the same serial murder and it was fine, the equivalent of going to see a well made popcorn film

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

2/52 it was good, I don’t think it was as good as the film (the first film not the second film) but I think Tarkovsky delves deeper into certain humanistic themes than the book does, as Lem is more interested by what is a God at the end that kinda reframes the whole book. Got bored at sciencey bit

Cover of ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’ by G.K. Chesterton

1/52 - 1st book of the year finished! I knew the main twist going into this and it’s a blast, the twist is done well and gets more ridiculous each time.