Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body

xebec wrote: »

Have been reading through some of the logs here and I think keeping a log is a great idea

I often end up in the situation where I wondering whether or not I've read a book and a log would be a great way to keep track!

My reading tastes are a bit all over the place, I mix it up with everything from Tom Clancy to classics, and there are a few series of books I like reading too.

So, (what I remember of) this years books:

Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres - data mining has practical uses...

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Nothing But Blue Skies by Tom Holt

Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Killer Instinct by Joseph Finder

Chi Running by Danny Dreyer - good ideas, not sure how many I'll put into practice though.

The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy - I'm running out of Tom Clancy books, one of his best.

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman - re-read after many years, great story.

Flashman and the Redskins by George McDonald Fraser - one of my favourite series of books is the Flashmans, absolutely hilarious stories about the biggest coward/hero in the British army c. 1850 who spends more time whoring around and getting into trouble than he does actually soldiering!

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay - thriller about a CSI who leads a double life as a homicidal psychopath.

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black - A must for anyone who is a fan of Irish fiction or the crime thriller genre, John Banville writes these as Benjamin Black as they are a very different style to his other books and very readable.

The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black

Currently reading:

Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond - on human evolution and evolution of races

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris - satire

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift - about to start

Future reading:

I've to try to ease back on the buying books for a while, there's a pile of about 25 sitting on the fireplace here in front of me waiting to be read!!

xebec wrote: »

Luckily throughout Uni, I didn't have too much course reading so any reading I did was pleasure

TBH, I don't have time to read as much as I do... I'm supposed to be studying and training for a marathon, but the pleasure reading definitely comes before the study (it's personal stuff that there's no time pressure on). But equally, don't watch a huge amount of TV or spend as much time on the web in the evenings as I used to - that's what work time is for

I definitely think it's important to take a little time - even if it's just 15 or 20 minutes a day - to read something you like, otherwise it's too easy to get out of what is a great habit.