gavinf1980

Books

Completed

1. Darker than Night (Owl Goingback)
2. Kairos (Jenny Erpenbeck)
3. Afterthoughts, or Some Pistachios Won't Open (Richard Ayoade)
4. On This Holy Island (Oliver Smith)
5. The Imposs!ble Fortune (Richard Osman)
6. The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins and Sawyer Robbins)
7. The Light Years (Elizabeth Jane Howard)
8. The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene)
9. The Intimacy Defecit (Ed Shaw)
10. Wish You Were Dead (Peter James)
11. The Tenth Man (Graham Greene)
12. Stop Them Dead (Peter James)
13. The Four Agreements (Don Miguel Ruiz)
14. The Wolf in Winter (John Connolly)
15. Little Sister (Gytha Lodge)
16. Happier (Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D.)
17. The Vegetarian (Han Kang)
18. Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)
19. The Earl and the Pharaoh (The Countess of Carnarvon)
20. They Thought I Was Dead (Peter James)
21. Agatha Raisin: Hiss and Hers (M.C. Beaton)
22. One of Us is Dead (Peter James)
23. Money Men (Dan McCrum)
24. Praying for Sleep (Jeffery Deaver)
25. A Song of Shadows (John Connolly)
26. Hags (Victoria Smith)

In Progress

52 ways to walk (Annabel Streets)
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House (Kate Summerscale)

Planning to Read

Authority (Jonathan Leeman)
Don't Skip Out on Me (Willy Vlautin)

Films

1. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
2. Daehongsu (The Great Flood) (Byung-woo Kim, 2025)
3. Saltburn (Emerald Fennell, 2023)
4. About a Boy (Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, 2002)
5. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Hettie MacDonald, 2023)
6. Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986)
7. Borat (Larry Charles, 2006)
8. Transamerica (Duncan Tucker, 2005)
9. Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2026)
10. S.S.I. (Gabriella Cowperthwaite, 2023)
11. That Peter Crouch Film (Benjamin Hirsch, 2023)
12. Blank (Natalie Kennedy, 2022)

Seen for the first time: 6
Rewatched: 6

Me just before I ran the First Saturday of the Month 5k; must have been Mum who took this. From what I saw on Social Media, looks like my fitness was better 13 years ago; run in under half an hour, and I've not managed that in a while - lack of practice maybe. I don't think I ever ran in a Liverpool top again; I noticed one of the race marshalls would stop doing his encouragements (clapping etc) and go silent whenever I passed, and just look unimpressed. I always wonder how he would have reacted if I'd said something like, "why aren't you cheering for me?", and I decided I'd have not liked the man's response.

Metatrons gig at the Green Room this time last year.

From thefridayfive

1. Do you enjoy reading?

I very much do.

2. What is the first book you remember reading?

No idea, really; it might have been a kids book called "Pinny's Holiday", which I probably had read to me; all about a family of hedgehogs on holiday ... maybe.

3. Who is your favourite author?

Will always be Roald Dahl for me; I really enjoyed all his kids books when I was younger, with all their magical realism. I try to ignore all the stories about what he was really like.

4. What is your favourite book?

I'll always say "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller; studied it at school, and loved how it satirised war and bureacreacy; Yossarian was a relatable character.

5. What is the last book you read and the first you'll read next?

Last book finished: "Hags" by Victoria Smith.
Next book: "Don't Skip out on Me" by Willy Vlatin.

I'm just thinking of three things I feel grateful for today:
1) My health;
2) My loving family; and
3) Having lots of good friends.

A group of us went to a local beer festival last night; it was a nice evening for it, and I got to try some nice drinks. I got chatting to one man in the queue for the facilities whose advice was to avoid the coffee stout because he could feel lumps in it. Of course, half way through the chat he went to pee, and did so with the door open so he could carry on talking to me (that odd thing that probably only happens in the guys' toilets).

We managed to recruit a bunch of others for the World Cup Sweepstake we want to get going.

For the photo_scavenger prompt, I got a candid shot of some of the volunteers serving the beer.



On Strava, I have completed the May 400-minute x Runna Challenge, and:
* Logged 4 days for the June Ten Days Active Challenge;
* Climbed 118m for the June Elevation Challenge; and
* Walked 30.1K steps for the June Walk 100K Steps Challenge.

First visit to Volcano Bay water park, with family; the place was okay if I remember, though staff level of attentitiveness was variable; one did walk past without noticing when I asked directions. That evening we walked to an Irish pub near to the hotel to get food.

My collection of board games gives me lots of joy; I just wish I got to play them more often.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Just waiting for a response to one of those text messages.

Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women by Victoria Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Historically, women have had a difficult time, and nowadays, things aren't a lot better. In particular, "older" women have a harder time than younger ones, often being the ones that get overlooked or not treated as human beings. This persecution can be seen as going back at least as far as the medieval witch trials, and based on this book, it seems that there are lots of new struggles, particularly with the need to try and stay beautiful, which is rarely something men have to worry about.

Victoria Smith's book puts across a strong case; I found it to be a compelling read, even though I did not agree with all of her views. I noticed that she condemns Matt Lucas and David Walliams' now notorious "Little Britain" sketch show, though rather focusing on the most controversial sketch, Emily and Florence spouting "I'm a lady", she mostly comments on the portrayal of an older WI woman as being bigoted. She also is very scathing about the nickname "Karen" being used to refer to "entitled women"; as I understand it, there is no consensus for their male equivalent (I've heard "Kevin", "David" and "Josh").

I noticed that she is very defensive of J.K. Rowling, and her controversial views involving trans, as well as criticising a term used to refer to feminists with similiar views to her TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist). I am still unsure is she is anti-trans herself, but some of her comments could prove this book to be as controversial as JK's own statements.

I thought it worth reading, and didn't feel like just a book for women, but also one to open the eyes of more open-minded men like myself. I wonder if she updated the book in a few years time, she could mention some of the other things that I've seen prevalent on social media, much of which involves trolling female comics for being "woke", most notably the Twitter spat between Rosie Jones and comedians such as Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr, which seems to be used by toxic men as an excuse to trash Jones and treat Gervais and Carr is gods.



View all my reviews

Res Arcana at work, this time last year.