Recommendations you can check.
British novelist, author of the His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust trilogies.
6 things
The Book of DisquietBook Fernando Pessoa
I find it intoxicating. I love it very much. I'm almost inclined to make it my desert island book if I get a second go on Desert Islands Discs.
Five Books interview on his five favourite books
2021-07-15·fivebooks.com ↗
Pereira MaintainsBook Antonio Tabucchi
I think it's the most wonderful novel of the last 20 years. I can't think of anything I admire more.
Five Books interview on his five favourite books
2021-07-15·fivebooks.com ↗
The Jeeves Omnibus - Vol 1Book P. G. Wodehouse
I read it because it was a book, and books were fun. I thought it was terrific. Really wonderfully funny. I've gone on thinking that for the subsequent 60 years or so.
Five Books interview on his five favourite books
2021-07-15·fivebooks.com ↗
This dictionary is a great thing to have. It's just so fascinating.
Five Books interview on his five favourite books
2021-07-15·fivebooks.com ↗
The Summer BookBook Tove Jansson
Sophie and her grandmother spend a lot of time pottering about and playing and building little Venetian lagoons for the ants to go into and that sort of thing. It's very funny and very charming. And you think that's all it is—a sweet little book about a child and her grandmother.
Five Books interview on his five favourite books
2021-07-15·fivebooks.com ↗
Oxford historical thesaurusBook
Have you seen the Oxford historical thesaurus? Fantastic. It must be one of the last great books produced as a printed object.
Five Books interview on his five favourite books
2021-07-15·fivebooks.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.