Category Archives: Writing & Reading

What I Read In May

Posted on 31 May 2026 by Henry Gee

Featuring the struggle to reach the top of coming up to, notwithstanding inasmuch as which I just about manage to summarise the books I have read listened to consumed before the relevant month is out. The first two and the … Continue reading →

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What I Read In December

Posted on 1 January 2026 by Henry Gee

Blake Crouch Dark Matter Jason Desson used to be the most promising physicist of his generation, but lack of funds meant that he couldn’t make progress on his efforts to quantumly entangle more atoms than existed in a tiny dot, … Continue reading →

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What I Read In November

Posted on 1 December 2025 by Henry Gee

Mick Herron: Real Tigers, Spook Street, London Rules, Joe Country, Slough House, Bad Actors, Clown Town Following on from Slow Horses and Dead Lions (both reviewed last month) these novels — which should be read (or listened to) in that … Continue reading →

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Who’s Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?

Posted on 2 November 2025 by Henry Gee

What follows is a review of Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares: If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies – it was going to be part of my monthly book blog but the review got so long I felt it should have … Continue reading →

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What I Read In September

Posted on 28 September 2025 by Henry Gee

William Boyd Stars and Bars A rare mis-step by a usually reliable author who ventures into slapstick comedy of the uptight-Englishman-in-America variety. If it’s satire about America you’re after, Dickens did it first (and better) in Martin Chuzzlewit, which — … Continue reading →

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What I Read In February

Posted on 2 March 2025 by Henry Gee

Max Telford: The Tree Of Life Many years ago when the world was young I tried to explain, in popular science form, how scientists organise the natural world, all the better to understand the pattern of creation. The result was … Continue reading →

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My Top Reads Of 2024

Posted on 27 December 2024 by Henry Gee

This year I read 64 books, the first time since records began (2014) that the number has exceeded my age in years (I am 62). The total might be inflated, though, as some of the books have been duologues or … Continue reading →

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Life, Death and Tolkien

Posted on 17 November 2024 by Henry Gee

My recent post on Tolkien got me thinking about some more current issues. There are others who are better guides to Tolkien’s moral philosophy than I. However, the person who finally convinced me, many years ago, that capital punishment was … Continue reading →

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Tolkien and Loss

Posted on 16 November 2024 by Henry Gee

I’ve argued elsewhere that one of the most important themes in Tolkien’s work is loss. Loss of technological ability, loss of lifespan, loss of population, loss of — well, let’s not put too fine a point on it — grace, … Continue reading →

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What I Read In October

Posted on 3 November 2024 by Henry Gee

Robert Harris: Precipice This exponent of the well-researched historical and occasionally alt-history thriller, often set in Nazi Germany (Fatherland) or Ancient Rome (Imperium, Pompeii, etcetera) sometimes steers very close to actual reality, dramatising  real events that happened to real people … Continue reading →

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